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Another very intriguing addition to the perception of the
possible esoteric interests of Pope John Paul II came from
a friend of Alpheus in the form of a set
of photos, one of which shows the pope sitting behind
his desk with a stack of books. The bottom two books are
arguably the 2-volume set of Die Grossen Arcana des Tarot,
which is the 1983 German edition of the French original
and out of which sections were taken and published in English
as Meditations on the Tarot: A Journey into Christian
Hermeticism.
The book was anonymously written by the Catholic writer
and ex-Anthroposophist Valentin Tomberg and was published
in 1972 just before he died. The eminent esotericism scholar
Antoine Faivre states that in
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terms of content and reception it
has to be positioned among the foremost books in Western
esotericism published in the 20th century. (Dictionary
of Gnosis & Western Esotericism, 112)
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On closer inspection the images actually do not match up,
for the books on the pope’s desk have the arrows on
the spine of the book pointing north-east (if you position
the book straight up), …
… while on the clear picture of the original book
the arrows point north-west:
Different book? Initially I was skeptical to find such
a book on the desk of the pope while being photographed
for a prominent magazine. Maybe there just was some semblance
and based on that the person who found the images, Ed Manhood,
just jumped to the conclusion that the two books were identical.
My solution to that little conundrum was to test whether
it was possible that the picture of the pope at his desk
was maybe a mirrored picture. To determine that possibility
from the appearance of the titles is impossible, because
they are not clear enough. To actually find out I focused
on the question of whether the pope wears his wristwatch
on his left or right wrist. On the photo it is clear he
is wearing it on his right wrist. But is that the wrist
he usually wears it? Apparently not. I found through Google
Images at least three clear photos where he is wearing his
watch on the left. And here is one:
Based on this I have to conclude that the 1988 Weltbild
photo is a mirror image of the original. Therefore, if you
‘mirror’ the photo back, the arrow will go from
pointing north-east to north-west …
… just as is the case on the spine on the clear photo
(here turned 180 degrees to align them again), and the discrepancy
is solved:
Therefore the original picture of the pope behind his desk
was this:
Apparently the book landed on the pope’s desk as a
gift from one of his Cardinals, the German Jesuit Hans Urs
von Balthasar, who also had written its very laudatory foreword,
which by itself is another startling addition to the emerging
picture here of a Hermeticist-Catholic connection here.
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A thinking, praying Christian of unmistakable
purity reveals to us the symbols of Christian Hermeticism
in its various levels of mysticism, gnosis and magic,
taking in also the Cabbala and certain elements of
astrology and alchemy. These symbols are summarised
in the twenty-two so-called “Major Arcana”
of the Tarot cards. By way of the Major Arcana the
author seeks to lead meditatively into the deeper,
all-embracing wisdom of the Catholic Mystery. Firstly,
it may be recalled that such an attempt is to be found
nowhere in the history of philosophical, theological
and Catholic thought.
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And the connection is not secretive either. On the contrary.
The American Cistercian monk and populizer of a practice
named ‘centering prayer,’ Fr. Thomas Keating openly
calls in a review
for the book to become a fundamental Christian text.
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With its firm grasp of tradition,
its balance, wisdom, profundity, openness to truth,
and comprehensive approach to reality, it deserves
to be the basis of a course in spirituality in every
Christian institution of higher learning and what
would be even better, the point of departure and
unifying vision of the whole curriculum.
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Wow. What’s going on here? Specifically, my question
would be: What are the possible spiritual-intellectual ways
Wojtyla, Balthasar and Keating are relating to Tomberg’s
book? Are they Hermeticist moles in the Vatican spreading
esotericism amongst thinking Catholics? Or are they part
of an agenda to subsume Hermeticism under Catholicism with
possibly a sinister Jesuitical twist? Or are they ecumenical
syncretists? Or are they a part, consciously or not, of
a Mahatmic agenda to reform Catholicism along Occult lines?
After all Blavatsky stated:
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Like an immense boa-constrictor,
Error, in every shape, encircles mankind, trying to
smother in her deadly coils every aspiration towards
truth and light. But Error is powerful only on the surface,
prevented as she is by Occult Nature from going any
deeper; for the same Occult Nature encircles the whole
globe, in every direction, leaving not even the darkest
corner unvisited. And, whether by phenomenon or miracle,
by spirit-hook or bishop’s crook, Occultism must
win the day, before the present era reaches “Sani’s
(Saturn’s) triple septenary” of the Western
Cycle in Europe, in other words—before the end
of the twenty-first century “A.D.” (BCW XIV,
p. 27) |
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Which of these possibilities might muster some proof? Is
there anything in Tomberg’s text that might give a
clue? I didn’t read the book, so I don’t know.
This article is a follow-up to: On
Popes, Phenomenology and HPB
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