Lazarus Come Forth

Valentin Tomberg was arguably the greatest Christian esotericist of the 20th century. He is the author of Meditations on the Tarot, a monumental work that was closely studied by Bede Griffiths. This is his last book, only recently translated from the French, and consisting of four main parts. The first is devoted to the meaning of the miracle of raising Lazarus, the culmination of the seven miracles reported in the Gospel of John. His interpretation presupposes the validity of intuitive knowledge (gnosis). In this respect he quotes Goethe as saying that this form of knowledge is 'an evolving revelation from the inner being a man' and Spinoza, who defined it as 'a direct grasping after being of things.' Tomberg defines the evolution of human consciousness in terms of our capacity for knowledge, action and love or moral freedom.

His approach to the miracle of Lazarus is highly original, since he interpreted within the framework of his understanding of parallels between forgetting, sleep and death; their opposites are remembering, awakening and rebirth or resurrection. In a cultural sense, he sees Christianity as 'the process of resurrection in the spiritual history of humanity in the world. This means that all the forgotten truth and love, all the sleeping truth and love of the past, will be remembered and reawakened.' Second and third parts of the book of commentaries on the Ten Commandments and coming of the kingdom. At the end of the book is the manuscript which Tomberg was working on at the time of his death in 1973. In The Mystery of Breath, he explains parallels between breathing and beating of the heart with prayer and meditation at a higher level of being. The soul 'breathes in' God through prayer and meditation, which forms its vital sustenance. It is symbolically significant that the last two sections he wrote were on the message of the setting sun and the message of the birth of a new day as he himself was reborn in another damage. Indeed, his last sentence is as follows: 'the chorus of birds that greets the birth of a new day with a song points to the fact that it is hope experienced by the beings of nature upon awakening.' What a beautiful epitaph!