If I had to pick one book, it would be this one (This edition, too; it's a good translation by Robert Powell with an accompanying afterword by Cardinal Hans Ur von Balthasar).
The reason is simple... it's the rare book that is both stylistically supreme, beautiful, and replete with the profoundest philosophical insights. Both theoretically & practically enriching.
It's infinitely better than anything Eastern.
There have been other books that attempted to be the perfect marriage of wisdom and beauty. Thus Spake Zarathustra IMO is a complete failure (it's quite a failure stylistically... ironically, Nietzsche was a terrible writer when he tried to be one: his ugly poems, or his Zarathustra and its pathetic, exaggerated metaphors... BUT Nietzsche was a masterful writer WHEN he wrote prose / aphorisms).
As I said, there have been other attempts at art+philosophy synergy and all I'm aware of were failures, I won't even go into things like Sartre (eww!) or Camus.
Tomberg is unparalleled.
Hart, Feser, and other modern Christian philosophers and theologians are like dog poop compared to Tomberg's heavenly fragrance.
Jewish texts, too, can't hold a candle to Tomberg... with their tedious Kabbalistic exegesis.
This is the highest text humanity has ever produced, except perhaps the Bible upon which it co-depends. Yet nobody studies it, except the cliche divination shit.
Don't be faggots and study this, do yourself a favor. You'll thank me later.
OK sell me on it. what's the most important thing you've learnt from your study of this book?
Gavin Bell
>replete with the profoundest philosophical insights. Both theoretically & practically enriching.
Give me three examples.
Andrew Adams
Seconding these
Is it some /x/ tier shit?
Josiah Brooks
its the chink book pasta but changed to tarot.
Easton Wright
Kys faggot.
Jason Cox
This book has allowed me to make peace with my historical embededness in a post-Catholic world. Well, if you are interested I would suggest the first couple letters. The book is written as a series of anonymous letters that meditate on particular cards within the major arcana. The whole book is interwoven with an Esoteric Catholicism, however, that should be instantly recognizable as inspired within the first few pages. The explanations of the difference between mysticism, gnosis, magic, and philosophy were particularly enlightening. Not /x/-tier, no. Here is a good article on it:
>Thus Spake Zarathustra IMO is a complete failure (it's quite a failure stylistically... [...]) >t. reads translations >t. probably read the Common translation as well
Luis Phillips
That said, I am intrigued by this. What should I be familiar with before diving in?
Zachary Russell
No. It's a relatively modern take on Christian Theosophy, a current of Western Esotericism that started with Jakob Boehme and was important in continental Europe between 16th - 19th centuries.
Parker Brooks
Side note: Christian Theosophy should not be confused with the Theosophical Order founded by H.P. Blavatsky.
Michael Cox
looks good user. stop writing in reddit format though
Owen Taylor
Hello, Unknown Friend.
Benjamin Hernandez
Any number of writers have projected their philosophical convictions onto the tarot: Aleister Crowley, Oswald Wirth, Paul Foster Case and Eliphas Levi to name just a few. Why is this any better? Is it purely because it supports your own preconceptions?
Nathaniel Morales
>>It's infinitely better than anything Eastern. white people everyone
Carter Brooks
I would laugh if it weren't so true. Where can I find you on tumblr?
Levi Hill
Unlike Crowley and other occultists who monger in secrets and lies, Tomberg is a sober and lucid writer who is capable of exploring deep topics in the history of western esotericism and reaching sublime truths without narcissistic self-aggrandizement. The book is in fact published Anonymous and post-humously so one can tell without doubt the intentions behind it are pure. While the Christianity may put some off, the truths revealed are of such universal and practical nature as to be of value to anyone.
Jackson Moore
>Occult shit >foreword by a borderline heretic
Read orthodox thomists instead of that jewry..
Isaac Cruz
>Anno Domini 2018 >being a Thomist >not following the unwritten doctrines of Christ
Wyatt Cooper
Not OP, but for example, that book explained how self-negation and the negative in general works much better than other texsts I've read. And it really is a p. good read desu.
Elijah Long
>Christian Hermeticism I'm intrigued and planning to purchase this book. That being said, Google gave really insufficient answers when searching for the comparability between Hermeticism and Christianity. If an user would be willing to give me a brief explanation or their thoughts on it, that would be great desu.
Connor Watson
>Thus Spake Zarathustra IMO is a complete failure (it's quite a failure stylistically... ironically, Nietzsche was a terrible writer when he tried to be one: his ugly poems, or his Zarathustra and its pathetic, exaggerated metaphors... BUT Nietzsche was a masterful writer WHEN he wrote prose / aphorisms).
You'd make a good critic. You have no criticism of the philosophy Nietzsche articulates in Thus Spoke Zarathustra, because you probably didn't understand the book.
Matthew Lopez
Moses, Hermes, and Plato were supplanted by Christ. >wahhh muh slave morality Read Hegel and Marx
Noah Butler
>wahh muh Hegel and Marx Read Schopenhauer and Heidegger
Josiah Edwards
Many other tarot treatises were published anonymously or under pseudonyms (Levi, Etellia, Papus etc.) Crowley only printed 200 copies of his Book of Thoth, so plainly wasn't in it for the publicity.
>secrets and lies >sublime truths Kek. For centuries the tarot has been a screen for the projection of belief systems. The book you cite is just another one. If it works for you, great. Other systems are available.
