Observations on the Influence of the Occult in Traditional Catholic Discourse

I begin this eight-part monograph with a caveat. I am a traditional Catholic layman unschooled in either philosophy or theology. I write with neither authority nor desire to pass judgement on ideas, much less persons. Nevertheless, my “pious ears” have been offended, and my “sensus fidei” alarm has been triggered, and so I offer these observations in the hope that what little light I am able to shed on that which has scandalised me may soon be joined by other, greater lights. Perhaps then we shall have some much-needed clarity.

Part I: Valentin Tomberg and His Progeny

I read a very peculiar book recently: Cor Jesu Sacratissimum: From Secularism and the New Age to Christendom Renewed, a semi-autobiographical work in which the author, Roger Buck, chronicles his conversion to Catholicism from the New Age spiritual movement and issues a stirring cri de coeur for a return to Catholic Tradition. Like his earlier book, The Gentle Traditionalist, which Buck describes retrospectively as “the ‘comic-book’ version of this much bigger, more in-depth work,” Cor Jesu Sacratissimum was received to considerable acclaim amongst traditional Catholics upon its release in December 2016.

Keep scrolling for Part II: Perennialism and the “Transcendent Unity of Religions”…

Endnotes:

[1] Buck, R., Cor Jesu Sacratissimum: From Secularism and the New Age to Christendom Renewed (Angelico Press, 2016), p. 15

Part II: Perennialism and the “Transcendent Unity of Religions”

Back in 2005, the aforementioned, four-times-published Angelico Press author Stratford Caldecott posted — approvingly, it seems — the text of a letter sent to him by his colleague, fellow Angelico writer Professor Wolfgang Smith, on the internet forum of Second Spring, a business founded by Stratford and his wife that “offers editorial and educational services in the field of Faith and Culture.” To date, this organisation has published a total of eleven books under its own “Second Spring” imprint with Angelico, which mourned Caldecott (who passed away in 2014) as “a guiding light for all of us at Angelico Press.” Prof Smith’s letter reads, in part:

Keep scrolling for Part III: The Gnostic Metaphysics of the Kabbalah…

Endnotes:

[1] And I do mean “visionary” in the very literal sense: “Stratford himself, as a young man, had had visionary dreams of the Holy Grail…” (SOURCE) He also claimed to have witnessed the ascent of his late father’s soul: “…as I prayed alone with his body, I believe I was granted a glimpse of the battle for his soul, and I knew that he had been victorious.” (SOURCE)

Part III: The Gnostic Metaphysics of the Kabbalah

What is this “old primitive faith” that, according to the Freemasons, is the “foundation of all religions”? Albert Pike’s entire tract is the Masonic answer to this question:

Keep scrolling for Part IV: Kabbalah for Catholics? “Hebrew Catholics” and Their Cardinal…

Endnotes:

[1] “If anyone says that finite things, both corporal and spiritual, or at any rate, spiritual, emanated from the divine substance; or that the divine essence, by the manifestation and evolution of itself becomes all things or, finally, that God is a universal or indefinite being which by self determination establishes the totality of things distinct in genera, species and individuals: let him be anathema.” (SOURCE)

Part IV: Kabbalah for Catholics? “Hebrew Catholics” and Their Cardinal

When I first became aware of the growing influence of the Kabbalah in traditional Catholic discourse, I contacted an esteemed Franciscan priest-theologian in good standing with the Church, whom I know personally and whose judgement in such matters I trust implicitly. I asked him straightforwardly if the Kabbalah might have any legitimate application in orthodox Catholic theology. His reply was uncharacteristically blunt: “No, it hasn’t.” Indeed, as I would later read in the Catholic Encyclopedia, “Several of its doctrines recall to mind those of Pythagoras, Plato, Aristotle, the neo-Platonists of Alexandria, the Oriental or Egyptian Pantheists, and the Gnostics of the earliest Christian ages. Its speculations concerning God’s nature and relation to the universe differ materially from the teachings of Revelation.”

Keep scrolling for Part V: Renaissance Neoplatonism and the Hermetic Tradition…

Endnotes:

[1] Part I (Issue №77, Summer-Fall 2002); Part II (Issue №78, Winter-Spring 2003); Part III (Issue №80, Summer 2004) [PDF unavailable]

Part V: Renaissance Neoplatonism and the Hermetic Tradition

Closely related to the phenomenon of Kabbalah is that of Hermeticism, which indeed, according to Albert Pike, “may be accurately defined as the Kabalah in active realization…” So-called Hermeticists are disciples of (the mythical) Hermes Trismegistus — a supposed oracle (or sometimes the human incarnation) of the ancient Egyptian god Thoth — and students of the arcane texts attributed to him, known collectively as the Corpus Hermeticum. It is to these practitioners of the occult “Hermetic sciences” that Valentin Tomberg addresses the epistles of which his Meditations on the Tarot consist.

Keep scrolling for Part VI: Towards a Traditionalist-Modernist Synthesis?…

Endnotes:

[1] Buck, R., Cor Jesu Sacratissimum: From Secularism and the New Age to Christendom Renewed (Angelico Press, 2016), p. 249

Part VI: Towards a Traditionalist-Modernist Synthesis?

I have thus far conducted a very limited, far from comprehensive survey of the interrelated Perennialist, Gnostic, Kabbalistic and Hermetic discourses that have penetrated the traditional Catholic movement — most notably via Angelico Press (see Parts One, Two, Three, and Five). Two obvious and important questions arise from it: Why have some traditional Catholics proven susceptible to these occult influences, and why might others still yet prove to be so? And how might these affect the future development of Catholic traditionalism and, ultimately, of the Church herself? Over the next three parts of this serialised monograph, I endeavour to articulate what few insights I — an unschooled layman — have to offer that I think may be valuable to the efforts of better qualified commentators to answer these questions of such paramountcy.

Keep scrolling for Part VII: The Lethal Ecclesiology of Tombergian Neo-Traditionalism…

Endnotes:

[1] “Oh, it was not a Catholic movement, but it was a movement against the disorder sown by the Freemasons in the country, in France: it was a healthy reaction, a determination to re-establish order and discipline, a return to morality and to Christian morality… Pius XI was not a liberal. But he was weak, very weak in the practical sphere and rather inclined to compromise with the world…” (SOURCE)

Part VII: The Lethal Ecclesiology of Tombergian Neo-Traditionalism

In the course of my investigation into the influence of the occult in traditional Catholic discourse, the Hermeticist Valentin Tomberg — whose Meditations on the Tarot, I submit, must be studied and critiqued by Catholic scholars faithful to Tradition — has emerged as the common denominator by which almost all the ostensibly traditional Catholics discussed in this monograph are linked and inspired.

Keep scrolling for Part VIII: Everything Flows into the Tiber! The Syncretic “Church-to-come”…

Endnotes:

[1] Tomberg, V., Lazarus, Come Forth! Meditations of a Christian Esotericist (SteinerBooks, 2006), [no pagination]

Part VIII: Everything Flows into the Tiber! The Syncretic “Church-to-come”

A perilously distorted ecclesiology, infused with the spirit of what Pope Ven Pius XII condemned as an “exaggerated and senseless antiquarianism,” and further polluted by the creeping “false mysticism” about which the same holy pontiff sounded the alarm (see Part Six), is likely what actuates Angelico Press’ resident esotericist, Dr Michael Martin, in a blog post reflecting on the implications of ex-Cardinal Theodore McCarrick’s heinous crimes, to conclude:

Alistair McFadden is a pseudonym. Although he wishes to remain anonymous, he may be contacted via email at justacatholic@protonmail.com, or @JustACatholic1 on Twitter

Endnotes:

[1] Martin, M. & Smith, W., In Quest of Catholicity: Malachi Martin Responds to Wolfgang Smith (Angelico Press, 2016), p. 76

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Pseudonymous researcher, occasional essayist and traditional Catholic layman. Our Lady of La Salette, pray for us!

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Alistair McFadden

Pseudonymous researcher, occasional essayist and traditional Catholic layman. Our Lady of La Salette, pray for us!