Mysticism or Mystification? When ‘Trads’ Seek to Save the Church via Occultism (Part Two)

“Go not aside after wizards, neither ask any thing of soothsayers, to be defiled by them…” (Lev 19:31)

Mysticism or Mystification?
When ‘Trads’ Seek to Save the Church via Occultism

(PART TWO)

(left to right: Peter Kwasniewski, Valentin Tomberg, Sebastian Morello)

by Francis del Sarto

“The magic of Tarot divination is not in the cards but in ourselves…. Can the Tarot predict the future? Perhaps!”
—Gnostic bishop Stephan A. Hoeller, The Royal Road [1]

Footnotes will be found at the end of the article.

In PART ONE, we began examining the ongoing controversy surrounding the 2024 volume, Mysticism, Magic, and Monasteries: Recovering the Sacred Mystery at the Heart of Reality, specifically its promotion of occultism, which is a central theme.… READ MORE

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:

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