quote:

Meditations on the Tarot: A Journey into Christian Hermeticism is a book published posthumuously and anonymously in 1985. It was originally written in French, and translated into English by Robert A. Powell of the Sophia Foundation. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meditations_on_the_Tarot

I won't review this book in the normal way; there are enough reviews all over the Internet.

Let me see ... let me say ...

The anonmymous author's erudition is incredible in depth and breadth.

This book, in my view, is a paragon of the Catholic analogical imagination.

Read this book with an eye on normative and practical insights into the spiritual life and not with the intent of learning anything much in the way of a descriptive and theoretic sense from a positivist perspective.

The analogies drawn from East to West, from Continental philosophy to Oriental thought, from exoteric to esoteric approaches, jump off of every page like popcorn popping in a microwave, and the imagery is poetic, rich, colorful, evocative. It is engaging and fun but in some places tedious, leaving me to wonder what the significance was of some of what he was writing; since he was so insightful elsewhere, though, my lingering impression was that, if the significance escaped me, the fault was likely my own.

I did come across both occasional philosophical and doctrinal errors but these do not detract from the overall thrust. The author is using the Tarot as an archetypal lens of sort, akin to a Jungian approach, to shed light on humankind's journey, and in no way treats the Tarot as a divinatory tool.

Cool book. Thanks to PSR for pointing it out to me.

pax!
jb

Hello jb

Here is a book also written around the tarot it is entitled
Tarot: Talisman or Taboo
by Mark Patrick Hederman OSB.

He is a member of the community at Glenstal Abbey in County Limerick, Ireland. I attended a weekend workshop which he gave on the tarot, when he first wrote the book. Interestingly, many of the participants were sorely disappointed that the workshop didnt consist of the divination practices which they had expected, but simply the opportuity to work with the archetypes depicted on the cards of our inner world.

I found it very revealing and healing at that time. Thanks for the reminder.

quote:

Originally posted by Clare:
[qb] Interestingly, many of the participants were sorely disappointed that the workshop didnt consist of the divination practices which they had expected, but simply the opportuity to work with the archetypes depicted on the cards of our inner world. [/qb]

Thanks for the reference, Clare. I wonder if the interest in the divination aspect reflects a hunger for the occult, paranormal, other-natural or supernatural? for some reintroduction of enchantment into people's lives? for a reenchantment, in reacion to what Max Weber called disenchantment, describing the character of modernized, secularized society, where scientific understanding is more highly valued than plain belief.

quote:

Originally posted by johnboy:

Let me see ... let me say ...

The anonmymous author's erudition is incredible in depth and breadth.

This book, in my view, is a paragon of the Catholic analogical imagination.

I agree, JB. This book is in a class by itself; nothing else comes close in terms of depth and breadth of topics covered. Olivier Clement's The Roots of Christian Mysticism is a distant second, but takes a very different approach.

The author of the Tarot book was Valentin Tomberg.
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M...ionsOnTheTarotAuthor

Interesting man!

That's a book that's very dense with thought. It was certainly interesting, but I must admit I only got through the first fifty pages or so.