Valentin Tomberg

He was born in St. Petersburg, Russia. As an adolescent, he was drawn to Theosophy and the mystical practices of Eastern Orthodoxy. Tomberg's mother was shot by looters during the Russian Revolution, and Tomberg and his father fled to Tallinn in Estonia. Tomberg studied languages and comparative religion at the University of Tartu in Estonia.

In 1925, Tomberg joined Rudolf Steiner's Anthroposophical Society, in which he rose until he became its Secretary-General. During World War II, Tomberg converted to Roman Catholicism, and left Anthroposophy. He moved to England in 1948, where he became a translator for the BBC, where he monitored Soviet Union broadcasts during the Cold War. He retired to Majorca in 1960, where he died.

Tomberg's major written works were published posthumously. They include:

• Lazarus, komm heraus (Come Forth, Lazarus), a study of Christian mysticism, written in German and published in 1985, translated as Covenant of the Heart and published in English in 1992;
• Méditations sûr les 22 arcanes majeures du Tarot, a study of the Tarot of Marseilles, published anonymously in French in 1984, and in English as Meditations on the Tarot in 1985.