Friday, November 04, 2005
MEDITATIONS ON THE TAROT
It's not just for Catholic Monks and Anthroposophists seeking Sophia.
The Esoteric Order of the Golden Dawn, a fraternity devoted to ritual magic which includes Tarot has a webpage devoted to MEDITATIONS ON THE TAROT. They call the book a "must-read for anyone who sincerely desires to have more than a surface knowledge of the sacred mysteries.
The website indicates that Valentin Tomberg was head of the Martinist Order during the 40s and 50s. The book is "strongly recommended study for Second Order Brethren of the Esoteric Order of the Golden Dawn.
The biography of one of the founders of the Golden Dawn, S. L. MacGregor Mathers, is online at the Golden Dawn website. From this biography we can learn that high ranking Freemasonry, Kabbalah, scrying, Spirit Vision, and some sort of clairvoyant or telepathic contact with spirit realms was responsible for the construction of the rituals used in the esoteric magic of the Golden Dawn. We can learn that the Father of the French Occult revival, Eliphas Levi, influenced Mathers. We can learn that Mathers and his wife attended the Catholic Mass later in life, but there is no evidence that he converted. Mathers created "Rites of Isis" while in Paris and in charge of the Second Order. Aleister Crowley, a member of G.D., came to believe that he was the "Golden Child" and caused a schism. Another schism produced the Stella Matutina and the Alpha et. Omega.
It's interesting to note the role that ego is said to play in the dealings of the Golden Dawn:
The inflation of the ego is large enough as a person rises through the Outer Order grades, if that person isn't aged enough like a fine wine and allowed to advance too soon into Second Order work, the results can be disasterous. The ego is now completely unchecked and feeding off a current much stronger than was available in the Outer Order. Behavior such as rumor mongering, schisming and self-grandizing are the result. This is partially what would befall the Second Order of the G.D. at the turn of the century when the Order would go through a disasterous revolt by Adepts who probably should have never reached the Second Order.
Pride of this sort has one source.
The G.D. use magical rituals to contact spiritual realms.
In his book LUCIFER RISING: SIN, DEVIL WORSHIP & ROCK 'N' ROLL, Gavin Baddeley, a British journalist who specializes in the occult, says of the Golden Dawn:
In 1898[Aleister] Crowley was initiated into the Golden Dawn by its founder, the influential but eccentric occultist S. L. MacGregor Mathers. (Yeats later derided him as 'half lunatic, half knave', while the impoverished but egomaniacal Mathers' proudest boast was that, "There is no part of me that is not of the gods.') The Golden Dawn was a system of magical knowledge, welded together by Mathers from the traditions of ancient Jewish, medieval and Renaissance sorcery. It also owed much to Theosophy, as pioneered by a remarkable Russian mystic named Helena Blavatsky. In many ways a precursor to today's New Age movement, the Theosophical Society--which survives into the present day in a more pedestrian form--took a novel mixture of Eastern mystical philosophies and glued them all together with candy-floss and bulllshit.
The part of Theosophy which most appealed to Mathers was the idea of 'the Masters': benevolent supermen, or demigods, who used Blavatsky as their spokeswoman on earth. Mathers worked them into his own system as the 'Secret Chiefs'--the hidden masters of the Golden Dawn, who only communicated via him. Cynics won't be surprised to learn that these exalted entities promptly declared Mathers the 'Supreme Magus', demanding that all members exalted entities promptly declared Mathers the 'Supreme Magus', demanding that all members of the Golden Dawn sign an oath of obedience to him. The Order, whose sorcerous rituals were supposedly aimed toward gaining power and enlightenment, subsequently became a semi-bureaucratic series of ranks and grades. (p. 24)
Does this sound like the kind of atmosphere conducive to Catholic spiritual enlightenment? Obviously not. Followers of the G.D. had no interest in a Catholic Jesus Christ. The esoteric Jesus that appears in the writings of Anthroposophist Rudolf Steiner is not the Jesus Christ of the Catholics, he is a disembodied spirit with which these believers in Gnosticism make contact. Baddeley has put the name to this spirit in the title of his book.
Yet Thomas Keating has lent his seal of approval to MEDITATIONS ON THE TAROT, and is busy in interreligious dialogue trying to promote a syncretistic mix of religions which level all faiths to the lowest common denominator. And yet another monk from Glenstal Abbey, Mark Patrick Hedderman, has written a book that promotes Tarot.
Lest there be any question about the Golden Dawn and Tarot connection, here is Amazon's listing for the Golden Dawn Tarot deck.
There is no way to reconcile Baddeley's account of the workings of the Golden Dawn with Hans Urs von Balthasar's promotion of Tomberg's book. The book is not Catholic, and it cannot be baptized Catholic because it promotes an activity which directly violates the First Commandment.
CCC 2138 Superstition is a departure from the worship that we give to the true God. It is manifested in idolatry, as well as in various forms of divination and magic.
The wolf is in the henhouse and giving the chickens a line of BS about the goodness of his intentions.
Our Lady of Fatima, pray for us!
