{"id":10102,"date":"2018-09-09T23:56:12","date_gmt":"2018-09-10T03:56:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gornahoor.net\/?p=10102"},"modified":"2020-09-09T00:11:24","modified_gmt":"2020-09-09T04:11:24","slug":"spiritual-challenge-and-renewal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gornahoor.net\/?p=10102","title":{"rendered":"Spiritual Challenge and Renewal"},"content":{"rendered":"

\nA religious factor is necessary as the background for a true heroic conception of life that must be essential for our political alignment. It is necessary to feel in oneself the evidence that there is a higher life beyond this terrestrial life, because only those who feel this way possess an unbreakable and unconquerable strength, only they will be capable of an absolute enthusiasm. ~ Julius Evola\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

After the devastation of World War II, Julius Evola<\/strong> was asked to formulate a program for the political and spiritual renewal of post war Europe. Evola was able to recognize the ideal of highest spiritual tradition of Europe, which he described this way:<\/p>\n

\nCertainly, if Catholicism were capable of making a program of high ascesis its own and exactly on this base, almost like a recovery of the spirit of the best Medieval crusader, makes of faith the soul of an armed bloc of forces, almost a new close-knit Templar Order, relentless against the currents of chaos, breakdowns, subversion, and the practical materialism of the modern world\u2014certainly, in such a case, and also in the case that, at the minimum, it held firm to the positions of the Syllabus, there could not be a single instance of doubt about our choice. ~ Julius Evola, Point 11<\/a>\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Unfortunately, after looking around — rather cursorily in our opinion — he determined that there was currently no organisation that supported such a spiritual orientation, as it perhaps had done in the past. Hence, he concluded that a \u201cpure reference to a transcendental spirit\u201d would suffice. Well, more than six decades later, it certainly has not sufficed.<\/p>\n

We can start, for example, with the Syllabus mentioned, which is the 19th<\/sup> century Syllabus of Errors<\/a>. It is an easy to read collection of false opinions. Who today would deny all, or at least most, of those errors? We don\u2019t see that even among soi disant<\/em> Traditionalists. Evola\u2019s attitude was that if George won\u2019t do it, then he\u2019ll go his own way. And he took many along with him. Despite his vast erudition, Evola always remained at the level of doxa (opinions) and dianoia (theories). He never — his writings and interviews show this — was able to reach the level of episteme, the goal of all valid Traditions. Obviously, a vague affirmation of some transcendental spirit goes nowhere.<\/p>\n

The True Revival<\/h2>\n

In point of fact, there has been, and still is, such a program. Although not centrally organised, there are texts and even small groups working in the USA and in Europe, that fulfil the conditions mentioned above. That is why, for us, there is no doubt about our choice.<\/p>\n

For example, Wolfgang Smith<\/strong>, starting from the insights of Rene Guenon, has revived such a tradition within Catholicism. Specifically, he has written on the Christian Kabbalah, the chakras, different levels of existence, Jacob Boehme, Meister Eckhart, in an effort to bring more depth into the Western tradition.<\/p>\n

Boris Mouravieff<\/strong>, working completely independently, has revealed and reformulated the teachings of a monastery on Mount Athos. A glance at his bibliography shows many familiar names, including Boehme, Eckhart, and Guenon.<\/p>\n

But Valentin Tomberg<\/strong> has gone the furthest, particularly in his Meditations on the Tarot<\/em>, which is the summa of his life\u2019s work. First of all, he addresses Evola\u2019s concern incidentally. As a spiritual reality, the Catholic Church is the Bride of Christ. However, as a human institution, it also has an egregore, a phantom being, which is a human-created parody of the spiritual reality. Many people get fixated on the egregore and reject the whole tradition. Those with spiritual vision, on the other hand, see a living stream of truth and life, as well as a way to achieve them.<\/p>\n

An Incomplete Path<\/h2>\n

The Meditations are a massive accomplishment. Nevertheless, there is much that is left out, and he expects the task that he initiated to be continued by those he considers his \u201cfriends\u201d. I know some of those who have indeed continued the work of Christian Hermetism, although not in such a public way as we have. Still, there is much more to be done.<\/p>\n

Tomberg left us a long list of precursors. These include philosophers, saints, Hermetists, theologians, scientists, psychologists, inter alia. We have endeavoured to bring many of their writings to a wider attention. However, as a precursor to some planned articles, we need to make here some specific points. In particular, we need to put his earlier writings into context with his later. Although he allegedly desired to be known by the Meditations, there are some allusions that make that impossible.<\/p>\n

Relationship to Steiner<\/h2>\n

Although Tomberg became quite critical of the Anthroposophical Society (and vice versa), he always held Rudolf Steiner<\/strong> in high regard. For example, he wrote this in Letter XV:<\/p>\n

\nAnd yet Rudolf Steiner has certainly said things of a nature to awaken the greatest creative elan! His series of lectures on the four Gospels, his lectures at Helsingfors and Dusseldorf on the celestial hierarchies — without mentioning his book on the inner work leading to initiation (Knowledge of the Higher Worlds and its Attainment<\/em>) — would alone suffice to inflame a deep and mature creative enthusiasm in every soul who aspires to authentic experience of the spiritual world.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Nevertheless, there is really nothing in the Meditations specifically referencing those works. I\u2019ve read most of those lectures, and there are things in them that may be quite surprising. Nevertheless, we have to assume that they play a background role in the Meditations, even if not explicitly stated. This will be confirmed in the next section.<\/p>\n

Cosmology<\/h2>\n

A revived tradition requires a suitable cosmology, certainly one that can challenge the generally accepted scientific version. In Letter X, we are given some sources for the creation of such a cosmology.<\/p>\n

\nFirstly, the Fall. . . here we are confronted with the Biblical account of paradise and the six days of creation; with the impressive tableau of natural evolution that science advances; with the contours of a majestic outline by the genius of ancient India of kalpas, manvantaras and yugas — a world of periodicity and rhythm, a world dreamt periodically by cosmic consciousness; with the exposition (following the Stanzas of Dzyan<\/em>) of cosmogony and anthropogony according to the Indo-Tibetan tradition, given by H. P. Blavatsky in the three volumes of her Secret Doctrine<\/em>; with the grandiose tableau of the spiritual evolution of the world through seven so-called “planetary” phases that Rudolf Steiner has bequeathed to the dumbfounded intellectuality of our century; lastly, with the cosmogonies and eschatologies — explicit or implicit — of Hermes Trismegistus, Plato, the Zohar and diverse gnostic schools of the first centuries of our era.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

That is a vast amount of material to master. Tomberg himself acknowledges this:<\/p>\n

\nMay I be permitted to say straight away that, although I have had actual experience of comparing the whole range of these ideas and documents for more than forty years, I cannot make use of them here in the sense of the treatment which they merit, i.e. to classify them, to extract the essential points of similarity or contrast, to make relevant quotations, etc. If I were to do so, I would drown the essential theme in a sea of secondary elements (secondary with regard to the main theme). Therefore I have to proceed in the following way: the spirit of all the various ideas and documents enumerated above will be present as a general background, but it will be necessary to refrain from any explicit use of the material which they comprise.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In particular, this general background includes Steiner\u2019s Outline of Occult Science<\/em>, which Tomberg alluded to. And this brings the entire story of the spiritual evolution of man, his various bodies, and the activities of the celestial hierarchies, both left and right, in the formation. These notions will be used in future articles.<\/p>\n

Psychology<\/h2>\n

Conventional Thomism teaches that man is composed of several sheaths: a physical body, a vegetable soul, an animal soul, and an intellectual soul. Moreover, it is the higher sheaths that form the lower, which is contrary to conventional scientific thought. Unfortunately, philosophers are content to leave it at that, and don\u2019t bother to explore the actual consequences of such a teaching.<\/p>\n

The esoteric teaching, on the other hand, does so. It may use different names, viz., the physical, etheric, and astral bodies, but the essential elements are the same. The Hermetist, however, will make the efforts to observe the bodies or sheaths. In this way, he can also discern the influences of alien elements on them. That is not the end of the story, since the chakras are also part of one\u2019s interiority. The Hermetist will learn about the proper development of the chakras.<\/p>\n

The main challenge is that the effort of the I to form the lower sheaths is not yet completed. There is resistance to that; besides, the awareness of the I is mostly dim and the will is weak.<\/p>\n

The details cannot all be made public, but it will be shared with our groups at the proper time.<\/p>\n

Finis<\/h2>\n

With this being said, we can next complete the discussion of the three temptations in the wilderness.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A religious factor is necessary as the background for a true heroic conception of life that must be essential for our political alignment. It is necessary to feel in oneself the evidence that there is a higher life beyond this terrestrial life, because only those who feel this way possess … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,374,13,111],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10102","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-evola","category-spirituality-2","category-tradition","category-valentin-tomberg"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gornahoor.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10102","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gornahoor.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gornahoor.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gornahoor.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gornahoor.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10102"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gornahoor.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10102\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12839,"href":"https:\/\/gornahoor.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10102\/revisions\/12839"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gornahoor.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10102"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gornahoor.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10102"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gornahoor.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10102"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}