Covenant of the Heart: Meditations of a Christian Hermeticist on the Mysteries of Tradition

by Valentin Tomberg, Robert Powell

Drawing on the ancient and often forgotten sources of esoteric Christianity, the author reflects on the mysteries of humanity s covenant with God in history. The power of these meditations is that they reflect the author s personal spiritual journey into the depths of God s kingdom within within the soul, within personal relationships, within nature, and within the cosmos. Part one describes an encounter with the Father through the miracles of the Creation, the Fall, and, through Moses acceptance of the Covenant of the Old Testament, the Ten Commandments. Part two is a meditation on the seven miracles of Christ in the Gospel of St. John. It culminates in the raising of Lazarus; the miracle of being raised from forgetfulness; sleep and death to remembrance, wakefulness, and resurrection. In this way, Lazarus becomes a paradigm for understanding the spiritual and cultural history of humanity. Part three considers the encounter with the Holy Spirit and living out Christ s life through the Church. We are asked to reflect on the three Kingdoms of God, humankind, and nature, which give natural order and meaning to the Christian life. The union of love and prayer in the Spirit is the focus of an epilogue, in which we are invited to see our natural breathing as breathing the breath of God.

Genres: Spirituality, Philosophy

256 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1992

About the author

Valentin Arnoldevitch Tomberg was an Estonian-Russian Christian mystic, scholar, and hermetic magician.

Reviews

[Catholicus Magus · Rating 5 out of 5]

The mature reflections of Valentin Tomberg, best known as one of the few Catholics who can truly speak of having underwent the "Dantean experience" of descending into the infernal depths of Hell, before ascending to behold the mystical Rosy empyrean of the Beatific Vision, distills the most rarefied spiritual things within this work. This book, which focuses on every singular divine thing that a Christian esotericist could feasibly study (Neoplatonism, Gnosticism, the Kabbalah, Rosicrucianism, astral / white magic, Theosophy, Steiner's Anthroposophy, and the Brautmystiks / Mystical tradition of both Catholicism and Orthodoxy) is woven in such a beautifully harmonious way, that one cannot help wonder whether Tomberg's own personal revelations did not in some sense prove Chardin's idea of the "Omega-Point of Christ." Each page breathes forth the maturity of one who first lived the hieratic lifestyle of a philosopher seeking the Ineffable One, then one who explored the various Christian brotherhoods, before settling down in a Roman Church which was not governed by Neo-Thomistic pedants nor by the most insipid theologians of the "New Theology"; rather, he built his tent in the Catholicism which integrates all difference, spiritualizes everything profane, and professes the dogma of the Invisible Church as most fruitfully contained in the Blessed Sacrament. Tomberg's Hermeticism does not cohere to the fashionability of Hermeticism as propounded by the Pseudepigraphical work known as the Kybalion—rather, his is one of endlessly proving, as did Reuchlin, Pico, Ficino, and Athanasius Kircher, every facet of the mirror which exists between Divinity and the Created. This work is dense, this work is conceptually demanding, yet it rewards abundantly with the mystical fruits of one who has "walked every path" and reaped from that which was sown widely. To weave the Kabbalah, Catholic Scholasticism, the "major mystics," Hermeticism, Neoplatonism, and the Esoteric Christianity's with the oft-regarded poison of modern science is no easy task. Tomberg, for all the repetitiveness which his book demonstrates at times, comes the closest I've seen thus far. The beauty of this book consists in its erudition, most especially the manner in which genuine thinking is wedded to analogies or stories which the average Christian reader is well acquainted; the greatness, in that the whole book is cut in two by the veil of the lowest domains of the spiritual—and if you have never had a mystical experience, nor mystically inclined, you will be kept from beholding the beauty of God until you subject yourself to purification. Like Plato, this book's esoteric side cannot be conveyed by me so easily, whether for want of vocabulary or for how much knowledge is needed.

[Agent Intellect · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a great introduction to Tomberg, both because it was his last work before his passing, and also due to reflecting his mature thoughts on a lot of topics covered in its pages. This work would also be a good starting place for those interested in Tomberg, but who are scared off or are concerned with the title of "Tarot" in his Magnum Opus "Meditations on the Tarot", and who wish to see what sort of author Tomberg is due to different groups claiming him as their own.

The book itself covers different themes such as the miracles of the Gospel of St. John, and these miracles relations to the seven days of Creation in Genesis, the idea of historical decay through time-cycles along with the possibility of spiritual regeneration of society from above, and then finally a series of meditations on the meaning of the 10 Commandments, Beatitudes, and Breath. This book being written after the Second Vatican Council had happened also provides a critique of that Council and the period after it as leading to a secularization of the Church from the perspective of a Catholic Hermeticist/Perennialist.

Truly this is a great work and is both intellectually and spiritually stimulating to read through and ponder over.

[Murray · Rating 5 out of 5]

Valentin Tomberg was a remarkable writer and deeply spiritual man. His work on Christianity is full of valuable insights and ideas. He was deeply influenced by Rudolph Steiner's writings (although they corresponded they never met).
Some of the chapters in this book are:
The seven miracles of the Gsopel of St John
The miracle of the Raising of Lazarus
"You shall have no other gods before me"
The mystery of breath

His thoughts are stimulating and often profound.