Nominated among the one hundred best spiritual books published since 1900, here are some testimonials concerning Meditations on the Tarot.
"A thinking, praying Christian of unmistakable purity reveals to us the symbols of Christian Hermeticism in its various levels of mysticism, gnosis and magic, taking in also the Cabbala and certain elements of astrology and alchemy. These symbols are summarized in the twenty-two so called 'Major Arcana' of the Tarot cards. By way of the Major Arcana the author seeks to lead meditatively into the all-embracing wisdom of the Catholic Mystery."
From the Afterword by Cardinal Hans Urs von Balthasar
"It is simply astonishing. I have never read such a comprehensive account of the 'perennial philosophy'. There is hardly a line without some profound significance. To me it is the last word in wisdom."
Father Bede Griffiths , founder of the Saccidananda Ashram in Southern India
"It is such a rich collection of wisdom drawn from such a staggering number of diverse sources that it leaves the mind almost reeling. Besides the Bible we find the Upanishads, the Cabbala, the Hermeticists, and men as diverse as Origen and Chardin, Plato and Bergson, Jung and John of the Cross, Kierkegaard and Nietzsche. It is without doubt the most extraordinary work I have ever read. It has tremendous spiritual depth and insight."
Trappist Abbot Basil Pennington, O.C.S.O.
"The most beautiful and instructive book of the twentieth century concerning western esotericism."
Antoine Faivre, Professor of the History of Esoteric and Mystical Currents in Modern Europe
"The extraordinary spiritual power and deep religiousness of the author will open for many readers a new meditative and intellectual path to the Christian faith, in that he reintroduces the treasures of wisdom anew into the life of faith."
Professor Joachim Illies
"The letters of the author are meditations, and meditation lays claim to the whole human being, demanding that one 'feels' with the head and 'thinks' with the heart. This universally directed spirituality comes to expression in a truly magnificent way in the twenty-two letter-meditations."
Father Werner Schlepper, S.J
"Meditations on the Tarot has become instrumental in my thinking and in my understanding of health and disease. The writer - who calls himself 'Unknown Friend' - seems to be speaking to me directly with endless wisdom and inspiriation."
New York psychiatrist Gerald Epstein, author of Healing into Immortality
"Had this book been available when Robert Hutchins founded the Great Books Program at Chicago University, it might well have been the core of his course."
Prairie Messenger
"This may be regarded as one of the great spiritual classics of this century. In the hands of this author of immense erudition and deep contemplation, the Tarot cards of ancient Egypt reveal their universal, archetypal, symbolic nature and become a school of objective insight. The author gathers us into his own spiritual journey to the authentic Source of all true knowledge and compassion. This book, in my view, is the greatest contribution to date toward the rediscovery and renewal of the Christian contemplative tradition of the Fathers of the Church and the High Middle Ages. With its firm grasp of tradition, its balance, wisdom, profundity, openness to truth, and comprehensive approach to reality , it deserves to be the basis of a course in spirituality in every Christian institution of higher learning, and what would be even better, the point of departure and unifying vision of the whole curriculum."
Trappist Abbot Thomas Keating, O.C.S.O.
"There are some of our monasteries in which you could find silence, but where could you find the kind of guidance that is manifest in every chapter of this book?"
Theophane Boyd
"I recommend this book highly, particularly for those who are interested in the relationship between hermeticism and religion and who possess some sophisticated philosophical background that will enable them to appreciate the extraordinary genius of this work. It is a monumental, insightful work destined to become a twentieth-century classic in hermeticism and spirituality."
Father Frederick G. McLeod, S.J
"These meditations form a collage of interrelated subjects that is spiritually enriching and enlightening. The spirituality that emerges is profound, insightful and wide-ranging. I have never read a book quite like this before."
Sister Rose Page, O.C.C.L.
"The book was written by a remarkable convert, an experienced occultist. By means of twenty two meditations in the form of 'Letters to an Unknown Friend,' the anonymous author attempts to assimilate his vast store of esoteric knowledge within the orthodox Catholic vision."
Stratford Caldecott, National Catholic Register Of Books
"It is impossible to do justice to the author of this truly inspired work. It is my conviction that he is a genuine mystical philosopher, one who has something rare to contribute to the living tradition of the Church."
Benedictine Brother Wayne Teasdale
"This book begs not only to be studied cover to cover, but also to be savored, meditated upon and assimilated into one's life."
Richard W Kropf, National Catholic Reporter
"This is a quite outstanding and remarkable work. It is unlike anything else on the subject of the Tarot that I have seen. It uses the Tarot as a set of pictorial symbols through which the author discusses mystical philosophy, the theological implications of the Tarot symbols and the spiritual nature of man."
R. A. Gilbert, Bookseller
"This is a book which transforms whoever takes in its substance, a book which, as it address the Essence, is of the nature of Essence and makes us in our own nature more 'Essence-like'. And this inner depth, this new Essence can be carried into all realms of human life: into scientific and humanitarian institutions, and into religious and social institutions. It can also serve the Arts. For the Christian-hermetic aim and endeavor of this book is not sectarian or occult or elitist; rather, it is a completely new 'Yes' to life upon the earth and to human endeavor and progress."
Michael Frensch, senior editor of Novalis
"The author of the twenty-two meditations on the Major Arcana of the Tarot draws upon many different sources: the Gospels, ancient hermetic philosophy, gnosis, mysticism, alchemy and magic, also Rudolf Steiner and C.G. Jung, who he often quotes positively, always with the intention of penetrating ever deeper into the Mysteries of Christianity, in order to communicate these fruits further to his readers."
Gerhard Wehr, author of books on Boehme, Jung and Steiner
"It would be hard to imagine a more profoundly Western book than this one. The author, a hermeticist of evident learning and piety, has composed a series of twenty-two letters on the Maj or Arcana of the Tarot. The letters, published anonymously and posthumously, as he intended, are addressed to the reader as an 'Unknown Friend'. One ends up with the sense of not merely having read a book, but of having communicated with a spiritual teacher."
Richard Smoley, senior editor of Gnosis
"... Meditations on the Tarot [is] a beacon of eternal light that has come to us as a gift of love. This book was made known to me by a man in a bookshop who told me to buy it. I am convinced this man was an angel who bestowed grace on me. This 'living' dead teacher guided me through the most stormy and life-threatening period of my existence."
Gerald Epstein, M.D., "Healing into Immortality".
"This work was written anonymously to be published posthumously. Now, why should a work be written anonymously to be published posthumously? The intention of this work is to find a relationship with the author in spiritual dimensions of existence. So, as far as the author is concerned, he is not to be thought of as a personality who lived from 1900 to 1973, but as one who is communicating with us as a friend from another dimension of existence, one who has gone on to live in another dimension, and who from this other dimension is seeking to help us as a friend, with guidance. Through translating this work, I found an opening of the heart taking place, and I went through experiences that awoke within me a relationship to the Divine Sophia."
Robert Powell, The Sophia Teachings