Pictorial Key To The Tarot PDF
Pictorial Key To The Tarot PDF
Pictorial Key To The Tarot PDF
TO THE TAROT
BEING FRAGMENTS OF A SECRET TRADITION UNDER
THE VEIL OF DIVINATION
BY
ARTHUR EDWARD WAITE
LONDON, W. RIDER
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN 1911
The Pictorial Key To The Tarot By Arthur Edward Waite.
This edition created and published by Global Grey 2013.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
PREFACE
PART I. THE VEIL AND ITS SYMBOLS
§ 1: INTRODUCTORY AND GENERAL
§ 2: CLASS I. THE TRUMPS MAJOR, OTHERWISE GREATER
ARCANA
§ 3: CLASS II. THE FOUR SUITS, OTHERWISE LESSER ARCANA
§ 4: THE TAROT IN HISTORY
PART II. THE DOCTRINE BEHIND THE VEIL
§ 1: THE TAROT AND SECRET TRADITION
§ 2: THE TRUMPS MAJOR AND THEIR INNER SYMBOLISM
§ 3: CONCLUSION AS TO THE GREATER KEYS
PART III. THE OUTER METHOD OF THE ORACLES
§ 1: DISTINCTION BETWEEN THE GREATER AND LESSER
ARCANA
§ 2: THE LESSER ARCANA OTHERWISE, THE FOUR SUITS OF
TAROT CARDS
§ 3: THE GREATER ARCANA AND THEIR DIVINATORY
MEANINGS
§ 4: SOME ADDITIONAL MEANINGS OF THE LESSER ARCANA
§ 5: THE RECURRENCE OF CARDS IN DEALING
§ 6: THE ART OF TAROT DIVINATION
§ 7: AN ANCIENT CELTIC METHOD OF DIVINATION
§ 8: AN ALTERNATIVE METHOD OF READING THE TAROT
CARDS
§ 9: THE METHOD OF READING BY MEANS OF THIRTY-FIVE
CARDS
BIBLIOGRAPHY
1 The Pictorial Key To The Tarot By Arthur Edward Waite
PREFACE
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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 fulness 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 hand-books.
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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
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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.
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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.
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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.
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his end. The axiom is that the strength which is raised to such a degree
that a man dares lose himself shall shew 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.
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11. Justice. That the Tarot, though it is of all reasonable antiquity, is not
of time immemorial, is shewn 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.
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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 sceptre 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.
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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 shew 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
shewn 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 gambolling, 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.
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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.
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
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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.
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tamperings with so-called destiny--it will be so much the better for the
Greater Arcana.
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(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 sceptre terminating in a triple cross; (6) the card
entitled the Moon, who is Isis, shews 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
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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 shew 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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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 shew 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
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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
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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 connexion 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
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The Magician
This dual sign is known in very high grades of the Instituted Mysteries;
it shews the descent of grace, virtue and light, drawn from things
above and derived to things below. The suggestion throughout is
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With further reference to what I have called the sign of life and its
connexion 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
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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 shew 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.
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.
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III
The Empress
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.
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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
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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.
The Hierophant
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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 sceptre 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 connexion 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.
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 shew 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
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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.
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VII
The Chariot
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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.
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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.
It connects also with innocentia inviolata, and with the strength which
resides in contemplation.
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.
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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."
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Wheel of Fortune
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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.
But this is the Divine intention within, and the similar intention
without is exemplified by the four Living Creatures.
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
honour, ruling authority, etc.
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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.
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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.
In conclusion, the pillars of Justice open into one world and the pillars
of the High Priestess into another.
XII
The gallows from which he is suspended forms a Tau cross, while the
figure--from the position of the legs--forms a fylfot cross.
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(1) that the tree of sacrifice is living wood, with leaves thereon;
(3) that the figure, as a whole, suggests life in suspension, but life and
not death.
One of his editors suggests that Éliphas Lévi did not know the
meaning, which is unquestionable nor did the editor himself.
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.
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XIII
Death
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.
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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.
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I speak of him in the masculine sense, but the figure is neither male
nor female.
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.
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XV
The Devil
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
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XVI
The Tower
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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.
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XVII
The Star
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.
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XVIII
The Moon
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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.
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 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.
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XIX
The Sun
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.
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XX
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 ecstacy expressed by their attitudes. It is the
card which registers the accomplishment of the great work of
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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.
ZERO
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
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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.
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.
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.
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.
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XXI
The World
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 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
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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.
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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.
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open into unexpected chambers, or like a turn in the open road with a
wide prospect beyond.
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King
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WANDS
Queen
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,
honourable. 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
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WANDS
Knight
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WANDS
Page
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WANDS
Ten
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WANDS
Nine
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 shews, that he may prove a formidable antagonist. With this
main significance there are all its possible adjuncts--delay, suspension,
adjournment. Reversed: Obstacles, adversity, calamity.
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WANDS
Eight
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WANDS
Seven
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WANDS
Six
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WANDS
Five
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WANDS
Four
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.
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WANDS
Three
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.
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WANDS
Two
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.
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WANDS
Ace
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King
He holds a short sceptre 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.
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CUPS
Queen
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, dishonour, depravity.
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CUPS
Knight
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CUPS
Page
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CUPS
Ten
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CUPS
Nine
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CUPS
Eight
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CUPS
Seven
Strange chalices of vision, but the images are more especially those of
the fantastic spirit. Divinatory Meanings: Fairy favours, 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.
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CUPS
Six
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CUPS
Five
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CUPS
Four
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.
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CUPS
Three
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CUPS
Two
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.
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CUPS
Ace
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.
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SWORDS
Queen
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.
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SWORDS
Knight
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SWORDS
Page
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.
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SWORDS
Ten
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SWORDS
Nine
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.
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SWORDS
Eight
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.
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SWORDS
Seven
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.
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SWORDS
Six
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SWORDS
Five
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, dishonour, loss, with the variants and
analogues of these. Reversed: The same; burial and obsequies.
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SWORDS
Four
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.
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SWORDS
Three
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SWORDS
Two
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SWORDS
Ace
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King
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: Valour, 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.
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PENTACLES
Queen
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PENTACLES
Knight
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PENTACLES
Page
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PENTACLES
Ten
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PENTACLES
Nine
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.
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PENTACLES
Eight
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PENTACLES
Seven
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PENTACLES
Six
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PENTACLES
Five
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PENTACLES
Four
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PENTACLES
Three
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PENTACLES
Two
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 connexions, 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.
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PENTACLES
Ace
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Knight.--A visit from a friend, who will bring unexpected money to the
Querent. Reversed: Irregularity.
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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
neighbouring cards.
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Reversed
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136 The Pictorial Key To The Tarot By Arthur Edward Waite
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 connexion 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.
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137 The Pictorial Key To The Tarot By Arthur Edward Waite
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.
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138 The Pictorial Key To The Tarot By Arthur Edward Waite
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 shews the nature of the obstacles in the matter. If it is a
favourable 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 connexion.
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 shews 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.
Turn up the SIXTH CARD; place it on the side that the Significator is
facing, and say: This is before him. It shews 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 centre.
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.
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139 The Pictorial Key To The Tarot By Arthur Edward Waite
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 shewn by the other cards that have
been turned up in the divination.
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 shews 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.
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140 The Pictorial Key To The Tarot By Arthur Edward Waite
The Significator.
7. Himself.
8. His house.
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141 The Pictorial Key To The Tarot By Arthur Edward Waite
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.
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142 The Pictorial Key To The Tarot By Arthur Edward Waite
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.
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143 The Pictorial Key To The Tarot By Arthur Edward Waite
certain time, this time should be clearly specified before the cards are
shuffled.
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.
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3. Put out of the mind personal bias and preconceived ideas as far as
possible, or your judgment will be tinctured thereby.
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145 The Pictorial Key To The Tarot By Arthur Edward Waite
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:--
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 FIFTH LINE stands for consolation, and may moderate all that is
unfavourable in the preceding lines.
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146 The Pictorial Key To The Tarot By Arthur Edward Waite
These cards should all be read from left to right, beginning with the
uppermost line.
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.
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147 The Pictorial Key To The Tarot By Arthur Edward Waite
BIBLIOGRAPHY
The articles on the Jeu des Tarots will be found at pp. 365 to 410. The
plates at the end shew 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
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148 The Pictorial Key To The Tarot By Arthur Edward Waite
II
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.
III
An Inquiry into the Antient Greek Game, supposed to have been invented
by Palamedes. [By James Christie.] London: 40, 1801.
IV
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
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149 The Pictorial Key To The Tarot By Arthur Edward Waite
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.
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.
VI
VII
Dogme el Rituel de la Haute Magie. Par Éliphas Lévi, 2 vols., demy 8vo,
Paris, 1854.
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150 The Pictorial Key To The Tarot By Arthur Edward Waite
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.
VIII
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.
IX
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 ofYinx 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.
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151 The Pictorial Key To The Tarot By Arthur Edward Waite
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 ig, 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, shewing Egyptian figures on
the Wheel of Fortune.
XI
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.
XII
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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.
XIII
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 connexion 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.
XIV
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 fulfilment of the
concluding forecast, that some few will ere long have so far developed
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XV
Lo Joch de Naips. Per Joseph Brunet y Bellet. Cr. 8vo, Barcelona, 1886.
XVI
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.
XVII
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154 The Pictorial Key To The Tarot By Arthur Edward Waite
XVIII
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.
XIX
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
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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.
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156 The Pictorial Key To The Tarot By Arthur Edward Waite
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.
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157 The Pictorial Key To The Tarot By Arthur Edward Waite
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.
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158 The Pictorial Key To The Tarot By Arthur Edward Waite
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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.
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Le Tarot Divinatoire: Clef du tirage des Caries et des sorts. Par le Dr.
Papus. Demy 8vo, Paris, 1909.
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159 The Pictorial Key To The Tarot By Arthur Edward Waite
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.
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