Valentin Tomberg

Valentin Arnoldevitch Tomberg
Photo: National Archives of Estonia (ERA.957.3.507)

Valentin Tomberg(February 26, 1900 – February 24, 1973) was anEstonian-RussianChristianmystic,polyglot scholar and esotericist.

Early life

Valentin Tomberg was born on February 26, 1900 (February 14 in the Old Russian Julian calendar) inSt. Petersburg, Russia.His parents wereLutheran,the mother was a Russian and the father ofBaltic Germanorigin, he was an official in the Tsarist government. As an adolescent, Tomberg was drawn toTheosophyand the mystical practices ofEastern Orthodoxy.In 1917, he was initiated into HermeticMartinismbyG. O. Mebes.He also discovered the works ofRudolf Steiner.In 1920, Tomberg fled with his family toTallinn,in newly independentEstonia.Tomberg worked as a nurse at a hospital, in a pharmacy, on a farm and in the Tallinn Central Post Office. He studied languages andcomparative religionat theUniversity of Tartuin Estonia.

Career

In 1925, Tomberg joined Rudolf Steiner'sAnthroposophical Society.In the early 1930s he married divorcée Maria Belozwetow (née Demski) (died March 1973), a Polish Catholic; they had a son, Alexis (August 31, 1933 – 1975). During the 1930s, Tomberg, then in his 30s, published his original occult research in a number of articles and lectures, which made him a controversial figure in Anthroposophical circles. As a result of the controversies, in 1938 the Tombergs were invited to move to Amsterdam. In 1940, however, he was asked to withdraw from the Anthroposophical Society in the Netherlands as well, by its chairmanWillem Zeylmans van Emmichoven(1893–1961), due to his being too controversial.

He was active in Dutch anti-Nazi resistance by hiding allied pilots and parachutists. Tomberg and a Russian friend, the poet-philosopher Nikolai Nikolaevich Bielotsvietov (Nikolaj Belozwetow) (1892–1950), allegedly approached the leader of theChristian Community,Emil Bock(1895–1959) about creating a new ritual focusing on Sophia, but were rebuffed. He then joined theRussian Orthodox Churchin the Netherlands but left shortly thereafter, as its leadership turned out to be sympathetic toNational Socialism.

Towards the end ofWorld War II,Tomberg received a Ph.D. in jurisprudence from theUniversity of Cologne,where he had moved in 1944. He studied under Ernst Arthur Franz von Hippel (1895–1984), professor of law in the University of Cologne, who became a personal friend and an anthroposophist. Tomberg's thesis was published asDegeneration and Regeneration in the Science of Law,followed by the thesisPeoples' Rights as Humanity's Rightsin 1946. Around this time, he converted toRoman Catholicism.

Shortly after the war he helped founding a community college in theRuhrarea. In 1948, however, he moved to England, where he became a translator for theBBC,monitoringSovietbroadcasts during theCold Warat BBCCaversham Park.He retired early, in 1960, to the suburbanized village ofEmmer Green,not far fromReading,where he worked on the manuscripts for his main work, written inFrenchand entitledMéditations sur les 22 arcanes majeurs du Tarot(Meditations on the Tarotin English).

Death

Tomberg died on a holiday inMajorca.Two weeks later his wife and collaborator Maria died as well. A Dutch or German rough translation of the manuscript toMéditations sur les 22 arcanes majeurs du Tarotwas circulated in the Netherlands against Tomberg's intentions a year before his death, but was only formally published in 1984.

Robert A. Powell and others have reportedly identified Tomberg as the 20th century incarnation of theboddhisattvawho they say will in time incarnate as theMaitreya Buddha,a claim contested by T. H. Meyer and otherAnthroposophists.

Published works

Tomberg's major written works were published posthumously. They include:

• Lazarus, komm heraus: vier Schriften(Come Forth, Lazarus), a study of Christian mysticism, written inGermanand published in 1985,ISBN3-906371-08-5.Translated asCovenant of the Heartand published inEnglishin 1992. Also published asLazarus, come forth! Meditations of a Christian esotericist on the mysteries of the raising of Lazarus, the Ten Commandments, the Three Kingdoms, and the Breath of Life.ISBN1-58420-040-5.
• Méditations sur les 22 arcanes majeurs du Tarot(a study of theTarot of Marseilles) publishedanonymouslyinFrenchin 1980 (with an afterword by a Catholic theologian and priest,Hans Urs von Balthasar). AnEnglishtranslation was then published in 1985, with Robert A. Powell basing his rendering on the author's original French manuscript, whereas the published French edition (ISBN978-2700703696) does not always follow the French original manuscript.
• Christ and Sophia: anthroposophic meditations on the Old Testament, New Testament, and apocalypse,Great Barrington, MA: SteinerBooks, 2006.ISBN0-88010-565-8.
• Degeneration und Regeneration der Rechtswissenschaft,Bonn: Bouvier, 1974 [German].ISBN3-416-01032-9.
• Le Mat itinérant. L'amour et ses symboles. Une méditation chrétienne sur le Tarot,introduced and edited byFriederike MignecoandVolker Zotz.Luxembourg: Kairos Edition 2007 [French with German translation].ISBN978-2-9599829-5-8.
• Innere Gewissheit: über den Weg, die Wahrheit und das Leben,introduced and edited by Friederike Migneco and Volker Zotz. Luxembourg: Kairos Edition 2012, [German]ISBN978-2-919771-00-4.

References

• John Michael Greer,The New Encyclopedia of the Occult.p 488.Llewellyn Worldwide,2003.ISBN1-56718-336-0.
• Valentin Tomberg - Leben, Werk, Wirkung, Band 1.1: Valentin Tombergs Leben von 1900-1944,Eine Biographie von Liesel Heckmann [German].ISBN3-907160-77-0.
• Valentin Tomberg - Leben, Werk, Wirkung, Band 1.2: Valentin Tombergs Leben von 1944-1973,Eine Biographie von Liesel Heckmann & Michael Frensch [German].ISBN3-907160-82-7.
• Valentin Tomberg - Band II: Werk,Edited by the Ramsteiner Kreis, Trier [German].
• Private conversations with Prof. Jur. Dr. Martin Kriele, Tomberg's literary heir.