Robert Powell
(Article reproduced here by kind permission of the author).
An Italian version of this article was published as an Introduction, together with Cardinal Balthasar's Preface, in the Italian translation of Meditations on the Tarot.
In reading this book an awareness grows that this work is much more than a book in the usual sense of the word. Although in its outer form it appears the same as any other book, there are other modes or levels of being -- described by the author as "mysticism, gnosis and magic" -- which are opened up to the reader through this work. It thus serves to introduce the reader to Hermeticism -- to a new and Christian form of Hermeticism -- which represents a synthesis of the mystical, gnostic and magical modes of being and of the knowledge derived from these levels of being.
The twenty-two chapters of this book are Letters written by one who designates himself as a "friend from beyond the grave" (a friend in spiritual realms), whose concern it is, if he is called upon to do so, to accompany the reader -- each serious reader of these Letters -- as a companion and guide along the journey into Christian Hermeticism. Thereby this book itself can become not only a guide -- a light on the path -- but also a true companion on life's way. It is truly a magnum opus -- a "great work" -- making its appearance now in the spiritual life of Europe and the West, written by one who has gone on ahead along the journey into the realm of being.
Who wrote this magnum opus, this great work of the Hermetic tradition, the spiritual tradition extending back to the legendary Egyptian sage Hermes Trismegistus? Who was the author of these Letters concerning the spiritual path of Christian Hermeticism?
In his preface the author greets the reader "from beyond the grave". It was towards the end of his earthly life that the author wrote this work, into which he incorporated a summary of his many years of spiritual experience -- comprising mysticism, gnosis and magic -- the synthesis of which and the resulting knowledge derived therefrom is Hermeticism. When he wrote this work -- this "book of life" -- he anticipated that by the time of its publication he would no longer be a citizen on the earth, but would be sojourning in the spiritual realms. As a practising Hermeticist he was already during life familiar with these realms, and was able to write the Letters as one who -- even whilst living on the earth -- had experience of existence "beyond the grave". In this sense the Letters are not only concerned with, but also take their source of origin from higher levels of being. They are addressed to the reader on the earth, extending help and support -- from one who has already arrived at the destination -- concerning preparation for the long and difficult journey and drawing attention to the pitfalls to be avoided on the way. The author gives invaluable advice and practical instruction by way of insights drawn from his understanding of life and based on his wealth of spiritual experience.
From his prefatory words it is evident that the author intended the Letters for posthumous publication. In view of the fact that he passed into realms "beyond the grave" already within a few years of completing the manuscript, this English language edition of the Letters is in accordance with the author's intention. His greetings "from beyond the grave" are authentic, and the Letters are truly from one who has made the transition to higher planes of existence.
As the author hirnself writes in Letter III: "I am an anonymous author and I remain so..." He chose to remain anonymous, and this renunciation of name and fame is a matter of deep significance, as the reader will discern from Letter IV. Despite anonymity, however, it is possible -- from what he reveals of himself in Letter XXI -- to say the following concerning the author.
As a young man he lived in St. Petersburg, Russia, where -- in 1920 -- he was the recipient of hermetic teachings concerning the Tarot. These teachings were communicated to him by some members of the Rosicrucian group belonging to the Hermetic school of Gregory Ottonovitch Mebes, who was a professor of mathematics at Pages College, St. Petersburg. These teachings served as an initial impulse to the author on his spiritual path, but they did not otherwise influence him. After 1920 -- during the ensuing forty-five years -- he underwent an independent development to arrive eventually at the fruit of his life's work, culminating in these Letters, which are his legacy to mankind, opening up the path of Christian Hermeticism.
The Letters were written in French and were completed in the year 1967, as the author indicates at the end of Letter XXII. But it would be erroneous to conclude that the author wrote the manuscript whilst living in France. Having left Russia shortly after 1920 on account of the conditions prevailing there, although he lived in various European countries, he never settled in France.
In fact, for the last twenty-five years of his life he lived and worked in England, and the manuscript of these Letters was written there. Now, after copies of the manuscript have been circulating from hand to hand for many years, the Letters have at last found their way into print in English translation, thus making them generally accessible to readers in the country where they were written and to spiritual seekers in the United States and in the rest of the English speaking world.
The publication of this work in the English language can be viewed in relation to its coming into print elsewhere, above all in Europe. The edition presented here is making its appearance two years after the German edition by Herder, the well known Catholic publishers (Basel, 1983), and in the year following the revised French edition by the Catholic publishing house Aubier (Paris, 1980; revised edition, 1984). Thereby the community of spiritual seekers to whom this work is addressed are richly blessed by the more or less simultaneous appearance of the letters in three languages: French, German and English.
Both French editions by Aubier -- that of 1980 and the revised edition of 1984 -- are revisions of the author's original French manuscript. However, this edition -- the first to appear in the English language -- is not based on either of the revisions published by Aubier but is a direct translation of the author's original manuscript.
But why was the manuscript written in French? Why did the author -- of Russian origin and living in England -- go to such length as to write his magnum opus in the French language?
The author himself offers an answer to this question. In his preface he points out that in France the Hermetic tradition still exists in a free and living way, and by writing the Letters in French the author's intention is to connect onto the established tradition, that his work might become a new link in the chain of the continuous tradition.
Here it must be said that the author's work does not just connect onto the Hermetic tradition, but rather revivifies it by establishing something new. He has brought into being a new and Christian form of Hermeticism: the birth of Christian Hermeticism is accomplished through these Letters. The reader of the twenty two Letters who works his way through them as meditations can experience that he is on a journey: a journey into Christian Hermeticism. The path followed by the reader through these Letters, when they are treated as spiritual exercises, serves not only to deepen the reader's inner relationship to the Hermetic tradition extending back to ancient Egypt but also may lead him towards anew and living experience of the Risen One, coming in glory for the salvation of the Church and of mankind. For, as the author indicates in Letter I, the ultimate destination of this journey is the Great Initiation, accomplished solely through the grace of the Master, Jesus Christ. It is the Risen One -- the guardian of the threshold to eternity -- who is the Initiator on the path of Christian Hermeticism. In the last analysis this constitutes the underlying motivation and justification for the designation Christian Hermeticism.
In this context the cover design chosen by the publishers is truly appropriate as a mantel surrounding this work. Taken from the sculpture Christ of the Apocalypse above the west portal at Chartres Cathedral, it represents something of the Christian mysteries living at the heart of the Catholic faith. This sculpture portrays an arcanum -- worthy of meditation -- like the Major Arcana of the Tarot, the subject of the meditations contained in this book. Something of the Christian mysteries that lived in the hearts and minds of the teachers at the School of Chartres found expression in the Cathedral erected there. Just as Chartres Cathedral expresses outwardly something of the Christian mystery wisdom as it lived in the middle ages, so the twenty-two Letters -- comprising the journey into Christian Hermeticism --embody in our time new Christian Mysteries: mysteries resurrected from the temples of ancient Egypt, projected in symbolic form into the cards of the twenty-two Major Arcana of the Tarot, and now Christianized in these Letters, endowed with spiritual and moral significance by the author of this work.