pope john paul ii meditating on the tarot_ — theosophist.wordpress
DESCRIPTION
dghjdj dghjdghj dfghjdghj dfghjmdghj dghjdgh dghjdghj dghjndghjTRANSCRIPT
27/04/2015 Pope John Paul II meditating on the Tarot? — theosophist.wordpress.com
https://www.readability.com/articles/8emq00j7 1/7
theosophist.wordpress.com
Pope John Paul II meditatingon the Tarot?
April 24, 2008 • 3 min read • original
Another very intriguing addition to the perception of the possibleesoteric interests of Pope John Paul II came from a friend of myAlpheus web site in the form of a set of photos, one of whichshows the pope sitting behind his desk with a stack of books. Thebottom two books are arguably the 2-volume set of “Die GrossenArcana des Tarot,” which is the 1983 German edition of theFrench original and out of which sections were taken andpublished in English as “Meditations on the Tarot: A Journey intoChristian Hermeticism.”
The book was anonymously written by the Catholic writer and ex-Anthroposophist Valentin Tomberg and was published in 1972just before he died. The eminent esotericism scholar Antoine
27/04/2015 Pope John Paul II meditating on the Tarot? — theosophist.wordpress.com
https://www.readability.com/articles/8emq00j7 2/7
Faivre states that in
terms of content and reception it has to be positioned amongthe foremost books in Western esotericism published in the20th century. (Dictionary of Gnosis & Western Esotericism, 112)
On closer inspection the images actually do not match up, for thebooks on the pope’s desk have the arrows on the spine of the bookpointing north-east (if you position the book straight up), …
… while on the clear picture of the original book the arrows pointnorth-west:
27/04/2015 Pope John Paul II meditating on the Tarot? — theosophist.wordpress.com
https://www.readability.com/articles/8emq00j7 3/7
Different book? Initially I was skeptical to find such a book on thedesk of the pope while being photographed for a prominentmagazine. Maybe there just was some semblance and based onthat the person who found the images, Ed Manhood, just jumpedto the conclusion that the two books were identical. My solutionto that little conundrum was to test whether it was possible thatthe picture of the pope at his desk was maybe a mirrored picture.To determine that possibility from the appearance of the titles isimpossible, because they are not clear enough. To actually findout I focused on the question of whether the pope wears hiswristwatch on his left or right wrist. On the photo it is clear he iswearing it on his right wrist. But is that the wrist he usually wearsit? Apparently not. I found through Google Images at least threeclear photos where he is wearing his watch on the left. And here isone:
27/04/2015 Pope John Paul II meditating on the Tarot? — theosophist.wordpress.com
https://www.readability.com/articles/8emq00j7 4/7
Based on this I have to conclude that the 1988 Weltbild photo is amirror image of the original. Therefore, if you ‘mirror’ the photoback, the arrow will go from pointing north-east to north-west …
… just as is the case on the spine on the clear photo (here turned180 degrees to align them again), and the discrepancy is solved:
Therefore the original picture of the pope behind his desk wasthis:
27/04/2015 Pope John Paul II meditating on the Tarot? — theosophist.wordpress.com
https://www.readability.com/articles/8emq00j7 5/7
Apparently the book landed on the pope’s desk as a gift from oneof his Cardinals, the German Jesuit Hans Urs von Balthasar, whoalso had written its very laudatory foreword, which by itself isanother startling addition to the emerging picture here of aHermeticist-Catholic connection here.
A thinking, praying Christian of unmistakable purity reveals tous the symbols of Christian Hermeticism in its various levels ofmysticism, gnosis and magic, taking in also the Cabbala andcertain elements of astrology and alchemy. These symbols aresummarised in the twenty-two so-called “Major Arcana” of theTarot cards. By way of the Major Arcana the author seeks to leadmeditatively into the deeper, all-embracing wisdom of theCatholic Mystery.
Firstly, it may be recalled that such an attempt is to be foundnowhere in the history of philosophical, theological andCatholic thought.
And the connection is not secretive either. On the contrary. TheAmerican Cistercian monk and populizer of a practice named‘centering prayer,’ Fr. Thomas Keating openly calls in a reviewfor the book to become a fundamental Christian text.
27/04/2015 Pope John Paul II meditating on the Tarot? — theosophist.wordpress.com
https://www.readability.com/articles/8emq00j7 6/7
With its firm grasp of tradition, its balance, wisdom, profundity,openness to truth, and comprehensive approach to reality, itdeserves to be the basis of a course in spirituality in everyChristian institution of higher learning and what would be evenbetter, the point of departure and unifying vision of the wholecurriculum.
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 theyHermeticist moles in the Vatican spreading esotericism amongstthinking Catholics? Or are they part of an agenda to subsumeHermeticism under Catholicism with possibly a sinisterJesuitical twist? Or are they ecumenical syncretists? Or are they apart, consciously or not, of a Mahatmic agenda to reformCatholicism along Occult lines? After all Blavatsky stated:
Like an immense boa-constrictor, Error, in every shape,encircles mankind, trying to smother in her deadly coils everyaspiration towards truth and light. But Error is powerful only onthe surface, prevented as she is by Occult Nature from going anydeeper; for the same Occult Nature encircles the whole globe, inevery direction, leaving not even the darkest corner unvisited.And, whether by phenomenon or miracle, by spirit-hook orbishop’s crook, Occultism must win the day, before the presentera reaches “Sani’s (Saturn’s) triple septenary” of the WesternCycle in Europe, in other words—before the end of the twenty-first century “A.D.” (BCW XIV, p. 27)
Which of these possibilities might muster some proof? Is thereanything in Tomberg’s text that might give a clue? I didn’t readthe book, so I don’t know. Anybody?
27/04/2015 Pope John Paul II meditating on the Tarot? — theosophist.wordpress.com
https://www.readability.com/articles/8emq00j7 7/7
Like this:Like Loading...
Related
Original URL:https://theosophist.wordpress.com/2008/04/24/pope-john-paul-ii-meditating-on-the-tarot/