The French Hermetic Tradition

Valentin Tomberg explains why he wrote his meditations on the major arcana of the Tarot in French:

These letters were written in French, which is not the mother tongue of the author, because it is in France, and in France only, that a living literature on the Tarot has been perpetuated since the 18th century. Furthermore, there exists as well a continuous tradition of Hermetism, which unites a spirit of free research with respect for the Tradition. These letters, by virtue of their contents, will therefore be able to become an integral part of the Tradition while enriching it. [my translation]

Some of the key figures in this tradition are mentioned here.

I also have some Known Friends, but most of them are found in the spiritual world. That is the main reason that I address myself to them in these letters. And how many times, while writing them, have I felt the fraternal embrace of these friends which include Papus, Guaita, Peladan, Eliphas Levi, and Claude de Saint-Martin! [my translation]

Following the examples of Claude de Saint-Martin, Peladan, and Eliphas Levi, Tomberg affiliated himself with the Catholic Church. Tomberg, however, knew none of these men personally, just spiritually.

Julius Evola in The Hermetic Tradition refers to Eliphas Levi to summarize the purpose of Hermetism.

Eliphas Levi repeatedly warns that we must make use of every hour and moment; we must rid the will of any dependency and accustom it to domination, we must become absolute master of the self, learn how to deny that call of pleasure, hunger, and sleep and be unmoved by success of failure. Life must be given over to the will directed by one’s thought and served by the entire nature to submit in every organ to the spirit, and by sympathy to all universal forces corresponding to them. All the faculties and senses must participate in the Work; nothing must be left inactive. The genuine spirit must have secured itself against all danger of hallucination and terror, and so find us purified inwardly and outwardly.

* This article was originally published here