Beware! Occultists masquerading as “Traditional Catholics”

Charles Coulombe, Robert Spaemann, and others

Beware!
Occultists masquerading as “Traditional Catholics”

On January 12, 2021, a researcher who goes by the pseudonym Alistair McFadden and describes himself as a “traditional Catholic layman unschooled in either philosophy or theology”, published a lengthy article entitled “Observations on the Influence of the Occult in Traditional Catholic Discourse”. It uncovers unsettling facts about an occultist influence on “Traditional Catholicism” or “Catholic Traditionalism” — and here we use the term in a very loose sense.

The essay was published on the social media platform Medium and takes over an hour to read in full. Here is the direct link:

• “Observations on the Influence of the Occult in Traditional Catholic Discourse” by Alistair McFadden

The sedevacantist media apostolate True Restoration has recently provided a summary of McFadden’s lengthy but highly-informative monograph.

In order to give the whole issue greater publicity, for it is of considerable importance, we publish this summary below, with the kind permission of True Restoration. We reproduce it exactly as it appears on True Restoration, so the formatting and the embedded links are taken from the original.

“Observations on the Influence of the Occult in Traditional Catholic Discourse” – Simplified overview

BY THERESA · MARCH 6, 2021

Overview of the article “Observations on the Influence of the Occult in Traditional Catholic Discourse” published January 13^th, 2021

So that the author’s effort to warn others, lest they also be “scandalised” (as he says he was), benefits more people, who are unlikely to find or read all of his long article, this précis has been prepared for our True Restoration readership.

Preliminary remarks:

• The author presents himself as a “traditional Catholic” convert – though he mistakenly considers the Novus Ordo/Vatican II religion as being the Catholic Church, and hence references non-Catholic, post-Vatican II sources as being Catholic.
• The article is presented online in eight parts, including footnotes and references, and prints out as 54-pages.
• In a nutshell, the article is a collection of various Gnostic-occultist writings and proponents that the author has come across within Novus Ordo circles, including from those purporting to be “traditional Catholic,” which have rightly been a cause of alarm to him.

Part 1: Valentin Tomberg and His Progeny: introduces writers Tomberg and Roger Buck, neither of whom I had ever heard of, yet based on this article, they seem popular among the “Conservative Novus Ordo” crowd. Many quotes are provided proving Tomberg’s outrageous opinions, as well as similarly incriminating evidence against his followers, such as Buck.

Regarding Tomberg’s book “Meditations on the Tarot” (Surely the title, alone, says enough?), the following summary is quoted:

“The ‘anonymous author’ presents Gnosticism, Magic, Kabbalah and Hermeticism as not only compatible, but essential to true Catholic belief. While he quotes St. Paul and St. John the Evangelist and extols the visions of such Catholic mystics as St. John of the Cross, Theresa [sic] of Avila, and St. Francis of Assisi, as well as quoting from St. Augustine, St. Thomas Aquinas and St. Bonaventure, he gives equal coverage to the ‘initiated’ Masons…Papus, Louis Claude de Saint Martin (Martinism), Saint-Yves d’Alveydre, the acknowledged Luciferian, Stanislau de Guaita, the Satanic Magician Elephias Levy, as well as the Kabbalistic false Messiah Sabbatati Zevi, Madam [sic] Blavatsky, Swami Vivekananda, Rudolf Steiner, Teilhard de Chardin, Jacob Boehme, Swedenborg, Carl Jung, and a host of others.

“The general premise of the book – dedicated to the Virgin of Chartres – is that there is a general cosmic energy labelled ‘egregore’ (God) that runs through all religions, as well as Freemasonry. This unified energy is manifested in duality: light-dark, male-female, good-evil, etc…

“The author weaves these syncretistic, Gnostic, Kabbalistic and Manichean beliefs together, while maintaining that all of the above conforms to his orthodox Catholic Faith.”

At this stage it is worth noting that the esoteric “occultist” false philosophers (heretics), rampant within the Novus Ordo sect, like their exoteric counterparts such as, for example, the Modernist antipopes (heretics) exhibit the following:

• They often claim to have a devotion to Our Lady and to be faithful to the preaching of various saints and other sound Catholic writings but almost always misinterpret their true meaning in order to support their erroneous beliefs.
• They simultaneously give equal, or greater, credence to non-Catholic sources; including even such obvious deviants as overt pagans and occultists.

Part II: Perennialism and the “Transcendent Unity of Religions” continues in the same vein as Part I, presenting information about another occultist manifestation found within the Novus Ordo (and elsewhere), known as “Perennialism,” “Sophia Perennis” and the “Traditionalist School” (not to be mistaken as having anything to do with Catholic Tradition) which overlaps largely with the various other, essentially Gnostic, esoteric philosophies discussed in this article. The Perennialist School’s fundamental belief of the “Transcendent Unity of Religions” includes what they call the major world religions – which they believe were all revealed by God (or their notion of God) to man –  in their pure original form. They preach that in order to seek “Truth” and “Union” with “The Absolute” one should embrace and follow properly any one of these “Traditional Revealed Religions.”

The main errors and dangers addressed in the remaining sections of this article, including topics such as “The Gnostic Metaphysics of the Kabbalah” and “Renaissance Neoplatonism and the Hermetic Tradition” are much like the Sophia Perennis philosophy, which could all be expressed as, “Seek for the true secret essence of religion – which we intellectually-elite ‘cognoscenti’ can know, unlike the ignorant masses who believe in unnecessary dogmas and forms.” These Neo-gnostics are like their predecessors who are described by Rev. Herman Bernard Kramer in his “Book of Destiny” (Imprimatur 1956) in relation to Apocalypse 2:24, thus: “Those who have known the ‘depths of Satan’ were the Gnostic sects, who boasted of their depths of knowledge. Those sectaries pretended to have knowledge of divine depths which the faithful did not have. The ‘depths’ of which knowledge, our Lord tells them, are not the ‘deep things of God’ (I Cor. II. 10) but are the ‘depths of Satan’. They are merely the devices by which Satan deceives them into imagining that they have a deeper knowledge of divine mysteries than the faithful. Their claims were what St. Irenaeus calls ‘frauds’. They ‘give forth profound and unspeakable mysteries to itching ears’ (Adv. Haer. II. 21, 2) ‘affirming that they have found out mysteries of God.’ (II. 23, 3). Tertullian says that they concealed what they preached, and if in good faith you ask them what they mean, they say ‘it is too deep’ and feign to commiserate those who are in ignorance of their secrets. They know the ‘depths of Satan’ because they oppose the true theology and mysteries and mislead their dupes into illusory knowledge and mysticism.”

The author of this article clearly recognises, and calls them out, for the occultist Gnostics that they are, providing some very telling and horrifying quotes, counterposing them with teachings of Holy Mother Church that categorically condemn them, providing extracts from sources such as, “Mystici Corporis Christi,” “Decrees of the (First) Vatican Council,” “Second Council of Constantinople” and “Pascendi Dominici Gregis.” He mentions that he studied the Baltimore Catechism, rather than the standard practice of using the Novus Ordo’s official RCIA course (Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults), which is probably why these esoteric ecumenical writings set off warning bells. He seems to have completely missed the fact that the Novus Ordo religion (which he appears to consider to be the Catholic Church) is tantamount to a formal embodiment of exoteric ecumenism, and it has been rife all along with all manner of bizarre and perverse occultism; which when piercing through all the smoke and mirrors, could be rightly described as esoteric ecumenism. Thus, these could be considered two prongs of the same root deception that: all religions are more or less good. They are ultimately just different manifestations of Modernism. Given “vital immanence” is the positive side of the Modernist system, we can see that both ultimately lead to the Deification of Man/Cult of Man.

Delving deeper than the heretical aspect of this collective of Neo-Gnostics who present themselves as Catholics, there is the ghastly reality of the demonic influence and activity associated with their occult practices. One of these authors discussed in this article is Charles Coulombe, who gained credibility among Catholics due to his contributions in the arena of Catholic History. Even True Restoration many years ago, when totally unaware that he was an esotericist and into Tarot card reading, interviewed him on History topics. After our network had completely transitioned, several years ago, into holding the Sedevacantist position, he was no longer invited as a guest due to the fact that he is a member of the Novus Ordo religion. More recently his presence was entirely purged from our website, and a total disassociation was made, upon discovering that he was into the occult in the form of Tarot cards.

Coulombe’s sordid world is examined much further in this article under review, including this introduction:

“In a blog post, “Hermetic Imagination,” traditional Catholic writer Charles A. Coulombe — the author of many Catholic books, including the traditionalist TAN Books’ just-released Blessed Charles of Austria: A Holy Emperor and His Legacy — who had such high praise for Cor Jesu Sacratissimum (see Part One), opens with a “lengthy quotation [that] serves well as an introduction to the Hermetic or Magical world-view”:

“Beyond these fields and this borderland there lies the legendary wonder-world of theurgy, so called, of Magic and Sorcery, a world of fascination or terror, as the mind which regards it is tempered, but in any case the antithesis of admitted possibility. There all paradoxes seem to obtain actually, contradictions coexist logically, the effect is greater than the cause and the shadow more than the substance. Therein the visible melts into the unseen, the invisible is manifested openly, motion from place to place is accomplished without traversing the intervening distance, matter passes through matter. There two straight lines may enclose a space; space has a fourth dimension, and untrodden fields beyond it; without metaphor and without evasion, the circle is mathematically squared. There life is prolonged, youth renewed, physical immortality secured. There earth becomes gold, and gold earth. There words and wishes possess creative power, thoughts are things, desire realises its object. There, also, the dead live and the hierarchies of extra-mundane intelligence are within easy communication, and become ministers or tormentors, guides or destroyers of man. There the Law of Continuity is suspended by the interference of the higher Law of Fantasia. (A.E. Waite, The Book of Ceremonial Magic, University Books, NY 1961, pp. 3–4)”

“If Waite’s “legendary wonder-world” seems altogether strange and unsettling, what follows is stranger still — because the nearly 8,000-word essay that this long excerpt precedes is in fact an endorsement of the “Magical world-view” it describes. More than that, it is practically a tribute to the occult Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn (in whose ranks the notorious Satanist Aleister Crowley began his diabolical career) and the literary giants whose esoteric spirituality it influenced:

“The G.D. [Golden Dawn] aspired to be not merely a complete academy of occult knowledge… but also a forum for Mystico-Magical practise — which Magic was seen as being like that of Eliphas Levi. In the words of Stephan Hoeller, Magic in this sense is ‘an umbrella term for the growth or expansion of consciousness by way of symbolic modalities.’ To impart both knowledge and practise, an elaborate system of grades was established; as the student ascended these grades, he or she learned ever more esoteric skills. These latter included knowledge of Qabala (which… provided the G.D. with its basic ideational framework); Tarot; Geomancy; Astrology; Alchemy; and ritual Magic. The workings of the last-named included making of sigils and talismans, communing with Elementals, evocation of Demons, and invocation of Angels. As well, the Golden Dawn initiate was taught ‘skrying,’ which included both clairvoyance and astral travel…”

Where is all this leading?  The final section of this article, Part VIII “Everything Flows into the Tiber! The Syncretic ‘Church-to-come” gets to what appears to be the endgame of the collective occultists’ – and outward Modernists’ – activities. We see more of what some prominent Novus Ordo esoteric authors promote. Dr. Michael Martin of Angelico Press questions:

“…the very notion of a Magisterium” and wonders “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.” Some of the heretics whom he holds as the real traditionalists include “the English Kabbalist and Rosicrucian Robert Fludd, the Welsh alchemist Thomas Vaughan, [and] the astrologer Sir Kenelm Digby (a Catholic Englishman who apostatised for the advancement of his political career.” He goes on, “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.”

The other author who claims to be a traditional Catholic, criticised at length in this section, is Dr. Wolfgang Smith of the Perennialist School. He seems to envisage a future dogma-less religion akin to what Bp. Sanborn warns is the goal of the enemies of the Church, related to the disaster of Vatican II, when he says,

“…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!”

The article closes with a profoundly sickening composite from these Novus Ordo occultist writers, that encapsulates their warped ideas quite accurately, followed by the author’s concluding response to what he has discovered:

“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)

“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?”

Concluding remarks:

1. Provided one only reads religious books with an Imprimatur before around 1950, or at least pre-1960, he isn’t going to have the problem of risking being influenced by these evil occultist ideas because all these so-called “Catholic” authors who are infected with these errors are post-Vatican II. Avoiding Novus Ordo sources altogether, therefore, cuts out that danger. It is also advisable regarding information published after Vatican II to only source reliable Catholic (Sedevacantist) authors – and if anything seems strange or disconcerting, it is always best to ask a trusted cleric about it.
2. The Modernist infiltration of false-ecumenical beliefs, which is at the core of the Vatican II church – whose esoteric manifestations have been exposed to some extent in this article – doesn’t seem to be stopping at just the hijacking of the structure of the Catholic Church to house their Novus Ordo religion but there appears to be a further goal on the horizon. Not everyone in the world is embracing the Vatican II church in spite of all its ecumenical welcoming and invitations, so do those working towards a one-world-religion intend on using some other infrastructure for its future home? Perhaps. Chapter Eight, in particular, of Antipope Francis’ latest encyclical Fratelli Tutti is paving the way for this dogma-less one-world-religion more blatantly than ever, using language not dissimilar to these occultists.
3. These Gnostic writers purporting to be traditional Catholics, discussed in this article, may be relatively few in number – and we are unlikely to bump into too many adherents of these creepy philosophies in our Sedevacantist chapels – but they appear to be associated with the freemasonic agenda of establishing that antichrist one-world-religion, which has already gained much ground. Moreover, it seems that many are dabbling with, and promoting, the occult; which is tantamount to practising and encouraging others to get involved with forms of witchcraft. Need I say how horrifying this is?
4. These overlapping Satanically-inspired movements that have come out of the abyss, including: the various Neo-Gnostic sects, the Theosophical societies, the occultist Secret societies, Teilhard de Chardin’s New Age, the Novus Ordo religion and its secular counterpart of the French Revolution with the “Declaration of the Rights of Man” and Protestantism – with their manifold blasphemies, all converge on one supreme-blasphemy: the idolisation of Man, the Deification of Man, Man is God (reckon the nature of the beast). With the aims of the World Economic Forum’s “Great Reset” being advocated more openly last year, in sync with Fratelli Tutti and all the other related events of 2020, one wonders if this sort of freemasonic-style dogma-less humanitarian religion is part of their diabolical aims?

Related article: “What is Perennialism and Why Should we Know About It?”

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