How To Read Tarot Cards
How To Read Tarot Cards
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PREFACE
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
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.
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:--
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 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.
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.
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.
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."
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.
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.
Reversed: Anecdotes,
announcements, evil news. Also
indecision and the instability which
accompanies it.
Ten of Wands
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
WANDS
King--Generally favorable may signify a good marriage. Reversed: Advice
that should be followed.
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.
Cups
King--Beware of ill-will on the part of a man of position, and of hypocrisy
pretending to help. Reversed: Loss.
Knight--A visit from a friend, who will bring unexpected money to the
Querent. Reversed: Irregularity.
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.
Page--An indiscreet person will pry into the Querent's secrets. Reversed:
Astonishing news.
Three--For a woman, the flight of her lover. Reversed: A meeting with one
whom the Querent has compromised; also a nun.
PENTACLES
King--A rather dark man, a merchant, master, professor. Reversed: An old
and vicious man.
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.
Three--If for a man, celebrity for his eldest son. Reversed: Depends on
neighboring cards.
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
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
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 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.
The Significator…
Shuffle the entire pack and turn some of the cards round, so as to invert
their tops.
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.
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:--
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 FIFTH LINE stands for consolation, and may moderate all that is
unfavorable in the preceding lines.
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
28. Le Tarot des Bohémiens. Par Papus. 8vo, Paris, 1889. English
Translation, second edition, 1910.