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Teleconference Study Group for Meditations on the Tarot by Anonymous

There is a burgeoning renaissance of Tarot decks and scholarship going on today. One remarkable contribution to the development of the esoteric tradition of tarot is the anonymous volume: Meditations on the Tarot. Though the author is well known in anthroposophic circles, we respect his wish for anonymity by realizing that the insights conveyed in these meditations are to stand upon their own as a version of traditional Christian Hermeticism, and not as a spiritual innovation.

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Biography of  Valentin Tomberg 

The volume has been posthumously identified with the anthoposophist and Roman Catholic convert, Valentin Tomberg. Meditations sur les 22 arcanes majeurs du tarot (Aubier Montaigne, 1980), prefaced in the French edition by the Catholic theologian Hans Urs von Balthasar.

One of the most remarkable examples of the tarot's capacity to furnish a basis for esoteric and mystic meditation can be found in the works of Valentin Tomberg, The latter situated the enterprise in the framework of "spiritual readings", supported by Christian as well as non-Christian traditions and by esoteric exegeses. Tomberg's "inner experience" illustrates the expansion of the field of tarot to embrace literature and the arts; in this context von Balthasar cites The Greater Trumps (1950) by Charles Williams (1886-1945, a friend of T.S. Eliot and J.R.R. Tolkien).  

This info about Valentin Tomberg (b. 2.26.1900, Saint Petersburg, d. 2.20.1973, Majorca) is based upon Antoine Faivre’s essay in Dictionary of Gnosis & Western Esotericism edited by Wouter J. Hanegraaff (Brill Academic) and his essay "Analysis of the Meditations of Valentin Tomberg on the Twenty-Two Major Arcana of the Tarot of Marseilles", in Theosophy, Imagination, Tradition: Studies in Western Esotericism (SUNY series in Western Esoteric Traditions : State University of New York Press, 1996, 191-228). Antoine Faivre is Professor at the E.P.H.E. (Religious Studies), Sorbonne. He has published extensively and is regarded as the initiator of the contemporary academic study of western esotericism.

A Russian-Baltic Lutheran by birth, already as a young man Tomberg began to move in the esoteric circles of Saint Petersburg, joining the Theosophical Society in 1917. The Bolshevik Revolution having taken a heavy toll on his family, he fled in 1918 to Tallin (Reval, in Estonia). There he married in 1922, held (after several other jobs) a position at the Estonian postal administration, and in 1925 was elected to the Vice-Presidency of the German-speaking branch of the Estonian Anthroposophical Society, the German offshoot of theosophical work as inspired by Rudolf Steiner

In 1932 Tomberg became Secretary General of the Baltic Anthroposophical Society branch. At the age of thirty-one he experienced a spiritual revelation which, he claimed, put him in contact with the angelic world.

From 1930-1938 he gave many lectures on Anthro­posophy and contributed articles to journals of that movement. Some of these works were pub­lished as early as 1933 in volumes titled Anthroposophical Considerations on the Old and the New Testament, which went through several editions. The same year he married for the second time. Over the 1930s he distanced himself little by little from the Anthroposophical Society and he eventually resigned in 1937. This change of orientation was due partly to his own Christianity, which was more christocentric than Rudolf Steiner's, and partly to various conflicts within the European Anthroposophical Society Sections after Steiner's death in 1925.

In 1939 Tomberg came to Rotterdam in the Netherlands, where he gave many lectures (most of which were subsequently published), in particular on the return of Christ in the ethereal world. He then settled in Amsterdam, where he made a living as a translator and language teacher, and for many months had to hide with his family from the Nazis.

At the end of the war he converted to Catholicism, then enrolled at the University of Cologne to study Law under the direction of Ernst von Hippel, and was awarded an LLD in International Law. In this connection, he authored two treatises in German (Degeneration and Regeneration der Rechtswis­senschaft, Bonn 1946, new edition 1974, and Die Grundlagen des Völkerrechts als Menschheit­srecht, Bonn 1947).

In 1948 Tomberg left Germany and definitely settled in England, where, thanks to his remarkable linguistic gifts, he held a good pro­fessional position at the BBC. He retired in 1960, and spent the rest of his life in Reading, near Lon­don, where from 1963 to 1967 he devoted himself to the writing of several works, among which are his Meditations on the Tarot. While traveling in Majorca in 1973 he died of a stroke.

Tomberg's career as an author can be divided into two main periods: the one before and the one after his conversion to Roman Catholicism. During the first, his writings were rooted primarily in the context of Steiner's Anthroposophy.

During the second, his written output was more personal and original. With the exception of his two studies in German devoted to International Law, his oeuvre consists mainly of a number of works (published either anonymously or posthumously) of an eso­teric character. These – and mostly the Meditations – were to make him famous after his death.

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Teleconference Guidelines & Etiquette

The purpose of this teleconference is to read aloud and discuss in-depth the Meditations on the Tarot by anonymous.

Our procedure is to read several paragraphs or pages and then pause for each participant to offer a gist of what is being discussed.

We read the text because assuming that the text is a  given  often leads to vagueness of thought: as when reading alone, we may be tempted to ignore or skip over sections we do not understand. We may misunderstand some passages and not have a close appreciation of the coherence of thought that is being delineated.

We ask questions, give interpretations of the significance of the text and even offer personal anecdotes that may illustrate the possible meaning of a passage.

We may also discuss sources and other information and once we feel we have given the text a fair hearing me may dispute with the text for various reasons.

This can be a very time consuming process so it is important to remember that the purpose of the teleconference is discussion in order to learn.

Each Teleconference will have a facilitator to expedite smooth discourse.

Etiquette

Our language is English and general rules of courteous discourse apply.

When new, to get a sense of the group's style, listen for a while before speaking.

Our main rule is to keep our phone muted (press *6 to mute and un-mute) unless about to speak.

This keeps background noise to a minimum. Also keeping your finger over phone mike blocks sound when unmuted and not speaking, blocks extraneous noise. (Please no headsets, and speaker phones make too much ambient noise, so regular old hand held receivers are best. Cell phones can also contribute to weird noises.)

 

Conference Call Info

Who: Tarotists interested in Esoteric Study of Meditations on the Tarot

Note Time Change!

We begin one hour earlier!

When: 10 AM EDT
(7 AM PDT) Wednesdays

Next teleconference: once weekly schedule.

We are beginning Chapter 11, Force.

For 1-2 hours every week unless announced otherwise.

How: Through Freeconference.com

Dial at 10 AM EST:

1-605-475-6006

Enter access number:

784398#

(You will be charged your regular long distance rate, if applicable. There are no hidden charges or tolls for this class)

Music Plays if you are first. Wait others will soon arrive.

*6 mutes your line so hearing reception may be clearer.

See Teleconference Guidelines & Etiquette

Teleconference Specific Links

Esoteric Tarot Bookstore

Links to Webpages about Meditations on the Tarot

Annotated Bibliography

Major Arcana Tarot de Marseilles Camoin- Jodorowsky

 

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