The Illustrated Key to the Tarot by L. W. de Laurence - Part 1 The Veil and its symbols

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Episode Transcript

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Part one, Section one of theillustrated Key to the Taro by L.
W. De Lorentz. This LibriVoxrecording is in the public domain recording by
Michel Dyer, Part one, TheVeil and Its Symbols, Section one,
Introductory and General. The pathology ofthe poet says that the undevout astronomer is

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mad. The pathology of the veryplain man says that the genius is mad.
And between these extremes, which standfor ten thousand analogous successes, the
sovereign reason takes the part of amoderator and does what it can. I
do not think that there is apathology of the occult dedications, but about

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their extravagance, says no one canquestion, and it is not less difficult
than thankless to act as a moderatorregarding them. Moreover, the pathology,
if it existed, would probably bean empiricism rather than a diagnosis, and
would offer no criterion. Now,occultism is not like mystic faculty, and

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it very seldom works in harmony,either with business, aptitude in the things
of ordinary life, or with theknowledge of the canons of evidence in its
own sphere. I know that forthe high art of ribaltry. There are
few things more dull than the criticismwhich maintains that a thesis is untrue and
cannot understand that it is decorative.I also know that after long dealing with

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doubtful doctrine or with difficult research,it is always refreshing in the domain of
this art to meet with what isobviously of fraud, or at least of
complete unreason. But the aspects ofhistory, as seen through the lens of
occultism, are not, as arule decorative, and have few gifts of
refreshment to heal the lacerations which theyinflict on the logical understanding. It almost

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acquires a freighter sapiens dominabitur astris andthe fellowship of the rosy cross, to
have the patience which is not lostamidst the clouds of folly. When the
consideration of the tarot is undertaken inaccordance with the higher law of symbolism,
the true tarot is symbolism. Itspeaks no other language and offers no other

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signs. Given the inward meaning ofits emblems, they do become a kind
of alphabet which is capable of indefinitecombinations and makes true sense in all on
the highest plane. It offers akey to the mysteries in a manner which
is not arbitrary, and has notbeen read in But the wrong symbolical stories

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have been told concerning it, andthe wrong history has been given. In
every published work which so far hasdealt with the subject. It has been
intimated by two or three writers thatat least an respect of the meanings.
This is unavoidably the case, becausefew are acquainted with them. While these

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few hold by transmission under pledges andcannot betray their trust. The suggestion is
fantastic on the surface, for thereseems a certain anti climax, and the
proposition that a particular interpretation of fortunetelling leart de terier le carte can be
reserved for the sons of doctrine.The fact remains, notwithstanding that a secret

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tradition exists regarding the Taro, andthere is always the possibility that some minor
arcana of the mysteries may be madepublic with the flourish of trumpets. It
will be as well to go beforethe event, and to warn those who
are curious in such matters, thatany revelation will contain only a third part

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of the Earth and the sea,and a third part of the stars of
heaven, and respect of the symbolism. This is for the simple reason that
neither in root matter nor in developmenthas more been put into writing, so
that much will remain to be saidafter any pretended unveiling. The guardians of

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certain temples of initiation, who keepwatch over mysteries of this order, have
therefore no cause for alarm. Inmy preface to the Tarot of the Bohemians,
which, rather by an accident ofthings, has recently come to be
reissued after a long period, Ihave said what was then possible or seemed

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most necessary. The present work isdesigned, more especially, as I have
intimated, to introduce a rectified setof the cards themselves, and to tell
the unadorned truth concerning them, sofar as this is possible in the outer
circles. As regards the sequence ofgreater symbols, their ultimate and highest meaning

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lies deeper than the common language ofpicture or hieroglyph. This will be understood
by those who have received some partof the secret tradition. As regards the
verbal meanings allocated here to the moreimportant trump cards, they are designed to
set aside the follies and impostures ofpast attributions, to put those who have

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the gift of insight on the righttrack, and to take care, within
the limits of my possibilities, thatthey are the truth so far as they
go. It is regrettable in severalaspects that I must confess to certain reservations.
But there is a question of honorat issue. Furthermore, between the

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follies on the one side, ofthose who know nothing of the tradition,
yet are, in their own opinionthe exponents of something called occult science and
philosophy, and on the other side, between the make believe of a few
writers who have received part of thetradition and think that it constitutes a legal
title to sea scattered dust in theeyes of the world without I feel that

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the time has come to say whatit is possible to say, so that
the effect of current charlatanism and unintelligencemay be reduced to a minimum. We
shall see in due course that thehistory of Tarot cards is largely of the
negative kind, and that when theissues are cleared by the dissipation of reveries

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and gratuitous speculations expressed in the termsof 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 puta lying spirit into the mouths of the
first expositors, and the later occultwriters have done little more than reproduced the

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first false testimony in the good faithof an intelligence unawakened to the issues of
research. As it so happens,all expositions have worked within a very narrow
range, and oh comparatively speaking littleto the inventive faculty. One brilliant opportunity
has at least been missed, forit has not so far occurred to anyone

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that the taro might perhaps have doneduty and even originated as a secret symbolical
language of the Albagins and sex.I commend this suggestion to the lineal descendants
and the spirit of Gabriel Rosetti andEugene Aru, to mister Harold Bailey,
as another new light on the Renaissance, and as a taper at least in

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the darkness, which with great respectmight be serviceable to the zealous and all
searching mind of missus Cooper Oakley.Think only with the supposed testimony of watermarks
on paper might gain from the tarotcard of the Pope or Heirophant in connection
with the notion of a secret Albigensianpatriarch, of which mister Bailey has found

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in these same watermarks so much materialto his purpose. Think only for a
moment about the card of the HighPriestess as representing the Albigensian Church itself,
and think of the tower struck bylightning as typifying the desired destruction of Papal
Rome, the city on the sevenHills, with a pontiff and his temporal

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power cast down from the spiritual edificewhen it is riven by the wrath of
God nature. The possibilities are sonumerous and persuasive that they almost deceive in
their expression one of the elect whohas invented them. But there is more
even than this, though I scarcelydare to cite it. When the time

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came for the tarot cards to bethe subject of their first formal explanation,
the archaeologist Court de Gibelin reproduced someof 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

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such from the cards of Italia,the Marseillestero, and others still current in
France. I am not a goodjudge in such matters, but the fact
that every one of the Trump's majormight have answered for watermark purposes is shown
by the cases which I have quoted, and by one most remarkable example of

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the ace of cups. I shouldcall it an eucharistic emblem after the manner
of a suborium, but this doesnot signify at the moment. The point
is that mister Harold Bailey gives sixanalogous devices in his New Light on the
Renaissance, being water marks on paperof the seventeenth century, which he claims

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to be of albagence and origin,and to represent sacramental and gral emblems.
Had he only heard of the Taro, had he known that these cards of
divination, cards of fortune, cardsof all vagrant arts were perhaps current at
the period in the south of France, I think that his enchanting but all

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too fantastic hypothesis might have dilated stillmore largely in the atmosphere of his dream
we should, no doubt have hada vision of Christian gnosticism, Manicheism and
all that he understands, but pureprimitive Gospel shining behind the pictures. I
do not look through such glasses,and I can only commend the subject to

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his attention at a later period.It is mentioned here that I may introduce
with an unheard of wonder the marvelsof arbitrary speculation as to the history of
the cards. With reference to theirform and number. It should scarcely be
necessary to enumerate them, for theymust be almost commonly familiar. But as

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it is precarious to assume anything,and as there are also other reasons,
I will tabulate them briefly as follows. Class one, Section two, Trump's
major otherwise greater Arcana one. Themagus, magician or juggler, the cast
of the dice and mountebank. Inthe world of vulgar trickery. This is

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the calpartage interpretation, and it hasthe same correspondence with the real symbolical meaning
that the use of the taro andfortune telling has with its mystic construction according
to the secret science of symbolism.I should add that many independent students of
the subject following their own lights haveproduced individual sequences of meaning in respect of

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the trump's major and their lights aresometimes suggestive, but they are not the
true lights. For example, eliphusLevi says that the magis signifies that unity
which is the mother of numbers.Others say that it is the divine unity,
and one of the latest French commentatorsconsiders that in its general sense,

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it is the will. Two thehigh priestess, the hope joan or female
pontiff. Early expositors have sought toterm 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, inwhich case the priestess corresponds to the idea

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of the Shekinayah. She is thesecret tradition and the higher sense of the
instituted mysteries. Three the Empress,who is sometimes represented with full face while
her correspondence, the Emperor, isin profile. As there has been some
tendency to ascribe a symbolical significance tothis distinction, it seems desirable to say

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that it carries no inner meaning.The Empress has been connected with the ideas
of universal fecundity, and in ageneral sense with activity. Four the Emperor,
by imputation the spouse of the former. He is occasionally represented as wearing,
in addition to his personal insignia,the stars or ribbons of some order

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of chivalry. I mention this toshow that the cards are a medley of
old and new emblems. Those whoinsist upon the evidence of the one may
deal if they can, with theother. No effectual argument for the antiquity
of a particular design can be drawnfrom the fact that it incorporates old material.
But there is also none which canbe based on sporadic novelties, the

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intervention of which may signify only theunintelligent hand of an editor or of a
late draftsman. Five. The Highpriest or herophant, called also spiritual Father,
and more commonly and obviously the Pope. It seems even to have been
named the Abbot, and then itscorrespondence, the High Priestess, was abbess

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or mother of the convent. Bothare arbitrary names. The insignia of the
figures are papal, and in suchcase the High Priestess is and can be,
only the Church, to whom popeand 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. Six, the lovers or marriage.

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This symbol has undergone many variations,as might be expected from its subject.
In the eighteenth century form by whichit first became known to the world of
archaeological research, it is really acard of married life, showing father and
mother with their child placed between themand the pagan cupid above. As the
act of flying his shaft is ofcourse a misapplied emblem. The cupid is

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of love beginning, rather than oflove in its fullness, guarding the fruit
thereof. The card is said tohave been entitled similocrumfidae, 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,

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so to speak, the gloss ofa commentator moralizing. It has these,
but it has other and higher aspects. Seven. The chariot. This is
represented in some extent codices as beingdrawn by two sphinxes, and the device
is in consonance with the symbolism,but it must not be supposed that such

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was its original form. The variationwas invented to support a particular historical hypothesis.
In the eighteenth century, white horseswere yoked to the car. As
regards its usual name, the lesserstands for the greater. It is really
the king in his triumph, typifying, however, the victory which creates kingship

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as its natural consequence, and notthe vested royalty of the fourth card m
court de Gebelin said that it wasOsiris triumphing the conquering in springtime, having
vanquished the obstacles of winter. Weknow now that Osiris rising from the dead
is not represented by such obvious symbolism. Other animals than horses have also been

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used to draw the cirrus triumphalus,as, for example, a lion and
a leopard eight fortitude. This isone of the cardinal virtues of which I
shall speak later. The female figureis usually represented as closing the mouth of
a lion. In the earlier form, which is printed by Courte de Gabeln,

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she is obviously opening it. Thefirst alternative is better symbolically, but
either is an instance of strength inits conventional understanding, and conveys the idea
of mastery. It has been saidthat the figure represents organic force, moral
force, and the principle of allforce. Nine. The Hermit, as

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he is termed in in parlance,stands next on the list. He is
also the Capucian, and, inmore philosophical language, the Sage. He
is said to be in search ofthat truth which is located far off in
the sequence, and of justice whichhas preceded him on the way. But
this is a card of attainment,as we shall see later, rather than

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a card of quest. It issaid also that his lantern contains the light
of occult science, and that hisstaff is a magic Wand these interpretations are
comparable in every respect to the divinatoryand fortune telling meanings with which I shall
have to deal in their turn.The diabolism of both is that they are

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true after their own manner, butthat they miss all the high things to
which the greater arcana should be allocated. It is as if a man who
knows in his heart that all roadslead to the heights, and that God
nature is that the great height ofall, should choose the way of perdition
or the way of folly, asthe path of his own attainment. Elevas

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Levi has allocated this card to prudence, but in so doing he has been
actuated by the wish to fill agap which would otherwise occur. In the
symbolism. The four cardinal virtues arenecessary to an ideological sequence like the Trump's
major, but they must not betaken only in that first sense, which
exists for the use and consolation ofhim who, in these days of half

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penny journalism is called the man inthe street. In their proper understanding,
they are the correlatives of the councilsof perfection when these have been similarly re
expressed, and they read as followsa transcendental justice, the counter equilibrium of
the scales when they have been overweightedso that they dip heavily on the side

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of God nature. The corresponding councilis to use loaded dice when you play
for high stakes with Diabolis. Theaxe is at deuce otny hill b.
Divine ecstasy as a counterpoise to somethingcalled temperance, the sign of which is
I believe the extinction of lights onthe tavern. The corresponding council is to

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drink only of new wine in theKingdom of the Father, because God nature
is all in all. The axiomis that man, being a reasonable being,
must get intoxicated with God Nature.The imputed case in point is Spinoza
c. The royal state of fortitude, which is the state of a tower

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of ivory and a house of gold. But it is God nature and not
the man who has become turius fortitudinousafaci in amici, and out of that
house the enemy has been cast.The corresponding council is that a man must
not spare himself, even in thepresence of death, but he must be

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certain that his sacrifice shall be ofany open course, the best that will
ensure his end. The axiom isthat the strength which is raised to such
a degree that a man dares losehimself, shall show him how nature God
is found. And as to suchrefuge, dare therefore and learn d Prudence

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is the economy which follows the lineof least resistance, that the soul may
get back whence it came. Itis a doctrine of divine parsimony and conservation
of energy. Because of the stress, the terror, and the manifest impertinences
of this life. The corresponding councilis that true prudence is concerned with the

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one thing needful, and the axiomis waste not want not. The conclusion
of the whole matter is a businessproposition 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 ofsupply and demand. I have mentioned these

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few matters at this point for twosimple 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 layswaste the present world more pietously. B
Because, in order to remedy theimperfections of the old notions, it is

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highly needful on occasion to empty termsand phrases of their accepted significance, that
they may receive a new and moreadequate meaning. Ten the wheel of fortune.
There is a current manual of Cartermancy, which has obtained a considerable vogue
in England, and amidst a greatscatter meal of curious things to no purpose,

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has intersected a few serious subjects.In its last and largest addition,
it treats in one section of thetaro, which, if I interpret the
author rightly, it regards cards frombeginning to end as the wheel of fortune.
This expression being understood in my ownsense, I have no objection to

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such an inclusive, though conventional description. It obtains in all the worlds,
and I wonder that it has notbeen adopted previously as the most appropriate name
on the side of common fortune telling. It is also the title of one
of the trumps major that indeed ofour concern at the moment. As my
subtitle shows, of recent years,this has suffered many fantastic presentations and one

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hypothetical reconstruction which is suggestive in itssymbolism. The wheel has seven radi.
In the eighteenth century, the ascendingand descending animals were really of nondescript character,
one of them having a human head. At the summit was another monster
with the body of an indeterminate beast, wings on shoulders and a crown on

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head. It carried two wands inits claws. These are replaced in the
reconstruction by a herminubus rising with thewheel, a sphinx cochont at the summit,
and a typhon on the descending side. Here is another instance of an
invention in support of a hypothesis.But if the latter be set aside,

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the grouping is symbolically correct and canpass as such. Eleven. Justice,
that the Taro, though it isof all reasonable antiquity, is not of
time immemorial, is shown by thiscard, which could have been presented in
a much more archaic manner. Those, however, who have gifts of discernment

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in matters of this kind will notneed to be told that age is in
no sense of the essence of theconsideration. The right of closing the lodge
in the third craft grade of masonrymay belong to the late eighteenth century,
but the fact signifies nothing. Itis still the summary of all the instituted
and official mysteries. The female figureof the eleventh card is said to be

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Astria, who personified the same virtueand is represented by the same symbols.
This god is notwithstanding and notwithstanding theVulgarian Cupid. The terot is not of
Roman mythology or of Greek either.Its presentation of justice is supposed to be
one of the four cardinal virtues includedin the sequence of greater Arcana. But

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as it so happens, fourth emblemis wanting, and it became necessary for
the commentators to discover it at allcosts. They did what it was possible
to do, and yet the lawsof research have never succeeded in extricating the
missing persephony 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

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wanted from the symbol of the hangedman, wherein he deceived himself. The
tarot has therefore its justice, itstemperance also and its fortitude, but owing
to a curious omission, it doesnot offer us any type of prudence,
though it may be admitted that insome respects the isolation of the hermit pursuing

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a solitary path by the light ofhis own lamp, gives to those who
can receive it. A certain highcouncil in respect of the Villa prudent Taie
twelve the hangedman. This is thesymbol which is supposed to represent prudence,
and eliphus Levi says, in hismost shallow and plausible manner, that it

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is the adept bound by his engagements. The figure of a man is suspended
head downwards from a gibbet to whichhe is attached by a rope about one
of his ankles. The arms arebound behind him, and one leg is
crossed over the other. According toanother and indeed the prevailing interpretation, he

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signifies sacrifice. But all current meaningsattributed to this card are cardomancists and tuitions,
apart from any real value. Onthe 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 looselyattached to a short stake driven into

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the ground thirteen death. The methodof presentation is almost invariable and embodies a
bourgeois form of symbolism. The sceneis the field of life, and amidst
ordinary rank vegetation, there are livingarms and heads protruding from the ground.
One of the heads is crowned,and a skeleton with a great scythe is

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in the act of mowing it.The transparent and unescapable meaning is death,
but the alternatives allocated to the symbolare change and transformation. Other heads have
been swept from their place previously,but it is in its current and patent
meaning, more especially a card ofthe death of kings. In the exotic

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sense. It has been said tosignify the ascent of the spirit in the
divine spheres, creation and destruction,perpetual movement, and so forth. Fourteen
Temperance, the winged figure of afemale, who, in opposition to all
doctrine concerning the hierarchy of angels,is usually allocated to this order of ministering

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spirits, is pouring liquid from onepicture to another. In his last work
on the Taro, doctor Pappus abandonsthe traditional form and depicts a woman wearing
an Egyptian headdress. The first thingwhich seems clear on the surface is that
the entire symbol has no especial connectionwith temperance, and the fact that this

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designation has always obtained for the cardoffers a very obvious instance of a meaning
behind a meaning which is the tidaland chief to consideration in respect of the
tarot as a whole. Fifteen theDevil. In the eighteenth century, this
card seems to have been rather asymbol of merely animal impudicity, except for

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a fantastic head dress. The chieffigure is entirely naked. It has bat
like wings, and the hands andfeet are represented by the claws of a
bird. In the right hand thereis 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

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claws are those of a harpie havespoken at random. There is no better
ground for the alternative suggestion that theyare eagle's claws attached by a cord.
Depending From their collars to the pedestalon which the figure is mounted are two
small demons, presumably male and female. These are tailed, but not wings.

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Since eighteen fifty six, the influenceof Elephus Levi and his doctrine of
occultism has changed the face of thiscard, and it now appears as a
pseudo baphometic figure with the head ofa goat and a great torch between the
horns. It is seated instead oferect, and in place of the generative
organs there is the hermetic Caducius.In le Tero di Vinetour of Pappus,

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the small demons are replaced by nakedhuman beings male and female, who are
yoked only to each other. Theauthor may be felicitated on this improved symbolism.
Sixteen The Tower Struck by Lightning.Its alternative titles are Castle of Plutus,
gods Nature's House, and the Towerof Babel. In the last case,

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the figures falling therefrom are held tobe Nimrod and his minister. It
is assuredly a card of confusion,and the design corresponds broadly speaking to any
of the designations except my son Dieu, unless we are to understand that the
house of God Nature has been abandonedand the veil of the temple rent.

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It is a little surprising that thedevice has not so far been allocated to
the destruction of Solomon's Temple, whenthe lightning would symbolize the fire and sword
with which that edifice was visited bythe King of the Chaldees. Seventeen.
The Star, Dog Star or Sirius, also called fantastically the star of the

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Magi. Grouped about it are sevenminor luminaries, and beneath it is a
naked female figure with her left kneeupon the earth and her right foot upon
the water. She is in theact of pouring fluids from two vessels.
A bird is perched on a treenear her. For this, a butterfly
on a rose has been substituted insome later cards. So also the star

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has been called that of hope.This is one of the cards which court
Digi Ghibbelin describes as holy Egyptian,that is to say, in his own
reverie eighteen the Moon. Some eighteenthcentury cards show the luminary on its waning
side. In the debased edition ofAtaya, it is the moon at night

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in her plenitude, set in aheaven of stars. Of recent years,
the moon is shown on the sideof her increase. In nearly all presentations,
she is shining brightly and shedding themoisture of fertilizing dew and great drops.
Beneath there are two towers, betweenwhich a path winds to the verge
of the horizon. Two dogs,or alternatively a wolf and a dog are

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baying at the moon, and inthe foreground there is water through which a
crayfish moves towards the land. NineteenThe Sun. The luminary is distinguished in
older cards by chief rays that arewaved insalient alternately, and by secondary seas
alien rays. It appears to shedits influence on Earth not only by light

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and heat, but like the moon, by drops of dew. Courte de
Gibelin termed these tiers of gold andof pearl, just as he identified the
lunar dew with the tears of Isis. Beneath the dog star there is a
wall, suggesting an enclosure, asit might be a walled garden, wherein
are two children, either naked orlightly clothed, facing a water and gamboling

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or running hand in hand. ElephusLevi says that these are sometimes replaced by
a spinner unwinding destinies, and otherwiseby a much better symbol, a naked
child mounted on a white horse anddisplaying a scarlet standard twenty the last judgment.

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I have spoken of this symbol already, the form of which is essentially
invariable. Even in the Itaia setan angel sound his trumpet per sepulchora riigenum,
and the dead arise. It matterslittle that Italia omits the angel,
or that doctor PAPIs substitutes a ridiculousfigure, which, however, in consonance

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with the general motive of that Taroset 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 whichit presents to the eye, we should
feel very sure of our ground onthe surface. At least it is and
can be, only the resurrection ofthat triad father, mother child, whom

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we have met with already in theeighth card. M Borregat hazards the suggestion
that esoterically it is the symbol ofevolution, of which it carries none of
the signs. Others say that itsignifies renewal, which is obvious enough,
that it is the triad of humanlife, that it is the generative force

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of the earth and eternal life.Court de Ghibelin makes himself impossible as usual,
and points out that if the gravestoneswere removed, it could be accepted
as a symbol of creation. Twentyone, which, however, in most
of the arrangements, is the ciphercard number nothing, the fool mate or

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unwise man. Court de Gibelin placesit at the head of the whole series
as the zero or negative, whichis presupposed by numeration and as this is
a simpler so also it is abetter arrangement. It has been abandoned because
in later times the cards have beenattributed to the letters of the Hebrew alphabet,

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and there has been apparently some difficultyabout allocating the zero symbol satisfactorily in
the sequence of letters, all ofwhich signify numbers. In the present reference
of the card to the letter shinwhich corresponds to two hundred, the difficulty,
or the unreason remains. The truthis that the real arrangement of the
cards has never transpired. The foolcarries a wallet. He is looking over

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his shoulder and does not know thathe is on the brink of a precipice,
But a dog or other animal somecall it a tiger, is attacking
him from behind, and he hashurried to his destruction unawares. Ataya has
given a justifiable variation of this cardas generally understood, in the form of

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a court jester with cap bells andmotley garb. The other descriptions say that
the wallet contains the bearers follies andvices, which seems bourgeois and arbitrary.
Twenty two. The world, theuniverse, or time, the four living
creatures of the apocalypse and Ezequiel's vision, attributed to the evangelists in Christian symbolism,

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are grouped about an elliptic garland,as if it were a chain of
flowers, intended to symbolize all sensiblethings. Within this garland there is the
figure of a woman whom the windhas gird about the loins with the light
scarf, and this is all hervesture. She is in the act of
dancing and has a wand in eitherhand. It is eloquent as an image

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of the swirl of the sensitive lifeof joy attained in the body of the
soul's intoxication in the earthly paradise,but still guarded by the divine watchers,
as if by the powers and thegraces of the holy name Tetragamaton, those
four ineffable letters which are sometimes attributedto the mystical beasts. Elephus Levi calls

(36:44):
the garland a crown and reports thatthe figure represents truth. Doctor PAPIs connects
it with the absolute and the realizationof the great work. For yet others,
it is a symbol of humanity andthe eternal reward of a life that
has been well spent. It shouldbe noted that in the four quarters of
the garland there are four flowers distinctlymarked. According to p Christian, the

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garland should be formed of roses,and this is the kind of chain which
Eliphus Levi says is less easily brokenthan a chain of iron. Perhaps by
antithesis, but for the same reason, the iron crown of Peter may lie
more lightly on the heads of sovereignpontiffs than the crown of gold on kings

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Class two, Section three. Thefour suits otherwise lesser arcana. The resources
of interpretation have been lavished, ifnot exhausted, on the twenty two trumps
major, the symbolism of which isunquestionable. There remain the four suits being
wands or scepters x hypothesi. Inthe archaeology of the subject, the antecedents

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of diamonds and modern cards, cupscorresponding to hearts, swords which answer to
clubs as the weapon of chivalry isin relation to the peasant's quarter staff or
the alstaane bludgeon, and finally pentaclesalso called deniers and money, which are
the prototypes of spades in the oldas in the new suits there are ten

(38:16):
numbered cards, but in the tarotthere are four court cards allocated to each
suit or a knight in addition toKing, Queen and nave. The nave
is a page valet or daimonceaux.Most correctly, he is an esquire,
presumably in the service of the night. But there are certain rare sets in

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which the page becomes a made ofhonour, thus pairing the sexes. In
the tetrat of the court cards.There are naturally distinctive features in respect of
the several pictures by which I meanthat the King of Wands is not exactly
the same personage as the King ofcups, even after allowance has been made
for the different emblems that they bear. But the symbolism resides in their rank

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and in the suit to which theybelong. So also the smaller cards,
which until now have never been issuedpictorially in these our modern days, depend
on the particular meaning attached to theirnumbers in connection with the particular suit I
reserve. Therefore, the details ofthe lesser arcana till I come to speak

(39:23):
in the second part of the Rectifiedand Perfected Taro, which accompanies this work.
The consensus of divinatory meanings attached bothto the greater and lesser symbols.
Belongs to the third part. Endof Part one, Section three.