About the Book
Drawing on the ancient and often-forgotten sources of esoteric Christianity, Valentin Tomberg reflects on the mysteries of humanity's covenant with God in history. The power of these meditations is that they reflect the author's personal spiritual journey into the depths of God's kingdom within--within the soul, within personal relationships, within nature and the cosmos.
Part one of Lazarus, Come Forth!--"The Miracle of Raising Lazarus in World History"--looks at an encounter with the Father through the miracles of Creation and the Fall and through Moses and the Old Testament Covenant and the Ten Commandments.
Part two, "The Ten Commandments: The Revelation on Mt. Sinai," is a meditation on the seven miracles of Christ as described in the Gospel of St. John, culminating in the raising of Lazarus, the miracle of being raised from forgetfulness, sleep, and death to remembrance, wakefulness, and resurrection. Lazarus thus becomes a paradigm for understanding the spiritual and cultural history of humanity.
In part three, "Thy Kingdom Come: The Three Kingdoms of Nature, Humanity, and God," we consider the encounter with the Holy Spirit and living out the life of Christ through the Church. We are asked to reflect on the three kingdoms of God, humankind, and nature, which give natural order and meaning to the Christian life.
The union of love and prayer in the Spirit is the focus of the first section of part four, "The Breath of Life," in which we are invited to see our natural breathing as breathing the breath of God. And part four ends with "Natural and Supernatural Images of the Holy Trinity," which discusses the message of the starry heaven at night, the message of the setting Sun, and the message of the birth of a new day.
This volume should not be missed by anyone with a serious interest in esoteric Christianity or who merely wishes to go more deeply into the meaning of the Holy Scriptures.
A previous edition of this work was titled Covenant of the Heart. It is a translation of Lazarus, komm heraus. The translation has been fully revised.
About the Author :
Valentin Tomberg (Feb. 27, 1900-Feb. 24, 1973) was born into a Lutheran family in St. Petersburg, Russia. As an adolescent, he was drawn to the hermetic Martinism of G.O.Mebes, as well as to Theosophy and the mysticism of Eastern Orthodoxy. Tomberg's mother was killed by looters during the Russian Revolution, after which Valentin and his father fled to Tallinn, Estonia, where Tomberg studied languages and comparative religion at the University of Tartu. As a young man, he was strongly influenced by Vladimir Soloviev and had a personal experience of the Sophia at a cathedral in Holland. In 1925, he joined the Anthroposophical Society, under whose auspices he lectured in Holland and England and wrote on his understanding of the Bible, Anthroposophy, and esoteric Christianity. During World War II, he left the Anthroposophical Society and its internal struggles and converted to Catholicism. In 1948, he moved to England, where he became a translator for the BBC and monitored Soviet broadcasts during the Cold War, while continuing his devotion to meditation practice and further writing on his esoteric insights. In 1960, he retired to Reading near the River Thames. He died while vacationing in Majorca. The best-known work of his later life is Meditations on the Tarot: A Journey into Christian Hermeticism, written anonymously. ROBERT POWELL, PhD, is an internationally known lecturer, author, eurythmist, and movement therapist. He is founder of the Choreocosmos School of Cosmic and Sacred Dance, and cofounder of the Sophia Foundation of North America. He received his doctorate for his thesis The History of the Zodiac, available as a book from Sophia Academic Press. His published works include The Sophia Teachings, a six-tape series (Sounds True Recordings), as well as Elijah Come Again: A Prophet for Our Time; The Mystery, Biography, and Destiny of Mary Madgalene; Divine Sophia--Holy Wisdom; The Most Holy Trinosophia and the New Revelation of the Divine Feminine; Chronicle of the Living Christ; Christian Hermetic Astrology; The Christ Mystery; The Sign of the Son of Man in the Heavens; Cultivating Inner Radiance and the Body of Immortality;and the annual series Star Wisdom (previously Journal for Star Wisdom). He translated the spiritual classic Meditations on the Tarot and co-translated Valentin Tomberg's Lazarus, Come Forth! Robert is coauthor with David Bowden of Astrogeographia: Correspondences between the Stars and Earthly Locationsand coauthor with Estelle Isaacson of Gautama Buddha's Successorand The Mystery of Sophia. Robert is also coauthor with Kevin Dann of The Astrological Revolution: Unveiling the Science of the Stars as a Science of Reincarnation and Karmaand Christ and the Maya Calendar: 2012 & the Coming of the Antichrist;and coauthor with Lacquanna Paul of Cosmic Dances of the Zodiacand Cosmic Dances of the Planets. He teaches a gentle form of healing movement: the sacred dance of eurythmy, as well as the Cosmic Dances of the Planets and signs of the zodiac. Through the Sophia Grail Circle, Robert facilitates sacred celebrations dedicated to the Divine Feminine. He offers workshops in Europe and Australia, and with Karen Rivers, cofounder of the Sophia Foundation, leads pilgrimages to the world's sacred sites: Turkey, 1996; the Holy Land, 1997; France, 1998; Britain, 2000; Italy, 2002; Greece, 2004; Egypt, 2006; India, 2008; Turkey, 2009; the Grand Canyon, 2010; South Africa, 2012; Peru, 2014; the Holy Land, 2016; and Bali, 2018.
