Tomberg before Tomberg

"Inner Development" is a rather narrow book, comprising seven consecutive lectures given in 1938 by Valentin Tomberg, a member of the Anthroposophical Society. Tomberg later left Anthroposophy for the Catholic Church, creating his own distinct synthesis between Christianity and the Western esoteric tradition. (Tomberg's magnum opus, "Meditations on the Tarot", was published anonymously.)

In 1938, Tomberg was still an Anthroposophist, although probably a maverick one, making it difficult for the outsider to judge how much of his speculations are taken from Anthroposophy founder Rudolf Steiner and how much are his own innovations. Indeed, Tomberg criticizes dogmatism and the lack of new revelations after Steiner's death, suggesting that *he* (Tomberg) is the conduit of new esoteric truths.

"Inner Development" is easier to read than Steiner's texts, but it's still sufficiently Steinerite to be of little interest outside a small circle of Anthroposophical cognoscenti. I found parts of the lectures interesting, while others were bland or dull. One of Tomberg's main points, derived from Steiner, is that humans shouldn't attempt to reach purely spiritual immortality in the immediate hereafter. He criticizes Indian Yoga on this point, including the attempts to awaken/channel the kundalini. Instead, the human soul should reincarnate and pass through various stages of suffering and purification, compared by Tomberg to the passion of the Christ. The goal is a form of bodily resurrection and evolutionary perfection in the distant future. Indeed, it's not even clear whether Tomberg believes Yoga actually works, since he claims that the kundalini, after ascending to the Crown and triggering an ecstatic experience, immediately descends to the ground and enters the demonic, Ahrimanic realm!

Other lectures describe various mystic experiences on the path of Anthroposophical meditation, most notably the encounter with the Guardian on the Threshold, a kind of karmic-spiritual double to the spiritual seeker, who reveals his *real* (often bad) character. One chapter deals with Steiner's famous six exercises from "How to achieve knowledge of higher worlds".

Tomberg emphasizes that meditation and spiritual development takes courage and entails a lot of pain - no suger-coated New Age here. Tomberg also speculates about the exact role of Michael, Lucifer, Ahriman, guardian angels, etc. A curious trait is the claim that meditation redeems "the Luciferic double", presumably a demon that feeds off the human astral body. As far as I know, Steiner never claimed that Lucifer could be redeemed. This seems to be a Tombergite new revelation...

I'm not sure how to rate this work, but eventually I give it three stars.