Learn to Read Tarot Cards

The Pictorial Key to the Tarot by Arthur Edward Waite

Tarot Card Illustrations by Pamela Coleman Smith, 1909

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PREFACE

It seems rather of necessity than predilection in the sense of apologia that I

should put on record in the first place a plain statement of my personal
position, as one who for many years of literary life has been, subject to his
spiritual and other limitations, an exponent of the higher mystic schools. It
will be thought that I am acting strangely in concerning myself at this day
with what appears at first sight and simply a well-known method of fortune-
telling. Now, the opinions of Mr. Smith, even in the literary reviews, are of
no importance unless they happen to agree with our own, but in order to
sanctify this doctrine we must take care that our opinions, and the subjects
out of which they arise, are concerned only with the highest. Yet it is just
this which may seem doubtful, in the present instance, not only to Mr.
Smith, whom I respect within the proper measures of detachment, but to
some of more real consequence, seeing that their dedications are mine. To
these and to any I would say that after the most illuminated Frater Christian
Rosy Cross had beheld the Chemical Marriage in the Secret Palace of
Transmutation, his story breaks off abruptly, with an intimation that he
expected next morning to be door-keeper. After the same manner, it
happens more often than might seem likely that those who have seen the
King of Heaven through the most clearest veils of the sacraments are those
who assume thereafter the humblest offices of all about the House of God.
By such simple devices also are the Adepts and Great Masters in the
secret orders distinguished from the cohort of Neophytes as servi servorum
mysterii. So also, or in a way which is not entirely unlike, we meet with the
Tarot cards at the outermost gates--amidst the fritterings and débris of the
so-called occult arts, about which no one in their senses has suffered the
smallest deception; and yet these cards belong in themselves to another
region, for they contain a very high symbolism, which is interpreted
according to the Laws of Grace rather than by the pretexts and intuitions of
that which passes for divination. The fact that the wisdom of God is
foolishness with men does not create a presumption that the foolishness of
this world makes in any sense for Divine Wisdom; so neither the scholars in
the ordinary classes nor the pedagogues in the seats of the mighty will be
quick to perceive the likelihood or even the possibility of this proposition.
The subject has been in the hands of cartomancists as part of the stock-in-
trade of their industry; I do not seek to persuade any one outside my own
circles that this is of much or of no consequence; but on the historical and
interpretative sides it has not fared better; it has been there in the hands of
exponents who have brought it into utter contempt for those people who
possess philosophical insight or faculties for the appreciation of evidence. It
is time that it should be rescued, and this I propose to undertake once and
for all, that I may have done with the side issues which distract from the
term. As poetry is the most beautiful expression of the things that are of all
most beautiful, so is symbolism the most catholic expression in
concealment of things that are most profound in the Sanctuary and that
have not been declared outside it with the same fullness by means of the
spoken word. The justification of the rule of silence is no part of my present
concern, but I have put on record elsewhere, and quite recently, what it is
possible to say on this subject.

The little treatise which follows is divided into three parts, in the first of
which I have dealt with the antiquities of the subject and a few things that
arise from and connect therewith. It should be understood that it is not put
forward as a contribution to the history of playing cards, about which I know
and care nothing; it is a consideration dedicated and addressed to a certain
school of occultism, more especially in France, as to the source and centre
of all the phantasmagoria which has entered into expression during the last
fifty years under the pretence of considering Tarot cards historically. In the
second part, I have dealt with the symbolism according to some of its
higher aspects, and this also serves to introduce the complete and rectified
Tarot, which is available separately, in the form of coloured cards, the
designs of which are added to the present text in black and white. They
have been prepared under my supervision--in respect of the attributions
and meanings--by a lady who has high claims as an artist. Regarding the
divinatory part, by which my thesis is terminated, I consider it personally as
a fact in the history of the Tarot--as such, I have drawn, from all published
sources, a harmony of the meanings which have been attached to the
various cards, and I have given prominence to one method of working that
has not been published previously; having the merit of simplicity, while it is
also of universal application, it may be held to replace the cumbrous and
involved systems of the larger handbooks.
TABLE OF CONTENTS

MASTER RESELL RIGHTS LICENSE ........................................................2

AWESOME DEALS & RESOURCES FOR YOU! ........................................3
LEGAL NOTICES.........................................................................................4
PREFACE ....................................................................................................6
TABLE OF CONTENTS ...............................................................................9
THE VEIL AND ITS SYMBOLS..................................................................14
INTRODUCTION ....................................................................................14
CLASS I: TRUMPS MAJOR -- OTHERWISE, GREATER ARCANA.....19
CLASS II: THE FOUR SUITS -- OTHERWISE, LESSER ARCANA......31
THE TAROT IN HISTORY .........................................................................33
THE DOCTRINE BEHIND THE VEIL.........................................................48
THE TAROT AND SECRET TRADITION...............................................48
THE TRUMPS MAJOR AND THEIR INNER SYMBOLISM .......................56
0 (ZERO): THE FOOL ...........................................................................56
I: THE MAGICIAN..................................................................................58
II: THE HIGH PRIESTESS ....................................................................60
III: THE EMPRESS................................................................................62
IV: THE EMPEROR...............................................................................64
V: THE HIEROPHANT ..........................................................................66
VI: THE LOVERS ..................................................................................68
VII: THE CHARIOT................................................................................70
VIII: STRENGTH, OR FORTITUDE ......................................................72
IX: THE HERMIT ...................................................................................74
X: WHEEL OF FORTUNE .....................................................................76
 XI: JUSTICE ..........................................................................................78
XII: THE HANGED MAN........................................................................80
XIII: DEATH ...........................................................................................82
XIV: TEMPERANCE..............................................................................84
XV: THE DEVIL .....................................................................................86
XVI: THE TOWER .................................................................................88
XVII: THE STAR ....................................................................................90
XVIII: THE MOON .................................................................................92
XIX: THE SUN .......................................................................................94
XX: THE LAST JUDGMENT..................................................................96
XXI: THE WORLD .................................................................................98
CONCLUSION AS TO THE GREATER KEYS.....................................100
PART III: THE OUTER METHOD OF THE ORACLES ...........................102
DISTINCTION BETWEEN THE GREATER AND LESSER ARCANA..102
THE LESSER ARCANA...........................................................................105
THE SUIT OF WANDS.........................................................................106
KING OF WANDS.............................................................................106
QUEEN OF WANDS.........................................................................107
KNIGHT OF WANDS ........................................................................108
PAGE OF WANDS............................................................................109
TEN OF WANDS ..............................................................................110
NINE OF WANDS .............................................................................111
EIGHT OF WANDS...........................................................................112
SEVEN OF WANDS .........................................................................113
SIX OF WANDS................................................................................114
FIVE OF WANDS..............................................................................115
FOUR OF WANDS ...........................................................................116
 THREE OF WANDS .........................................................................117
TWO OF WANDS .............................................................................118
THE SUIT OF CUPS ............................................................................120
KING OF CUPS ................................................................................120
QUEEN OF CUPS ............................................................................121
KNIGHT OF CUPS ...........................................................................122
PAGE OF CUPS ...............................................................................123
TEN OF CUPS..................................................................................124
NINE OF CUPS ................................................................................125
EIGHT OF CUPS ..............................................................................126
SEVEN OF CUPS.............................................................................127
SIX OF CUPS ...................................................................................128
FIVE OF CUPS .................................................................................129
FOUR OF CUPS...............................................................................130
THREE OF CUPS.............................................................................131
TWO OF CUPS.................................................................................132
ACE OF CUPS..................................................................................133
THE SUIT OF SWORDS ......................................................................134
KING OF SWORDS ..........................................................................134
QUEEN OF SWORDS ......................................................................135
KNIGHT OF SWORDS .....................................................................136
PAGE OF SWORDS.........................................................................137
TEN OF SWORDS............................................................................138
NINE OF SWORDS ..........................................................................139
EIGHT OF SWORDS........................................................................140
SEVEN OF SWORDS.......................................................................141
SIX OF SWORDS .............................................................................142
 FIVE OF SWORDS...........................................................................143
FOUR OF SWORDS.........................................................................144
THREE OF SWORDS.......................................................................145
TWO OF SWORDS ..........................................................................146
ACE OF SWORDS ...........................................................................147
THE SUIT OF PENTACLES.................................................................148
KING OF PENTACLES.....................................................................148
QUEEN OF PENTACLES.................................................................150
KNIGHT OF PENTACLES ................................................................151
PAGE OF PENTACLES....................................................................152
TEN OF PENTACLES ......................................................................153
NINE OF PENTACLES .....................................................................154
EIGHT OF PENTACLES...................................................................155
SEVEN OF PENTACLES .................................................................156
SIX OF PENTACLES........................................................................157
FIVE OF PENTACLES......................................................................158
FOUR OF PENTACLES ...................................................................159
THREE OF PENTACLES .................................................................160
TWO OF PENTACLES .....................................................................161
ACE OF PENTACLES ......................................................................162
THE GREATER ARCANA AND THEIR DIVINATORY MEANINGS ........163
SOME ADDITIONAL MEANINGS OF THE LESSER ARCANA...............168
WANDS ................................................................................................168
CUPS ...................................................................................................169
SWORDS .............................................................................................170
PENTACLES ........................................................................................172
THE RECURRENCE OF CARDS IN DEALING.......................................175
 IN THE NATURAL POSITION..............................................................175
THE ART OF TAROT DIVINATION .........................................................177
AN ANCIENT CELTIC METHOD OF DIVINATION .................................178
READING THE TAROT CARDS..............................................................184
NOTES ON THE PRACTICE OF DIVINATION .......................................189
THE METHOD OF READING BY MEANS OF THIRTY-FIVE CARDS....190
BIBLIOGRAPHY ......................................................................................193
THE VEIL AND ITS SYMBOLS

Introduction
The pathology of the poet says that "the undevout astronomer is mad"; the
pathology of the very plain man says that genius is mad; and between
these extremes, which stand for ten thousand analogous excesses, the
sovereign reason takes the part of a moderator and does what it can. I do
not think that there is a pathology of the occult dedications, but about their
extravagances no one can question, and it is not less difficult than
thankless to act as a moderator regarding them. Moreover, the pathology, if
it existed, would probably be an empiricism rather than a diagnosis, and
would offer no criterion. Now, occultism is not like mystic faculty, and it very
seldom works in harmony either with business aptitude in the things of
ordinary life or with a knowledge of the canons of evidence in its own
sphere. I know that for the high art of ribaldry there are few things more dull
than the criticism which maintains that a thesis is untrue, and cannot
understand that it is decorative. I know also that after long dealing with
doubtful doctrine or with difficult research it is always refreshing, in the
domain of this art, to meet with what is obviously of fraud or at least of
complete unreason. But the aspects of history, as seen through the lens of
occultism, are not as a rule decorative, and have few gifts of refreshment to
heal the lacerations which they inflict on the logical understanding. It almost
requires a Frater Sapiens dominabitur astris in the Fellowship of the Rosy
Cross to have the patience which is not lost amidst clouds of folly when the
consideration of the Tarot is undertaken in accordance with the higher law
of symbolism. The true Tarot is symbolism; it speaks no other language
and offers no other signs. Given the inward meaning of its emblems, they
do become a kind of alphabet which is capable of indefinite combinations
and makes true sense in all. On the highest plane it offers a key to the
Mysteries, in a manner which is not arbitrary and has not been read in, but
the wrong symbolical stories have been told concerning it, and the wrong
history has been given in every published work which so far has dealt with
the subject. It has been intimated by two or three writers that, at least in
respect of the meanings, this is unavoidably the case, because few are
acquainted with them, while these few hold by transmission under pledges
and cannot betray their trust. The suggestion is fantastic on the surface for
there seems a certain anti-climax in the proposition that a particular
interpretation of fortune-telling--l'art de tirer les cartes--can be reserved for
Sons of the Doctrine. The fact remains, notwithstanding, that a Secret
Tradition exists regarding the Tarot, and as there is always the possibility
that some minor arcana of the Mysteries may be made public with a
flourish of trumpets, it will be as well to go before the event and to warn
those who are curious in such matters that any revelation will contain only a
third part of the earth and sea and a third part of the stars of heaven in
respect of the symbolism. This is for the simple reason that neither in root-
matter nor in development has more been put into writing, so that much will
remain to be said after any pretended unveiling. The guardians of certain
temples of initiation who keep watch over mysteries of this order have
therefore no cause for alarm.

In my preface to The Tarot of the Bohemians, which, rather by an accident

of things, has recently come to be re-issued after a long period, I have said
what was then possible or seemed most necessary. The present work is
designed more especially--as I have intimated--to introduce a rectified set
of the cards themselves and to tell the unadorned truth concerning them,
so far as this is possible in the outer circles. As regards the sequence of
greater symbols, their ultimate and highest meaning lies deeper than the
common language of picture or hieroglyph. This will be understood by
those who have received some part of the Secret Tradition. As regards the
verbal meanings allocated here to the more important Trump Cards, they
are designed to set aside the follies and impostures of past attributions, to
put those who have the gift of insight on the right track, and to take care,
within the limits of my possibilities, that they are the truth so far as they go.

It is regrettable in several respects that I must confess to certain

reservations, but there is a question of honour at issue. Furthermore,
between the follies on the one side of those who know nothing of the
tradition, yet are in their own opinion the exponents of something called
occult science and philosophy, and on the other side between the make-
believe of a few writers who have received part of the tradition and think
that it constitutes a legal title to scatter dust in the eyes of the world without,
I feel that the time has come to say what it is possible to say, so that the
effect of current charlatanism and unintelligence may be reduced to a
minimum.

We shall see in due course that the history of Tarot cards is largely of a
negative kind, and that, when the issues are cleared by the dissipation of
reveries and gratuitous speculations expressed in the terms of certitude,
there is in fact no history prior to the fourteenth century. The deception and
self-deception regarding their origin in Egypt, India or China put a lying
spirit into the mouths of the first expositors, and the later occult writers have
done little more than reproduce the first false testimony in the good faith of
an intelligence unawakened to the issues of research. As it so happens, all
expositions have worked within a very narrow range, and owe,
comparatively speaking, little to the inventive faculty. One brilliant
opportunity has at least been missed, for it has not so far occurred to any
one that the Tarot might perhaps have done duty and even originated as a
secret symbolical language of the Albigensian sects. I commend this
suggestion to the lineal descendants in the spirit of Gabriele Rossetti and
Eugène Aroux, to Mr. Harold Bayley as another New Light on the
Renaissance, and as a taper at least in the darkness which, with great
respect, might be serviceable to the zealous and all-searching mind of Mrs.
Cooper-Oakley. Think only what the supposed testimony of watermarks on
paper might gain from the Tarot card of the Pope or Hierophant, in
connection with the notion of a secret Albigensian patriarch, of which Mr.
Bayley has found in these same watermarks so much material to his
purpose. Think only for a moment about the card of the High Priestess as
representing the Albigensian church itself; and think of the Tower struck by
Lightning as typifying the desired destruction of Papal Rome, the city on the
seven hills, with the pontiff and his temporal power cast down from the
spiritual edifice when it is riven by the wrath of God. The possibilities are so
numerous and persuasive that they almost deceive in their expression one
of the elect who has invented them. But there is more even than this,
though I scarcely dare to cite it. When the time came for the Tarot cards to
be the subject of their first formal explanation, the archaeologist Court de
Gebelin reproduced some of their most important emblems, and--if I may
so term it--the codex which he used has served--by means of his engraved
plates-as a basis of reference for many sets that have been issued
subsequently. The figures are very primitive and differ as such from the
cards of Etteilla, the Marseilles Tarot, and others still current in France. I
am not a good judge in such matters, but the fact that every one of the
Trumps Major might have answered for watermark purposes is shown by
the cases which I have quoted and by one most remarkable example of the
Ace of Cups.

I should call it a eucharistic emblem after the manner of a ciborium, but this
does not signify at the moment. The point is that Mr. Harold Bayley gives
six analogous devices in his New Light on the Renaissance, being
watermarks on paper of the seventeenth century, which he claims to be of
Albigensian origin and to represent sacramental and Graal emblems. Had
he only heard of the Tarot, had he known that these cards of divination,
cards of fortune, cards of all vagrant arts, were perhaps current at the
period in the South of France, I think that his enchanting but all too fantastic
hypothesis might have dilated still more largely in the atmosphere of his
dream. We should no doubt have had a vision of Christian Gnosticism,
Manichæanism, and all that he understands by pure primitive Gospel,
shining behind the pictures.

I do not look through such glasses, and I can only commend the subject to
his attention at a later period; it is mentioned here that I may introduce with
an unheard-of wonder the marvels of arbitrary speculation as to the history
of the cards.
With reference to their form and number, it should scarcely be necessary to
enumerate them, for they must be almost commonly familiar, but as it is
precarious to assume anything, and as there are also other reasons, I will
tabulate them briefly as follows:--

CLASS I: TRUMPS MAJOR -- Otherwise, Greater Arcana

1. The Magus, Magician, or juggler, the caster of the dice and
mountebank, in the world of vulgar trickery. This is the colportage
interpretation, and it has the same correspondence with the real symbolical
meaning that the use of the Tarot in fortune-telling has with its mystic
construction according to the secret science of symbolism. I should add
that many independent students of the subject, following their own lights,
have produced individual sequences of meaning in respect of the Trumps
Major, and their lights are sometimes suggestive, but they are not the true
lights. For example, Éliphas Lévi says that the Magus signifies that unity
which is the mother of numbers; others say that it is the Divine Unity; and
one of the latest French commentators considers that in its general sense it
is the will.

2. The High Priestess, the Pope Joan, or Female Pontiff; early expositors
have sought to term this card the Mother, or Pope's Wife, which is opposed
to the symbolism. It is sometimes held to represent the Divine Law and the
Gnosis, in which case the Priestess corresponds to the idea of the
Shekinah. She is the Secret Tradition and the higher sense of the instituted
Mysteries.
3. The Empress, who is sometimes represented with full face, while her
correspondence, the Emperor, is in profile. As there has been some
tendency to ascribe a symbolical significance to this distinction, it seems
desirable to say that it carries no inner meaning. The Empress has been
connected with the ideas of universal fecundity and in a general sense with
activity.

4. The Emperor, by imputation the spouse of the former. He is

occasionally represented as wearing, in addition to his personal insignia,
the stars or ribbons of some order of chivalry. I mention this to show that
the cards are a medley of old and new emblems. Those who insist upon
the evidence of the one may deal, if they can, with the other. No effectual
argument for the antiquity of a particular design can be drawn from the fact
that it incorporates old material; but there is also none which can be based
on sporadic novelties, the intervention of which may signify only the
unintelligent hand of an editor or of a late draughtsman.

5. The High Priest or Hierophant, called also Spiritual Father, and more
commonly and obviously the Pope. It seems even to have been named the
Abbot, and then its correspondence, the High Priestess, was the Abbess or
Mother of the Convent. Both are arbitrary names. The insignia of the
figures are papal, and in such case the High Priestess is and can be only
the Church, to whom Pope and priests are married by the spiritual rite of
ordination. I think, however, that in its primitive form this card did not
represent the Roman Pontiff.
6. The Lovers or Marriage. This symbol has undergone many variations,
as might be expected from its subject. In the eighteenth century form, by
which it first became known to the world of archeological research, it is
really a card of married life, showing father and mother, with their child
placed between them; and the pagan Cupid above, in the act of flying his
shaft, is, of course, a misapplied emblem. The Cupid is of love beginning
rather than of love in its fullness, guarding the fruit thereof. The card is said
to have been entitled Simulacyum fidei, the symbol of conjugal faith, for
which the rainbow as a sign of the covenant would have been a more
appropriate concomitant. The figures are also held to have signified Truth,
Honor and Love, but I suspect that this was, so to speak, the gloss of a
commentator moralizing. It has these, but it has other and higher aspects.

7. The Chariot. This is represented in some extant codices as being drawn

by two sphinxes, and the device is in consonance with the symbolism, but it
must not be supposed that such was its original form; the variation was
invented to support a particular historical hypothesis. In the eighteenth
century white horses were yoked to the car. As regards its usual name, the
lesser stands for the greater; it is really the King in his triumph, typifying,
however, the victory which creates kingship as its natural consequence and
not the vested royalty of the fourth card. M. Court de Gebelin said that it
was Osiris Triumphing, the conquering sun in spring-time having
vanquished the obstacles of winter. We know now that Osiris rising from
the dead is not represented by such obvious symbolism. Other animals
than horses have also been used to draw the currus triumphalis, as, for
example, a lion and a leopard.
8. Fortitude or Strength. This is one of the cardinal virtues, of which I shall
speak later. The female figure is usually represented as closing the mouth
of a lion. In the earlier form which is printed by Court de Gebelin, she is
obviously opening it. The first alternative is better symbolically, but either is
an instance of strength in its conventional understanding, and conveys the
idea of mastery. It has been said that the figure represents organic force,
moral force and the principle of all force.

9. The Hermit, as he is termed in common parlance, stands next on the

list; he is also the Capuchin, and in more philosophical language the Sage.
He is said to be in search of that Truth which is located far off in the
sequence, and of justice which has preceded him on the way. But this is a
card of attainment, as we shall see later, rather than a card of quest. It is
said also that his lantern contains the Light of Occult Science and that his
staff is a Magic Wand. These interpretations are comparable in every
respect to the divinatory and fortune-telling meanings with which I shall
have to deal in their turn. The diabolism of both is that they are true after
their own manner, but that they miss all the high things to which the
Greater Arcana should be allocated. It is as if a man who knows in his heart
that all roads lead to the heights, and that God is at the great height of all,
should choose the way of perdition or the way of folly as the path of his
own attainment. Éliphas Lévi has allocated this card to Prudence, but in so
doing he has been actuated by the wish to fill a gap which would otherwise
occur in the symbolism. The four cardinal virtues are necessary to an
idealogical sequence like the Trumps Major, but they must not be taken
only in that first sense which exists for the use and consolation of him who
in these days of halfpenny journalism is called the man in the street. In their
proper understanding they are the correlatives of the counsels of perfection
when these have been similarly re-expressed, and they read as follows: (a)
Transcendental justice, the counter-equilibrium of the scales, when they
have been overweighted so that they dip heavily on the side of God. The
corresponding counsel is to use loaded dice when you play for high stakes
with Diabolus. The axiom is Aut Deus, aut nihil. (b) Divine Ecstacy, as a
counterpoise to something called Temperance, the sign of which is, I
believe, the extinction of lights in the tavern. The corresponding counsel is
to drink only of new wine in the Kingdom of the Father, because God is all
in all. The axiom is that man being a reasonable being must get intoxicated
with God; the imputed case in point is Spinoza. (c) The state of Royal
Fortitude, which is the state of a Tower of Ivory and a House of Gold, but it
is God and not the man who has become Turris fortitudinis a facie inimici,
and out of that House the enemy has been cast. The corresponding
counsel is that a man must not spare himself even in the presence of
death, but he must be certain that his sacrifice shall be-of any open course-
the best that will ensure his end. The axiom is that the strength which is
raised to such a degree that a man dares lose himself shall show him how
God is found, and as to such refuge--dare therefore and learn. (d)
Prudence is the economy which follows the line of least resistance, that the
soul may get back whence it came. It is a doctrine of divine parsimony and
conservation of energy, because of the stress, the terror and the manifest
impertinences of this life. The corresponding counsel is that true prudence
is concerned with the one thing needful, and the axiom is: Waste not, want
not. The conclusion of the whole matter is a business proposition founded
on the law of exchange: You cannot help getting what you seek in respect
of the things that are Divine: it is the law of supply and demand. I have
mentioned these few matters at this point for two simple reasons: (a)
because in proportion to the impartiality of the mind it seems sometimes
more difficult to determine whether it is vice or vulgarity which lays waste
the present world more piteously; (b) because in order to remedy the
imperfections of the old notions it is highly needful, on occasion, to empty
terms and phrases of their accepted significance, that they may receive a
new and more adequate meaning.

10. The Wheel of Fortune. There is a current Manual of Cartomancy

which has obtained a considerable vogue in England, and amidst a great
scattermeal of curious things to no purpose has intersected a few serious
subjects. In its last and largest edition it treats in one section of the Tarot;
which--if I interpret the author rightly--it regards from beginning to end as
the Wheel of Fortune, this expression being understood in my own sense. I
have no objection to such an inclusive though conventional description; it
obtains in all the worlds, and I wonder that it has not been adopted
previously as the most appropriate name on the side of common fortune-
telling. It is also the title of one of the Trumps Major--that indeed of our
concern at the moment, as my sub-title shows. Of recent years this has
suffered many fantastic presentations and one hypothetical reconstruction
which is suggestive in its symbolism. The wheel has seven radii; in the
eighteenth century the ascending and descending animals were really of
nondescript character, one of them having a human head. At the summit
was another monster with the body of an indeterminate beast, wings on
shoulders and a crown on head. It carried two wands in its claws. These
are replaced in the reconstruction by a Hermanubis rising with the wheel, a
Sphinx couchant at the summit and a Typhon on the descending side. Here
is another instance of an invention in support of a hypothesis; but if the
latter be set aside the grouping is symbolically correct and can pass as
such.

11. Justice. That the Tarot, though it is of all reasonable antiquity, is not of
time immemorial, is shown by this card, which could have been presented
in a much more archaic manner. Those, however, who have gifts of
discernment in matters of this kind will not need to be told that age is in no
sense of the essence of the consideration; the Rite of Closing the Lodge in
the Third Craft Grade of Masonry may belong to the late eighteenth
century, but the fact signifies nothing; it is still the summary of all the
instituted and official Mysteries. The female figure of the eleventh card is
said to be Astræa, who personified the same virtue and is represented by
the same symbols. This goddess notwithstanding, and notwithstanding the
vulgarian Cupid, the Tarot is not of Roman mythology or of Greek either. Its
presentation of justice is supposed to be one of the four cardinal virtues
included in the sequence of Greater Arcana; but, as it so happens, the
fourth emblem is wanting, and it became necessary for the commentators
to discover it at all costs. They did what it was possible to do, and yet the
laws of research have never succeeded in extricating the missing
Persephone under the form of Prudence. Court de Gebelin attempted to
solve the difficulty by a tour de force, and believed that he had extracted
what he wanted from the symbol of the Hanged Man--wherein he deceived
himself. The Tarot has, therefore, its justice, its Temperance also and its
Fortitude, but--owing to a curious omission--it does not offer us any type of
Prudence, though it may be admitted that, in some respects, the isolation of
the Hermit, pursuing a solitary path by the light of his own lamp, gives, to
those who can receive it, a certain high counsel in respect of the via
prudentiæ.

12. The Hanged Man. This is the symbol which is supposed to represent
Prudence, and Éliphas Lévi says, in his most shallow and plausible
manner, that it is the adept bound by his engagements. The figure of a man
is suspended head-downwards from a gibbet, to which he is attached by a
rope about one of his ankles. The arms are bound behind him, and one leg
is crossed over the other. According to another, and indeed the prevailing
interpretation, he signifies sacrifice, but all current meanings attributed to
this card are cartomancists' intuitions, apart from any real value on the
symbolical side. The fortune-tellers of the eighteenth century who circulated
Tarots, depict a semi-feminine youth in jerkin, poised erect on one foot and
loosely attached to a short stake driven into the ground.

13. Death. The method of presentation is almost invariable, and embodies

a bourgeois form of symbolism. The scene is the field of life, and amidst
ordinary rank vegetation there are living arms and heads protruding from
the ground. One of the heads is crowned, and a skeleton with a great
scythe is in the act of mowing it. The transparent and unescapable
meaning is death, but the alternatives allocated to the symbol are change
and transformation. Other heads have been swept from their place
previously, but it is, in its current and patent meaning, more especially a
card of the death of Kings. In the exotic sense it has been said to signify
the ascent of the spirit in the divine spheres, creation and destruction,
perpetual movement, and so forth.
14. Temperance. The winged figure of a female--who, in opposition to all
doctrine concerning the hierarchy of angels, is usually allocated to this
order of ministering spirits--is pouring liquid from one pitcher to another. In
his last work on the Tarot, Dr. Papus abandons the traditional form and
depicts a woman wearing an Egyptian head-dress. The first thing which
seems clear on the surface is that the entire symbol has no especial
connection with Temperance, and the fact that this designation has always
obtained for the card offers a very obvious instance of a meaning behind
meaning, which is the title in chief to consideration in respect of the Tarot
as a whole.

15. The Devil. In the eighteenth century this card seems to have been
rather a symbol of merely animal impudicity. Except for a fantastic head-
dress, the chief figure is entirely naked; it has bat-like wings, and the hands
and feet are represented by the claws of a bird. In the right hand there is a
scepter terminating in a sign which has been thought to represent fire. The
figure as a whole is not particularly evil; it has no tail, and the
commentators who have said that the claws are those of a harpy have
spoken at random. There is no better ground for the alternative suggestion
that they are eagle's claws. Attached, by a cord depending from their
collars, to the pedestal on which the figure is mounted, are two small
demons, presumably male and female. These are tailed, but not winged.
Since 1856 the influence of Éliphas Lévi and his doctrine of occultism has
changed the face of this card, and it now appears as a pseudo-Baphometic
figure with the head of a goat and a great torch between the horns; it is
seated instead of erect, and in place of the generative organs there is the
Hermetic caduceus. In Le Tarot Divinatoire of Papus the small demons are
replaced by naked human beings, male and female ' who are yoked only to
each other. The author may be felicitated on this improved symbolism.

16. The Tower struck by Lightning. Its alternative titles are: Castle of
Plutus, God's House and the Tower of Babel. In the last case, the figures
falling therefrom are held to be Nimrod and his minister. It is assuredly a
card of confusion, and the design corresponds, broadly speaking, to any of
the designations except Maison Dieu, unless we are to understand that the
House of God has been abandoned and the veil of the temple rent. It is a
little surprising that the device has not so far been allocated to the
destruction Of Solomon's Temple, when the lightning would symbolize the
fire and sword with which that edifice was visited by the King of the
Chaldees.

17. The Star, Dog-Star, or Sirius, also called fantastically the Star of the
Magi. Grouped about it are seven minor luminaries, and beneath it is a
naked female figure, with her left knee upon the earth and her right foot
upon the water. She is in the act of pouring fluids from two vessels. A bird
is perched on a tree near her; for this a butterfly on a rose has been
substituted in some later cards. So also the Star has been called that of
Hope. This is one of the cards which Court de Gebelin describes as wholly
Egyptian-that is to say, in his own reverie.

18. The Moon. Some eighteenth-century cards show the luminary on its
waning side; in the debased edition of Etteilla, it is the moon at night in her
plenitude, set in a heaven of stars; of recent years the moon is shown on
the side of her increase. In nearly all presentations she is shining brightly
and shedding the moisture of fertilizing dew in great drops. Beneath there
are two towers, between which a path winds to the verge of the horizon.
Two dogs, or alternatively a wolf and dog, are baying at the moon, and in
the foreground there is water, through which a crayfish moves towards the
land.

19. The Sun. The luminary is distinguished in older cards by chief rays that
are waved and salient alternately and by secondary salient rays. It appears
to shed its influence on earth not only by light and heat, but--like the moon--
by drops of dew. Court de Gebelin termed these tears of gold and of pearl,
just as he identified the lunar dew with the tears of Isis. Beneath the dog-
star there is a wall suggesting an enclosure-as it might be, a walled garden-
wherein are two children, either naked or lightly clothed, facing a water, and
gamboling, or running hand in hand. Éliphas Lévi says that these are
sometimes replaced by a spinner unwinding destinies, and otherwise by a
much better symbol-a naked child mounted on a white horse and displaying
a scarlet standard.

20. The Last Judgment. I have spoken of this symbol already, the form of
which is essentially invariable, even in the Etteilla set. An angel sounds his
trumpet per sepulchra regionum, and the dead arise. It matters little that
Etteilla omits the angel, or that Dr. Papus substitutes a ridiculous figure,
which is, however, in consonance with the general motive of that Tarot set
which accompanies his latest work. Before rejecting the transparent
interpretation of the symbolism which is conveyed by the name of the card
and by the picture which it presents to the eye, we should feel very sure of
our ground. On the surface, at least, it is and can be only the resurrection
of that triad--father, mother, child-whom we have met with already in the
eighth card. M. Bourgeat hazards the suggestion that esoterically it is the
symbol of evolution--of which it carries none of the signs. Others say that it
signifies renewal, which is obvious enough; that it is the triad of human life;
that it is the "generative force of the earth... and eternal life." Court de
Gebelin makes himself impossible as usual, and points out that if the
grave-stones were removed it could be accepted as a symbol of creation.

21. Which, however, in most of the arrangements is the cipher card,

number nothing--The Fool, Mate, or Unwise Man. Court de Gebelin places
it at the head of the whole series as the zero or negative which is
presupposed by numeration, and as this is a simpler so also it is a better
arrangement. It has been abandoned because in later times the cards have
been attributed to the letters of the Hebrew alphabet, and there has been
apparently some difficulty about allocating the zero symbol satisfactorily in
a sequence of letters all of which signify numbers. In the present reference
of the card to the letter Shin, which corresponds to 200, the difficulty or the
unreason remains. The truth is that the real arrangement of the cards has
never transpired. The Fool carries a wallet; he is looking over his shoulder
and does not know that he is on the brink of a precipice; but a dog or other
animal--some call it a tiger--is attacking him from behind, and he is hurried
to his destruction unawares. Etteilla has given a justifiable variation of this
card--as generally understood--in the form of a court jester, with cap, bells
and motley garb. The other descriptions say that the wallet contains the
bearer's follies and vices, which seems bourgeois and arbitrary.
22. The World, the Universe, or Time. The four living creatures of the
Apocalypse and Ezekiel's vision, attributed to the evangelists in Christian
symbolism, are grouped about an elliptic garland, as if it were a chain of
flowers intended to symbolize all sensible things; within this garland there is
the figure of a woman, whom the wind has girt about the loins with a light
scarf, and this is all her vesture. She is in the act of dancing, and has a
wand in either hand. It is eloquent as an image of the swirl of the sensitive
life, of joy attained in the body, of the soul's intoxication in the earthly
paradise, but still guarded by the Divine Watchers, as if by the powers and
the graces of the Holy Name, Tetragammaton, JVHV--those four ineffable
letters which are sometimes attributed to the mystical beasts. Éliphas Lévi
calls the garland a crown, and reports that the figure represents Truth. Dr.
Papus connects it with the Absolute and the realization of the Great Work;
for yet others it is a symbol of humanity and the eternal reward of a life that
has been spent well. It should be noted that in the four quarters of the
garland there are four flowers distinctively marked. According to P.
Christian, the garland should be formed of roses, and this is the kind of
chain which Éliphas Lévi says is less easily broken than a chain of iron.
Perhaps by antithesis, but for the same reason, the iron crown of Peter
may he more lightly on the heads of sovereign pontiffs than the crown of
gold on kings.

CLASS II: THE FOUR SUITS -- Otherwise, Lesser Arcana

The resources of interpretation have been lavished, if not exhausted, on
the twenty-two Trumps Major, the symbolism of which is unquestionable.
There remain the four suits, being Wands or Scepters--ex hypothesi, in the
archeology of the subject, the antecedents of Diamonds in modern cards:
Cups, corresponding to Hearts; Swords, which answer to Clubs, as the
weapon of chivalry is in relation to the peasant's quarter-staff or the
Alsatian bludgeon; and, finally, Pentacles--called also Deniers and Money--
which are the prototypes of Spades, In the old as in the new suits, there are
ten numbered cards, but in the Tarot there are four Court Cards allocated
to each suit, or a Knight in addition to King, Queen and Knave. The Knave
is a page, valet, or damoiseau; most correctly, he is an esquire,
presumably in the service of the Knight; but there are certain rare sets in
which the page becomes a maid of honor, thus pairing the sexes in the
tetrad of the court cards. There are naturally distinctive features in respect
of the several pictures, by which I mean that the King of Wands is not
exactly the same personage as the King of Cups, even after allowance has
been made for the different emblems that they bear; but the symbolism
resides in their rank and in the suit to which they belong. So also the
smaller cards, which--until now--have never been issued pictorially in these
our modem days, depend on the particular meaning attaching to their
numbers in connection with the particular suit. I reserve, therefore, the
details of the Lesser Arcana, till I come to speak in the second part of the
rectified and perfected Tarot which accompanies this work. The consensus
of divinatory meanings attached both to the greater and lesser symbols
belongs to the third part.
THE TAROT IN HISTORY

Our immediate next concern is to speak of the cards in their history, so that
the speculations and reveries which have been perpetuated and multiplied
in the schools of occult research may be disposed of once and for all, as
intimated in the preface hereto.

Let it be understood at the beginning of this point that there are several
sets or sequences of ancient cards which are only in part of our concern.
The Tarot of the Bohemians, by Papus, which I have recently carried
through the press, revising the imperfect rendering, has some useful
information in this connection, and, except for the omission of dates and
other evidences of the archaeological sense, it will serve the purpose of the
general reader. I do not propose to extend it in the present place in any
manner that can be called considerable, but certain additions are desirable
and so also is a distinct mode of presentation.

Among ancient cards which are mentioned in connection with the Tarot,
there are firstly those of Baldini, which are the celebrated set attributed by
tradition to Andrea Mantegna, though this view is now generally rejected.
Their date is supposed to be about 1470, and it is thought that there are not
more than four collections extant in Europe. A copy or reproduction referred
to 1485 is perhaps equally rare. A complete set contains fifty numbers,
divided into five denaries or sequences of ten cards each. There seems to
be no record that they were used for the purposes of a game, whether of
chance or skill; they could scarcely have lent themselves to divination or
any form of fortune-telling; while it would be more than idle to impute a
profound symbolical meaning to their obvious emblematic designs. The first
denary embodies Conditions of Life, as follows: (i) The Beggar, (2) the
Knave, (3) the Artisan, (4) the Merchant, (5) the Noble, (6) the Knight, (7)
the Doge, (8) the King, (9) the Emperor, (10) the Pope. The second
contains the Muses and their Divine Leader: (11) Calliope, (12) Urania, (13)
Terpsichore, (14) Erato, (15) Polyhymnia, (16) Thalia, (17) Melpomene,
(18) Euterpe, (19) Clio, (20) Apollo. The third combines part of the Liberal
Arts and Sciences with other departments of human learning, as follows:
(21) Grammar, (22) Logic, (23) Rhetoric, (24) Geometry, (25) Arithmetic,
(26) Music, (27) Poetry,(28) Philosophy, (29) Astrology, (30) Theology. The
fourth denary completes the Liberal Arts and enumerates the Virtues: (31)
Astronomy, (32) Chronology, (33) Cosmology, (34) Temperance, (35)
Prudence, (36) Strength, (37) Justice; (38) Charity, (39) Hope, (40) Faith.
The fifth and last denary presents the System of the Heavens (41) Moon,
(42) Mercury, (43) Venus, (44) Sun, (45) Mars, (46) Jupiter, (47) Saturn,
(48) A Eighth Sphere, (49) Primum Mobile, (50) First Cause.

We must set aside the fantastic attempts to extract complete Tarot

sequences out of these denaries; we must forbear from saying, for
example, that the Conditions of Life correspond to the Trumps Major, the
Muses to Pentacles, the Arts and Sciences to Cups, the Virtues, etc., to
Scepters, and the conditions of life to Swords. This kind of thing can be
done by a process of mental contortion, but it has no place in reality. At the
same time, it is hardly possible that individual cards should not exhibit
certain, and even striking, analogies. The Baldini King, Knight and Knave
suggest the corresponding court cards of the Minor Arcana. The Emperor,
Pope, Temperance, Strength, justice, Moon and Sun are common to the
Mantegna and Trumps Major of any Tarot pack. Predisposition has also
connected the Beggar and Fool, Venus and the Star, Mars and the Chariot,
Saturn and the Hermit, even Jupiter, or alternatively the First Cause, with
the Tarot card of the World.[1] But the most salient features of the Trumps
Major are wanting in the Mantegna set, and I do not believe that the
ordered sequence in the latter case gave birth, as it has been suggested, to
the others. Romain Merlin maintained this view, and positively assigned the
Baldini cards to the end of the fourteenth century.

If it be agreed that, except accidentally and [1. The beggar is practically

naked, and the analogy is constituted by the presence of two dogs, one of
which seems to be flying at his legs. The Mars card depicts a sword-
bearing warrior in a canopied chariot, to which, however, no horses are
attached. Of course, if the Baldini cards belong to the close of the fifteenth
century, there is no question at issue, as the Tarot was known in Europe
long before that period.] sporadically, the Baldini emblematic or allegorical
pictures have only a shadowy and occasional connection with Tarot cards,
and, whatever their most probable date, that they can have supplied no
originating motive, it follows that we are still seeking not only an origin in
place and time for the symbols with which we are concerned, but a specific
case of their manifestation on the continent of Europe to serve as a point of
departure, whether backward or forward. Now it is well known that in the
year 1393 the painter Charles Gringonneur--who for no reason that I can
trace has been termed an occultist and kabalist by one indifferent English
writer--designed and illuminated some kind of cards for the diversion of
Charles VI of France when he was in mental ill-health, and the question
arises whether anything can be ascertained of their nature. The only
available answer is that at Paris, in the Bibliothèque du Roi, there are
seventeen cards drawn and illuminated on paper. They are very beautiful,
antique and priceless; the figures have a background of gold, and are
framed in a silver border; but they are accompanied by no inscription and
no number.

It is certain, however, that they include Tarot Trumps Major, the list of
which is as follows: Fool, Emperor, Pope, Lovers, Wheel of Fortune,
Temperance, Fortitude, justice, Moon, Sun, Chariot, Hermit, Hanged Man,
Death, Tower and Last judgment. There are also four Tarot Cards at the
Musée Carrer, Venice, and five others elsewhere, making nine in all. They
include two pages or Knaves, three Kings and two Queens, thus illustrating
the Minor Arcana. These collections have all been identified with the set
produced by Gringonneur, but the ascription was disputed so far back as
the year 1848, and it is not apparently put forward at the present day, even
by those who are anxious to make evident the antiquity of the Tarot. It is
held that they are all of Italian and some at least certainly of Venetian
origin. We have in this manner our requisite point of departure in respect of
place at least. It has further been stated with authority that Venetian Tarots
are the old and true form, which is the parent of all others; but I infer that
complete sets of the Major and Minor Arcana belong to much later periods.
The pack is thought to have consisted of seventy-eight cards.

Notwithstanding, however, the preference shown towards the Venetian

Tarot, it is acknowledged that some portions of a Minchiate or Florentine
set must be allocated to the period between 1413 and 1418. These were
once in the possession of Countess Gonzaga, at Milan. A complete
Minchiate pack contained ninety-seven cards, and in spite of these vestiges
it is regarded, speaking generally, as a later development. There were
forty-one Trumps Major, the additional numbers being borrowed or
reflected from the Baldini emblematic set. In the court cards of the Minor
Arcana, the Knights were monsters of the centaur type, while the Knaves
were sometimes warriors and sometimes serving-men. Another distinction
dwelt upon is the prevalence of Christian medieval ideas and the utter
absence of any Oriental suggestion. The question, however, remains
whether there are Eastern traces in any Tarot cards.

We come, in fine, to the Bolognese Tarot, sometimes referred to as that of

Venice and having the Trumps Major complete, but numbers 20 and 21 are
transposed. In the Minor Arcana the 2, 3, 4 and 5 of the small cards are
omitted, with the result that there are sixty-two cards in all. The termination
of the Trumps Major in the representation of the Last judgment is curious,
and a little arresting as a point of symbolism; but this is all that it seems
necessary to remark about the pack of Bologna, except that it is said to
have been invented--or, as a Tarot, more correctly, modified--about the
beginning of the fifteenth century by an exiled Prince of Pisa resident in the
city. The purpose for which they were used is made tolerably evident by the
fact that, in 1423, St. Bernardin of Sienna preached against playing cards
and other forms of gambling. Forty years later the importation of cards into
England was forbidden, the time being that of King Edward IV. This is the
first certain record of the subject in our country.
It is difficult to consult perfect examples of the sets enumerated above, but
it is not difficult to meet with detailed and illustrated descriptions--I should
add, provided always that the writer is not an occultist, for accounts
emanating from that source are usually imperfect, vague and preoccupied
by considerations which cloud the critical issues. An instance in point is
offered by certain views which have been expressed on the Mantegna
codex--if I may continue to dignify card sequences with a title of this kind. It
has been ruled--as we have seen--in occult reverie that Apollo and the Nine
Muses are in correspondence with Pentacles, but the analogy does not
obtain in a working state of research; and reverie must border on nightmare
before we can identify Astronomy, Chronology and Cosmology with the suit
of Cups. The Baldini figures which represent these subjects are emblems
of their period and not symbols, like the Tarot.

In conclusion as to this part, I observe that there has been a disposition

among experts to think that the Trumps Major were not originally connected
with the numbered suits. I do not wish to offer a personal view; I am not an
expert in the history of games of chance, and I hate the profanum vulgus of
divinatory devices; but I venture, under all reserves, to intimate that if later
research should justify such a leaning, then--except for the good old art of
fortune-telling and its tamperings with so-called destiny--it will be so much
the better for the Greater Arcana.

So far as regards what is indispensable as preliminaries to the historical

aspects of Tarot cards, and I will now take up the speculative side of the
subject and produce its tests of value. In my preface to The Tarot of the
Bohemians I have mentioned that the first writer who made known the fact
of the cards was the archaeologist Court de Gebelin, who, just prior to the
French Revolution, occupied several years in the publication of his Monde
Primitif, which extended to nine quarto volumes. He was a learned man of
his epoch, a high-grade Mason, a member of the historical Lodge of the
Philalethes, and a virtuoso with a profound and lifelong interest in the
debate on universal antiquities before a science of the subject existed.
Even at this day, his memorials and dissertations, collected under the title
which I have quoted, are worth possessing. By an accident of things, he
became acquainted with the Tarot when it was quite unknown in Paris, and
at once conceived that it was the remnants of an Egyptian book. He made
inquiries concerning it and ascertained that it was in circulation over a
considerable part of Europe--Spain, Italy, Germany and the South of
France. It was in use as a game of chance or skill, after the ordinary
manner of playing-cards; and he ascertained further how the game was
played. But it was in use also for the higher purpose of divination or
fortune-telling, and with the help of a learned friend he discovered the
significance attributed to the cards, together with the method of
arrangement adopted for this purpose. In a word, he made a distinct
contribution to our knowledge, and he is still a source of reference--but it is
on the question of fact only, and not on the beloved hypothesis that the
Tarot contains pure Egyptian doctrine. However, he set the opinion which is
prevalent to this day throughout the occult schools, that in the mystery and
wonder, the strange night of the gods, the unknown tongue and the
undeciphered hieroglyphics which symbolized Egypt at the end of the
eighteenth century, the origin of the cards was lost. So dreamed one of the
characteristic literati of France, and one can almost understand and
sympathize, for the country about the Delta and the Nile was beginning to
loom largely in the preoccupation of learned thought, and omne ignolum
pro Ægyptiaco was the way of delusion to which many minds tended. It
was excusable enough then, but that the madness has continued and,
within the charmed circle of the occult sciences, still passes from mouth to
mouth--there is no excuse for this. Let us see, therefore, the evidence
produced by M. Court de Gebelin in support of his thesis, and, that I may
deal justly, it shall be summarized as far as possible in his own words.

(i) The figures and arrangement of the game are manifestly

allegorical; (2) the allegories are in conformity with the civil,
philosophical and religious doctrine of ancient Egypt; (3) if the
cards were modern, no High Priestess would be included among
the Greater Arcana; (4) the figure in question bears the horns of
Isis; (5) the card which is called the Emperor has a scepter
terminating in a triple cross; (6) the card entitled the Moon, who is
Isis, shows drops of rain or dew in the act of being shed by the
luminary and these-as we have seen-are the tears of Isis, which
swelled the waters of the Nile and fertilized the fields of Egypt; (7)
the seventeenth card, or Star, is the dog-star, Sirius, which was
consecrated to Isis and symbolized the opening of the year; (8) the
game played with the Tarot is founded on the sacred number
seven, which was of great importance in Egypt; (9) the word Tarot
is pure Egyptian, in which language Tar=way or road, and Ro=king
or royal--it signifies therefore the Royal Road of Life; (10)
alternatively, it is derived from A=doctrine Rosh= Mercury =Thoth,
and the article T; in sum, Tarosh; and therefore the Tarot is the
Book of Thoth, or the Table of the Doctrine of Mercury.
Such is the testimony, it being understood that I have set aside several
casual statements, for which no kind of justification is produced. These,
therefore, are ten pillars which support the edifice of the thesis, and the
same are pillars of sand. The Tarot is, of course, allegorical--that is to say,
it is symbolism--but allegory and symbol are catholic---of all countries,
nations and times they are not more Egyptian than Mexican they are of
Europe and Cathay, of Tibet beyond the Himalayas and of the London
gutters. As allegory and symbol, the cards correspond to many types of
ideas and things; they are universal and not particular; and the fact that
they do not especially and peculiarly respond to Egyptian doctrine--
religious, philosophical or civil--is clear from the failure of Court de Gebelin
to go further than the affirmation. The presence of a High Priestess among
the Trumps Major is more easily explained as the memorial of some
popular superstition--that worship of Diana, for example, the persistence of
which in modern Italy has been traced with such striking results by Leland.
We have also to remember the universality of horns in every cultus, not
excepting that of Tibet. The triple cross is preposterous as an instance of
Egyptian symbolism; it is the cross of the patriarchal see, both Greek and
Latin--of Venice, of Jerusalem, for example--and it is the form of signing
used to this day by the priests and laity of the Orthodox Rite. I pass over
the idle allusion to the tears of Isis, because other occult writers have told
us that they are Hebrew Jods; as regards the seventeenth card, it is the
star Sirius or another, as predisposition pleases; the number seven was
certainly important in Egypt and any treatise on numerical mysticism will
show that the same statement applies everywhere, even if we elect to
ignore the seven Christian Sacraments and the Gifts of the Divine Spirit.
Finally, as regards the etymology of the word Tarot, it is sufficient to
observe that it was offered before the discovery of the Rosetta Stone and
when there was no knowledge of the Egyptian language.

The thesis of Court de Gebelin was not suffered to repose undisturbed in

the mind of the age, appealing to the learned exclusively by means of a
quarto volume. It created the opportunity of Tarot cards in Paris, as the
centre of France and all things French in the universe. The suggestion that
divination by cards had behind it the unexpected warrants of ancient hidden
science, and that the root of the whole subject was in the wonder and
mystery of Egypt, reflected thereon almost a divine dignity; out of the
purlieus of occult practices cartomancy emerged into fashion and assumed
for the moment almost pontifical vestures. The first to undertake the role of
bateleur, magician and juggler, was the illiterate but zealous adventurer,
Alliette; the second, as a kind of High Priestess, full of intuitions and
revelations, was Mlle. Lenormand--but she belongs to a later period; while
lastly came Julia Orsini, who is referable to a Queen of Cups rather in the
tatters of clairvoyance. I am not concerned with these people as tellers of
fortune, when destiny itself was shuffling and cutting cards for the game of
universal revolution, or for such courts and courtiers as were those of Louis
XVIII, Charles IX and Louis Philippe. But under the occult designation of
Etteilla, the transliteration of name, Alliette, that perruquier took himself with
high seriousness and posed rather as a priest of the occult sciences than
as an ordinary adept in l'art de tirer les cartes. Even at this day there are
people, like Dr. Papus, who have sought to save some part of his bizarre
system from oblivion.
The long and heterogeneous story of Le Monde Primitif had come to the
end of its telling in 1782, and in 1783 the tracts of Etteilla had begun
pouring from the press, testifying that already he had spent thirty, nay,
almost forty years in the study of Egyptian magic, and that he had found
the final keys. They were, in fact, the Keys of the Tarot, which was a book
of philosophy and the Book of Thoth, but at the same time it was actually
written by seventeen Magi in a Temple of Fire, on the borders of the
Levant, some three leagues from Memphis. It contained the science of the
universe, and the cartomancist proceeded to apply it to Astrology, Alchemy,
and fortune-telling, without the slightest diffidence or reserve as to the fact
that he was driving a trade. I have really little doubt that he considered it
genuine as a métier, and that he himself was the first person whom he
convinced concerning his system. But the point which we have to notice is
that in this manner was the antiquity of the Tarot generally trumpeted forth.
The little books of Etteilla are proof positive that he did not know even his
own language; when in the course of time he produced a reformed Tarot,
even those who think of him tenderly admit that he spoiled its symbolism;
and in respect of antiquities he had only Court de Gebelin as his universal
authority.

The cartomancists succeeded one another in the manner which I have

mentioned, and of course there were rival adepts of these less than least
mysteries; but the scholarship of the subject, if it can be said to have come
into existence, reposed after all in the quarto of Court de Gebelin for
something more than sixty years. On his authority, there is very little doubt
that everyone who became acquainted, by theory or practice, by casual or
special concern, with the question of Tarot cards, accepted their Egyptian
character. It is said that people are taken commonly at their own valuation,
and--following as it does the line of least resistance--the unsolicitous
general mind assuredly accepts archæological pretensions in the sense of
their own daring and of those who put them forward. The first who
appeared to reconsider the subject with some presumptive titles to a
hearing was the French writer Duchesne, but I am compelled to pass him
over with a mere reference, and so also some interesting researches on
the general subject of playing-cards by Singer in England. The latter
believed that the old Venetian game called Trappola was the earliest
European form of card-playing, that it was of Arabian origin, and that the
fifty-two cards used for the purpose derived from that region. I do not
gather that any importance was ever attached to this view.

Duchesne and Singer were followed by another English writer, W. A.

Chatto, who reviewed the available facts and the cloud of speculations
which had already arisen on the subject. This was in 1848, and his work
has still a kind of standard authority, but--after every allowance for a certain
righteousness attributable to the independent mind--it remains an
indifferent and even a poor performance. It was, however, characteristic in
its way of the approaching middle night of the nineteenth century. Chatto
rejected the Egyptian hypothesis, but as he was at very little pains
concerning it, he would scarcely be held to displace Court de Gebelin if the
latter had any firm ground beneath his hypothesis. In 1854 another French
writer, Boiteau, took up the general question, maintaining the oriental origin
of Tarot cards, though without attempting to prove it. I am not certain, but I
think that he is the first writer who definitely identified them with the
Gipsies; for him, however, the original Gipsy home was in India, and Egypt
did not therefore enter into his calculation.

In 1860 there arose Éliphas Lévi, a brilliant and profound illuminé whom it
is impossible to accept, and with whom it is even more impossible to
dispense. There was never a mouth declaring such great things, of all the
western voices which have proclaimed or interpreted the science called
occult and the doctrine called magical. I suppose that, fundamentally
speaking, he cared as much and as little as I do for the phenomenal part,
but he explained the phenomena with the assurance of one who openly
regarded charlatanry as a great means to an end, if used in a right cause.
He came unto his own and his own received him, also at his proper
valuation, as a man of great learning--which he never was--and as a
revealer of all mysteries without having been received into any. I do not
think that there was ever an instance of a writer with greater gifts, after their
particular kind, who put them to such indifferent uses. After all, he was only
Etteilla a second time in the flesh, endowed in his transmutation with a
mouth of gold and a wider casual knowledge. This notwithstanding, he has
written the most comprehensive, brilliant, enchanting History of Magic
which has ever been drawn into writing in any language. The Tarot and the
de Gebelin hypothesis he took into his heart of hearts, and all occult France
and all esoteric Britain, Martinists, half-instructed Kabalists, schools of soi
disant theosophy--there, here and everywhere--have accepted his
judgment about it with the same confidence as his interpretations of those
great classics of Kabalism which he had skimmed rather than read. The
Tarot for him was not only the most perfect instrument of divination and the
keystone of occult science, but it was the primitive book, the sole book of
the ancient Magi, the miraculous volume which inspired all the sacred
writings of antiquity. In his first work Lévi was content, however, with
accepting the construction of Court de Gebelin and reproducing the
seventh Trump Major with a few Egyptian characteristics. The question of
Tarot transmission through the Gipsies did not occupy him, till J. A. Vaillant,
a bizarre writer with great knowledge of the Romany people, suggested it in
his work on those wandering tribes. The two authors were almost
coincident and reflected one another thereafter. It remained for Romain
Merlin, in 1869, to point out what should have been obvious, namely, that
cards of some kind were known in Europe prior to the arrival of the Gipsies
in or about 1417. But as this was their arrival at Lüneburg, and as their
presence can be traced antecedently, the correction loses a considerable
part of its force; it is safer, therefore, to say that the evidence for the use of
the Tarot by Romany tribes was not suggested till after the year 1840; the
fact that some Gipsies before this period were found using cards is quite
explicable on the hypothesis not that they brought them into Europe but
found them there already and added them to their stock-in-trade.

We have now seen that there is no particle of evidence for the Egyptian
origin of Tarot cards. Looking in other directions, it was once advanced on
native authority that cards of some kind were invented in China about the
year A.D. 1120. Court de Gebelin believed in his zeal that he had traced
them to a Chinese inscription of great imputed antiquity which was said to
refer to the subsidence of the waters of the Deluge. The characters of this
inscription were contained in seventy-seven compartments, and this
constitutes the analogy. India had also its tablets, whether cards or
otherwise, and these have suggested similar slender similitudes. But the
existence, for example, of ten suits or styles, of twelve numbers each, and
representing the avatars of Vishnu as a fish, tortoise, boar, lion, monkey,
hatchet, umbrella or bow, as a goat, and as a horse, in fine, are not going
to help us towards the origin of our own Trumps Major, nor do crowns and
harps--nor even the presence of possible coins as a synonym of deniers
and perhaps as an equivalent of pentacles--do much to elucidate the
Lesser Arcana. If every tongue and people and clime and period
possessed their cards--if with these also they philosophized, divined and
gambled--the fact would be interesting enough, but unless they were Tarot
cards, they would illustrate only the universal tendency of man to be
pursuing the same things in more or less the same way.

I end, therefore, the history of this subject by repeating that it has no history
prior to the fourteenth century, when the first rumors, were heard
concerning cards. They may have existed for centuries, but this period
would be early enough, if they were only intended for people to try their
luck at gambling or their luck at seeing the future; on the other hand, if they
contain the deep intimations of Secret Doctrine, then the fourteenth century
is again early enough, or at least in this respect we are getting as much as
we can.
THE DOCTRINE BEHIND THE VEIL

THE TAROT AND SECRET TRADITION

The Tarot embodies symbolical presentations of universal ideas, behind
which lie all the implicits of the human mind, and it is in this sense that they
contain secret doctrine, which is the realization by the few of truths
imbedded in the consciousness of all, though they have not passed into
express recognition by ordinary men. The theory is that this doctrine has
always existed--that is to say, has been excogitated in the consciousness
of an elect minority; that it has been perpetuated in secrecy from one to
another and has been recorded in secret literatures, like those of Alchemy
and Kabalism; that it is contained also in those Instituted Mysteries of which
Rosicrucianism offers an example near to our hand in the past, and Craft
Masonry a living summary, or general memorial, for those who can
interpret its real meaning. Behind the Secret Doctrine it is held that there is
an experience or practice by which the Doctrine is justified. It is obvious
that in a handbook like the present I can do little more than state the
claims, which, however, have been discussed at length in several of my
other writings, while it is designed to treat two of its more important phases
in books devoted to the Secret Tradition in Freemasonry and in Hermetic
literature. As regards Tarot claims, it should be remembered that some
considerable part of the imputed Secret Doctrine has been presented in the
pictorial emblems of Alchemy, so that the imputed Book of Thoth is in no
sense a solitary device of this emblematic kind. Now, Alchemy had two
branches, as I have explained fully elsewhere, and the pictorial emblems
which I have mentioned are common to both divisions. Its material side is
represented in the strange symbolism of the Mutus Liber, printed in the
great folios of Mangetus. There the process for the performance of the
great work of transmutation is depicted in fourteen copper-plate
engravings, which exhibit the different stages of the matter in the various
chemical vessels. Above these vessels there are mythological, planetary,
solar and lunar symbols, as if the powers and virtues which -according to
Hermetic teaching--preside over the development and perfection of the
metallic kingdom were intervening actively to assist the two operators who
are toiling below. The operators--curiously enough--are male and female.
The spiritual side of Alchemy is set forth in the much stranger emblems of
the Book of Lambspring, and of this I have already given a preliminary
interpretation, to which the reader may be referred. The tract contains the
mystery of what is called the mystical or arch-natural elixir, being the
marriage of the soul and the spirit in the body of the adept philosopher and
the transmutation of the body as the physical result of this marriage. I have
never met with more curious intimations than in this one little work. It may
be mentioned as a point of fact that both tracts are very much later in time
than the latest date that could be assigned to the general distribution of
Tarot cards in Europe by the most drastic form of criticism.

They belong respectively to the end of the seventeenth and sixteenth

centuries. As I am not drawing here on the font of imagination to refresh
that of fact and experience, I do not suggest that the Tarot set the example
of expressing Secret Doctrine in pictures and that it was followed by
Hermetic writers; but it is noticeable that it is perhaps the earliest example
of this art. It is also the most catholic, because it is not, by attribution or
otherwise, a derivative of any one school or literature of occultism; it is not
of Alchemy or Kabalism or Astrology or Ceremonial Magic; but, as I have
said, it is the presentation of universal ideas by means of universal types,
and it is in the combination of these types--if anywhere--that it presents
Secret Doctrine.

That combination may, ex hypothesi, reside in the numbered sequence of

its series or in their fortuitous assemblage by shuffling, cutting and dealing,
as in ordinary games of chance played with cards. Two writers have
adopted the first view without prejudice to the second, and I shall do well,
perhaps, to dispose at once of what they have said. Mr. MacGregor
Mathers, who once published a pamphlet on the Tarot, which was in the
main devoted to fortune-telling, suggested that the twenty-two Trumps
Major could be constructed, following their numerical order, into what he
called a "connected sentence." It was, in fact, the heads of a moral thesis
on the human will, its enlightenment by science, represented by the
Magician, its manifestation by action--a significance attributed to the High
Priestess-its realization (the Empress) in deeds of mercy and beneficence,
which qualities were allocated to the Emperor. He spoke also in the familiar
conventional manner of prudence, fortitude, sacrifice, hope and ultimate
happiness. But if this were the message of the cards, it is certain that there
would be no excuse for publishing them at this day or taking the pains to
elucidate them at some length. In his Tarot of the Bohemians, a work
written with zeal and enthusiasm, sparing no pains of thought or research
within its particular lines-but unfortunately without real insight--Dr. Papus
has given a singularly elaborate scheme of the Trumps Major. It depends,
like that of Mr. Mathers, from their numerical sequence, but exhibits their
interrelation in the Divine World, the Macrocosm and Microcosm. In this
manner we get, as it were, a spiritual history of man, or of the soul coming
out from the Eternal, passing into the darkness of the material body, and
returning to the height. I think that the author is here within a measurable
distance of the right track, and his views are to this extent informing, but his
method--in some respects-confuses the issues and the modes and planes
of being.

The Trumps Major have also been treated in the alternative method which I
have mentioned, and Grand Orient, in his Manual of Cartomancy, under the
guise of a mode of transcendental divination, has really offered the result of
certain illustrative readings of the cards when arranged as the result of a
fortuitous combination by means of shuffling and dealing. The use of
divinatory methods, with whatsoever intention and for whatever purpose,
carries with it two suggestions. It may be thought that the deeper meanings
are imputed rather than real, but this is disposed of by the fact of certain
cards, like the Magician, the High Priestess, the Wheel of Fortune, the
Hanged Man, the Tower or Maison Dieu, and several others, which do not
correspond to Conditions of Life, Arts, Sciences, Virtues, or the other
subjects contained in the denaries of the Baldini emblematic figures. They
are also proof positive that obvious and natural moralities cannot explain
the sequence. Such cards testify concerning themselves after another
manner; and although the state in which I have left the Tarot in respect of
its historical side is so much the more difficult as it is so much the more
open, they indicate the real subject matter with which we are concerned.
The methods show also that the Trumps Major at least have been adapted
to fortune-telling rather than belong thereto. The common divinatory
meanings which will be given in the third part are largely arbitrary
attributions, or the product of secondary and uninstructed intuition; or, at
the very most, they belong to the subject on a lower plane, apart from the
original intention. If the Tarot were of fortune-telling in the root-matter
thereof, we should have to look in very strange places for the motive which
devised it--to Witchcraft and the Black Sabbath, rather than any Secret
Doctrine.

The two classes of significance which are attached to the Tarot in the
superior and inferior worlds, and the fact that no occult or other writer has
attempted to assign anything but a divinatory meaning to the Minor Arcana,
justify in yet another manner the hypothesis that the two series do not
belong to one another. It is possible that their marriage was effected first in
the Tarot of Bologna by that Prince of Pisa whom I have mentioned in the
first part. It is said that his device obtained for him public recognition and
reward from the city of his adoption, which would scarcely have been
possible, even in those fantastic days, for the production of a Tarot which
only omitted a few of the small cards; but as we are dealing with a question
of fact which has to be accounted for somehow, it is conceivable that a
sensation might have been created by a combination of the minor and
gambling cards with the philosophical set, and by the adaptation of both to
a game of chance. Afterwards it would have been further adapted to that
other game of chance which is called fortune-telling. It should be
understood here that I am not denying the possibility of divination, but I
take exception as a mystic to the dedications which bring people into these
paths, as if they had any relation to the Mystic Quest.
The Tarot cards which are issued with the small edition of the present work,
that is to say, with the Key to the Tarot, have been drawn and coloured by
Miss Pamela Colman Smith, and will, I think, be regarded as very striking
and beautiful, in their design alike and execution. They are reproduced in
the present enlarged edition of the Key as a means of reference to the text.
They differ in many important respects from the conventional archaisms of
the past and from the wretched products of colportage which now reach us
from Italy, and it remains for me to justify their variations so far as the
symbolism is concerned. That for once in modern times I present a pack
which is the work of an artist does not, I presume, call for apology, even to
the people--if any remain among us--who used to be described and to call
themselves "very occult." If any one will look at the gorgeous Tarot valet or
knave who is emblazoned on one of the page plates of Chatto's Facts and
Speculations concerning the History of Playing Cards, he will know that
Italy in the old days produced some splendid packs. I could only wish that it
had been possible to issue the restored and rectified cards in the same
style and size; such a course would have done fuller justice to the designs,
but the result would have proved unmanageable for those practical
purposes which are connected with cards, and for which allowance must be
made, whatever my views thereon. For the variations in the symbolism by
which the designs have been affected, I alone am responsible. In respect of
the Major Arcana, they are sure to occasion criticism among students,
actual and imputed. I wish therefore to say, within the reserves of courtesy
and la haute convenance belonging to the fellowship of research, that I
care nothing utterly for any view that may find expression. There is a Secret
Tradition concerning the Tarot, as well as a Secret Doctrine contained
therein; I have followed some part of it without exceeding the limits which
are drawn about matters of this kind and belong to the laws of honor. This
tradition has two parts, and as one of them has passed into writing it seems
to follow that it may be betrayed at any moment, which will not signify,
because the second, as I have intimated, has not so passed at present and
is held by very few indeed. The purveyors of spurious copy and the
traffickers in stolen goods may take note of this point, if they please. I ask,
moreover, to be distinguished from two or three writers in recent times who
have thought fit to hint that they could say a good deal more if they liked,
for we do not speak the same language; but also from any one who, now or
hereafter, may say that she or he will tell all, because they have only the
accidents and not the essentials necessary for such disclosure. If I have
followed on my part the counsel of Robert Burns, by keeping something to
myself which I "scarcely tell to any," I have still said as much as I can; it is
the truth after its own manner, and as much as may be expected or
required in those outer circles where the qualifications of special research
cannot be expected.

In regard to the Minor Arcana, they are the first in modern but not in all
times to be accompanied by pictures, in addition to what is called the
"pips"--that is to say, the devices belonging to the numbers of the various
suits. These pictures respond to the divinatory meanings, which have been
drawn from many sources. To sum up, therefore, the present division of
this key is devoted to the Trumps Major; it elucidates their symbols in
respect of the higher intention and with reference to the designs in the
pack. The third division will give the divinatory significance in respect of the
seventy-eight Tarot cards, and with particular reference to the designs of
the Minor Arcana. It will give, in fine, some modes of use for those who
require them, and in the sense of the reason which I have already
explained in the preface. That which hereinafter follows should be taken,
for purposes of comparison, in connection with the general description of
the old Tarot Trumps in the first part. There it will be seen that the zero card
of the Fool is allocated, as it always is, to the place which makes it
equivalent to the number twenty-one. The arrangement is ridiculous on the
surface, which does not much signify, but it is also wrong on the
symbolism, nor does this fare better when it is made to replace the twenty-
second point of the sequence. Etteilla recognized the difficulties of both
attributions, but he only made bad worse by allocating the Fool to the place
which is usually occupied by the Ace of Pentacles as the last of the whole
Tarot series. This rearrangement has been followed by Papus recently in
Le Tarot Divinatoire, where the confusion is of no consequence, as the
findings of fortune telling depend upon fortuitous positions and not upon
essential place in the general sequence of cards. I have seen yet another
allocation of the zero symbol, which no doubt obtains in certain cases, but it
fails on the highest planes and for our present requirements it would be idle
to carry the examination further.
THE TRUMPS MAJOR AND THEIR
INNER SYMBOLISM
0 (ZERO): The Fool
With light step, as if earth and its trammels had little power to restrain him,
a young man in gorgeous vestments
pauses at the brink of a precipice
among the great heights of the world;
he surveys the blue distance before
him-its expanse of sky rather than the
prospect below. His act of eager
walking is still indicated, though he is
stationary at the given moment; his
dog is still bounding. The edge which
opens on the depth has no terror; it is
as if angels were waiting to uphold
him, if it came about that he leaped
from the height. His countenance is
full of intelligence and expectant
dream. He has a rose in one hand
and in the other a costly wand, from
which depends over his right
shoulder a wallet curiously embroidered. He is a prince of the other world
on his travels through this one-all amidst the morning glory, in the keen air.
The sun, which shines behind him, knows whence he came, whither he is
going, and how he will return by another path after many days. He is the
spirit in search of experience. Many symbols of the Instituted Mysteries are
summarized in this card, which reverses, under high warrants, all the
confusions that have preceded it.

In his Manual of Cartomancy, Grand Orient has a curious suggestion of the

office of Mystic Fool, as apart of his process in higher divination; but it
might call for more than ordinary gifts to put it into operation. We shall see
how the card fares according to the common arts of fortune-telling, and it
will be an example, to those who can discern, of the fact, otherwise so
evident, that the Trumps Major had no place originally in the arts of psychic
gambling, when cards are used as the counters and pretexts. Of the
circumstances under which this art arose we know, however, very little. The
conventional explanations say that the Fool signifies the flesh, the sensitive
life, and by a peculiar satire its subsidiary name was at one time the
alchemist, as depicting folly at the most insensate stage.
I: The Magician
A youthful figure in the robe of a magician, having the countenance of
divine Apollo, with smile of
confidence and shining eyes. Above
his head is the mysterious sign of the
Holy Spirit, the sign of life, like an
endless cord, forming the figure 8 in
a horizontal position. About his waist
is a serpent-cincture, the serpent
appearing to devour its own tail. This
is familiar to most as a conventional
symbol of eternity, but here it
indicates more especially the eternity
of attainment in the spirit. In the
Magician's right hand is a wand
raised towards heaven, while the left
hand is pointing to the earth. This
dual sign is known in very high
grades of the Instituted Mysteries; it
shows the descent of grace, virtue and light, drawn from things above and
derived to things below. The suggestion throughout is therefore the
possession and communication of the Powers and Gifts of the Spirit. On
the table in front of the Magician are the symbols of the four Tarot suits,
signifying the elements of natural life, which lie like counters before the
adept, and he adapts them as he wills. Beneath are roses and lilies, the
flos campi and lilium convallium, changed into garden flowers, to show the
culture of aspiration. This card signifies the divine motive in man, reflecting
God, the will in the liberation of its union with that which is above. It is also
the unity of individual being on all planes, and in a very high sense it is
thought, in the fixation thereof. With further reference to what I have called
the sign of life and its connection with the number 8, it may be remembered
that Christian Gnosticism speaks of rebirth in Christ as a change "unto the
Ogdoad." The mystic number is termed Jerusalem above, the Land flowing
with Milk and Honey, the Holy Spirit and the Land of the Lord. According to
Martinism, 8 is the number of Christ.
II: The High Priestess
She has the lunar crescent at her feet, a horned diadem on her head, with
a globe in the middle place, and a large solar cross on her breast. The
scroll in her hands is inscribed with
the word Tora, signifying the Greater
Law, the Secret Law and the second
sense of the Word. It is partly
covered by her mantle, to show that
some things are implied and some
spoken. She is seated between the
white and black pillars--J. and B.--of
the mystic Temple, and the veil of the
Temple is behind her: it is
embroidered with palms and
pomegranates. The vestments are
flowing and gauzy, and the mantle
suggests light--a shimmering
radiance. She has been called occult
Science on the threshold of the
Sanctuary of Isis, but she is really the
Secret Church, the House which is of God and man. She represents also
the Second Marriage of the Prince who is no longer of this world; she is the
spiritual Bride and Mother, the daughter of the stars and the Higher Garden
of Eden. She is, in fine, the Queen of the borrowed light, but this is the light
of all. She is the Moon nourished by the milk of the Supernal Mother.
In a manner, she is also the Supernal Mother herself--that is to say, she is
the bright reflection. It is in this sense of reflection that her truest and
highest name in bolism is Shekinah--the co-habiting glory. According to
Kabalism, there is a Shekinah both above and below. In the superior world
it is called Binah, the Supernal Understanding which reflects to the
emanations that are beneath. In the lower world it is MaIkuth--that world
being, for this purpose, understood as a blessed Kingdom that with which it
is made blessed being the Indwelling Glory. Mystically speaking, the
Shekinah is the Spiritual Bride of the just man, and when he reads the Law
she gives the Divine meaning. There are some respects in which this card
is the highest and holiest of the Greater Arcana.
III: The Empress
A stately figure, seated, having rich vestments and royal aspect, as of a
daughter of heaven and earth. Her diadem is of twelve stars, gathered in a
cluster. The symbol of Venus is on
the shield which rests near her. A
field of corn is ripening in front of her,
and beyond there is a fall of water.
The sceptre which she bears is
surmounted by the globe of this
world. She is the inferior Garden of
Eden, the Earthly Paradise, all that is
symbolized by the visible house of
man. She is not Regina coeli, but she
is still refugium peccatorum, the
fruitful mother of thousands. There
are also certain aspects in which she
has been correctly described as
desire and the wings thereof, as the
woman clothed with the sun, as
Gloria Mundi and the veil of the
Sanctum Sanctorum; but she is not, I may add, the soul that has attained
wings, unless all the symbolism is counted up another and unusual way.
She is above all things universal fecundity and the outer sense of the Word.
This is obvious, because there is no direct message which has been given
to man like that which is borne by woman; but she does not herself carry its
interpretation.
In another order of ideas, the card of the Empress signifies the door or gate
by which an entrance is obtained into this life, as into the Garden of Venus;
and then the way which leads out therefrom, into that which is beyond, is
the secret known to the High Priestess: it is communicated by her to the
elect. Most old attributions of this card are completely wrong on the
symbolism--as, for example, its identification with the Word, Divine Nature,
the Triad, and so forth.
IV: The Emperor
He has a form of the Crux ansata for his sceptre and a globe in his left
hand. He is a crowned monarch--
commanding, stately, seated on a
throne, the arms of which axe fronted
by rams' heads. He is executive and
realization, the power of this world,
here clothed with the highest of its
natural attributes. He is occasionally
represented as seated on a cubic
stone, which, however, confuses
some of the issues. He is the virile
power, to which the Empress
responds, and in this sense is he who
seeks to remove the Veil of Isis; yet
she remains virgo intacta.

It should be understood that this card

and that of the Empress do not
precisely represent the condition of married life, though this state is implied.
On the surface, as I have indicated, they stand for mundane royalty,
uplifted on the seats of the mighty; but above this there is the suggestion of
another presence. They signify also--and the male figure especially--the
higher kingship, occupying the intellectual throne. Hereof is the lordship of
thought rather than of the animal world. Both personalities, after their own
manner, are "full of strange experience," but theirs is not consciously the
wisdom which draws from a higher world. The Emperor has been described
as (a) will in its embodied form, but this is only one of its applications, and
(b) as an expression of virtualities contained in the Absolute Being--but this
is fantasy.
V: The Hierophant
He wears the triple crown and is seated between two pillars, but they are not those of
the Temple which is guarded by the High Priestess. In his left hand he holds a scepter
terminating in the triple cross, and with his
right hand he gives the well-known
ecclesiastical sign which is called that of
esotericism, distinguishing between the
manifest and concealed part of doctrine. It
is noticeable in this connection that the
High Priestess makes no sign. At his feet
are the crossed keys, and two priestly
ministers in albs kneel before him. He has
been usually called the Pope, which is a
particular application of the more general
office that he symbolizes. He is the ruling
power of external religion, as the High
Priestess is the prevailing genius of the
esoteric, withdrawn power. The proper
meanings of this card have suffered woeful
admixture from nearly all hands. Grand
Orient says truly that the Hierophant is the
power of the keys, exoteric orthodox
doctrine, and the outer side of the life which
leads to the doctrine; but he is certainly not the prince of occult doctrine, as another
commentator has suggested.

He is rather the summa totius theologiæ, when it has passed into the utmost rigidity of
expression; but he symbolizes also all things that are righteous and sacred on the
manifest side. As such, he is the channel of grace belonging to the world of institution
as distinct from that of Nature, and he is the leader of salvation for the human race at
large. He is the order and the head of the recognized hierarchy, which is the reflection
of another and greater hierarchic order; but it may so happen that the pontiff forgets the
significance of this his symbolic state and acts as if he contained within his proper
measures all that his sign signifies or his symbol seeks to show forth. He is not, as it
has been thought, philosophy-except on the theological side; he is not inspiration; and
he is not religion, although he is a mode of its expression.
VI: The Lovers
The sun shines in the zenith, and beneath is a great winged figure with
arms extended, pouring down influences. In the foreground are two human
figures, male and female, unveiled
before each other, as if Adam and
Eve when they first occupied the
paradise of the earthly body. Behind
the man is the Tree of Life, bearing
twelve fruits, and the Tree of the
Knowledge of Good and Evil is
behind the woman; the serpent is
twining round it. The figures suggest
youth, virginity, innocence and love
before it is contaminated by gross
material desire. This is in all simplicity
the card of human love, here
exhibited as part of the way, the truth
and the life. It replaces, by recourse
to first principles, the old card of
marriage, which I have described
previously, and the later follies which depicted man between vice and
virtue. In a very high sense, the card is a mystery of the Covenant and
Sabbath.

The suggestion in respect of the woman is that she signifies that attraction
towards the sensitive life which carries within it the idea of the Fall of Man,
but she is rather the working of a Secret Law of Providence than a willing
and conscious temptress. It is through her imputed lapse that man shall
arise ultimately, and only by her can he complete himself. The card is
therefore in its way another intimation concerning the great mystery of
womanhood. The old meanings fall to pieces of necessity with the old
pictures, but even as interpretations of the latter, some of them were of the
order of commonplace and others were false in symbolism.
VII: The Chariot
An erect and princely figure carrying a drawn sword and corresponding,
broadly speaking, to the traditional
description which I have given in the
first part. On the shoulders of the
victorious hero are supposed to be
the Urim and Thummim. He has led
captivity captive; he is conquest on
all planes--in the mind, in science, in
progress, in certain trials of initiation.
He has thus replied to the sphinx,
and it is on this account that I have
accepted the variation of Éliphas
Lévi; two sphinxes thus draw his
chariot. He is above all things triumph
in the mind.

It is to be understood for this reason

(a) that the question of the sphinx is
concerned with a Mystery of Nature and not of the world of Grace, to which
the charioteer could offer no answer; (b) that the planes of his conquest are
manifest or external and not within himself; (c) that the liberation which he
effects may leave himself in the bondage of the logical understanding; (d)
that the tests of initiation through which he has passed in triumph are to be
understood physically or rationally; and (e) that if he came to the pillars of
that Temple between which the High Priestess is seated, he could not open
the scroll called Tora, nor if she questioned him could he answer. He is not
hereditary royalty and he is not priesthood.
VIII: Strength, or Fortitude
A woman, over whose head there broods the same symbol of life which we
have seen in the card of the
Magician, is closing the jaws of a lion.
The only point in which this design
differs from the conventional
presentations is that her beneficent
fortitude has already subdued the
lion, which is being led by a chain of
flowers. For reasons which satisfy
myself, this card has been
interchanged with that of justice,
which is usually numbered eight. As
the variation carries nothing with it
which will signify to the reader, there
is no cause for explanation. Fortitude,
in one of its most exalted aspects, is
connected with the Divine Mystery of
Union; the virtue, of course, operates
in all planes, and hence draws on all
in its symbolism. It connects also with innocentia inviolata, and with the
strength which resides in contemplation.

These higher meanings are, however, matters of inference, and I do not

suggest that they are transparent on the surface of the card. They are
intimated in a concealed manner by the chain of flowers, which signifies,
among many other things, the sweet yoke and the light burden of Divine
Law, when it has been taken into the heart of hearts. The card has nothing
to do with self-confidence in the ordinary sense, though this has been
suggested--but it concerns the confidence of those whose strength is God,
who have found their refuge in Him. There is one aspect in which the lion
signifies the passions, and she who is called Strength is the higher nature
in its liberation. It has walked upon the asp and the basilisk and has
trodden down the lion and the dragon.
IX: The Hermit
The variation from the conventional models in this card is only that the lamp
is not enveloped partially in the mantle of its bearer, who blends the idea of
the Ancient of Days with the Light of
the World It is a star which shines in
the lantern. I have said that this is a
card of attainment, and to extend this
conception the figure is seen holding
up his beacon on an eminence.
Therefore the Hermit is not, as Court
de Gebelin explained, a wise man in
search of truth and justice; nor is he,
as a later explanation proposes, an
especial example of experience. His
beacon intimates that "where I am,
you also may be."

It is further a card which is

understood quite incorrectly when it
is connected with the idea of occult
isolation, as the protection of personal magnetism against admixture. This
is one of the frivolous renderings which we owe to Éliphas Lévi. It has been
adopted by the French Order of Martinism and some of us have heard a
great deal of the Silent and Unknown Philosophy enveloped by his mantle
from the knowledge of the profane. In true Martinism, the significance of the
term Philosophe inconnu was of another order. It did not refer to the
intended concealment of the Instituted Mysteries, much less of their
substitutes, but--like the card itself--to the truth that the Divine Mysteries
secure their own protection from those who are unprepared.
X: Wheel of Fortune
In this symbol I have again followed the reconstruction of Éliphas Lévi, who
has furnished several variants. It is
legitimate--as I have intimated--to
use Egyptian symbolism when this
serves our purpose, provided that no
theory of origin is implied therein. I
have, however, presented Typhon in
his serpent form. The symbolism is,
of course, not exclusively Egyptian,
as the four Living Creatures of
Ezekiel occupy the angles of the
card, and the wheel itself follows
other indications of Lévi in respect of
Ezekiel's vision, as illustrative of the
particular Tarot Key. With the French
occultist, and in the design itself, the
symbolic picture stands for the
perpetual motion of a fluidic universe
and for the flux of human life. The Sphinx is the equilibrium therein. The
transliteration of Taro as Rota is inscribed on the wheel, counterchanged
with the letters of the Divine Name--to show that Providence is imaged
through all. But this is the Divine intention within, and the similar intention
without is exemplified by the four Living Creatures. Sometimes the sphinx
is represented couchant on a pedestal above, which defrauds the
symbolism by stultifying the essential idea of stability amidst movement.
Behind the general notion expressed in the symbol there lies the denial of
chance and the fatality which is implied therein. It may be added that, from
the days of Lévi onward, the occult explanations of this card are--even for
occultism itself--of a singularly fatuous kind. It has been said to mean
principle, fecundity, virile honor, ruling authority, etc. The findings of
common fortune-telling are better than this on their own plane.
XI: Justice
As this card follows the traditional symbolism and carries above all its
obvious meanings, there is little to say regarding it outside the few
considerations collected in the first part, to which the reader is referred.

It will be seen, however, that the

figure is seated between pillars, like
the High Priestess, and on this
account it seems desirable to indicate
that the moral principle which deals
unto every man according to his
works--while, of course, it is in strict
analogy with higher things;--differs in
its essence from the spiritual justice
which is involved in the idea of
election. The latter belongs to a
mysterious order of Providence, in
virtue of which it is possible for
certain men to conceive the idea of
dedication to the highest things. The
operation of this is like the breathing
of the Spirit where it wills, and we have no canon of criticism or ground of
explanation concerning it. It is analogous to the possession of the fairy gifts
and the high gifts and the gracious gifts of the poet: we have them or have
not, and their presence is as much a mystery as their absence. The law of
Justice is not however involved by either alternative. In conclusion, the
pillars of Justice open into one world and the pillars of the High Priestess
into another.
XII: The Hanged Man
The gallows from which he is suspended forms a Tau cross, while the
figure--from the position of the legs--forms a fylfot cross. There is a nimbus
about the head of the seeming
martyr. It should be noted (1) that the
tree of sacrifice is living wood, with
leaves thereon; (2) that the face
expresses deep entrancement, not
suffering; (3) that the figure, as a
whole, suggests life in suspension,
but life and not death. It is a card of
profound significance, but all the
significance is veiled. One of his
editors suggests that Éliphas Lévi did
not know the meaning, which is
unquestionable nor did the editor
himself. It has been called falsely a
card of martyrdom, a card a of
prudence, a card of the Great Work,
a card of duty; but we may exhaust
all published interpretations and find
only vanity. I will say very simply on my own part that it expresses the
relation, in one of its aspects, between the Divine and the Universe.

He who can understand that the story of his higher nature is imbedded in
this symbolism will receive intimations concerning a great awakening that is
possible, and will know that after the sacred Mystery of Death there is a
glorious Mystery of Resurrection.
XIII: Death
The veil or mask of life is perpetuated in change, transformation and
passage from lower to higher, and this is more fitly represented in the
rectified Tarot by one of the apocalyptic visions than by the crude notion of
the reaping skeleton. Behind it lies
the whole world of ascent in the spirit.
The mysterious horseman moves
slowly, bearing a black banner
emblazoned with the Mystic Rose,
which signifies life. Between two
pillars on the verge of the horizon
there shines the sun of immortality.
The horseman carries no visible
weapon, but king and child and
maiden fall before him, while a
prelate with clasped hands awaits his
end.

There should be no need to point out

that the suggestion of death which I
have made in connection with the
previous card is, of course, to be
understood mystically, but this is not the case in the present instance. The
natural transit of man to the next stage of his being either is or may be one
form of his progress, but the exotic and almost unknown entrance, while
still in this life, into the state of mystical death is a change in the form of
consciousness and the passage into a state to which ordinary death is
neither the path nor gate. The existing occult explanations of the 13th card
are, on the whole, better than usual, rebirth, creation, destination, renewal,
and the rest.
XIV: Temperance
A winged angel, with the sign of the sun upon his forehead and on his
breast the square and triangle of the
septenary. I speak of him in the
masculine sense, but the figure is
neither male nor female. It is held to
be pouring the essences of life from
chalice to chalice. It has one foot
upon the earth and one upon waters,
thus illustrating the nature of the
essences. A direct path goes up to
certain heights on the verge of the
horizon, and above there is a great
light, through which a crown is seen
vaguely. Hereof is some part of the
Secret of Eternal Life, as it is possible
to man in his incarnation. All the
conventional emblems are renounced
herein.

So also are the conventional meanings, which refer to changes in the

seasons, perpetual movement of life and even the combination of ideas. It
is, moreover, untrue to say that the figure symbolizes the genius of the sun,
though it is the analogy of solar light, realized in the third part of our human
triplicity. It is called Temperance fantastically, because, when the rule of it
obtains in our consciousness, it tempers, combines and harmonizes the
psychic and material natures. Under that rule we know in our rational part
something of whence we came and whither we are going.
XV: The Devil
The design is an accommodation, mean or harmony, between several
motives mentioned in the first part. The Horned Goat of Mendes, with wings
like those of a bat, is standing on an
altar. At the pit of the stomach there
is the sign of Mercury. The right hand
is upraised and extended, being the
reverse of that benediction which is
given by the Hierophant in the fifth
card. In the left hand there is a great
flaming torch, inverted towards the
earth. A reversed pentagram is on
the forehead. There is a ring in front
of the altar, from which two chains
are carried to the necks of two
figures, male and female. These are
analogous with those of the fifth card,
as if Adam and Eve after the Fall.
Hereof is the chain and fatality of the
material life.

The figures are tailed, to signify the animal nature, but there is human
intelligence in the faces, and he who is exalted above them is not to be
their master for ever. Even now, he is also a bondsman, sustained by the
evil that is in him and blind to the liberty of service. With more than his
usual derision for the arts which he pretended to respect and interpret as a
master therein, Éliphas Lévi affirms that the Baphometic figure is occult
science and magic. Another commentator says that in the Divine world it
signifies predestination, but there is no correspondence in that world with
the things which below are of the brute. What it does signify is the Dweller
on the Threshold without the Mystical Garden when those are driven forth
therefrom who have eaten the forbidden fruit.
XVI: The Tower
Occult explanations attached to this card are meager and mostly
disconcerting. It is idle to indicate that it depicts min in all its aspects,
because it bears this evidence on the
surface. It is said further that it
contains the first allusion to a
material building, but I do not
conceive that the Tower is more or
less material than the pillars which
we have met with in three previous
cases. I see nothing to warrant
Papus in supposing that it is literally
the fall of Adam, but there is more in
favor of his alternative--that it
signifies the materialization of the
spiritual word. The bibliographer
Christian imagines that it is the
downfall of the mind, seeking to
penetrate the mystery of God. I agree
rather with Grand Orient that it is the
ruin of the House of We, when evil has prevailed therein, and above all that
it is the rending of a House of Doctrine. I understand that the reference is,
however, to a House of Falsehood. It illustrates also in the most
comprehensive way the old truth that "except the Lord build the house, they
labor in vain that build it."
There is a sense in which the catastrophe is a reflection from the previous
card, but not on the side of the symbolism which I have tried to indicate
therein. It is more correctly a question of analogy; one is concerned with
the fall into the material and animal state, while the other signifies
destruction on the intellectual side. The Tower has been spoken of as the
chastisement of pride and the intellect overwhelmed in the attempt to
penetrate the Mystery of God; but in neither case do these explanations
account for the two persons who are the living sufferers. The one is the
literal word made void and the other its false interpretation. In yet a deeper
sense, it may signify also the end of a dispensation, but there is no
possibility here for the consideration of this involved question.
XVII: The Star
A great, radiant star of eight rays, surrounded by seven lesser stars--also of
eight rays. The female figure in the
foreground is entirely naked. Her left
knee is on the land and her right foot
upon the water. She pours Water of
Life from two great ewers, irrigating
sea and land. Behind her is rising
ground and on the right a shrub or
tree, whereon a bird alights. The
figure expresses eternal youth and
beauty. The star is l'étoile
flamboyante, which appears in
Masonic symbolism, but has been
confused therein. That which the
figure communicates to the living
scene is the substance of the
heavens and the elements. It has
been said truly that the mottoes of
this card are "Waters of Life freely" and "Gifts of the Spirit."

The summary of several tawdry explanations says that it is a card of hope.

On other planes it has been certified as immortality and interior light. For
the majority of prepared minds, the figure will appear as the type of Truth
unveiled, glorious in undying beauty, pouring on the waters of the soul
some part and measure of her priceless possession. But she is in reality
the Great Mother in the Kabalistic Sephira Binah, which is supernal
Understanding, who communicates to the Sephiroth that are below in the
measure that they can receive her influx.
XVIII: The Moon
The distinction between this card and some of the conventional types is
that the moon is increasing on what is called the side of mercy, to the right
of the observer. It has sixteen chief
and sixteen secondary rays. The card
represents life of the imagination
apart from life of the spirit. The path
between the towers is the issue into
the unknown. The dog and wolf are
the fears of the natural mind in the
presence of that place of exit, when
there is only reflected light to guide it.

The last reference is a key to another

form of symbolism. The intellectual
light is a reflection and beyond it is
the unknown mystery which it cannot
show forth. It illuminates our animal
nature, types of which are
represented below--the dog, the wolf
and that which comes up out of the deeps, the nameless and hideous
tendency which is lower than the savage beast. It strives to attain
manifestation, symbolized by crawling from the abyss of water to the land,
but as a rule it sinks back whence it came. The face of the mind directs a
calm gaze upon the unrest below; the dew of thought falls; the message is:
Peace, be still; and it may be that there shall come a calm upon the animal
nature, while the abyss beneath shall cease from giving up a form.
XIX: The Sun
The naked child mounted on a white horse and displaying a red standard
has been mentioned already as the
better symbolism connected with this
card. It is the destiny of the
Supernatural East and the great and
holy light which goes before the
endless procession of humanity,
coming out from the walled garden of
the sensitive life and passing on the
journey home. The card signifies,
therefore, the transit from the
manifest light of this world,
represented by the glorious sun of
earth, to the light of the world to
come, which goes before aspiration
and is typified by the heart of a child.

But the last allusion is again the key

to a different form or aspect of the symbolism. The sun is that of
consciousness in the spirit - the direct as the antithesis of the reflected
light. The characteristic type of humanity has become a little child therein--a
child in the sense of simplicity and innocence in the sense of wisdom. In
that simplicity, he bears the seal of Nature and of Art; in that innocence, he
signifies the restored world. When the self-knowing spirit has dawned in the
consciousness above the natural mind, that mind in its renewal leads forth
the animal nature in a state of perfect conformity.
XX: The Last Judgment
I have said that this symbol is essentially invariable in all Tarot sets, or at
least the variations do not alter its character. The great angel is here
encompassed by clouds, but he
blows his bannered trumpet, and the
cross as usual is displayed on the
banner. The dead are rising from
their tombs--a woman on the right, a
man on the left hand, and between
them their child, whose back is
turned. But in this card there are
more than three who are restored,
and it has been thought worth while
to make this variation as illustrating
the insufficiency of current
explanations. It should be noted that
all the figures are as one in the
wonder, adoration and ecstasy
expressed by their attitudes. It is the
card which registers the
accomplishment of the great work of transformation in answer to the
summons of the Supernal--which summons is heard and answered from
within.

Herein is the intimation of a significance which cannot well be carried

further in the present place. What is that within us which does sound a
trumpet and all that is lower in our nature rises in response--almost in a
moment, almost in the twinkling of an eye? Let the card continue to depict,
for those who can see no further, the Last judgment and the resurrection in
the natural body; but let those who have inward eyes look and discover
therewith. They will understand that it has been called truly in the past a
card of eternal life, and for this reason it may be compared with that which
passes under the name of Temperance.
XXI: The World
As this final message of the Major Trumps is unchanged--and indeed
unchangeable--in respect of its design, it has been partly described already
regarding its deeper sense. It
represents also the perfection and
end of the Cosmos, the secret which
is within it, the rapture of the universe
when it understands itself in God. It is
further the state of the soul in the
consciousness of Divine Vision,
reflected from the self-knowing spirit.
But these meanings are without
prejudice to that which I have said
concerning it on the material side.
It has more than one message on the
macrocosmic side and is, for
example, the state of the restored
world when the law of manifestation
shall have been carried to the highest
degree of natural perfection. But it is
perhaps more especially a story of the past, referring to that day when all
was declared to be good, when the morning stars sang together and all the
Sons of God shouted for joy. One of the worst explanations concerning it is
that the figure symbolizes the Magus when he has reached the highest
degree of initiation; another account says that it represents the absolute,
which is ridiculous. The figure has been said to stand for Truth, which is,
however, more properly allocated to the seventeenth card. Lastly, it has
been called the Crown of the Magi.
Conclusion as to the Greater Keys
There has been no attempt in the previous tabulation to present the
symbolism in what is called the three worlds--that of Divinity, of the
Macrocosm and the Microcosm. A large volume would be required for
developments of this kind. I have taken the cards on the high plane of their
more direct significance to man, who--in material life--is on the quest of
eternal things. The compiler of the Manual of Cartomancy has treated them
under three headings: the World of Human Prudence, which does not differ
from divination on its more serious side; the World of Conformity, being the
life of religious devotion; and the World of Attainment, which is that of "the
soul's progress towards the term of its research." He gives also a triple
process of consultation, according to these divisions, to which the reader is
referred. I have no such process to offer, as I think that more may be
gained by individual reflection on each of the Trumps Major. I have also not
adopted the prevailing attribution of the cards to the Hebrew alphabet--
firstly, because it would serve no purpose in an elementary handbook;
secondly, because nearly every attribution is wrong. Finally, I have not
attempted to rectify the position of the cards in their relation to one another;
the Zero therefore appears after No. 20, but I have taken care not to
number the World or Universe otherwise than as 21. Wherever it ought to
be put, the Zero is an unnumbered card.

In conclusion as to this part, I will give these further indications regarding

the Fool, which is the most speaking of all the symbols. He signifies the
journey outward, the state of the first emanation, the graces and passivity
of the spirit. His wallet is inscribed with dim signs, to show that many sub-
conscious memories are stored up in the soul.
PART III: THE OUTER METHOD OF THE
ORACLES

Distinction between the Greater and Lesser Arcana

In respect of their usual presentation, the bridge between the Greater and
Lesser Arcana is supplied by the court cards--King, Queen, Knight and
Squire or Page; but their utter distinction from the Trumps Major is shown
by their conventional character. Let the reader compare them with symbols
like the Fool, the High Priestess, the Hierophant, or--almost without
exception--with any in the previous sequence, and he will discern my
meaning. There is no especial idea connected on the surface with the
ordinary court cards; they are a bridge of conventions, which form a
transition to the simple pretexts of the counters and denaries of the
numbers following. We seem to have passed away utterly from the region
of higher meanings illustrated by living pictures. There in was a period,
however, when the numbered cards were also pictures, but such devices
were sporadic inventions of particular artists and were either conventional
designs of the typical or allegorical kind, distinct from what is understood by
symbolism, or they were illustrations--shall we say?--of manners, customs
and periods. They were, in a word, adornments, and as such they did
nothing to raise the significance of the Lesser Arcana to the plane of the
Trumps Major; moreover, such variations are exceedingly few. This
notwithstanding, there are vague rumors concerning a higher meaning in
the minor cards, but nothing has so far transpired, even within the sphere
of prudence which belongs to the most occult circles; these, it is true, have
certain variants in respect of divinatory values, but I have not heard that in
practice they offer better results. Efforts like those of Papus in The Tarot ol
the Bohemians are strenuous and deserving after their own kind; be, in
particular, recognizes the elements of the Divine Immanence in the Trumps
Major, and he seeks to follow them through the long series of the lesser
cards, as if these represented filtrations of the World of Grace through the
World of Fortune; but he only produces -an arbitrary scheme of division
which he can carry no further, and he has recourse, of necessity, in the end
to a common scheme of divination as the substitute for a title to existence
on the part of the Lesser Arcana. Now, I am practically in the same
position; but I shall make no attempt here to save the situation by drawing
on the mystical properties of numbers, as he and others have attempted, I
shall recognize at once that the Trumps Major belong to the divine dealings
of philosophy, but all that follows to fortune-telling, since it has never yet
been translated into another language; the course thus adopted will render
to divination, and at need even to gambling, the things that belong to this
particular world of skill, and it will set apart for their proper business those
matters that are of another order. In this free introduction to the subject in
hand, it is only necessary to add that the difference between the fifty-six
Lesser Arcana and ordinary playing-cards is not only essentially slight,
because the substitution of Cups for Hearts, and so forth, constitutes an
accidental variation, but because the presence of a Knight in each of the
four suits was characteristic at one time of many ordinary packs, when this
personage usually replaced the Queen. In the rectified Tarot which
illustrates the present handbook, all numbered cards of the Lesser Arcana--
the Aces only excepted--are furnished with figures or pictures to illustrate-
but without exhausting--the divinatory meanings attached thereto.
Some who are gifted with reflective and discerning faculties in more than
the ordinary sense--I am not speaking of clairvoyance may observe that in
many of the Lesser Arcana there are vague intimations conveyed by the
designs which seem to exceed the stated divinatory values. It is desirable
to avoid misconception by specifying definitely that, except in rare
instances--and then only by accident--the variations are not to be regarded
as suggestions of higher and extradivinatory symbolism. I have said that
these Lesser Arcana have not been translated into a language which
transcends that of fortune telling. I should not indeed be disposed to regard
them as belonging in their existing forms to another realm than this; but the
field of divinatory possibilities is inexhaustible, by the hypothesis of the art,
and the combined systems of cartomancy have indicated only the bare
heads of significance attaching to the emblems in use. When the pictures in
the present case go beyond the conventional meanings they should be
taken as hints of possible developments along the same lines; and this is
one of the reasons why the pictorial devices here attached to the four
denaries will prove a great help to intuition. The mere numerical powers
and bare words of the meanings are insufficient by themselves; but the
pictures are like doors which open into unexpected chambers, or like a turn
in the open road with a wide prospect beyond.
THE LESSER ARCANA

Otherwise, the Four Suits of Tarot Cards, will now be described according
to their respective classes by the pictures to each belonging, and a
harmony of their meanings will be provided from all sources.
THE SUIT OF WANDS
King of Wands
The physical and emotional nature to
which this card is attributed is dark,
ardent, lithe, animated, impassioned,
noble. The King uplifts a flowering
wand, and wears, like his three
correspondences in the remaining
suits, what is called a cap of
maintenance beneath his crown. He
connects with the symbol of the lion,
which is emblazoned on the back of
his throne.

Divinatory Meanings: Dark man,

friendly, countryman, generally
married, honest and conscientious.
The card always signifies honesty,
and may mean news concerning an
unexpected heritage to fall in before very long.

Reversed: Good, but severe; austere, yet tolerant.

Queen of Wands

The Wands throughout this suit are always in leaf, as it is a suit of life and
animation. Emotionally and otherwise, the Queen's personality corresponds
to that of the King, but is more magnetic.

Divinatory Meanings: A dark woman,

countrywoman, friendly, chaste,
loving, honorable. If the card beside
her signifies a man, she is well
disposed towards him; if a woman,
she is interested in the Querent. Also,
love of money, or a certain success
in business.

Reversed: Good, economical,

obliging, serviceable. Signifies also--
but in certain positions and in the
neighborhood of other cards tending
in such directions--opposition,
jealousy, even deceit and infidelity.
Knight of Wands

He is shown as if upon a journey,

armed with a short wand, and
although mailed is not on a warlike
errand. He is passing mounds or
pyramids. The motion of the horse is
a key to the character of its rider, and
suggests the precipitate mood, or
things connected therewith.

Divinatory Meanings: Departure,

absence, flight, emigration. A dark
young man, friendly. Change of
residence.

Reversed: Rupture, division,

interruption, discord.
Page of Wands

In a scene similar to the former, a

young man stands in the act of
proclamation. He is unknown but
faithful and his tidings are strange.

Divinatory Meanings: Dark young

man, faithful, a lover, an envoy, a
postman. Beside a man, he will bear
favorable testimony concerning him.
A dangerous rival, if followed by the
Page of Cups. Has the chief qualities
of his suit. He may signify family
intelligence.

Reversed: Anecdotes,
announcements, evil news. Also
indecision and the instability which
accompanies it.
Ten of Wands

A man oppressed by the weight of the ten staves which he is carrying.

Divinatory Meanings: A card of many

significances, and some of the
readings cannot be harmonized. I set
aside that which connects it with
honor and good faith. The chief
meaning is oppression simply, but it
is also fortune, gain, any kind of
success, and then it is the oppression
of these things. It is also a card of
false-seeming, disguise, perfidy. The
place which the figure is approaching
may suffer from the rods that he
carries. Success is stultified if the
Nine of Swords follows, and if it is a
question of a lawsuit, there will be
certain loss.

Reversed: Contrarieties, difficulties, intrigues, and their analogies.

Nine of Wands

The figure leans upon his staff and

has an expectant look, as if awaiting
an enemy. Behind are eight other
staves--erect, in orderly disposition,
like a palisade.

Divinatory Meanings: The card

signifies strength in opposition. If
attacked, the person will meet an
onslaught boldly; and his build
shows, that he may prove a
formidable antagonist. With this main
significance there are all its possible
adjuncts--delay, suspension,
adjournment.

Reversed: Obstacles, adversity,

calamity.
Eight of Wands

The card represents motion through the immovable-a flight of wands

through an open country; but they draw to the term of their course. That
which they signify is at hand; it may
be even on the threshold.

Divinatory Meanings: Activity in

undertakings, the path of such
activity, swiftness, as that of an
express messenger; great haste,
great hope, speed towards an end
which promises assured felicity;
generally, that which is on the move;
also the arrows of love.

Reversed: Arrows of jealousy,

internal dispute, stingings of
conscience, quarrels; and domestic
disputes for persons who are
married.
Seven of Wands

A young man on a craggy eminence

brandishing a staff; six other staves
are raised towards him from below.

Divinatory Meanings: It is a card of

valor, for, on the surface, six are
attacking one, who has, however, the
vantage position. On the intellectual
plane, it signifies discussion, wordy
strife; in business--negotiations, war
of trade, barter, competition. It is
further a card of success, for the
combatant is on the top and his
enemies may be unable to reach him.

Reversed: Perplexity,
embarrassments, anxiety. It is also a
caution against indecision.
Six of Wands

A laurelled horseman bears one staff adorned with a laurel crown; footmen
with staves are at his side.

Divinatory Meanings: The card has

been so designed that it can cover
several significations; on the surface,
it is a victor triumphing, but it is also
great news, such as might be carried
in state by the King's courier; it is
expectation crowned with its own
desire, the crown of hope, and so
forth.

Reversed: Apprehension, fear, as of

a victorious enemy at the gate;
treachery, disloyalty, as of gates
being opened to the enemy; also
indefinite delay.
Five of Wands

A posse of youths, who are

brandishing staves, as if in sport or
strife. It is mimic warfare.

Divinatory Meanings: Imitation, as,

for example, sham fight, but also the
strenuous competition and struggle of
the search after riches and fortune. In
this sense it connects with the battle
of life. Hence some attributions say
that it is a card of gold, gain,
opulence.

Reversed: Litigation, disputes,

trickery, contradiction.
Four of Wands

From the four great staves planted in

the foreground there is a great
garland suspended; two female
figures uplift nosegays; at their side is
a bridge over a moat, leading to an
old manorial house.

Divinatory Meanings: They are for

once almost on the surface--country
life, haven of refuge, a species of
domestic harvest-home, repose,
concord, harmony, prosperity, peace,
and the perfected work of these.

Reversed: The meaning remains

unaltered; it is prosperity, increase,
felicity, beauty, embellishment.
Three of Wands

A calm, stately personage, with his

back turned, looking from a cliff's
edge at ships passing over the sea.
Three staves are planted in the
ground, and he leans slightly on one
of them.

Divinatory Meanings: He symbolizes

established strength, enterprise,
effort, trade, commerce, discovery;
those are his ships, bearing his
merchandise, which are sailing over
the sea. The card also signifies able
co-operation in business, as if the
successful merchant prince were
looking from his side towards yours
with a view to help you.

Reversed: The end of troubles, suspension or cessation of adversity, toil

and disappointment.
Two of Wands

A tall man looks from a battlemented roof over sea and shore; he holds a
globe in his right hand, while a staff in
his left rests on the battlement;
another is fixed in a ring. The Rose
and Cross and Lily should be noticed
on the left side.

Divinatory Meanings: Between the

alternative readings there is no
marriage possible; on the one hand,
riches, fortune, magnificence; on the
other, physical suffering, disease,
chagrin, sadness, mortification. The
design gives one suggestion; here is
a lord overlooking his dominion and
alternately contemplating a globe; it
looks like the malady, the
mortification, the sadness of
Alexander amidst the grandeur of this world's wealth.

Reversed: Surprise, wonder, enchantment, emotion, trouble, fear.

Ace of Wands

A hand issuing from a cloud grasps a

stout wand or club.

Divinatory Meanings: Creation,

invention, enterprise, the powers
which result in these; principle,
beginning, source; birth, family,
origin, and in a sense the virility
which is behind them; the starting
point of enterprises; according to
another account, money, fortune,
inheritance.

Reversed: Fall, decadence, ruin,

perdition, to perish also a certain
clouded joy.
THE SUIT OF CUPS
King of Cups

He holds a short scepter in his left

hand and a great cup in his right; his
throne is set upon the sea; on one
side a ship is riding and on the other
a dolphin is leaping. The implicit is
that the Sign of the Cup naturally
refers to water, which appears in all
the court cards.

Divinatory Meanings: Fair man, man

of business, law, or divinity;
responsible, disposed to oblige the
Querent; also equity, art and science,
including those who profess science,
law and art; creative intelligence.

Reversed: Dishonest, double-dealing

man; roguery, exaction, injustice, vice, scandal, pillage, considerable loss.
Queen of Cups

Beautiful, fair, dreamy--as one who sees visions in a cup. This is, however,
only one of her aspects; she sees,
but she also acts, and her activity
feeds her dream.

Divinatory Meanings: Good, fair

woman; honest, devoted woman,
who will do service to the Querent;
loving intelligence, and hence the gift
of vision; success, happiness,
pleasure; also wisdom, virtue; a
perfect spouse and a good mother.

Reversed: The accounts vary; good

woman; otherwise, distinguished
woman but one not to be trusted;
perverse woman; vice, dishonor,
depravity.
Knight of Cups

Graceful, but not warlike; riding

quietly, wearing a winged helmet,
referring to those higher graces of the
imagination which sometimes
characterize this card. He too is a
dreamer, but the images of the side
of sense haunt him in his vision.

Divinatory Meanings: Arrival,

approach--sometimes that of a
messenger; advances, proposition,
demeanor, invitation, incitement.

Reversed: Trickery, artifice, subtlety,

swindling, duplicity, fraud.
Page of Cups

A fair, pleasing, somewhat effeminate

page, of studious and intent aspect,
contemplates a fish rising from a cup
to look at him. It is the pictures of the
mind taking form.

Divinatory Meanings: Fair young

man, one impelled to render service
and with whom the Querent will be
connected; a studious youth; news,
message; application, reflection,
meditation; also these things directed
to business.

Reversed: Taste, inclination,

attachment, seduction, deception,
artifice.
Ten of Cups

Appearance of Cups in a rainbow; it is contemplated in wonder and ecstasy

by a man and woman below, evidently husband and wife. His right arm is
about her; his left is raised upward;
she raises her right arm. The two
children dancing near them have not
observed the prodigy but are happy
after their own manner. There is a
home-scene beyond.

Divinatory Meanings: Contentment,

repose of the entire heart; the
perfection of that state; also
perfection of human love and
friendship; if with several picture-
cards, a person who is taking charge
of the Querent's interests; also the
town, village or country inhabited by
the Querent.

Reversed: Repose of the false heart, indignation, violence.

Nine of Cups

A goodly personage has feasted to

his heart's content, and abundant
refreshment of wine is on the arched
counter behind him, seeming to
indicate that the future is also
assured. The picture offers the
material side only, but there are other
aspects.

Divinatory Meanings: Concord,

contentment, physical bien-être; also
victory, success, advantage;
satisfaction for the Querent or person
for whom the consultation is made.

Reversed: Truth, loyalty, liberty; but

the readings vary and include
mistakes, imperfections, etc.
Eight of Cups

A man of dejected aspect is deserting

the cups of his felicity, enterprise,
undertaking or previous concern.

Divinatory Meanings: The card

speaks for itself on the surface, but
other readings are entirely
antithetical--giving joy, mildness,
timidity, honor, modesty. In practice,
it is usually found that the card shows
the decline of a matter, or that a
matter which has been thought to be
important is really of slight
consequence--either for good or evil.

Reversed: Great joy, happiness,

feasting.
Seven of Cups

Strange chalices of vision, but the

images are more especially those of
the fantastic spirit.

Divinatory Meanings: Fairy favors,

images of reflection, sentiment,
imagination, things seen in the glass
of contemplation; some attainment in
these degrees, but nothing
permanent or substantial is
suggested.

Reversed: Desire, will, determination,

project.
Six of Cups

Children in an old garden, their cups

filled with flowers.

Divinatory Meanings: A card of the

past and of memories, looking back,
as--for example--on childhood;
happiness, enjoyment, but coming
rather from the past; things that have
vanished. Another reading reverses
this, giving new relations, new
knowledge, new environment, and
then the children are disporting in an
unfamiliar precinct.

Reversed: The future, renewal, that

which will come to pass presently.
Five of Cups

A dark, cloaked figure, looking sideways at three prone cups two others
stand upright behind him; a bridge is
in the background, leading to a small
keep or holding.

Divinatory Meanings: It is a card of

loss, but something remains over;
three have been taken, but two are
left; it is a card of inheritance,
patrimony, transmission, but not
corresponding to expectations; with
some interpreters it is a card of
marriage, but not without bitterness
or frustration.

Reversed: News, alliances, affinity,

consanguinity, ancestry, return, false
projects.
Four of Cups

A young man is seated under a tree and contemplates three cups set on
the grass before him; an arm issuing
from a cloud offers him another cup.
His expression notwithstanding is
one of discontent with his
environment.

Divinatory Meanings: Weariness,

disgust, aversion, imaginary
vexations, as if the wine of this world
had caused satiety only; another
wine, as if a fairy gift, is now offered
the wastrel, but he sees no
consolation therein. This is also a
card of blended pleasure.

Reversed: Novelty, presage, new

instruction, new relations.
Three of Cups

Maidens in a garden-ground with

cups uplifted, as if pledging one
another.

Divinatory Meanings: The conclusion

of any matter in plenty, perfection
and merriment; happy issue, victory,
fulfillment, solace, healing.

Reversed: Expedition, dispatch,

achievement, end. It signifies also the
side of excess in physical enjoyment,
and the pleasures of the senses.
Two of Cups

A youth and maiden are pledging one

another, and above their cups rises
the Caduceus of Hermes, between
the great wings of which there
appears a lion's head. It is a variant
of a sign which is found in a few old
examples of this card. Some curious
emblematical meanings are attached
to it, but they do not concern us in
this place.

Divinatory Meanings: Love, passion,

friendship, affinity, union, concord,
sympathy, the interrelation of the
sexes, and--as a suggestion apart
from all offices of divination--that
desire which is not in Nature, but by
which Nature is sanctified.
Ace of Cups

The waters are beneath, and thereon

are water-lilies; the hand issues from
the cloud, holding in its palm the cup,
from which four streams are pouring;
a dove, bearing in its bill a cross-
marked Host, descends to place the
Wafer in the Cup; the dew of water is
falling on all sides. It is an intimation
of that which may lie behind the
Lesser Arcana.

Divinatory Meanings: House of the

true heart, joy, content, abode,
nourishment, abundance, fertility;
Holy Table, felicity hereof.

Reversed: House of the false heart,

mutation, instability, revolution.
THE SUIT OF SWORDS
King of Swords

He sits in judgment, holding the

unsheathed sign of his suit. He
recalls, of course, the conventional
Symbol of justice in the Trumps
Major, and he may represent this
virtue, but he is rather the power of
life and death, in virtue of his office.

Divinatory Meanings: Whatsoever

arises out of the idea of judgment
and all its connections-power,
command, authority, militant
intelligence, law, offices of the crown,
and so forth.

Reversed: Cruelty, perversity,

barbarity, perfidy, evil intention.
Queen of Swords

Her right hand raises the weapon

vertically and the hilt rests on an arm
of her royal chair the left hand is
extended, the arm raised her
countenance is severe but
chastened; it suggests familiarity with
sorrow. It does not represent mercy,
and, her sword notwithstanding, she
is scarcely a symbol of power.

Divinatory Meanings: Widowhood,

female sadness and embarrassment,
absence, sterility, mourning,
privation, separation.

Reversed: Malice, bigotry, artifice,

prudery, bale, deceit.
Knight of Swords

He is riding in full course, as if scattering his enemies. In the design he is

really a prototypical hero of romantic
chivalry. He might almost be
Galahad, whose sword is swift and
sure because he is clean of heart.

Divinatory Meanings: Skill, bravery,

capacity, defense, address, enmity,
wrath, war, destruction, opposition,
resistance, ruin. There is therefore a
sense in which the card signifies
death, but it carries this meaning only
in its proximity to other cards of
fatality.

Reversed: Imprudence, incapacity,

extravagance.
Page of Swords

A lithe, active figure holds a sword

upright in both hands, while in the act
of swift walking. He is passing over
rugged land, and about his way the
clouds are collocated wildly. He is
alert and lithe, looking this way and
that, as if an expected enemy might
appear at any moment.

Divinatory Meanings: Authority,

overseeing, secret service, vigilance,
spying, examination, and the qualities
thereto belonging.

Reversed: More evil side of these

qualities; what is unforeseen,
unprepared state; sickness is also
intimated.
Ten of Swords

A prostrate figure, pierced by all the

swords belonging to the card.

Divinatory Meanings: Whatsoever is

intimated by the design; also pain,
affliction, tears, sadness, desolation.
It is not especially a card of violent
death.

Reversed: Advantage, profit,

success, favour, but none of these
are permanent; also power and
authority.
Nine of Swords

One seated on her couch in

lamentation, with the swords over
her. She is as one who knows no
sorrow which is like unto hers. It is a
card of utter desolation.

Divinatory Meanings: Death, failure,

miscarriage, delay, deception,
disappointment, despair.

Reversed: Imprisonment, suspicion,

doubt, reasonable fear, shame.
Eight of Swords

A woman, bound and hoodwinked,

with the swords of the card about her.
Yet it is rather a card of temporary
durance than of irretrievable
bondage.

Divinatory Meanings: Bad news,

violent chagrin, crisis, censure, power
in trammels, conflict, calumny; also
sickness.

Reversed: Disquiet, difficulty,

opposition, accident, treachery; what
is unforeseen; fatality.
Seven of Swords

A man in the act of carrying away five

swords rapidly; the two others of the
card remain stuck in the ground. A
camp is close at hand.

Divinatory Meanings: Design,

attempt, wish, hope, confidence; also
quarrelling, a plan that may fail,
annoyance. The design is uncertain
in its import, because the
significations are widely at variance
with each other.

Reversed: Good advice, counsel,

instruction, slander, babbling.
Six of Swords

A ferryman carrying passengers in

his punt to the further shore. The
course is smooth, and seeing that the
freight is light, it may be noted that
the work is not beyond his strength.

Divinatory Meanings: journey by

water, route, way, envoy,
commissionary, expedient.

Reversed: Declaration, confession,

publicity; one account says that it is a
proposal of love.
Five of Swords

A disdainful man looks after two

retreating and dejected figures. Their
swords lie upon the ground. He
carries two others on his left
shoulder, and a third sword is in his
right hand, point to earth. He is the
master in possession of the field.

Divinatory Meanings: Degradation,

destruction, revocation, infamy,
dishonor, loss, with the variants and
analogues of these.

Reversed: The same; burial and

obsequies.
Four of Swords

The effigy of a knight in the attitude of

prayer, at full length upon his tomb.

Divinatory Meanings: Vigilance,

retreat, solitude, hermit's repose,
exile, tomb and coffin. It is these last
that have suggested the design.

Reversed: Wise administration,

circumspection, economy, avarice,
precaution, testament.
Three of Swords

Three swords piercing a heart; cloud

and rain behind.

Divinatory Meanings: Removal,

absence, delay, division, rupture,
dispersion, and all that the design
signifies naturally, being too simple
and obvious to call for specific
enumeration.

Reversed: Mental alienation, error,

loss, distraction, disorder, confusion.
Two of Swords

A hoodwinked female figure balances

two swords upon her shoulders.

Divinatory Meanings: Conformity and

the equipoise which it suggests,
courage, friendship, concord in a
state of arms; another reading gives
tenderness, affection, intimacy. The
suggestion of harmony and other
favorable readings must be
considered in a qualified manner, as
Swords generally are not symbolical
of beneficent forces in human affairs.

Reversed: Imposture, falsehood,

duplicity, disloyalty.
Ace of Swords

A hand issues from a cloud, grasping

as word, the point of which is
encircled by a crown.

Divinatory Meanings: Triumph, the

excessive degree in everything,
conquest, triumph of force. It is a
card of great force, in love as well as
in hatred. The crown may carry a
much higher significance than comes
usually within the sphere of fortune-
telling.

Reversed: The same, but the results

are disastrous; another account says-
-conception, childbirth, augmentation,
multiplicity.
THE SUIT OF PENTACLES
King of Pentacles

The figure calls for no special description the face is rather dark,
suggesting also courage, but somewhat lethargic in tendency. The bull's
head should be noted as a recurrent symbol on the throne. The sign of this
suit is represented throughout as
engraved or blazoned with the
pentagram, typifying the
correspondence of the four elements
in human nature and that by which
they may be governed. In many old
Tarot packs this suit stood for current
coin, money, deniers. I have not
invented the substitution of pentacles
and I have no special cause to
sustain in respect of the alternative.
But the consensus of divinatory
meanings is on the side of some
change, because the cards do not
happen to deal especially with
questions of money.

Divinatory Meanings: Valor, realizing intelligence, business and normal

intellectual aptitude, sometimes mathematical gifts and attainments of this
kind; success in these paths.
Reversed: Vice, weakness, ugliness, perversity, corruption, peril.
Queen of Pentacles

The face suggests that of a dark

woman, whose qualities might be
summed up in the idea of greatness
of soul; she has also the serious cast
of intelligence; she contemplates her
symbol and may see worlds therein.

Divinatory Meanings: Opulence,

generosity, magnificence, security,
liberty.

Reversed: Evil, suspicion, suspense,

fear, mistrust.
Knight of Pentacles

He rides a slow, enduring, heavy

horse, to which his own aspect
corresponds. He exhibits his symbol,
but does not look therein.

Divinatory Meanings: Utility,

serviceableness, interest,
responsibility, rectitude-all on the
normal and external plane.

Reversed: inertia, idleness, repose of

that kind, stagnation; also placidity,
discouragement, carelessness.
Page of Pentacles

A youthful figure, looking intently at

the pentacle which hovers over his
raised hands. He moves slowly,
insensible of that which is about him.

Divinatory Meanings: Application,

study, scholarship, reflection another
reading says news, messages and
the bringer thereof; also rule,
management.

Reversed: Prodigality, dissipation,

liberality, luxury; unfavorable news.
Ten of Pentacles

A man and woman beneath an

archway which gives entrance to a
house and domain. They are
accompanied by a child, who looks
curiously at two dogs accosting an
ancient personage seated in the
foreground. The child's hand is on
one of them.

Divinatory Meanings: Gain, riches;

family matters, archives, extraction,
the abode of a family.

Reversed: Chance, fatality, loss,

robbery, games of hazard;
sometimes gift, dowry, pension.
Nine of Pentacles

A woman, with a bird upon her wrist,

stands amidst a great abundance of
grapevines in the garden of a
manorial house. It is a wide domain,
suggesting plenty in all things.
Possibly it is her own possession and
testifies to material well-being.

Divinatory Meanings: Prudence,

safety, success, accomplishment,
certitude, discernment.

Reversed: Roguery, deception,

voided project, bad faith.
Eight of Pentacles

An artist in stone at his work, which

he exhibits in the form of trophies.

Divinatory Meanings: Work,

employment, commission,
craftsmanship, skill in craft and
business, perhaps in the preparatory
stage.

Reversed: Voided ambition, vanity,

cupidity, exaction, usury. It may also
signify the possession of skill, in the
sense of the ingenious mind turned to
cunning and intrigue.
Seven of Pentacles

A young man, leaning on his staff,

looks intently at seven pentacles
attached to a clump of greenery on
his right; one would say that these
were his treasures and that his heart
was there.

Divinatory Meanings: These are

exceedingly contradictory; in the
main, it is a card of money, business,
barter; but one reading gives
altercation, quarrels--and another
innocence, ingenuity, purgation.

Reversed: Cause for anxiety

regarding money which it may be
proposed to lend.
Six of Pentacles

A person in the guise of a merchant

weighs money in a pair of scales and
distributes it to the needy and
distressed. It is a testimony to his
own success in life, as well as to his
goodness of heart.

Divinatory Meanings: Presents, gifts,

gratification another account says
attention, vigilance now is the
accepted time, present prosperity,
etc.

Reversed: Desire, cupidity, envy,

jealousy, illusion.
Five of Pentacles

Two mendicants in a snow-storm

pass a lighted casement.

Divinatory Meanings: The card

foretells material trouble above all,
whether in the form illustrated--that
is, destitution--or otherwise. For
some cartomancists, it is a card of
love and lovers-wife, husband, friend,
mistress; also concordance, affinities.
These alternatives cannot be
harmonized.

Reversed: Disorder, chaos, ruin,

discord, profligacy.
Four of Pentacles

A crowned figure, having a pentacle

over his crown, clasps another with
hands and arms; two pentacles are
under his feet. He holds to that which
he has.

Divinatory Meanings: The surety of

possessions, cleaving to that which
one has, gift, legacy, inheritance.

Reversed: Suspense, delay,

opposition.
Three of Pentacles

A sculptor at his work in a monastery.

Compare the design which illustrates
the Eight of Pentacles. The
apprentice or amateur therein has
received his reward and is now at
work in earnest.

Divinatory Meanings: Métier, trade,

skilled labor; usually, however,
regarded as a card of nobility,
aristocracy, renown, glory.

Reversed: Mediocrity, in work and

otherwise, puerility, pettiness,
weakness.
Two of Pentacles

A young man, in the act of dancing,

has a pentacle in either hand, and
they are joined by that endless cord
which is like the number 8 reversed.

Divinatory Meanings: On the one

hand it is represented as a card of
gaiety, recreation and its
connections, which is the subject of
the design; but it is read also as news
and messages in writing, as
obstacles, agitation, trouble,
embroilment.

Reversed: Enforced gaiety, simulated

enjoyment, literal sense, handwriting,
composition, letters of exchange.
Ace of Pentacles

A hand--issuing, as usual, from a

cloud--holds up a pentacle.

Divinatory Meanings: Perfect

contentment, felicity, ecstasy; also
speedy intelligence; gold.

Reversed: The evil side of wealth,

bad intelligence; also great riches. In
any case it shows prosperity,
comfortable material conditions, but
whether these are of advantage to
the possessor will depend on
whether the card is reversed or not.
THE GREATER ARCANA AND THEIR
DIVINATORY MEANINGS

Such are the intimations of the Lesser Arcana in respect of divinatory art,
the veridic nature of which seems to depend on an alternative that it may
be serviceable to express briefly. The records of the art are ex hypothesi
the records of findings in the past based upon experience; as such, they
are a guide to memory, and those who can master the elements may--still
ex hypothesi--give interpretations on their basis. It is an official and
automatic working. On the other hand, those who have gifts of intuition, of
second sight, of clairvoyance--call it as we choose and may--will
supplement the experience of the past by the findings of their own faculty,
and will speak of that which they have seen in the pretexts of the oracles. It
remains to give, also briefly, the divinatory significance allocated by the
same art to the Trumps Major.

0. THE FOOL--Folly, mania, extravagance, intoxication, delirium, frenzy.

Reversed: Negligence, absence, distribution, carelessness, apathy, nullity,
vanity.

1. THE MAGICIAN--Skill, diplomacy, address, subtlety; sickness, pain,

loss, disaster, snares of enemies; self-confidence, will; the Querent, if male.
Reversed: Physician, Magus, mental disease, disgrace, disquiet.

2. THE HIGH PRIESTESS--Secrets, mystery, the future as yet unrevealed;

the woman who interests the Querent, if male; the Querent herself, if
female; silence, tenacity; mystery, wisdom, science. Reversed: Passion,
moral or physical ardor, conceit, surface knowledge.

3. THE EMPRESS--Fruitfulness, action, initiative, length of days; the

unknown, clandestine; also difficulty, doubt, ignorance. Reversed: Light,
truth, the unraveling of involved matters, public rejoicings; according to
another reading, vacillation.

4. THE EMPEROR--Stability, power, protection, realization; a great person;

aid, reason, conviction; also authority and will. Reversed: Benevolence,
compassion, credit; also confusion to enemies, obstruction, immaturity.

5. THE HIEROPHANT--Marriage, alliance, captivity, servitude; by another

account, mercy and goodness; inspiration; the man to whom the Querent
has recourse. Reversed: Society, good understanding, concord,
overkindness, weakness.

6. THE LOVERS--Attraction, love, beauty, trials overcome. Reversed:

Failure, foolish designs. Another account speaks of marriage frustrated and
contrarieties of all kinds.

7. THE CHARIOT--Succor, providence also war, triumph, presumption,

vengeance, trouble. Reversed: Riot, quarrel, dispute, litigation, defeat.

8. FORTITUDE/STRENGTH--Power, energy, action, courage,

magnanimity; also complete success and honors. Reversed: Despotism,
abuse if power, weakness, discord, sometimes even disgrace.
9. THE HERMIT--Prudence, circumspection; also and especially treason,
dissimulation, roguery, corruption. Reversed: Concealment, disguise,
policy, fear, unreasoned caution.

10. WHEEL OF FORTUNE--Destiny, fortune, success, elevation, luck,

felicity. Reversed: Increase, abundance, superfluity.

11. JUSTICE--Equity, rightness, probity, executive; triumph of the

deserving side in law. Reversed: Law in all its departments, legal
complications, bigotry, bias, excessive severity.

12. THE HANGED MAN--Wisdom, circumspection, discernment, trials,

sacrifice, intuition, divination, prophecy. Reversed: Selfishness, the crowd,
body politic.

13. DEATH--End, mortality, destruction, corruption also, for a man, the loss
of a benefactor for a woman, many contrarieties; for a maid, failure of
marriage projects. Reversed: Inertia, sleep, lethargy, petrifaction,
somnambulism; hope destroyed.

14. TEMPERANCE--Economy, moderation, frugality, management,

accommodation. Reversed: Things connected with churches, religions,
sects, the priesthood, sometimes even the priest who will marry the
Querent; also disunion, unfortunate combinations, competing interests.
15. THE DEVIL--Ravage, violence, vehemence, extraordinary efforts,
force, fatality; that which is predestined but is not for this reason evil.
Reversed: Evil fatality, weakness, pettiness, blindness.

16. THE TOWER--Misery, distress, indigence, adversity, calamity,

disgrace, deception, ruin. It is a card in particular of unforeseen
catastrophe. Reversed: According to one account, the same in a lesser
degree also oppression, imprisonment, tyranny.

17. THE STAR--Loss, theft, privation, abandonment; another reading says-

hope and bright prospects, Reversed: Arrogance, haughtiness, impotence.

18. THE MOON--Hidden enemies, danger, calumny, darkness, terror,

deception, occult forces, error. Reversed: Instability, inconstancy, silence,
lesser degrees of deception and error.

19. THE SUN--Material happiness, fortunate marriage, contentment.

Reversed: The same in a lesser sense.

20. THE LAST JUDGMENT--Change of position, renewal, outcome.

Another account specifies total loss though lawsuit. Reversed: Weakness,
pusillanimity, simplicity; also deliberation, decision, sentence.

21. THE WORLD--Assured success, recompense, voyage, route,

emigration, flight, change of place. Reversed: Inertia, fixity, stagnation,
permanence.
It will be seen that, except where there is an irresistible suggestion
conveyed by the surface meaning, that which is extracted from the Trumps
Major by the divinatory art is at once artificial and arbitrary, as it seems to
me, in the highest degree. But of one order are the mysteries of light and of
another are those of fantasy. The allocation of a fortune-telling aspect to
these cards is the story of a prolonged impertinence.
SOME ADDITIONAL MEANINGS OF THE
LESSER ARCANA

WANDS
King--Generally favorable may signify a good marriage. Reversed: Advice
that should be followed.

Queen--A good harvest, which may be taken in several senses. Reversed:

Goodwill towards the Querent, but without the opportunity to exercise it.

Knight--A bad card; according to some readings, alienation. Reversed: For

a woman, marriage, but probably frustrated.

Page--Young man of family in search of young lady. Reversed: Bad news.

Ten.--Difficulties and contradictions, if near a good card.

Nine--Generally speaking, a bad card.

Eight--Domestic disputes for a married person.

Seven--A dark child.

Six--Servants may lose the confidence of their masters; a young lady may
be betrayed by a friend. Reversed: Fulfillment of deferred hope.
Five--Success in financial speculation. Reversed: Quarrels may be turned
to advantage.

Four--Unexpected good fortune. Reversed: A married woman will have

beautiful children.

Three--A very good card; collaboration will favor enterprise.

Two--A young lady may expect trivial disappointments.

Ace--Calamities of all kinds. Reversed: A sign of birth.

Cups
King--Beware of ill-will on the part of a man of position, and of hypocrisy
pretending to help. Reversed: Loss.

Queen--Sometimes denotes a woman of equivocal character. Reversed: A

rich marriage for a man and a distinguished one for a woman.

Knight--A visit from a friend, who will bring unexpected money to the
Querent. Reversed: Irregularity.

Page--Good augury; also a young man who is unfortunate in love.

Reversed: Obstacles of all kinds.

Ten--For a male Querent, a good marriage and one beyond his

expectations. Reversed: Sorrow; also a serious quarrel.
Nine--Of good augury for military men. Reversed: Good business.
Eight.--Marriage with a fair woman. Reversed: Perfect satisfaction.

Seven--Fair child; idea, design, resolve, movement. Reversed: Success, if

accompanied by the Three of Cups.

Six--Pleasant memories. Reversed: Inheritance to fall in quickly.

Five--Generally favorable; a happy marriage; also patrimony, legacies,

gifts, success in enterprise. Reversed: Return of some relative who has not
been seen for long.

Four--Contrarieties. Reversed: Presentiment.

Three--Unexpected advancement for a military man. Reversed:

Consolation, cure, end of the business.

Two--Favorable in things of pleasure and business, as well as love; also

wealth and honor. Reversed: Passion.

Ace--Inflexible will, unalterable law. Reversed: Unexpected change of

position.

SWORDS
King--A lawyer, senator, doctor. Reversed: A bad man; also a caution to
put an end to a ruinous lawsuit.
Queen--A widow. Reversed: A bad woman, with ill-will towards the
Querent.

Knight--A soldier, man of arms, satellite, stipendiary; heroic action

predicted for soldier. Reversed: Dispute with an imbecile person; for a
woman, struggle with a rival, who will be conquered.

Page--An indiscreet person will pry into the Querent's secrets. Reversed:
Astonishing news.

Ten--Followed by Ace and King, imprisonment; for girl or wife, treason on

the part of friends. Reversed: Victory and consequent fortune for a soldier
in war.

Nine--An ecclesiastic, a priest; generally, a card of bad omen. Reversed:

Good ground for suspicion against a doubtful person.

Eight--For a woman, scandal spread in her respect. Reversed: Departure of

a relative.

Seven--Dark girl; a good card; it promises a country life after a competence

has been secured. Reversed: Good advice, probably neglected.

Six--The voyage will be pleasant. Reversed: Unfavourable issue of lawsuit.

Five.--An attack on the fortune of the Querent. Reversed: A sign of sorrow
and mourning.
Four--A bad card, but if reversed a qualified success may be expected by
wise administration of affairs. Reversed: A certain success following wise
administration.

Three--For a woman, the flight of her lover. Reversed: A meeting with one
whom the Querent has compromised; also a nun.

Two--Gifts for a lady, influential protection for a man in search of help.

Reversed: Dealings with rogues.

Ace--Great prosperity or great misery. Reversed: Marriage broken off, for a

woman, through her own imprudence.

PENTACLES
King--A rather dark man, a merchant, master, professor. Reversed: An old
and vicious man.

Queen--Dark woman; presents from a rich relative; rich and happy

marriage for a young man. Reversed: An illness.

Knight--An useful man; useful discoveries. Reversed: A brave man out of

employment.

Page--A dark youth; a young officer or soldier; a child. Reversed:

Sometimes degradation and sometimes pillage.
Ten--Represents house or dwelling, and derives its value from other cards.
Reversed: An occasion which may be fortunate or otherwise.

Nine--Prompt fulfillment of what is presaged by neighboring cards.

Reversed: Vain hopes.

Eight--A young man in business who has relations with the Querent; a dark
girl. Reversed: The Querent will be compromised in a matter of money-
lending.

Seven--Improved position for a lady's future husband. Reversed:

Impatience, apprehension, suspicion.

Six--The present must not be relied on. Reversed: A check on the

Querent's ambition.

Five--Conquest of fortune by reason. Reversed: Troubles in love.

Four--For a bachelor, pleasant news from a lady. Reversed: Observation,
hindrances.

Three--If for a man, celebrity for his eldest son. Reversed: Depends on
neighboring cards.

Two--Troubles are more imaginary than real. Reversed: Bad omen,

ignorance, injustice.
Ace--The most favorable of all cards. Reversed: A share in the finding of
treasure.

It will be observed (1) that these additamenta have little connection with the
pictorial designs of the cards to which they refer, as these correspond with
the more important speculative values; (2) and further that the additional
meanings are very often in disagreement with those previously given. All
meanings are largely independent of one another and all are reduced,
accentuated or subject to modification and sometimes almost reversal by
their place in a sequence. There is scarcely any canon of criticism in
matters of this kind. I suppose that in proportion as any system descends
from generalities to details it becomes naturally the more precarious; and in
the records of professional fortune-telling, it offers more of the dregs and
lees of the subject. At the same time, divinations based on intuition and
second sight are of little practical value unless they come down from the
region of universals to that of particulars; but in proportion as this gift is
present in a particular case, the specific meanings recorded by past
cartomancists will be disregarded in favor of the personal appreciation of
card values.

This has been intimated already. It seems necessary to add the following
speculative readings.
THE RECURRENCE OF CARDS IN
DEALING

In the Natural Position

4 Kings = great honor; 3 Kings = consultation; 2 Kings = minor counsel.
4 Queens = great debate; 3 Queens = deception by women; 2 Queens =
sincere friends.
4 Knights = serious matters; 3 Knights = lively debate; 2 Knights = intimacy.
4 Pages = dangerous illness; 3 Pages = dispute; 2 Pages = disquiet.
4 Tens = condemnation; 3 Tens = new condition; 2 Tens = change.
4 Nines = a good friend; 3 Nines = success; 2 Nines = receipt.
4 Eights = reverse; 3 Eights = marriage 2 Eights = new knowledge.
4 Sevens = intrigue; 3 Sevens = infirmity; 2 Sevens = news.
4 Sixes = abundance; 3 Sixes = success; 2 Sixes = irritability.
4 Fives = regularity; 3 Fives = determination; 2 Fives = vigils.
4 Fours = journey near at hand; 3 Fours = a subject of reflection; 2 Fours =
insomnia.
4 Threes = progress; 3 Threes = unity 2 Threes = calm.
4 Twos = contention; 3 Twos = security; 2 Twos = accord.
4 Aces = favorable chance; 3 Aces = small success; 2 Aces = trickery.
Reversed
4 Kings = celerity; 3 Kings = commerce 2 Kings = projects.
4 Queens = bad company; 3 Queens = gluttony; 2 Queens = work.
4 Knights = alliance 3 Knights = a duel, or personal encounter; 2 Knights =
susceptibility.
4 Pages = privation 3 Pages = idleness 2 Pages = society.
4 Tens = event, happening; 3 Tens disappointment; 2 Tens = expectation
justified.
4 Nines = usury; 3 Nines imprudence; 2 Nines = a small profit.
4 Eights = error; 3 Eights a spectacle; 2 Eights = misfortune.
4 Sevens = quarrelers; 3 Sevens = joy; 2 Sevens = women of no repute.
4 Sixes = care; 3 Sixes = satisfaction 2 Sixes = downfall.
4 Fives = order; 3 Fives = hesitation; 2 Fives = reverse.
4 Fours = walks abroad; 3 Fours = disquiet; 2 Fours = dispute.
4 Threes = great success; 3 Threes = serenity; 2 Threes = safety.
4 Twos = reconciliation; 3 Twos apprehension; 2 Twos = mistrust.
4 Aces = dishonor; 3 Aces debauchery; 2 Aces = enemies.
THE ART OF TAROT DIVINATION

We come now to the final and practical part of this division of our subject,
being the way to consult and obtain oracles by means of Tarot cards. The
modes of operation are rather numerous, and some of them are
exceedingly involved. I set aside those last mentioned, because persons
who are versed in such questions believe that the way of simplicity is the
way of truth. I set aside also the operations which have been republished
recently in that section of The Tarot of the Bohemians which is entitled "The
Divining Tarot"; it may be recommended at its proper value to readers who
wish to go further than the limits of this handbook. I offer in the first place a
short process which has been used privately for many years past in
England, Scotland and Ireland. I do not think that it has been published--
certainly not in connection with Tarot cards; I believe that it will serve all
purposes, but I will add by way of variation-in the second place what used
to be known in France as the Oracles of Julia Orsini.
AN ANCIENT CELTIC METHOD OF
DIVINATION

This mode of divination is the most suitable for obtaining an answer to a

definite question. The Diviner first selects a card to represent the person or,
matter about which inquiry is made. This card is called the Significator.
Should he wish to ascertain something in connection with himself he takes
the one which corresponds to his personal description. A Knight should be
chosen as the Significator if the subject of inquiry is a man of forty years old
and upward; a King should be chosen for any male who is under that age a
Queen for a woman who is over forty years and a Page for any female of
less age.

The four Court Cards in Wands represent very fair people, with yellow or
auburn hair, fair complexion and blue eyes. The Court Cards in Cups
signify people with light brown or dull fair hair and grey or blue eyes. Those
in Swords stand for people having hazel or grey eyes, dark brown hair and
dull complexion. Lastly, the Court Cards in Pentacles are referred to
persons with very dark brown or black hair, dark eyes and sallow or
swarthy complexions. These allocations are subject, however, to the
following reserve, which will prevent them being taken too conventionally.
You can be guided on occasion by the known temperament of a person;
one who is exceedingly dark may be very energetic, and would be better
represented by a Sword card than a Pentacle. On the other hand, a very
fair subject who is indolent and lethargic should be referred to Cups rather
than to Wands.
If it is more convenient for the purpose of a divination to take as the
Significator the matter about which inquiry is to be made, that Trump or
small card should be selected which has a meaning corresponding to the
matter. Let it be supposed that the question is: Will a lawsuit be necessary?
In this case, take the Trump No. 11, or justice, as the Significator. This has
reference to legal affairs. But if the question is: Shall I be successful in my
lawsuit? one of the Court Cards must be chosen as the Significator.
Subsequently, consecutive divinations may be performed to ascertain the
course of the process itself and its result to each of the parties concerned.
Having selected the Significator, place it on the table, face upwards. Then
shuffle and cut the rest of the pack three times, keeping the faces of the
cards downwards.

Turn up the top or FIRST CARD of the pack; cover the Significator with it,
and say: This covers him. This card gives the influence which is affecting
the person or matter of inquiry generally, the atmosphere of it in which the
other currents work.

Turn up the SECOND CARD and lay it across the FIRST, saying: This
crosses him. It shows the nature of the obstacles in the matter. If it is a
favorable card, the opposing forces will not be serious, or it may indicate
that something good in itself will not be productive of good in the particular
connection.

Turn up the THIRD CARD; place it above the Significator, and say: This
crowns him. It represents (a) the Querent's aim or ideal in the matter; (b)
the best that can be achieved under the circumstances, but that which has
not yet been made actual.

Turn up the FOURTH CARD; place it below the Significator, and say: This
is beneath him. It shows the foundation or basis of the matter, that which
has already passed into actuality and which the Significator has made his
own.

Turn up the FIFTH CARD; place it on the side of the Significator from which
he is looking, and say: This is behind him. It gives the influence that is just
passed, or is now passing away.

N.B.--If the Significator is a Trump or any small card that cannot be said to
face either way, the Diviner must decide before beginning the operation
which side he will take it as facing.

Turn up the SIXTH CARD; place it on the side that the Significator is facing,
and say: This is before him. It shows the influence that is coming into action
and will operate in the near future.

The cards are now disposed in the form of a cross, the Significator--
covered by the First Card--being in the center.

The next four cards are turned up in succession and placed one above the
other in a line, on the right hand side of the cross.
The first of these, or the SEVENTH CARD of the operation, signifies
himself--that is, the Significator--whether person or thing-and shows its
position or attitude in the circumstances.

The EIGHTH CARD signifies his house, that is, his environment and the
tendencies at work therein which have an effect on the matter--for instance,
his position in life, the influence of immediate friends, and so forth.

The NINTH CARD gives his hopes or fears in the matter.

The TENTH is what will come, the final result, the culmination which is
brought about by the influences shown by the other cards that have been
turned up in the divination.

It is on this card that the Diviner should especially concentrate his intuitive
faculties and his memory in respect of the official divinatory meanings
attached thereto. It should embody whatsoever you may have divined from
the other cards on the table, including the Significator itself and concerning
him or it, not excepting such lights upon higher significance as might fall
like sparks from heaven if the card which serves for the oracle, the card for
reading, should happen to be a Trump Major.

The operation is now completed; but should it happen that the last card is
of a dubious nature, from which no final decision can be drawn, or which
does not appear to indicate the ultimate conclusion of the affair, it may be
well to repeat the operation, taking in this case the Tenth Card as the
Significator, instead of the one previously used. The pack must be again
shuffled and cut three times and the first ten cards laid out as before. By
this a more detailed account of "What will come" may be obtained.
If in any divination the Tenth Card should be a Court Card, it shows that the
subject of the divination falls ultimately into the hands of a person
represented by that card, and its end depends mainly on him. In this event
also it is useful to take the Court Card in question as the Significator in a
fresh operation, and discover what is the nature of his influence in the
matter and to what issue he will bring it.

Great facility may be obtained by this method in a comparatively short time,

allowance being always made for the gifts of the operator-that is to say, his
faculty of insight, latent or developed-and it has the special advantage of
being free from all complications.
I here append a diagram of the cards as laid out in this mode of divination.
The Significator is here facing to the left.

The Significator…

1. That covers him

2. What crosses him.
3. What crowns him.
4. What is beneath him.
5. What is behind him.
6. What is before him.
7. Himself.
8. His house.
9. His hopes or fears.
10. What will come.
READING THE TAROT CARDS

Shuffle the entire pack and turn some of the cards round, so as to invert
their tops.

Let them be cut by the Querent with his left hand.

Deal out the first forty-two cards in six packets of seven cards each, face
upwards, so that the first seven cards form the first packet, the following
seven the second, and so on-as in the following diagram:--

Take up the first packet; lay out the cards on the table in a row, from right
to left; place the cards of the second packet upon them and then the
packets which remain. You will thus have seven new packets of six cards
each, arranged as follows—

Take the top card of each packet, shuffle them and lay out from right to left,
making a line of seven cards.
Then take up the two next cards from each packet, shuffle and lay them out
in two lines under the first line.

Take up the remaining twenty-one cards of the packets, shuffle and lay
them out in three lines below the others.

You will thus have six horizontal lines of seven cards each, arranged after
the following manner.
In this method, the Querent--if of the male sex--is represented by the
Magician, and if female by the High Priestess; but the card, in either case,
is not taken from the pack until the forty-two cards have been laid out, as
above directed. If the required card is not found among those placed upon
the table, it must be sought among the remaining thirty-six cards, which
have not been dealt, and should be placed a little distance to the right of
the first horizontal line. On the other hand, if it is among them, it is also
taken out, placed as stated, and a card is drawn haphazard from the thirty-
six cards undealt to fill the vacant position, so that there are still forty-two
cards laid out on the table.

The cards are then read in succession, from right to left throughout,
beginning at card No. 1 of the top line, the last to be read being that on the
extreme left, or No. 7, of the bottom line.

This method is recommended when no definite question is asked-that is,

when the Querent wishes to learn generally concerning the course of his
life and destiny. If he wishes to know what may befall within a certain time,
this time should be clearly specified before the cards are shuffled.
With further reference to the reading, it should be remembered that the
cards must be interpreted relatively to the subject, which means that all
official and conventional meanings of the cards may and should be adapted
to harmonize with the conditions of this particular case in question--the
position, time of life and sex of the Querent, or person for whom the
consultation is made.
Thus, the Fool may indicate the whole range of mental phases between
mere excitement and madness, but the particular phase in each divination
must be judged by considering the general trend of the cards, and in this
naturally the intuitive faculty plays an important part.

It is well, at the beginning of a reading, to run through the cards quickly, so

that the mind may receive a general impression of the subject-the trend of
the destiny--and afterwards to start again--reading them one by one and
interpreting in detail.

It should be remembered that the Trumps represent more powerful and

compelling forces--by the Tarot hypothesis--than are referable to the small
cards.

The value of intuitive and clairvoyant faculties is of course assumed in

divination. Where these are naturally present or have been developed by
the Diviner, the fortuitous arrangement of cards forms a link between his
mind and the atmosphere of the subject of divination, and then the rest is
simple. Where intuition fails, or is absent, concentration, intellectual
observation and deduction must be used to the fullest extent to obtain a
satisfactory result. But intuition, even if apparently dormant, may be
cultivated by practice in these divinatory processes. If in doubt as to the
exact meaning of a card in a particular connection, the Diviner is
recommended, by those who are versed in the matter, to place his hand on
it, try to refrain from thinking of what it ought to be, and note the
impressions that arise in his mind. At the beginning this will probably
resolve itself into mere guessing and may prove incorrect, but it becomes
possible with practice to distinguish between a guess of the conscious mind
and an impression arising from the mind which is sub-conscious.
It is not within my province to offer either theoretical or practical
suggestions on this subject, in which I have no part, but the following
additamenta have been contributed by one who has more titles to speak
than all the cartomancists of Europe, if they could shuffle with a single pair
of hands and divine with one tongue.
NOTES ON THE PRACTICE OF
DIVINATION

1. Before beginning the operation, formulate your question definitely, and

repeat it aloud.

2. Make your mind as blank as possible while shuffling the cards.

3. Put out of the mind personal bias and preconceived ideas as far as
possible, or your judgment will be tinctured thereby.

4. On this account it is more easy to divine correctly for a stranger than for
yourself or a friend.
THE METHOD OF READING BY MEANS
OF THIRTY-FIVE CARDS

When the reading is over, according to the scheme set forth in the last
method, it may happen-as in the previous case-that something remains
doubtful, or it may be desired to carry the question further, which is done as
follows:--

Take up the undealt cards which remain over, not having been used in the
first operation with 42 cards. The latter are set aside in a heap, with the
Querent, face upwards, on the top. The thirty-five cards, being shuffled and
cut as before, are divided by dealing into six packets thus:--

Packet I consists of the first SEVEN CARDS

Packet II consists of the SIX CARDS next following in order
Packet III consists of the FIVE CARDS following
Packet IV contains the next FOUR CARDS
Packet V contains Two CARDS; and Packet VI contains the last ELEVEN
CARDS.

The arrangement will then be as follows:--

Take up these packets successively; deal out the cards which they contain
in six lines, which will be necessarily of unequal length.

THE FIRST LINE stands for the house, the environment and so forth.

THE SECOND LINE stands for the person or subject of the divination.

THE THIRD LINE stands for what is passing outside, events, persons, etc.

THE FOURTH LINE stands for a surprise, the unexpected, etc.

THE FIFTH LINE stands for consolation, and may moderate all that is
unfavorable in the preceding lines.

THE SIXTH LINE is that which must be consulted to elucidate the

enigmatic oracles of the others; apart from them it has no importance.
These cards should all be read from left to right, beginning with the
uppermost line.

It should be stated in conclusion as to this divinatory part that there is no

method of interpreting Tarot cards which is not applicable to ordinary
playing-cards, but the additional court cards, and above all the Trumps
Major, are held to increase the elements and values of the oracles.

And now in conclusion as to the whole matter, I have left for these last
words--as if by way of epilogue--one further and final point. It is the sense
in which I regard the Trumps Major as containing Secret Doctrine. I do not
here mean that I am acquainted with orders and fraternities in which such
doctrine reposes and is there found to be part of higher Tarot knowledge. I
do not mean that such doctrine, being so preserved and transmitted, can
be constructed as imbedded independently in the Trumps Major. I do not
mean that it is something apart from the Tarot. Associations exist which
have special knowledge of both kinds; some of it is deduced from the Tarot
and some of it is apart therefrom; in either case, it is the same in the root-
matter. But there are also things in reserve which are not in orders or
societies, but are transmitted after another manner. Apart from all
inheritance of this kind, let any one who is a mystic consider separately and
in combination the Magician, the Fool, the High Priestess, the Hierophant,
the Empress, the Emperor, the Hanged Man and the Tower. Let him then
consider the card called the Last Judgment. They contain the legend of the
soul. The other Trumps Major are the details and--as one might say--the
accidents. Perhaps such a person will begin to understand what lies far
behind these symbols, by whomsoever first invented and however
preserved. If he does, he will see also why I have concerned myself with
the subject, even at the risk of writing about divination by cards.
BIBLIOGRAPHY

A CONCISE BIBLIOGRAPHY OF THE CHIEF WORKS DEALING WITH

THE TAROT AND ITS CONNECTIONS

As in spite of its modest pretensions, this monograph is, so far as I am

aware, the first attempt to provide in English a complete synoptic account
of the Tarot, with its archeological position defined, its available symbolism
developed, and--as a matter of curiosity in occultism--with its divinatory
meanings and modes of operation sufficiently exhibited, it is my wish, from
the literate standpoint, to enumerate those text-books of the subject, and
the most important incidental references thereto, which have come under
my notice. The bibliographical particulars that follow lay no claim to
completeness, as I have cited nothing that I have not seen with my own
eyes; but I can understand that most of my readers will be surprised at the
extent of the literature--if I may so term it conventionally--which has grown
up in the course of the last 120 years. Those who desire to pursue their
inquiries further will find ample materials herein, though it is not a course
which I am seeking to commend especially, as I deem that enough has
been said upon the Tarot in this place to stand for all that has preceded it.
The bibliography itself is representative after a similar manner. I should add
that there is a considerable catalogue of cards and works on card-playing
in the British Museum, but I have not had occasion to consult it to any
extent for the purposes of the present list.
1. Monde Primitf, analysé et comparé avec le Monde Moderne. Par M.
Court de Gebelin. Vol. 8, 40, Paris, 1781.

The articles on the Jeu des Tarots will be found at pp. 365 to 410. The
plates at the end show the Trumps Major and the Aces of each suit. These
are valuable, as indications of the cards at the close of the eighteenth
century. They were presumably then in circulation in the South of France,
as it is said that at the period in question they were practically unknown at
Paris. I have dealt with the claims of the papers in the body of the present
work. Their speculations were tolerable enough for their mazy period; but
that they are suffered still, and accepted indeed without question, by
French occult writers is the most convincing testimony that one can need to
the qualifications of the latter for dealing with any question of historical
research.

2. The Works of Etteilla. Les Septs Nuances de I'œuvre philosophique

Hermitique; Manière de se récréer avec le Jeu de Cartes, nommeés
Tarots; Fragments sur les Hautes Sciences; Philosophie des Hautes
Sciences; Jeu des Tarots, ou le Livre de Thoth; Leçons Théoriques et
Pratiques du Livre de Thoth--all published between 1783 and 1787.
These are exceedingly rare and were frankly among the works of
colportage of their particular period. They contain the most curious
fragments on matters within and without the main issue, lucubrations on
genii, magic, astrology, talismans, dreams, etc. I have spoken sufficiently in
the text of the author's views on the Tarot and his place in its modern
history. He regarded it as a work of speaking hieroglyphics, but to translate
it was not easy. He, however, accomplished the task that is to say, in his
own opinion.

3. An Inquiry into the Antient Greek Game, supposed to have been

invented by Palamedes. [By James Christie.] London: 40, 1801.

I mention this collection of curious dissertations because it has been cited

by writers on the Tarot. It seeks to establish a close connection between
early games of antiquity and modern chess. It is suggested that the
invention attributed to Palamedes, prior to the Siege of Troy, was known in
China from a more remote period of antiquity. The work has no reference to
cards of any kind whatsoever.

4. Researches into the History of Playing Cards. By Samuel Weller Singer.

40, London, 1816.

The Tarot is probably of Eastern origin and high antiquity, but the rest of
Court de Gebelin's theory is vague and unfounded. Cards were known in
Europe prior to the appearance of the Egyptians. The work has a good deal
of curious information and the appendices are valuable, but the Tarot
occupies comparatively little of the text and the period is too early for a
tangible criticism of its claims. There are excellent reproductions of early
specimen designs. Those of Court de Gebelin are also given in extenso.

5. Facts and Speculations on Playing Cards. By W. A. Chatto. 8vo,

London, 1848.
The author suggested that the Trumps Major and the numeral cards were
once separate, but were afterwards combined. The oldest specimens of
Tarot cards are not later than 1440. But the claims and value of the volume
have been sufficiently described in the text.

6. Les Cartes à Jouer el la Cartomancie. Par D. R. P. Boiteau d'Ambly. 40,

Paris, 1854.

There are some interesting illustrations of early Tarot cards, Which are said
to be of Oriental origin; but they are not referred to Egypt. The early gipsy
connection is affirmed, but there is no evidence produced. The cards came
with the gypsies from India, where they were designed to show forth the
intentions of "the unknown divinity" rather than to be the servants of
profane amusement.

7. Dogme el Rituel de la Haute Magie. Par Éliphas Lévi, 2 vols., demy 8vo,
Paris, 1854.

This is the first publication of Alphonse Louis Constant on occult

philosophy, and it is also his magnum opus. It is constructed in both
volumes on the major Keys of the Tarot and has been therefore understood
as a kind of development of their implicits, in the way that these were
presented to the mind of the author. To supplement what has been said of
this work in the text of the present monograph, I need only add that the
section on transmutations in the second volume contains what is termed
the Key of Thoth. The inner circle depicts a triple Tau, with a hexagram
where the bases join, and beneath is the Ace of Cups. Within the external
circle are the letters TARO, and about this figure as a whole are grouped
the symbols of the Four Living Creatures, the Ace of Wands, Ace of
Swords, the letter Shin, and a magician's candle, which is identical,
according to Lévi, with the lights used in the Goetic Circle of Black
Evocations and Pacts. The triple Tau may be taken to represent the Ace of
Pentacles. The only Tarot card given in the volumes is the Chariot, which is
drawn by two sphinxes; the fashion thus set has been followed in later
days. Those who interpret the work as a kind of commentary on the
Trumps Major are the conventional occult students and those who follow
them will have only the pains of fools.

8. Les Rômes. Par J. A. Vaillant. Demy 8vo, Paris, 1857.

The author tells us how he met with the cards, but the account is in a
chapter of anecdotes. The Tarot is the sidereal book of Enoch, modelled on
the astral wheel of Athor. There is a description of the Trumps Major, which
are evidently regarded as an heirloom, brought by the gipsies from Indo-
Tartary. The publication of Lévi's Dogme et Rituel must, I think, have
impressed Vaillant very much, and although in this, which was the writer's
most important work, the anecdote that I have mentioned is practically his
only Tarot reference, he seems to have gone much further in a later
publication--Clef Magique de la Fiction et du Fait, but I have not been able
to see it, nor do I think, from the reports concerning it, that I have sustained
a loss.

9. Histoire de la Magie. Par Éliphas Lévi. 8vo, Paris, 1860.

The references to the Tarot are few in this brilliant work, which will be
available shortly in English. It gives the 21st Trump Major, commonly called
the Universe, or World, under the title of Yinx Pantomorph--a seated figure
wearing the crown of Isis. This has been reproduced by Papus in Le Tarot
Divinataire. The author explains that the extant Tarot has come down to us
through the Jews, but it passed somehow into the hands of the gipsies,
who brought it with them when they first entered France in the early part of
the fifteenth century. The authority here is Vaillant.

10. La Clef des Grands Mystères. Par Eliphas Lévi. 8vo, Paris, 1861.

The frontispiece to this work represents the absolute Key of the occult
sciences, given by William Postel and completed by the writer. It is
reproduced in The Tarot of the Bohemians, and in the preface which I have
prefixed thereto, as indeed elsewhere, I have explained that Postel never
constructed a hieroglyphical key. Eliphas Lévi identifies the Tarot as that
sacred alphabet which has been variously referred to Enoch, Thoth,
Cadmus and Palamedes. It consists of absolute ideas attached to signs
and numbers. In respect of the latter, there is an extended commentary on
these as far as the number ie, the series being interpreted as the Keys of
Occult Theology. The remaining three numerals which complete the
Hebrew alphabet are called the Keys of Nature. The Tarot is said to be the
original of chess, as it is also of the Royal Game of Goose. This volume
contains the author's hypothetical reconstruction of the tenth Trump Major,
showing Egyptian figures on the Wheel of Fortune.
11. L'Homme Rouge des Tuileyies. Par P. Christian. Fcap. 8vo, Paris,
1863.

The work is exceedingly rare, is much sought and was once highly prized in
France; but Dr. Papus has awakened to the fact that it is really of slender
value, and the statement might be extended. It is interesting, however, as
containing the writer's first reveries on the Tarot. He was a follower and
imitator of Lévi. In the present work, he provides a commentary on the
Trumps Major and thereafter the designs and meanings of all the Minor
Arcana. There are many and curious astrological attributions. The work
does not seem to mention the Tarot by name. A later Histoire de la Magie
does little more than reproduce and extend the account of the Trumps
Major given herein.

12. The History of Playing Cards. By E. S. Taylor. Cr. 8vo, London, 1865.

This was published posthumously and is practically a translation of Boiteau.

It therefore calls for little remark on my part. The opinion is that cards were
imported by the gipsies from India. There are also references to the so-
called Chinese Tarot, which was mentioned by Court de Gebelin.

13. Origine des Caries à Jouer. Par Romain Merlin. 40, Paris, 1869.

There is no basis for the Egyptian origin of the Tarot, except in the
imagination of Court de Gebelin. I have mentioned otherwise that the writer
disposes, to his personal satisfaction, of the gipsy hypothesis, and he does
the same in respect of the imputed connection with India; he says that
cards were known in Europe before communication was opened generally
with that world about 1494. But if the gipsies were a Pariah tribe already
dwelling in the West, and if the cards were a part of their baggage, there is
nothing in this contention. The whole question is essentially one of
speculation.

14. The Platonist. Vol. II, pp. 126-8. Published at St. Louis, Mo., U.S.A.,
1884-5. Royal 4to.

This periodical, the suspension of which must have been regretted by many
admirers of an unselfish and laborious effort, contained one anonymous
article on the Tarot by a writer with theosophical tendencies, and
considerable pretensions to knowledge. It has, however, by its own
evidence, strong titles to negligence, and is indeed a ridiculous
performance. The word Tarot is the Latin Rota = wheel, transposed. The
system was invented at a remote period in India, presumably--for the writer
is vague--about B.C. 300. The Fool represents primordial chaos. The Tarot
is now used by Rosicrucian adepts, but in spite of the inference that it may
have come down to them from their German progenitors in the early
seventeenth century, and notwithstanding the source in India, the twenty-
two keys were pictured on the walls of Egyptian temples dedicated to the
mysteries of initiation. Some of this rubbish is derived from P. Christian, but
the following statement is peculiar, I think, to the writer: "It is known to
adepts that there should be twenty-two esoteric keys, which would make
the total number up to 100." Persons who reach a certain stage of lucidity
have only to provide blank pasteboards of the required number and the
missing designs will be furnished by superior intelligences. Meanwhile,
America is still awaiting the fulfillment of the concluding forecast, that some
few will ere long have so far developed in that country "as to be able to
read perfectly... in that perfect and divine sibylline work, the Taro." Perhaps
the cards which accompany the present volume will give the opportunity
and the impulse!

15. Lo Joch de Naips. Per Joseph Brunet y Bellet. Cr. 8vo, Barcelona,
1886.

With reference to the dream of Egyptian origin, the author quotes E. Garth
Wilkison's Manners and Customs of the Egyptians as negative evidence at
least that cards were unknown in the old cities of the Delta. The history of
the subject is sketched, following the chief authorities, but without reference
to exponents of the occult schools. The mainstay throughout is Chatto.
There are some interesting particulars about the prohibition of cards in
Spain, and the appendices include a few valuable documents, by one of
which it appears, as already mentioned, that St. Bernardin of Sienna
preached against games in general, and cards in particular, so far back as
1423. There are illustrations of rude Tarots, including a curious example of
an Ace of Cups, with a phoenix rising therefrom, and a Queen of Cups,
from whose vessel issues a flower.

16. The Tarot: Its Occult Signification, Use in FortuneTelling, and Method
of Play. By S. L. MacGregor Mathers. Sq. 16mo, London, 1888.

This booklet was designed to accompany a set of Tarot cards, and the
current packs of the period were imported from abroad for the purpose.
There is no pretence of original research, and the only personal opinion
expressed by the writer or calling for notice here states that the Trumps
Major are hieroglyphic symbols corresponding to the occult meanings of
the Hebrew alphabet. Here the authority is Lévi, from whom is also derived
the brief symbolism allocated to the twenty-two Keys. The divinatory
meanings follow, and then the modes of operation. It is a mere sketch
written in a pretentious manner and is negligible in all respects.

17. Traité Méthodique de Science Occulte. Par Papus. 8vo, Paris, 1891.

The rectified Tarot published by Oswald Wirth after the indications of

Éliphas Lévi is reproduced in this work, which--it may be mentioned--
extends to nearly 1,100 pages. There is a section on the gypsies,
considered as the importers of esoteric tradition into Europe by means of
the cards. The Tarot is a combination of numbers and ideas, whence its
correspondence with the Hebrew alphabet. Unfortunately, the Hebrew
citations are rendered almost unintelligible by innumerable typographical
errors.

18. Éliphas Lévi: Le Livre des Splendeurs. Demy 8vo, Paris, 1894.

A section on the Elements of the Kabalah affirms (a) That the Tarot
contains in the several cards of the four suits a fourfold explanation of the
numbers 1 to 10; (b) that the symbols which we now have only in the form
of cards were at first medals and then afterwards became talismans; (c)
that the Tarot is the hieroglyphical book of the Thirty-two Paths of Kabalistic
theosophy, and that its summary explanation is in the Sepher Yelzirah; (d)
that it is the inspiration of all religious theories and symbols; (e) that its
emblems are found on the ancient monuments of Egypt. With the historical
value of these pretensions I have dealt in the text.

19. Clefs Magiques et Clavicules de Salomon Par Éliphas Lévi. Sq. 12mo,
Paris, 1895.

The Keys in question are said to have been restored in 1860, in their
primitive purity, by means of hieroglyphical signs and numbers, without any
admixture of Samaritan or Egyptian images. There are rude designs of the
Hebrew letters attributed to the Trumps Major, with meanings--most of
which are to be found in other works by the same writer. There are also
combinations of the letters which enter into the Divine Name; these
combinations are attributed to the court cards of the Lesser Arcana. Certain
talismans of spirits are in fine furnished with Tarot attributions; the Ace of
Clubs corresponds to the Deus Absconditus, the First Principle. The little
book was issued at a high price and as something that should be reserved
to adepts, or those on the path of adeptship, but it is really without value--
symbolical or otherwise.

20. Les xxii Lames Hermétiques du Tarot Divinatoire. Par R. Falconnier.

Demy 8vo, Paris, 1896.

The word Tarot comes from the Sanskrit and means "fixed star," which in
its turn signifies immutable tradition, theosophical synthesis, symbolism of
primitive dogma, etc. Graven on golden plates, the designs were used by
Hermes Trismegistus and their mysteries were only revealed to the highest
grades of the priesthood of Isis. It is unnecessary therefore to say that the
Tarot is of Egyptian origin and the work of M. Falconnier has been to
reconstruct its primitive form, which he does by reference to the
monuments--that is to say, after the fashion of Éliphas Lévi, he draws the
designs of the Trumps Major in imitation of Egyptian art. This production
has been hailed by French occultists as presenting the Tarot in its
perfection, but the same has been said of the designs of Oswald Wirth,
which are quite unlike and not Egyptian at all. To be frank, these kinds of
foolery may be as much as can be expected from the Sanctuary of the
Comédie-Française, to which the author belongs, and it should be reserved
thereto.

21. The Magical Ritual of the Sanctum Regnum, interpreted by the Tarot
Trumps. Translated from the MSS. of Éliphas Lévi and edited by W. Wynn
Westcott, M.B. Fcap. 8vo, London, 1896.

It is necessary to say that the interest of this memorial rests rather in the
fact of its existence than in its intrinsic importance. There is a kind of
informal commentary on the Trumps Major, or rather there are
considerations which presumably had arisen therefrom in the mind of the
French author. For example, the card called Fortitude is an opportunity for
expatiation on will as the secret of strength. The Hanged Man is said to
represent the completion of the Great Work. Death suggests a diatribe
against Necromancy and Goëtia; but such phantoms have no existence in
"the Sanctum Regnum" of life. Temperance produces only a few vapid
commonplaces, and the Devil, which is blind force, is the occasion for
repetition of much that has been said already in the earlier works of Lévi.
The Tower represents the betrayal of the Great Arcanum, and this it was
which caused the sword of Samael to be stretched over the Garden of
Delight. Amongst the plates there is a monogram of the Gnosis, which is
also that of the Tarot. The editor has thoughtfully appended some
information on the Trump Cards taken from the early works of Lévi and
from the commentaries of P. Christian.

22. Comment on devient Alchimiste. Par F. Jolivet de Castellot. Sq. 8vo,

Paris, 1897.

Herein is a summary of the Alchemical Tarot, which-with all my respect for

innovations and inventions-seems to be high fantasy; but Etteilla had
reveries of this kind, and if it should ever be warrantable to produce a Key
Major in place of the present Key Minor, it might be worth while to tabulate
the analogies of these strange dreams. At the moment it will be sufficient to
say that there is given a schedule of the alchemical correspondences to the
Trumps Major, by which it appears that the juggler or Magician symbolizes
attractive force; the High Priestess is inert matter, than which nothing is
more false; the Pope is the Quintessence, which--if he were only
acquainted with Shakespeare--might tempt the present successor of St.
Peter to repeat that "there are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio."
The Devil, on the other hand, is the matter of philosophy at the black stage;
the Last judgment is the red stage of the Stone; the Fool is its fermentation;
and, in fine, the last card, or the World, is the Alchemical Absolute-the
Stone itself. If this should encourage my readers, they may note further that
the particulars of various chemical combinations can be developed by
means of the Lesser Arcana, if these are laid out for the purpose.
Specifically, the King of Wands = Gold the Pages or Knaves represent
animal substances the King of Cups = Silver; and so forth.

23. Le Grand Arcane, ou l'occultisme dévoilé. Par Éliphas Lévi. Demy 8vo,
Paris, 1898.

After many years and the long experience of all his concerns in occultism,
the author at length reduces his message to one formula in this work. I
speak, of course, only in respect of the Tarot: he says that the cards of
Etteilla produce a kind of hypnotism in the seer or seeress who divines
thereby. The folly of the psychic reads in the folly of the querent. Did he
counsel honesty, it is suggested that he would lose his clients. I have
written severe criticisms on occult arts and sciences, but this is astonishing
from one of their past professors and, moreover, I think that the psychic
occasionally is a psychic and sees in a manner as such.

24. Le Serpent de la Genêse--Livre II; La Clef de la Magie Noire. Par

Stanislas de Guaita. 8vo, Paris, 1902.

It is a vast commentary on the second septenary of the Trumps Major.

Justice signifies equilibrium and its agent; the Hermit typifies the mysteries
of solitude; the Wheel of Fortune is the circulus of becoming or attaining;
Fortitude signifies the power resident in will; the Hanged Man is magical
bondage, which speaks volumes for the clouded and inverted insight of this
fantasiast in occultism: Death is, of course, that which its name signifies,
but with reversion to the second death; Temperance means the magic of
transformations, and therefore suggests excess rather than abstinence.
There is more of the same kind of thing--I believe--in the first book, but this
will serve as a specimen. The demise of Stanislas de Guaita put an end to
his scheme of interpreting the Tarot Trumps, but it should be understood
that the connection is shadowy and that actual references could be
reduced to a very few pages.

25. Le Tarot: Aperçu historique. Par. J. J. Bourgeat. Sq. 12MO, Paris,

1906.

The author has illustrated his work by purely fantastic designs of certain
Trumps Major, as, for example, the Wheel of Fortune, Death and the Devil.
They have no connection with symbolism. The Tarot is said to have
originated in India, whence it passed to Egypt. Éliphas Lévi, P. Christian,
and J. A. Vaillant are cited in support of statements and points of view. The
mode of divination adopted is fully and carefully set out.

26. L'Art de tirer les Caries. Par Antonio Magus. Cr. 8vo, Paris, n.d. (about
1908).

This is not a work of any especial pretension, nor has it any title to
consideration on account of its modesty. Frankly, it is little--if any--better
than a bookseller's experiment. There is a summary account of the chief
methods of divination, derived from familiar sources; there is a history of
cartomancy in France; and there are indifferent reproductions of Etteilla
Tarot cards, with his meanings and the well-known mode of operation.
Finally, there is a section on common fortune-telling by a piquet set of
ordinary cards: this seems to lack the only merit that it might have
Possessed, namely, perspicuity; but I speak with reserve, as I am not
perhaps a judge possessing ideal qualifications in matters of this kind. In
any case, the question signifies nothing. It is just to add that the concealed
author maintains what he terms the Egyptian tradition of the Tarot, which is
the Great Book of Thoth. But there is a light accent throughout his thesis,
and it does not follow that he took the claim seriously.

27. Le Tarot Divinatoire: Clef du tirage des Caries et des sorts. Par le Dr.
Papus. Demy 8vo, Paris, 1909.

The text is accompanied by what is termed a complete reconstitution of all

the symbols, which means that in this manner we have yet another Tarot.
The Trumps Major follow the traditional lines, with various explanations and
attributions on the margins, and this Plan obtains throughout the series.
From the draughtsman's point of view, it must be said that the designs are
indifferently done, and the reproductions seem worse than the designs.
This is probably of no especial importance to the class of readers
addressed. Dr. Papus also presents, by way of curious memorials, the
evidential value of which he seems to accept implicitly, certain unpublished
designs of ÉIiphas Lévi; they are certainly interesting as examples of the
manner in which the great occultist manufactured the archæology of the
Tarot to bear out his personal views. We have (a) Trump Major, No. 5,
being Horus as the Grand Hierophant, drawn after the monuments; (b)
Trump Major, No. 2, being the High Priestess as Isis, also after the
monuments; and (c) five imaginary specimens of an Indian Tarot. This is
how la haute science in France contributes to the illustration of that work
which Dr. Papus terms livre de la science éternelle; it would be called by
rougher names in English criticism. The editor himself takes his usual pains
and believes that he has discovered the time attributed to each card by
ancient Egypt. He applies it to the purpose of divination, so that the skilful
fortune-teller can now predict the hour and the day when the dark young
man will meet with the fair widow, and so forth.

28. Le Tarot des Bohémiens. Par Papus. 8vo, Paris, 1889. English
Translation, second edition, 1910.

An exceedingly complex work, which claims to present an absolute key to

occult science. It was translated into English by Mr. A. P. Morton in 1896,
and this version has been re-issued recently under my own supervision.
The preface which I have prefixed thereto contains all that it is necessary to
say regarding its claims, and it should be certainly consulted by readers of
the present Pictorial Key to the Tarot. The fact that Papus regards the great
sheaf of hieroglyphics as "the most ancient book in the world," as "the Bible
of Bibles," and therefore as "the primitive revelation," does not detract from
the claim of his general study, which--it should be added--is accompanied
by numerous valuable plates, exhibiting Tarot codices, old and new, and
diagrams summarizing the personal theses of the writer and of some others
who preceded him. The Tarot of the Bohemians is published at 6s. by
William Rider & Son, Ltd.

29. Manuel Synthétique et Pratique du Tarot. Par Eudes Picard. 8vo,

Paris, 1909.
Here is yet one more handbook of the subject, presenting in a series of
rough plates a complete sequence of the cards. The Trumps Major are
those of Court de Gebelin and for the Lesser Arcana the writer has had
recourse to his imagination; it can be said that some of them are curious, a
very few thinly suggestive and the rest bad. The explanations embody
neither research nor thought at first hand; they are bald summaries of the
occult authorities in France, followed by a brief general sense drawn out as
a harmony of the whole. The method of use is confined to four pages and
recommends that divination should be performed in a fasting state. On the
history of the Tarot, M. Picard says (a) that it is confused; (b) that we do not
know precisely whence it comes; (c) that, this notwithstanding, its
introduction is due to the Gypsies. He says finally that its interpretation is
an art.