Observations on the Influence of the Occult in Traditional Catholic Discourse
By: Alistair Mcfadden
Tags: Christianity, Spirituality, Religion, Theology, Catholic

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:

“[F]or me at least, the McCarrick Scandal… calls into question the very notion of a Magisterium — why would anyone trust a body so willing to throw lambs to the wolves? And I don’t mean just going back to Vatican II, or Vatican I, or Trent, or even Lateran IV. And I have to wonder whether or not a good many of the so-called heretics over the ages were merely victims of some seriously vicious intermural politics, not to mention the railroading of Teilhard [de Chardin] and [Henri] de Lubac. Do you see? Suddenly, everything is suspect… “[T]he Church, the real Church, may now be for the most part invisible. And probably always was…”

To this latter statement, the Baltimore Catechism counters unequivocally, “The Church is the congregation of all those who profess the faith of Christ, partake of the same Sacraments, and are governed by their lawful pastors under one visible head.” But Dr Martin is probably loath to take such a “dreadful” book seriously (see Part Seven). Pope Leo XIII would add, “Those who arbitrarily conjure up and picture to themselves a hidden and invisible Church are in grievous and pernicious error”; and Ven Pius XII, similarly, “[T]hey err in a matter of divine truth, who imagine the Church to be invisible, intangible, a something… by which many Christian communities, though they differ from each other in their profession of faith, are united by an invisible bond” — to cite just two magisterial pronouncements from the Holy See. Lest these be altogether too modern for Martin’s antiquarian tastes, we may also adduce the testimony of St Ignatius of Antioch, writing in 107 AD: “Where the bishop is found, there let the people be, even as where Jesus Christ is, there is the Catholic Church.”

Dr Martin’s “so-called heretics,” amongst whom he counts the English Kabbalist and Rosicrucian Robert Fludd, the Welsh alchemist Thomas Vaughan, the astrologer Sir Kenelm Digby (a Catholic Englishman who apostatised for the advancement of his political career), “and much of the cohort I have devoted my scholarly attention to, were not kooks or outliers. Indeed, if anything, they were traditionalists standing against an intellectualized and corrupted Neo-Scholasticism… In short, they were upholding what they saw as Christian tradition.” These, Martin contends — once again, on the official Angelico Press blog — are the real traditionalists:

“It may be that these so-called heretics possess something many allegedly ‘faithful’ Christians don’t: a sincere approach to the figure of Jesus, unencumbered by obligations to dogma. Because of such sincerity, Jesus is able to bleed through obscurity and fable. This doesn’t… happen, alas, with a significant amount of orthodox theology. “Heresy or heterodox opinions — or just plain old ideas — often frighten people who feel a need to adhere to a covenant of law and not a covenant of Wisdom… “Nevertheless, I have learned much about Jesus from heretics. May they be blessed.”

We have already seen (in Part Seven) that Roger Buck — the Catholic traditionalist author and tireless promoter of Valentin Tomberg whose vaunted semi-autobiography, Cor Jesu Sacratissimum, first alerted me to the growing problem of occultism amongst traditional Catholics (see Part One) — strongly recommends the writings of Michael Martin “to anyone trying to grasp Tomberg’s project to heal the West.” He concludes the book review (of Martin’s The Submerged Reality, published by Angelico Press) from which I have taken those words, with an effusive endorsement:

“This book is a living flame in the dark. If you care about the fate of humanity, I urge you to consider studying Martin. He is, with Valentin Tomberg, pointing to the only hope I have for the West: an obedient, pious, deeply traditional Catholicism, which is neither afraid to embrace Eastern Christianity, nor indeed any Christian wisdom, wherever it may be found.”

Here, again, we hear a clarion call to forge the “expansive vision of Catholicism” set forth by Tomberg, which is so broad as to encompass all manner of heretics and their heresies, all the while masquerading as “an obedient, pious, deeply traditional Catholicism…” Professor Wolfgang Smith — a “celebrated Catholic traditionalist,” we are told — takes up this challenge in his In Quest of Catholicity (also published by Angelico Press, and quoted in Part Three), an epistolary exchange between himself and the late Fr Malachi Martin, in which he prescribes that “it is incumbent upon us to broaden our ontological horizon — to open doors and windows, if you will, that have long been shut…

“What is actually needed is a radically deeper comprehension of the cosmos: the discovery — or rediscovery, to be precise — of ontological strata inaccessible not only to ordinary sense perception, but to the modus operandi of contemporary science as well… What stands at issue are the so-called ‘traditional’ sciences, which may also be referred to as ‘sacred’ sciences inasmuch as they pertain potentially to the religious quest… “In certain respects the case for traditional science, I am sorry to say, stands even worse among conservative Catholics [than among progressives]: the fact that these sciences are ‘sacred’ — that they constitute, in other words, an adjunct of religion — suffices generally to provoke instant denunciation: ‘pagan superstition’ seems to be the canonical term. Now, I have always regarded such a knee-jerk response as unworthy of a Catholic, as ‘un-katholikos’ in fact. But more to the point: I have invested decades in the exploration of such ‘pagan superstitions’, not only by way of written sources, but through personal contacts involving half-a-dozen extended sojourns in parts of India and Nepal, for example, where happily our McDonald’s culture had not yet penetrated. And in light of these investigations I am persuaded that there exists a pre-Christian wisdom of supra-human origin, perpetuated in unbroken chains of transmission from master to disciple — beginning conceivably with Adam himself — vestiges of which can still be found in various parts of the world. I have come to believe, moreover, that the wisdom in question — this veritable ‘sophia perennis’ — is something of which we of the present age stand urgently in need… “I felt inclined from the start to submit my — at times seemingly ‘unorthodox’ — conceptions to the scrutiny of this great man and priest, [Fr Malachi Martin,] as to someone qualified to judge and to advise… It was clear to me that, from an ultra-traditional Catholic point of view, much of this material was suspect, to say the least, and that it would in fact be futile to open my thoughts on such matters to ‘rank and file’ theologians on either side of the contemporary divide. I realized at the same time that parts of what I had to say would in fact be warmly welcomed by aficionados of Vatican II; but let me be absolutely clear: I submit without reservation to the authentic teaching of the Catholic Church, which transcends both the pedantic and at times pharisaical narrowness of the extreme theological right no less than the liberal fantasies and pipe dreams of the left… “This brings me at last to my final point: apart from whatever human interest Malachi Martin’s letters may hold and the light they may cast upon this great man, their paramount significance, it seems to me, resides in the fact that they bear witness to the Church, not only as it was, but also — and especially — as it shall be. He seems to have his eye as much on the future as on the past, and gives us to understand that whereas the essential truths of our Catholic faith need of course to be preserved, there are extraneous elements to be shed and artificial boundaries to be razed. Surely all that is orthodox will be found again in the Church that is even now silently forming beneath the rubble of the present disintegration; yet that Church-to-come will doubtless be freed from limitations of outlook and idiosyncrasies endemic to this or that era, as also from the autocracy of any particular theological style: for example, of Thomism as we generally conceive of it. And this explains not only why ‘we really need a new Thomas Aquinas,’ but also puts in perspective Malachi Martin’s affirmative response to the various ‘foreign’ doctrines with which I confronted him, beginning with the teachings of Jacob Boehme, the seventeenth-century visionary who in the opinion of some has ‘Christianized’ the alchemical wisdom pertaining to the Hermetic tradition. It explains why Malachi Martin could embrace such ‘suspect’ doctrines with unfeigned joy and palpable enthusiasm… In place of the customary references, open or veiled, to ‘pagan superstitions’, we encounter… the perfect receptivity of a mind and heart purified in the Blood of Christ. And who can doubt that this priest speaks, even now, for the Church that is to come!”

Somehow, Prof Smith is able to hold these opinions and still profess — to his own satisfaction, if to nobody else’s — his submission “without reservation to the authentic teaching of the Catholic Church,” just as Tomberg “weaves… syncretistic, Gnostic, Kabbalistic and Manichean beliefs together, while maintaining that all of [it] conforms to his orthodox Catholic Faith.” How can this be? I ask in all sincerity.

If my research (the fruits of which are presented in this monograph) is anything to go by, the “Church-to-come” of the Tombergian neo-traditionalists’ imagination embodies “an obedient, pious, deeply traditional Catholicism” in all its pre-Conciliar glory, with its ancient liturgy and customs restored, but “which is [not] afraid to embrace… Christian wisdom, wherever it may be found,” (Buck) and indeed, duly finds it in the supposed dictations of the Egyptian god Thoth — “the alchemical wisdom pertaining to the Hermetic tradition” of the “one grand perennial doctrine, which… springs from Christ Himself” (Smith)[1] and “must be Christianized — not repudiated” (Buck)[2] — and in the Kabbalah, wherein it discerns “the ring of truth.” (Caldecott) It is “on the basis of this assimilated Kabbalah” that the “Church-to-come” will “realize her own authentic and ultimate Catholicity,” having finally “resolve[d] the enigma of the ‘separated religions’…” (Smith)[3] Separated, that is; not false, because “the presence of a central and properly divine element in non-Christian religion” (Borella) will no longer be denied, but affirmed: “Christians cannot but acknowledge that God spoke through the Qur’an,” for example, “…[which] has borne innumerable good fruits…” (Caldecott)

This new, more authentically Catholic Church, by resuming “the process of baptizing Hermeticism” and returning to “the magical view of life,” will at last achieve a “synthesis between Hermeticism/Neoplatonism and Sacramental Christianity” — a “union of the Catholic with the Hermetic” (Coulombe) — having cast off the shackles of Thomism; (Smith, Coulombe) “an intellectualized and corrupted Neo-Scholasticism”; and “the Tridentine reactionarianism of the Counter Reformation,” which for centuries prevented the development of “a healthy relationship to the cosmos” based on astrology; (Martin) denied access to the “Hermetic writings… we need for developing an effective contemporary mystagogy” and a “science of miracles”; (Caldecott) and “contributed to the decline of the Church” by undermining “the very foundations of both the Medieval Church and State.” (Coulombe)

How “expansive [a] vision of Catholicism” (Martin) we shall possess, when the Church is “freed from limitations of outlook and idiosyncrasies endemic to this or that era, as also from the autocracy of any particular theological style,” (Smith) and when the neo-traditionalists, following Tomberg, have finished “explod[ing] complacent notions of what it means to be ‘Catholic’…”! (Martin)

Since it is “a lot more open and liberal” than the old Church, “there is room in the [new] Church for people who… are convinced of reincarnation” (Spaemann)[4] — a “fact of experience” (Tomberg, p. 93) that is “probably true,” because the Kabbalah affirms it. (Martin) The “Church-to-come” will not be so “open” as to formally promulgate this as dogma, however, as it “is worth a hundred times more to… deny the doctrine of reincarnation, than to turn thoughts and desires towards the future terrestrial life and thus to be tempted…” (Tomberg, p. 361) Anything other than persistent obfuscation on the issue would not be “pastoral…” (Smith) Nevertheless, “the revolution of souls” (Martin) will form part of an esoteric higher magisterium of secret teachings — to include also the “affirmation of a supernatural ingredient in man… [that is] ‘uncreated and uncreatable’,” and “the transcendent unity of religions,” amongst others — which “are comprehensible to very few, and… [whose] dissemination to the faithful at large is not only uncalled for but dangerous in the extreme,” (Smith) and so these will be taught only to the initiated, who alone can benefit by them. For everyone else, the traditional, exoteric lower magisterium will suffice: “Only the one with genius, ought to (and can) transcend it.” (Tomberg)

But before the Mystical Body of Christ can be transfigured in this way — before the “second Pentecostal miracle” of the “deepening, elevation, and expansion of tradition” (Tomberg)[5] can happen — Catholicism must undergo “a complete paradigm shift” by “abandoning the shell of its institutional organization,” the Church of old, which “has to sacrifice itself — like Christ, who had to die so that Christianity could emerge”; except, in this case, what emerges will be “the real Church,” which has hitherto been “for the most part invisible,” (Martin) led throughout the ages by the spirit of St John the Apostle, the “beloved disciple who… was, is, and always will be the representative and guardian of [Christ’s] heart…” (Tomberg, p. 6) Catholics must not be alarmed by this seemingly cataclysmic transformation, however, because the old Church has “had its natural life,” and “its purpose has been fulfilled; it[s]… seeds have been planted for a new spring, which this time will not follow but presage [Christ’s] Coming.” (Caldecott)

And when Christ does come, how much better He shall be than the old Christ of our narrow misconceptions! The old Christ was only a God-Man; the new, true Christ — thanklessly revealed to us by “so-called heretics…, unencumbered by obligations to dogma,” as “that principle which guides us through the perils of the promises made by Lucifer and Ahriman and helps us abide in the real” (Martin) — is so much more than the mere Second Person of the Blessed Trinity: He is the very universe itself, for “Christ is the key to the world, and that… world — such as it was before the Fall and such as it will be after its Reintegration — is the Word, and that… Word is Jesus Christ,” (Tomberg, p. 195) whom the faithful of all religions “are destined to discover and take possession of at the end of the road, when they shall have, Deo volente, attained to what Christianity terms theosis; for indeed, that truth is no longer a matter of doctrine, of theological or metaphysical conceptions, but is God Himself.” (Smith)

O brave new Church, that has such people in it…!

As Dr Martin says, “No one likes to change, let alone shift paradigms…” Well, quite; “…but that is clearly what confronts us in the work of Tomberg.” Call me a luddite, but I am not at all sure that this is a direction the traditional Catholic movement wants to be taking — because none of it bears any resemblance to the Faith in which I was catechised as a young convert.

But then again, I was taught “the dreadful Baltimore Catechism,” so what do I know?