| What are called the three ‘theological’ virtues remain anchors inn western esoteric tradition. They are probably best known – and from that source most influenced western development across the centuries – from St Paul’s letter (1 Corinthians 13:13), in which he writes: ‘In short, there are three things that last: faith, hope and love; and the greatest of these is love’. |
| Today, however, I will briefly focus on HOPE – something that remains radiant, and for which, for many, remains somewhat of a focus at the beginning of a new year, new venture, indeed… a new love. |
| Valentin Tomberg, in his Meditations on the Tarot, speaks of Hope (in relation to the Star card (XVII), thus: |
| ‘Hope is not something subjective due to an optimistic or sanguine temperament. […] It is a light-force which radiates objectively and which directs creative evolution toward the world’s future. It is the celestial and spiritual counterpart of the terrestrial and natural instinct of biological reproduction. […] In other words, hope is what moves and directs spiritual evolution in the world […] This is wh we may speak of it as a “light-force”.’ |
| The Catechism (§1818) offers an insight into Hope in the following way: ‘The virtue of hope responds to the aspiration to happiness which God has placed in the heart of every human being; it takes up the hopes that inspire our activities and purifies them so as to order them to the Kingdom of heaven; it keeps us from discouragement; it sustains us during times of abandonment; it opens up our heart in expectation of eternal beatitude. Buoyed up by hope, we are preserved from selfishness and led to the happiness that flows from love’. |
 Piercing the veil |
Faith, Hope, and Love
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