The Tarot is a pack of cards which is still used in southern Europe for card-playing and fortune-telling. It differs very little from ordinary playing cards, which are a reduced Tarot pack. It has the same Kings, Queens, Aces, tens, and so on.
Tarot cards have been known since the end of the fourteenth century, when they already existed among the Spanish gypsies. They were the first cards that appeared in Europe.
There are several variations on the Tarot, consisting of different numbers of cards. It is considered that the most exact reproduction of the oldest Tarot is the so-called "Tarot of Marseilles".
This pack consists of 78 cards. Of these, 52 are ordinary playing-cards with the addition of one "picture" card in each suit, namely the "Knight", which is placed between the Queen and the Knave. This makes 56 cards divided into four suits, two black and two red, named as follows: Wands (clubs), Cups (hearts), Swords (spades), and Pentacles or discs (diamonds).
There are in addition 22 numbered cards with special names which are outside the four suits.
1. The Juggler.
2. The High Priestess.
3. The Empress.
4. The Emperor.
5. The Hierophant.
6. Temptation.
7. The Chariot.
8. Justice.
9. The Wheel of Life.
10. Strength.
11. The Hanged Man.
12. Death.
13. Temperance (Time).
14. The Devil.
15. The Tower.
16. The Star.
17. The Moon.
18. The Sun.
19. The Day of Judgment.
20. The World.
0. The Fool.
According to the legend, the pack of Tarot cards represents an Egyptian hieroglyphic book consisting of 78 tablets which have come down to us in a miraculous manner.
It is known that in the library of Alexandria, besides papyri and parchments, there were many such books, often consisting of a great number of clay or wooden tablets.
With regard to the further history of the Tarot cards, it has been said that in the beginning they were medallions stamped with designs and numbers, later metallic plates, then leather cards, and finally made out of paper.
Outwardly the Tarot is a pack of cards, but in its inner meaning it is something altogether different. It is a "book" of philosophical and psychological content, which can be read in many different ways.
I will give an example of a philosophical interpretation of the whole idea or general content of the Book of the Tarot — its metaphysical title, as it were — which will plainly show the reader that this "book" could not have been devised by the illiterate gypsies of the 14th century.
1st part — 21 cards numbered from 1 to 21.
2nd part — one card numbered 0.
3rd part — 56 cards, i.e. four suits of 14 cards each.
The second part is a link between the first and the third, because all the 56 cards of the third part are together considered equal to the card numbered zero. [Saint Martin, the French philosopher and mystic of the 18th century (Le Philosophe Inconnu) called his principal book Tableau Naturel des Rapports qui existent entre Dieu, l'Homme et l'Univers. The book consists of 22 chapters representing commentaries on the 22 principal Tarot cards. — PDO]
Let us imagine the 21 cards of the first part laid out in the form of a triangle, with seven cards to each side; in the centre of the triangle a point represented by the zero card (the second part); and the triangle enclosed in a square consisting of 56 cards (the third part), 14 to each side of the square. [Fig. 4].
Now we have a representation of the metaphysical relation between God, Man, and the Universe, or between (1) the noumenal world (or objective world), (2) the psychic world of man, and (3) the phenomenal worlds (or subjective world), i.e., the physical world.
The triangle is God (the Trinity) or the noumenal world.
The square (four elements) is the visible, physical, or phenomenal world.
The point is the soul of man, and both worlds are reflected in man's soul.
The square is equal to the point. This means that all the visible world is contained in the consciousness of man, that is to say, is created in the soul of man and is his representation. The soul of man is a point having no dimension in the centre of the triangle of the objective world.
It is clear that such an idea could not have appeared among ignorant people, and it is clear that the Tarot is more than a pack of playing and fortune-telling cards.
It is possible to express the idea of the Tarot also in the form of a triangle in which is enclosed a square (the material universe) in which is enclosed a point (man). [Fig. 5]
First of all it is necessary to observe that the Tarot is a "philosophical machine", which in its meaning and possible application has much in common with the philosophical machines that the philosophers of the Middle Ages sought and tried to invent.
There is a hypothesis according to which the invention of the Tarot is attributed to Raymond Lully, a philosopher and alchemist of the 13th century and author of many mystical and occult books, who actually put forward a scheme of a "philosophical machine" in his book Ars Magna. With the help of this machine it was possible to put questions and receive answers to them. The machine consisted of concentric circles with words designating the ideas of different worlds arranged on them in a certain order. When certain words were put in a definite position in relation to one another for the formulation of a question, other words gave the answer.
The Tarot has a great deal in common with this "machine". In its purpose it is a kind of philosophical abacus.
a. It gives a possibility of setting out in different graphic forms (like the above-mentioned triangle, point, and square) ideas which are difficult, if not impossible, to put into words.
b. It is an instrument of the mind which can serve for training the capacity for combination, etc.
c. It is an appliance for exercising the mind, for accustoming it to new and wider concepts, to thinking in a world of higher dimensions, and to understanding symbols.
The system of the Tarot, in its deeper, wider, and more varied sense, stands in the same relation to metaphysics and mysticism as a system of notation, decimal or other, stands in relation to mathematics. The Tarot may be only an attempt to create such a system, but even the attempt is interesting.
In order to become acquainted with the Tarot it is necessary to be familiar with the ideas of the Cabala, Alchemy, Magic, and Astrology.
According to the very probable opinion of several commentators on the Tarot, it is a synopsis of the Hermetic sciences with their various sub-divisions, or an attempt at such a synopsis.
All these sciences constitute a single system of the psychological study of man in his relations to the world of noumena (to God, to the world of spirit) and to the world of phenomena (the visible physical world).
The letters of the Hebrew alphabet and the various allegories in the Cabala; the names of metals, acids, and salts in alchemy; the names of planets and constellations in astrology; the names of good and evil spirits in magic — all these were but a conventional hidden language for expressing psychological ideas.
Open study of psychology, especially in its wider sense, was impossible. Torture and the stake awaited investigators.
If we look still further into past ages we shall see still more fear of all attempts to study man. How was it possible amidst all the darkness, ignorance, and superstition of those times to speak and act openly? The open study of psychology is under suspicion even in our time, which is considered enlightened.
The true essence of Hermetic science was therefore hidden beneath the symbols of alchemy, astrology, and the Cabala. Of these, alchemy took as its outer aim the preparation of gold, or the discovery of the elixir of life; astrology and the Cabala, divination; and Magic, the subjugation of spirits. But when the true alchemist spoke of the search for gold, he spoke of the search for gold in the soul of man. When he spoke of the elixir of life, he spoke of the search for eternal life and the ways to immortality. In these cases he called "gold" what in the Gospels is called the Kingdom of Heaven and what in Buddhism is called Nirvana. When the true astrologer spoke of constellations and planets, he spoke of the constellations and planets in the soul of man, i.e., of the properties of the human soul and its relations to God and the world. When the true Cabalist spoke of the Name of God he searched for this Name in the soul of man and in Nature, and not in dead books nor in the Biblical text, as did the scholastic Cabalists. When the true Magician spoke of the subjugation of "spirits", elementals, and the like to the will of man, he meant by this the subjugation to one single will of the different "I"s of man, his different desires and tendencies.
The Cabala, Alchemy, Astrology, and Magic are parallel symbolical systems of psychology and metaphysics.
In one of his books, Oswald Wirth, a mason and painter, speaks in a very interesting way about Alchemy:
Alchemy in reality studies metaphysical metallurgy, i.e., the operations which Nature worked in living beings; the deepest science of life was here hidden under strange symbols....
But such immense ideas would burst brains that were too narrow. Not all alchemists were geniuses. Greed attracted to Alchemy men who were looking for gold, who were alien to any esotericism; they understood everything literally, and their follies often knew no bounds.
From this fantastic kitchen of vulgar charlatans came modern chemistry. But true philosophers worthy of the name, lovers or friends of wisdom, carefully separated the fine from the coarse with caution and foresight, as was required by the Emerald Tablet of Hermes Trismegistus; i.e., they rejected the meaning belonging to the dead letter and left for themselves only the inner spirit of the doctrine.
In our time we confound the wise with the foolish and reject entirely all that does not bear the official seal of approval.
The study of the Name of God in its manifestations constitutes the basis of the Cabala. "Jehovah" is spelt in Hebrew with four letters, Yod, He, Vau, and He. These four letters have been given a symbolical meaning. The first letter expresses the active principle, initiative; the second, the passive principle, inertia; the third, equilibrium, "form"; and the fourth, result or latent energy. The Cabalists affirm that every phenomenon and every object consists of these four principles, i.e., that every object and every phenomenon consists of the Divine Name. The study of this name (in Greek the Tetragrammaton or the word of four letters) and the finding of it in everything constitute the chief aim of Cabalistic philosophy.
According to Cabalists, the four principles permeate and compose each and every thing. Therefore, by finding these four principles in things and phenomena of quite different categories, between which he had previously seen nothing in common, a man begins to see the analogy between these things. Gradually he becomes convinced that everything in the world is constructed according to the same laws, the same plan. From a certain point of view, the enriching of the intellect and its growth consist in the widening of its capacity for finding analogies. Study of the law of the four letters, or of the Name of Jehovah, can therefore constitute a means for widening consciousness. The idea is quite clear. If the Name of God is really in everything (if God is present in everything), then everything should be analogous to everything else, the smallest part should be analogous to the whole, the speck of dust analogous to the Universe, and all analogous to God. "As above, so below".
Speculative philosophy arrives at the conclusion that the world undoubtedly exists, but that our conception of the world is false. This means that the causes of our sensations, which lie outside ourselves, really exist; but that our conception of these causes is false. Or, to put it another way, it means that the world in itself, i.e., the world by itself, without our perception of it, exists; but we do not know it and can never reach it because all that is accessible to our study, i.e., the whole world of phenomena or manifestations, is only our percept of the world. We are surrounded by the wall of our own percepts, and are unable to look over this wall into the real world.
The Cabala aims at studying the world as it is, the world in itself. The other "mystical" sciences have precisely the same object.
In Alchemy, the four principles of which the world consists are called the four elements: fire, water, air, and earth, which exactly correspond in their meaning to the four letters of the name of Jehovah.
In Magic, the four elements correspond to the four classes of spirits: spirits of fire, water, air, and earth (elves, water-sprites, sylphs, and gnomes).
In Astrology, the four elements correspond, very remotely, to the four cardinal points, the east, the south, the west, and the north, which, in their turns, sometimes serve to designate the various divisions of the human being.
In the Apocalypse they are the four beasts, one with the head of a bull, the second with the head of a lion, the third with the head of an eagle, and the fourth with the head of a man.
All these together are the Sphinx, the image of the four principles merged into one.
The Tarot is, as it were, a combination of the Cabala, Alchemy, Magic, and Astrology.
The four principles or the four letters of the Name of God, or the four alchemical elements, or the four classes of spirits, or the four divisions of man (the four Apocalyptic beasts) correspond to the four suits of the Tarot: wands, cups, swords, and pentacles.
Each suit, each side of the square which as a whole is equal to the point, represents one of the elements, or governs one of the four classes of spirits. Wands are fire or elves, cups are water or water-sprites, swords are air or sylphs, and pentacles are earth or gnomes.
Moreover, in each suit the King stands for the first principle or fire, the Queen for the second principle or water, the Knight for the third principle or air, and the Page (Knave) for the fourth principle or earth.
The ace again signifies fire; the two, water; the three, air; the four, earth. Then the fourth principle, combining in itself the first three, becomes the beginning of a new square. The four becomes the first principle; the five, the second; the six, the third; and the seven, the fourth. Further, the seven again is the first principle; the eight, the second; the nine, the third; and the ten, the fourth, thus completing the last square.
Further, the black suits (wands and swords) express active qualities: energy, will, initiative; and the red suits (cups and pentacles) express passive qualities and inertia. Then the first two suits, wands and cups, signify good, that is, favourable conditions or friendly relations, while the last two, swords and pentacles, signify evil, that is unfavourable conditions or hostile relations.
In this way each of the 56 cards signifies something active or passive, good or evil, arising either from man's will or coming to him from without. Further, the meanings of the cards are complicated in different ways by a combination of the symbolical meanings of the suits and the numbers. Altogether the 56 cards present, as it were, a complete picture of all the possibilities of the life of man. This is the principle on which is based the use of the Tarot for divination.
But the philosophical significance of the Tarot is incomplete without the 22 cards of the "Major Arcana". These cards have, first, a numerical meaning, and then a very complicated symbolical one. Taken in their numerical aspect, the cards form equilateral triangles, squares, and similar figures which have different meanings according to the cards composing them.
I have already referred to the book by the "Unknown Philosopher", Saint Martin — A Natural Table of the Relations between God, Man, and the Universe.
It is precisely in the Tarot, says one of the modern followers of St Martin, that the "Unknown Philosopher" has found the mysterious links connecting God, Man, and the Universe.
Dogme et Rituel de la Haute Magie, by Eliphas Levi (1853) [Transcendental Magic, its Doctrine and Ritual, by Eliphas Levi. Translated, annotated by Arthur Edward Waite (1923). — PDO] is also written on the plan of the Tarot. To each of the 22 cards Eliphas Levi dedicated two chapters, one chapter in the first part and one in the second. He refers to the Tarot in his other books, Histoire de la Magie, La Clef des Grands Mystères, La Grande Arcane, and others.
The commentators on the Tarot always refer to the History of Magic by P. Christian (in French, 1854). This book gives an astrological interpretation of the 56 cards.
Further, there are books by Guaita with strange allegorical titles: Au Seuil du Mystère, Le Temple de Satan, and La Clef de la Magie Noire. The first of these books is an introduction, the second is dedicated to the first seven cards of the 22, the third to the second seven cards, while the fourth, which should have completed this detailed commentary of the Tarot, did not appear.
Interesting material for the study of the Tarot is given by the works of Oswald Wirth, who restored the Tarot cards and published besides several books dedicated to Hermetic and Masonic symbolism.
In English there are books by A E Waite, who gives short commentaries on the Tarot pack as printed in England and furnishes a small bibliographical index of works on the Tarot. Further material for the study of the Tarot is given by Bourgeat, Decrespe, Pickard, and by the English translator of the Cabala, MacGregor Mathers.
The French occultist, "Dr Papus", has two books specially devoted to the Tarot (Tarot des Bohémiens and Tarot Divinatoire). In his other books also, there are numerous references to and indications of the Tarot, although they are obscured by a great deal of cheap fantasy and pseudo-mysticism.
This list does not of course include all the literature relating to the Tarot. It must also be noted that the bibliography of the Tarot can never be complete, since the most valuable information and the keys to its understanding are to be found in works on Alchemy, Astrology, and Mysticism in general, the authors of which may not even have thought of the Tarot or not mentioned it. Thus, for instance, for the understanding of the picture of man, as presented by the Tarot, much is given by Gichtel's Theosophia Practica (17th century) and especially by the drawings in this book. Poisson's book, Théories et Symboles des Alchimistes, is useful for understanding the four symbols of the Tarot.
There are references to the Tarot in H P Blavatsky's books, both in The Secret Doctrine and in Isis Unveiled, and there are reasons for believing that Blavatsky attached great importance to the Tarot. In the theosophical publication which appeared during Blavatsky's life (Theosophical Siftings) there were two unsigned articles on the Tarot in one of which much stress was laid on the phallic element contained in the Tarot.
But speaking generally of the literature on the Tarot, acquaintance with it is most disappointing, as is acquaintance with the occult and especially the theosophical literature, because all this literature promises much more than it gives.
Each of the books mentioned contains something interesting about the Tarot. But side by side with valuable and interesting material they contain a great deal of rubbish, which is characteristic of "occult" literature in general. Namely, there is first a purely scholastic search for the meaning in the letter; second, too hasty conclusions, covering with words what the author himself has not understood, skipping difficult problems, unfinished speculations; and third, unnecessary complexity and unsymmetrical constructions. The books of "Dr Papus", who is the most popular commentator on the Tarot, are particularly rich in all this.
Yet Papus himself says that all complexity points to the imperfection of a system. He says: "Nature is very synthetic in her manifestations, and simplicity lies at the base of her outwardly most intricate phenomena." This is certainly quite correct, but precisely this simplicity is lacking in all explanations of the system of the Tarot.
For this reason even a sufficiently thorough study of all these works does not carry a reader far towards understanding the system and symbolism of the Tarot and gives no indication whatever as to the practical application of the Tarot as a key to metaphysics or psychology. All the authors who have written about the Tarot have exalted this system and called it the Universal key, but have not shown how the key is to be used.
Eliphas Levi says in Dogme et Rituel:
The universal key of magical works is that of all ancient religious dogmas — the key of the Kabalah and the Bible, the Little Key of Solomon.
Now, this Clavicle, regarded as lost for centuries, has been recovered by us, and we have been able to open the sepulchres of the ancient world, to make the dead speak, to behold the monuments of the past in all their splendour, to understand the enigmas of every sphinx, and to penetrate all sanctuaries.
Among the ancients the use of this key was permitted to none but the high priests, and even so its secret was confided only to the flower of initiates....
Now this was the key in question: a hieroglyphic and numerical alphabet, expressing by characters and numbers a series of universal and absolute ideas....
The symbolical tetrad, represented in the Mysteries of Memphis and Thebes by the four forms of the sphinx — man, eagle, lion, and bull — corresponded with the four elements of the old world (water, air, fire, and earth)....
Now these four signs, with all their analogies, explain the one word hidden in all sanctuaries.... Moreover, the sacred word was not pronounced: it was spelt, and expressed in four words, which are the four sacred words — Jod He Vau He.
The Tarot is a truly philosophical machine which keeps the mind from wandering while leaving it initiative and liberty; it is mathematics applied to the Absolute, the alliance of the positive and the ideal, a lottery of thoughts as exact as numbers, perhaps the simplest and grandest conception of human genius.
An imprisoned person, with no other book than the Tarot, if he knew only how to use it, could in a few years acquire universal knowledge and would be able to speak on all subjects with unequalled learning and inexhaustible eloquence.
P Christian in his History of Magic describes (referring to Iamblichus) the ritual of initiation into the Egyptian Mysteries in which a rôle was played by pictures similar to the 22 Arcana of the Tarot:
The initiate sees a long gallery, supported by caryatids in the form of twenty-four sphinxes, twelve on each side. On each part of the wall between two sphinxes there are fresco paintings representing mystical figures and symbols. These twenty-two pictures face one another in pairs....
As he passes the twenty-two pictures of the gallery, the initiate receives instruction from the priest....
Each arcanum, made visible and tangible by each of these pictures, is a formula of the law of human society in its relation to spiritual and material forces, the combination of which produces the phenomena of life.
In this connection I must point out that in the Egyptian symbolism which is accessible for study there are actually no traces of the 22 Tarot cards. This being so, we have to accept the proposition of Christian on faith and to assume that, as he says, it refers to the "secret crypts in the temple of Osiris", of which no trace whatever has remained and with which those Egyptian monuments that have been preserved have little in common.
The same can be said about India. There is no trace of the 22 Tarot cards, i.e., the Major Arcana, in Indian paintings or sculpture.
Oswald Wirth speaks of the language of the symbols in a very interesting way:
A symbol can always be studied from an infinite number of points of view; and each thinker has the right to discover in the symbol a new meaning corresponding to the logic of his own conceptions.
As a matter of fact symbols are precisely intended to awaken ideas sleeping in our consciousness. They arouse a thought by means of suggestion and thus cause the truth which lies hidden in the depths of our spirit to reveal itself.
In order that symbols could speak, it is essential that we should have in ourselves the germs of the ideas, the revelation of which constitutes the mission of the symbols. But no revelation whatever is possible if the mind is empty, sterile, and inert.
For this reason symbols do not appeal to everyone, cannot speak to everyone. They especially elude minds which claim to be positive and which base their reasoning only on inert scientific and dogmatic formulae. The practical utility of these formulae cannot be contested, but from the philosophical point of view they represent only frozen thought, artificially limited, made immovable to such an extent that it seems dead in comparison with the living thought, indefinite, complex, and mobile, which is reflected in symbols.
It is perfectly clear that symbols are not created for expounding what are called "scientific" truths.
By their very nature the symbols must remain elastic, vague, and ambiguous, like the sayings of an oracle. Their rôle is to unveil mysteries, leaving the mind all its freedom.
Unlike despotic orthodoxies, a symbol favours independence. Only a symbol can deliver a man from the slavery of words and formulae and allow him to attain to the possibility of thinking freely. It is impossible to avoid the use of symbols if one desires to penetrate into the secrets (mysteries), that is to say, into those truths which can so easily be transformed into monstrous delusions as soon as people attempt to express them in direct language without the help of symbolical allegories. The silence which was imposed on initiates finds its justification in this. Occult secrets require for their understanding an effort of the mind; they can illuminate the mind inwardly, but they cannot serve as a theme for rhetorical arguments. Occult knowledge cannot be transmitted either orally or in writing. It can only be acquired by deep meditation. It is necessary to penetrate deep into oneself in order to discover it. Those who seek it outside themselves are on the wrong path. It is in this sense that the words of Socrates, "Know thyself", must be understood.
In the realm of symbolism one must not attempt to be too exact. Symbols correspond to ideas which by their very nature are difficult to embrace, and which are quite impossible to reduce to scholastic definitions.
Scholastics bring to the ultimate analysis only words, that is to say, something entirely artificial. By its very nature a word is an instrument of paradox. Any theme can be defended by means of argumentation. This is so because every discipline deals not with realities reaching our consciousness by themselves, but only with their oral representations, with the fantasies of our spirit which often allows itself to be deceived with this false coin of our thought.
Hermetic philosophy is distinguished by its being able to move away from words and to immerse itself in the contemplation of things taken by themselves, in their own essence.
There is nothing surprising in the fact that under these conditions, philosophy is divided into two streams. One had its origin in the logic of Aristotle and maintained the possibility of arriving at truth by way of reasonings based on premises regarded as incontestable.
This was the official philosophy that was taught at ordinary schools, whence the term "scholastic".
The other philosophy followed another direction, always more or less occult, in the sense that it was always cloaked in mystery and passed on its teachings only under cover of enigmas, allegories, and symbols. Through Plato and Pythagoras this philosophy claimed to have come down from the Egyptian Hierophants and from the founder of their science, Hermes Trismegistus, whence it was called "Hermetic".
The disciple of Hermes was silent: he never disputed nor did he try to convince any one about anything. Enclosed within himself, he was absorbed in deep meditation and finally by this means penetrated into the secrets of Nature. He earned the confidence of Isis and entered into relations with the true initiates. Gnosis opened to him the principles of the holy ancient sciences, from which Astrology, Magic, and the Cabala were gradually formed.
These sciences officially called "dead" all refer to the same subject, to the discovery of hidden laws which govern the Universe. They differ from the official science of physics by their more mysterious and transcendental character. These sciences constitute the Hermetic philosophy.
This philosophy is further distinguished by the fact that it was never content to be purely speculative (theoretical). As a matter of fact, it always followed a practical aim, seeking for actual results; its problem was always concerned with what is called the Realisation of the Great Work.
In another book, Oswald Wirth speaks on the same subject:
A special reason explains why theories which were so famous in the Middle Ages and down to the 18th century have lost credit in our eyes. We have lost the key to the language in which these theories were expressed. We have quite a different way of speaking. In past times people did not pretend to assume that they used strictly exact terms about everything. They considered that approximations were quite sufficient, because the pure truth was fatally inexpressible. The ideal truth will not allow itself to be confined to any formula. It follows from this that in a certain sense every word is a lie. The inner side of thought, its fundamental spirit, eludes us. This is the Deity, which continually reveals itself and which nevertheless allows itself to be seen only in its reflections. For this reason Moses could not see the face of Jehovah.
It follows from this that when it is necessary to express transcendental ideas one is forced to have recourse to figurative language. It is impossible to do without allegories and symbols. This is not at all a matter of choice; very often there is no other way of making oneself understood.
Pure thought cannot be transmitted; it is necessary to clothe it with something. But this clothing is always transparent for him who knows how to see.
Therefore Hermetism addresses itself to those thinkers who are compelled by an inner voice to go into the depths of all things, and remains incomprehensible to those who stop at the external meaning of words.
S Guaita says:
To enclose all truth in spoken language, to express the highest occult mysteries in an abstract style, would not only be useless, dangerous, and sacrilegious, but also impossible. There are truths of a subtle, synthetic, and divine order which human language is incapable of expressing in all their inviolate completeness. Only music can sometimes make the soul feel them, only ecstasy can show them in absolute vision, and only esoteric symbolism can reveal them to the spirit in a concrete way. [S Guaita: Au Seuil du Mystère. — PDO]
The possibility of such a disposition of the Tarot cards is shown by the order of the Tarot pictures in the gallery of the mythical "temple of initiation" of which Christian speaks.
The cards are laid out thus:
| 1 — 0 | 7 — 16 |
| 2 — 21 | 8 — 15 |
| 3 — 20 | 9 — 14 |
| 4 — 19 | 10 — 13 |
| 5 — 18 | 11 — 12 |
| 6 — 17 |
Disposed in this way, one card explains the other and, what is most important, shows that they can be explained only together and can never be explained separately (as in the case of cards 1 and 0).
In studying these pairs of cards, the mind becomes accustomed to seeing unity in duality.
| 1. The Juggler. | 0. The Fool |
| 2. The Priestess. | 21. The World |
| 3. The Empress. | 20. The Day of Judgment. |
| 4. The Emperor. | 19. The Sun. |
| 5. The Hierophant. | 18. The Moon. |
| 6. Temptation. | 17. The Star. |
| 7. The Chariot. | 16. The Tower. |
| 8. Justice. | 15. The Devil. |
| 9. The Hermit. | 14. Temperance (Time). |
| 10. The Wheel of Life. | 13. Death. |
| 11. Strength. | 12. The Hanged man. |
The 1st card, "The Juggler", depicts the Superman, or mankind as a whole, connecting earth and heaven. Its opposite is "The Fool", card 0. This is an individual man, a weak man. The two cards together represent the two poles, the beginning and the end.
The 2nd card, "The High Priestess", is Isis, or Hidden Knowledge. Its opposite is card 21, "The World" in the circle of Time, in the midst of the four principles, that is, the object of knowledge.
The 3rd card, "The Empress", is Nature. Its opposite is card 20, "The Day of Judgment" or "Resurrection of the Dead". This is Nature, its eternally regenerating and revivifying activity.
The 4th card, "The Emperor" is the Law of the Four, the life-bearing principles, and its opposite is card 19, "The Sun", as the real expression of this law and the visible source of life.
The 5th card, "The Hierophant", is Religion, and its opposite is card 18, "The Moon", which can be understood as the opposing principle, hostile to religion, or as "Astrology", that is as the basis of religion. In some old Tarot cards, instead of the wolf and the dog, on the 18th card there is a picture of two men making astronomical observations.
The 6th card, "Temptation" or Love, is the emotional side of life, and card 17, "The Star" (The Astral World), is the emotional side of Nature.
The 7th card, "The Chariot", is Magic in the sense of incomplete knowledge, in the sense of "the house built upon the sand", and its opposite, card 16, "The Tower" is the fall which inevitably follows an artificial rise.
The 8th card, "Justice", is Truth, and card 16, "The Devil" is lie.
The 9th card, "The Hermit", is wisdom, or knowledge and the search for knowledge, or what is conquered by knowledge, or what serves as the measure of knowledge. As long as a man does not understand time, or as long as a man's knowledge does not change his relation to time, his knowledge is worth nothing. Moreover, the first meaning of card 14, "Temperance", points to self-command or the control of emotions as the necessary condition of "wisdom".
The 10th card is "The Wheel of Life", and its opposite is card 13, "Death". Life and death are one. Death only indicates the turning of the wheel of life.
The 11th card is "Strength", and its opposite is card 12, "The Hanged Man", Sacrifice, that is, what gives strength. The greater a man's sacrifice, the greater will his strength be. Strength is proportionate to sacrifice. He who can sacrifice all can do all.
Having approximately established these correspondences, it is interesting to try to re-design the Tarot cards in pen-pictures, imagining the cards with the meaning which they should have; in other words, simply imagining what they mean.
[In addition to this I find it necessary to point out that in 1911, when I wrote The Symbolism of the Tarot for the first time, I had the modern English pack of the Tarot which had been re-designed and in many cases altered according to theosophical interpretation. Only in some cases in which the alterations appeared to me utterly unfounded and detracting from the idea, as for instance in card 0 (The Fool), I used the Tarot of Oswald Wirth as it appears in Papus' book, Le Tarot des Bohémiens. Later on I re-wrote some other of my pen-pictures in accordance with the old cards and the Tarot of Oswald Wirth. — PDO]
Further, in continuing to examine possible meanings of the Tarot pack, it is necessary to say that in many of the books which have already been mentioned, 21 cards out of the 22 Major Arcana are taken as a trinity or as a triangle, each side of which consists of seven cards. The three parts of Guaita's work are each devoted to one of the three sides of the triangle, and in this case as in many others the sevens are taken in order from 1 to 22, (that is, to 0).
But the fact is that constructed in this way, the triangles, though quite accurate numerically, have no meaning symbolically. This means that they are quite heterogeneous as regards the pictures. In none of the sides of the triangle do the pictures represent anything whole and connected, but appear an entirely fortuitous arrangement.
The conclusion can be drawn that the pictures must be taken according to their meaning and not according to their order in the pack. In other words, cards which are next to one another in the pack may have no connection in their meaning.
Then, in examining the meaning of the Tarot cards as revealed in the "pen-pictures", it can be seen that the 22 cards fall into three sets of seven, each homogeneous in itself as regards the meaning of the pictures, plus one card which is the result of all the three sevens; and this card can be either 0 or 21.
In these three sets of seven, which cannot be found by numbers and must be looked for in the meaning of the symbols, there is again the secret doctrine (or an attempt at a secret doctrine), the expression of which is the Tarot. In accordance with this, the "Major Arcana" contain in themselves the same division as the whole Tarot, i.e., the "Major Arcana" are also divided into God, Man, and the Universe.
One set of seven refers to Man. Another set refers to Nature; and the third set refers to the world of ideas (i.e., to God or the Spirit).
The first seven, Man: The "Juggler" or "Magician" (Adam Kadmon), humanity, or Superman; the "Fool" (individual man); "Temptation" (love), mankind; the "Devil" (the fall); the "Chariot" (the illusory quest); the "Hermit" (the real quest); the "Hanged Man" (attainment). These are cards 1, 0, 6, 15, 7, 9, 12.
The second seven, the Universe: The Sun, the Moon, the Star, the Lightning (The Tower), the Resurrection of the Dead, Life, and Death. These are cards 19, 18, 17, 16, 20, 10, 13.
The third seven, God: The High Priestess (knowledge); the Empress (creative power); the Emperor (the four elements); the Hierophant (religion); Time (eternity); Strength (love, union, and infinity); Truth. These are cards 2, 3, 4, 5, 14, 11, 8.
The first seven represents the seven steps on the path of man if taken in time, or the seven faces of man which co-exist in him, the seven faces which are expressed in the changes of the personality of man — the latter if they are taken in the mystical sense of the secret doctrine of the Tarot.
The second and third sevens — the Universe and the world of ideas or God — each represents separately, and also in combination with the first, a wide field for study. Each of the seven symbolical pictures which refer to the Universe connects man in a certain way with the world of ideas, and each of the seven ideas connects man in a certain way with the Universe.
None of the three sevens includes the 21st card, "The World", which in this case contains in itself all the 21 cards, that is, the whole triangle.
Now if we construct a triangle each side of which is formed by one of the seven, place the 21st card in its centre, and arrange the four suits in a square round the triangle, then the interrelation between the square, the triangle, and the point becomes still clearer.
When we placed the card 0 in the centre we had to use a certain figurative interpretation, saying that the world is contained in the mind of man. But now we obtain the world at the centre too: the 21st card equal to the triangle and the square taken together. The world is in the circle of time, among the four principles (or four elements) represented by the four beings of the Apocalypse. The square also represents the world (or the four elements of which the world consists).
The Tarot is composed of numbers and figures which mutually react upon and explain each other.
But if we separate the figures and arrange them upon paper in the form of a wheel, making the numbers move in the shape of dice, we produce the Game of Goose, with which Ulysses, according to Homer, practised cheating beneath the walls of Troy.
If we fix the numbers upon alternate black and white squares, and allow the lesser figures of our game to move upon them — the King, Queen, Knight, Foolish Man or Knave, Tower or Ace — we have the Game of Chess. In fact, the primitive chessboards have numbers, and philosophers used them to solve problems of logic.
If, leaving the figures on one side, we confine ourselves to the use of numbers, the Game of Dice appears, and if we weary of throwing the dice, we can mark the characters upon horizontal plates and create the Game of Dominoes.
Chess degenerates in the same way into the Game of Draughts.
Lastly, our pack of cards, instead of first appearing under Charles VI, according to the common report, is of far older date. Spanish regulations were in existence long before this reign, forbidding the nobles to play at cards, and the Tarot itself is of very ancient origin.
The sceptres of the Tarot have become clubs; the cups, hearts; the swords, spades; and the pentacles or money, diamonds. We have also lost the twenty-two symbolical figures and the four knights.
Of the origin of the Tarot, Papus in the same book tells a story, probably invented by himself:
A time followed when Egypt, no longer able to struggle against her invaders, prepared to die honourably. Then the Egyptian savants (at least so my mysterious informant asserts) held a great assembly to arrange how the knowledge, which should until that date have been confined to men judged worthy to receive it, should be saved from destruction.
At first they thought of confiding these secrets to virtuous men secretly recruited by the Initiates themselves, who would transmit them from generation to generation.
But one priest, observing that virtue is a most fragile thing and most difficult to find, at all events in a continuous line, proposed to confide the scientific traditions to vice.
The latter, he said, would never fail completely, and through it we are sure of a long and durable preservation of our principles.
This opinion was evidently adopted, and the game chosen as a vice was preferred. The small plates were then engraved with the mysterious figures which formerly taught the most important scientific secrets, and since then the players have transmitted this Tarot from generation to generation, far better than the most virtuous men upon earth would have done.
These fantasies of the French "occultist" might be interesting if he did not pretend to esoteric knowledge. But of course they contain nothing historical, and I quote them here because they express well the general feeling aroused by the Tarot and the idea of its incomprehensible origin.
His figure clad in a multi-coloured jester's dress stood between earth and sky. His feet were hidden in grass and flowers; his head, in a large hat with strangely turned-up brim resembling the sign of eternity, disappeared in the clouds.
In one hand he held the magic wand, the sign of fire, with one end pointing to the sky; and with the other hand he was touching the pentacle, the sign of earth, which lay in front of him on a travelling juggler's stall side by side with the cup and the sword, the signs of water and air.
Like lightning there flashed in me the realisation that I saw the four magical symbols in action.
The face of the Juggler was radiant and confident. His hands flitted about swiftly as though playing with the four signs of the elements, and I felt that he held some mysterious threads which connected the earth with the distant luminaries.
His every movement was full of significance, and every new combination of the four symbols created long series of unexpected phenomena. My eyes were dazzled. I could not follow everything that was presented.
For whom is all this performance? I asked myself. Where are the spectators?
And I heard the voice saying
"Are spectators necessary? Look at him more closely."
I again lifted my eyes to the man in a jester's dress, and I saw that he was changing all the time. Innumerable crowds seemed to pass and pass in him before me, disappearing before I could tell myself what I saw. And I understood that he himself was both the Juggler and the spectator.
At the same time I saw myself in him, reflected as in a mirror, and it seemed to me that I was looking at myself through his eyes. But another feeling told me that there was nothing in front of me but the blue sky and that within myself a window opened through which I saw unearthly things and heard unearthly words.
Weary and lame he dragged himself along a dusty road, across a lifeless plain beneath the scorching rays of the sun.
Gazing stupidly sideways with fixed eyes, with a half-smile, half-grimace frozen upon his face, he crawled along neither seeing not knowing whither, plunged in his own chimerical dreams, which moved eternally in the same circle.
The fool's cap and bells was on his head back to front. His clothes were torn down the back. A wild lynx with burning eyes leapt at him from behind a stone and drove its teeth into his leg.
He stumbled, nearly falling, but dragged himself ever further, carrying over his shoulder a sack full of unnecessary useless things which only his madness forced him to carry.
In front the road was cleft by a ravine. A deep precipice awaited the crazy wanderer ... and a huge crocodile with gaping jaws crept out of the abyss.
And I heard the Voice saying to me:
"Behold. This is the same Man."
"What has he in his sack?" I asked, not knowing why I did so.
After a long silence the Voice answered: "The four magic symbols, the wand, the cup, the sword, and the pentacle. The fool always carries them with him, but he does not understand what they mean. Do you not see that is you, yourself?"
And with a thrill of horror, I felt that this also was I.
Mystery breathed from her and around her.
Sacred symbols gleamed on her green robes. On her head was a golden tiara surmounted with a two-horned moon. On her knees she held two crossed keys and an open book.
Between the two columns behind the Woman hung a second veil all embroidered with green leaves and pomegranate fruits.
And the Voice said to me: "In order to enter the temple it is necessary to lift the second veil and pass between the two columns. And in order to pass between them it is necessary to obtain possession of the keys, to read the book, and to understand the symbols. The knowledge of good and evil awaits you. Are you ready?"
And with deep suffering I felt that I was afraid to enter the Temple.
"Are you ready?" repeated the Voice.
I was silent. My heart nearly stopped with fear. I could not utter a word. I felt that a precipice was opening before me and that I should not dare to take a single step.
Then the Woman sitting between the two columns turned her face to me and looked at me without saying a word, and I understood that she was speaking to me, but my fear only grew greater.
I knew that I should not enter the Temple.
It revolved with frenzied speed, blinding me with its brilliance, and in this radiance and fire, music sounded and soft singing was heard and also the peals of thunder and the roar of a hurricane and the noise of mountain avalanches and the rumble of earthquakes.
The circle whirled with a terrible noise, touching earth and sky, and in its centre I saw the dancing figure of a young and beautiful woman, wrapped in a light transparent scarf, with a magic wand in her hand.
At the sides of the circle there became visible to me the four beasts of the Apocalypse — one like a lion, the second like a calf, the third with the face of a man, and the fourth like a flying eagle.
The vision disappeared as suddenly as it had appeared.
A strange stillness descended on the earth.
"What does this mean?" I asked in astonishment.
"It is the image of the World", said the Voice. "It must be understood before one can pass through the gates of the Temple. This is the World in the circle of time, amid the four principles — this is what you always see, but never understand.
"Understand that all you see, things and phenomena, are but the hieroglyphs of higher ideas."
Brooks murmured, green tree-tops rustled, innumerable choirs of birds were singing, bees were droning, and everywhere was the joyful living breath of Nature.
The sun shone softly and mildly; a small white cloud hung over the woods.
In the midst of a green glade where bloomed the first yellow primroses, on a throne encircled with ivy and blossoming lilac, I saw the Empress.
A green wreath adorned her golden hair. Twelve stars shone above her head. Two snow-white wings were visible behind her back, and in one hand she held a sceptre.
With a tender smile the Empress looked about her, and beneath her glance flowers opened and buds unfolded their sticky green leaves.
The whole of her dress was covered with flowers, as though every flower that opened was reflected or imprinted on it and became a part of her garment.
The sign of Venus, the Goddess of Love, was carved upon her marble throne.
"Oh, Queen of Life", I said, "why is everything so radiant and joyful and happy around you? Do you not know that there is the grey weary autumn, the cold, white winter? Do you not know that there is death, black graves, cold damp sepulchres, cemeteries?
"How can you smile joyfully looking at the unfolding flowers, when all dies and all will die, when all is condemned to death — even that which is not yet born?"
The Empress looked at me smiling, and beneath her smile I suddenly felt that in my soul the flower of some bright understanding was opening, as though something was being revealed to me, and the terror of death began to depart from me.
He raised his trumpet and blew a loud and imperious blast.
In response, the plain trembled, and with loud reverberating echoes the mountains answered.
One after another the graves in the plain began to open and out of them people came forth — young children and old folk and men and women. And they stretched out their arms to the messenger of the Empress, and tried to catch the sound of the trumpet.
In the sound of the trumpet I felt the smile of the Empress. In the opening graves I saw the unfolding flowers, and in the extended hands I smelt the fragrance of flowers.
And I understood the mystery of birth in death.
I saw the emperor on a high throne of stone which was decorated with four rams' heads.
A golden helmet gleamed on his brow. His white beard fell over his purple mantle. In one hand he held a sphere, the symbol of his possessions, and in the other a sceptre in the form of the Egyptian cross — the sign of his power over birth.
"I am the Great Law", said the Emperor.
"I am the Name of God.
"The four letters of His Name are in me and I am in everything.
"I am in the four principles, I am in the four elements. I am in the four seasons. I am in the four quarters of the Earth.
"I am in the four signs of the Tarot.
"I am action, I am resistance, I am completion, I am result.
"For him who knows the way to see me, there are no mysteries on the Earth.
"As the Earth contains fire, water, and air; as the fourth letter of the Name contains the first three and itself becomes the first, so my sceptre contains the complete triangle and bears in itself the seed of a new triangle."
While the Emperor spoke, his helmet and the golden armour visible beneath his mantle shone ever more and more fiercely, until I could no longer bear their radiance and dropped my eyes.
When I tried to raise them again, before me was an all-pervading radiance, and light, and fire.
And I fell prostrate worshipping the Fiery Word.
The great luminary shone and gave warmth. Below, tall golden sun-flowers nodded their heads.
I saw two children in a garden behind a high enclosure. The Sun poured its hot rays on them, and it seemed to me that a golden rain was falling upon them, as though the Sun poured molten gold over the Earth.
For an instant I closed my eyes and when I opened them again I saw that every ray of the Sun was the sceptre of the Emperor, which bore life within it. And I saw how beneath the sharp points of these rays the mystical flowers of the Waters were unfolding everywhere, and how the rays penetrated into these flowers, and how the whole of Nature was continually born from the mysterious union of the two principles.
He was seated on a golden throne, set upon a purple dais; he wore the robes of a high priest and a golden tiara.
Under his feet I saw two crossed keys, and two Initiates were bowed before him. And he spoke to them.
I heard the sound of his voice, but could not understand one word that he said. Either he spoke in a language unknown to me or there was something that prevented me from understanding the meaning of his words.
And the Voice said to me: "He speaks only for those who have ears to hear.
"But woe unto them who believe that they hear before they have really heard, or hear that which he does not say, or put their own words in place of his words. They will never receive the keys of understanding. And it is of them that it was said that they neither go in themselves, neither suffer them that are entering to go in."
Between two grey towers wound a path, losing itself in the distance. At both sides of the path, facing one another, a wolf and a dog were sitting and howling, with their muzzles raised to the Moon. From a stream a great black crayfish clambered on to the sand. A cold heavy dew was falling.
A feeling of dread overcame me. I felt the presence of a mysterious world, a world of hostile spirits, of corpses rising from the grave, or tormented ghosts.
In the pale light of the Moon I seemed to feel the presence of phantoms: shadows seemed to be crossing the path; someone was waiting for me behind the towers — and it was dangerous to look back.
In the garden I saw a Man and a Woman. Elves, water-nymphs, sylphs, and gnomes came to them freely; three kingdoms of Nature, stones, plants, and animals, served them.
To them was revealed the mystery of universal equilibrium, and they themselves were the symbol of that equilibrium.
Two triangles were united in them into a six-pointed star, two bow-shaped magnets merged into one ellipse.
High above them I saw floating the Genie who, unseen, guided them, and whose presence they always felt.
And I noticed how from a tree, on which the golden fruit was ripening, a snake crept down and whispered in the ear of the Woman; and the Woman listened and smiled, at first incredulously, then with curiosity. Then I saw her speak to the man, and he also smiled, pointing with his hand to the garden all around him. Suddenly a cloud appeared and hid the picture from me.
"This is the picture of Temptation", said the Voice. "But what constitutes the temptation? Can you understand its nature?"
"Life is so good", I said, "and the world so beautiful, the three kingdoms of Nature and the four elements so obedient, that they wished to believe themselves the lords and masters of the world, and they could not withstand the temptation."
"Yes", said the Voice; "the wisdom which crawls on the ground said to them that they knew themselves what was good and what was evil. And they believed this, because it was pleasant to think so. And then they ceased to hear the guiding voice. Equilibrium was destroyed. The enchanted world was closed to them. Everything appeared to them in a false light, and they became mortal. This Fall is the first sin of man, and is perpetually repeated because man never ceases to believe in himself and lives by this belief. Only when man has atoned this sin by great suffering can he pass out of the power of death and return to life.
And beneath the shining stars, beside a blue stream, I saw a naked girl, young and beautiful. Kneeling on one knee she poured water from two vessels, one of gold and one of silver. A small bird on a bush raised its wings and prepared for flight.
For an instant I understood that I was seeing the soul of Nature.
"This is the imagination of Nature", said the Voice softly. "Nature dreams, imagines, creates worlds. Learn to unite your imagination with her imagination, and nothing will ever be impossible for you.
"But remember that it is impossible to see both rightly and wrongly at the same time. Once for all you must make a choice and then there can be no return."
Beneath the canopy, driving the sphinxes, stood the Conqueror in armour of steel, and in his hand was a sceptre surmounted with a sphere, a triangle, and a square.
A golden pentagram shone on his crown. On the front of the chariot, above the sphinxes, was fastened a two-winged sphere and the mystic lingam and yoni, the symbol of union.
"Everything in this picture has a meaning", said the Voice to me. "Look and try to understand.
"This is the conqueror who has not yet conquered himself. Here are both will and knowledge. But in all this there is more of the desire to attain than real attainment.
"The man in the chariot began to consider himself conqueror before he actually conquered. He decided that conquest must come to a conqueror. In this there are many possibilities, but also many deceiving lights, and great dangers await the man in the chariot.
"He drives the chariot by the strength of his will and of the magic sword, but the tension of his will may weaken and the sphinxes may pull in different directions and tear him and his chariot in two.
"This is the conqueror against whom the conquered may still rise. Do you see behind him the towers of the conquered city? Perhaps the flame of revolt burns there already.
"This is the conqueror who has not yet conquered himself. He does not know that in himself lies the conquered city, that in himself the sphinxes are watching his every movement, and that in himself great dangers await him.
"Realise that this is the same man whom you saw dragging himself along a dusty road towards the precipice where the crocodile awaited him."
Black night was all around and thunder rumbled.
Suddenly, the sky opened; a thunderclap shook the earth, and the lightning struck the top of the tower.
Tongues of flame shot out of heaven; the whole tower filled with fire and smoke — and I saw the builder of the tower falling from its top.
"Look", said the Voice; "nature hates deceit, and man cannot subjugate himself to her laws. Nature is patient for a long time and then suddenly with one blow she annihilates all that goes against her.
"If only men could see that almost all that they know consists of the ruins of destroyed towers, perhaps they would cease to build them."
"You are seeing Truth", said the Voice. "Everything is weighed in these scales. That sword is eternally lifted in defence of justice and nothing can escape it.
"But why do you turn your eyes from the scales and the sword? Are you afraid?
"Yes, they deprive you of your last illusions. How will you live on earth without these illusions?
"You wished to see Truth and now you see her.
"But remember what awaits a mortal when he has seen the goddess. He will never again be able to shut his eyes to what does not please him, as he has done hitherto. He will see truth perpetually, always, and in everything. Can you bear this? Now you have to go further even if you do not wish to."
A strange fantastic figure became visible to me as I drew nearer.
High above the earth I saw the hideous red face of the devil, with large hairy ears, a pointed beard, and the curved horns of a goat. Between the horns of the devil's forehead an inverted pentagram shone with phosphorescent light. Two grey wings, membranous, like the wings of a bat, were extended. The devil held up one naked fat arm with the elbow bent and fingers outspread, and on the palm I recognised the sign of black magic. In the other hand he held a burning torch, pointing downwards, from which rose clouds of black suffocating smoke. The devil sat on a great black cube, gripped between the claws of his beast-like shaggy legs.
A man and a woman were chained to an iron ring in front of the cube, and I saw that they were the same man and woman whom I had seen in the garden, but now they had horns and tails with fiery tips.
"This is the picture of the fall, the picture of weakness", said the Voice, "the picture of lies and evil.
"These are the same people, but they began to believe in themselves and in their own powers. They said that they themselves knew what was good and what was evil. They mistook their weakness for strength and then Deceit subjugated them."
And I heard the voice of the devil.
"I am evil", he said, "in so far as evil can exist in this best of all worlds. In order to perceive me one must see crookedly, wrongly, and narrowly. Three paths lead to me: conceit, suspicion, and accusation. My chief virtues are calumny and slander. I complete the triangle, the two other sides of which are death and time.
"In order to escape from this triangle, it is necessary only to see that it does not exist.
"But how to do that is not for me to tell.
"For I am Evil, which men invented in order to have a justification for themselves and in order to regard me as the cause of all the wrong-doing of which they are guilty themselves.
"I am called the King of Lies, and truly I am the King of Lies, for I am the greatest product of human lies."
He was wrapped in a long cloak, with a hood drawn over his head. In one hand he held a long staff and in the other a lighted lantern, although it was broad daylight and the sun was shining.
"I searched for man", said the Hermit; "but I have long since abandoned the search.
"Now I am searching for buried treasure. Do you also wish to search for it? First you must get a lantern. Without a lantern you will always be finding treasures, but your gold will turn to dust.
"Understand the first mystery — we do not know what treasure it is we search for, whether it is that which was buried by our ancestors, or that which will be buried by our descendants."
On the angel's breast was the sign of the Sacred Book of the Tarot — the square, and within it the triangle. On his brow was the sign of eternity and life — the circle.
In his hands the angel held two cups — one of gold and one of silver, and between the cups there flowed an incessant stream which sparkled with all the colours of the rainbow. But I could not find from which cup it flowed and into which it was flowing.
With terror I understood that I had come to the last mysteries, from which there is no return.
I looked at the angel, at his signs, at his cups, at the rainbow stream between the cups, and my human heart fluttered with fear, and my human mind was wrought with the anguish of incomprehension.
"The name of the angel is Time", said the Voice.
"On his forehead is the circle. This is the sign of Eternity and the sign of Life.
"In the angel's hands are two cups, golden and silver. One cup is the past, the other the future. The rainbow stream between them is the present. You see that it is flowing in both directions.
"This is Time in its most incomprehensible aspect for man.
"Men think that everything is incessantly flowing in one direction. They do not see that everything eternally meets, that one thing comes from the past and another from the future, and that time is a multitude of circles turning in different directions.
"Understand this mystery and learn to distinguish the opposite currents in the rainbow stream of the present."
Suddenly raising my head, I saw in the midst of the sky an immense revolving circle covered with cabalistic letters and signs.
The circle revolved with fearful speed and together with it, now rising, now falling, revolved the symbolic figures of the serpent and the dog; and on the top of the circle, motionless, sat the sphinx.
At the four quarters of the sky I saw on the clouds the four winged beasts of the Apocalypse — one like a lion, another like a calf, the third with the face of a man, and the fourth like a flying eagle — and each of them was reading an open book.
And I heard the voice of the animals of Zarathustra:
"Everything goeth, everything returneth; eternally rolleth the wheel of existence. Everything dieth, everything blossometh forth again; eternally runneth the year of existence.
"Everything breaketh, everything is integrated anew; eternally buildeth itself the same house of existence. All things separate, all things again greet one another; eternally true to itself remaineth the ring of existence.
"Every moment beginneth existence, around every 'Here' rolleth the ball of 'There'. The middle is everywhere. Crooked is the path of eternity." [Thus Spake Zarathustra, Part III. (Thomas Common, Edinburgh, 1908.) — PDO]
Suddenly, opening my eyes, I saw a gigantic horseman on a white charger, clad in black armour with a black helmet and a black plume.
The face of a skeleton looked out from under the helmet. One bony hand held a great black gently-waving banner, and the other held black reins, ornamented with the skull and cross-bones.
And wherever the white steed passed, night and death followed, flowers withered, leaves fell, the earth was covered with a white shroud, grave-yards appeared, towers, palaces, and cities fell into ruins.
Kings in the full splendour of their glory and power, beautiful women, loving and beloved, high priests invested with power from God, innocent children — all, at the approach of the white steed, fell on their knees before it in terror and stretched out their hands in despair and anguish — and then fell to rise no more.
In the distance behind the towers the sun was setting.
The chill of death took hold of me. It seemed to me that already I felt the white hoofs of the steed on my breast, and I saw the whole world falling down into an abyss.
But suddenly I felt something familiar in the measured step of the horse, something I had heard and seen before. Another instant — and I heard in its step the movement of the wheel of life.
Light broke in upon me, and looking at the disappearing horseman and the setting sun, I understood that the path of life consists of the hoof-marks of the steed of Death.
The sun, setting on one side, rises on the other.
Every moment of its motion is a setting at one point and a rising at another.
I understood that just as the sun rises in its setting and sets in its rising, so life dies when it is born and is born when it dies.
"Yes", said the Voice; "you think that the sun has only one aim, to set and to rise. Does the Sun know anything of the Earth, of people, of the sunset and sunrise? It goes its own way, over its own orbit, round an Unknown Centre. Life, Death, sunrise, sunset: are you not aware that all these are but the thoughts, dreams, and fears of the Fool?"
Garlanded with roses, the sign of Eternity over her head, the woman calmly and confidently closed the lion's mouth, and the lion gently licked her hand.
"This is the picture of strength", said the Voice. "Understand all its meanings.
"First of all it shows the strength of love. There is nothing stronger than love. Only love can conquer evil. Hatred always breeds hatred. Evil always bears evil.
"You see these garlands of roses? They speak of the magic chain. Union of desires, union of efforts, create such strength that all wild unconscious strength bows before it.
"And further, it is the strength of eternity.
"Here you pass into the realm of mysteries. For a consciousness that is aware of the sign of Eternity above it, there are no obstacles, nor can there be any resistance from the infinite."
Round his head was a golden halo.
And I heard a Voice which spoke to me: "Behold, this is the man who has seen the Truth.
"New suffering, such as no earthly misfortune can ever cause, is what awaits man on earth when he finds the path to Eternity and the understanding of the Infinite.
"He is still a man, but he already knows many things inaccessible even to gods. This conflict between the big and little in his soul makes his torture and his Golgotha.
"In his own soul a high gallows is raised on which he hangs in suffering, feeling as though he was turned head downwards.
"He himself chose this way.
"It is for this that he went a long journey from trial to trial, from initiation to initiation, through failures and through falls.
"And now he has found Truth and has known himself.
"He now knows that it is he who stands between earth and heaven controlling the elements with the magical symbols, and it is also he who walks in the Fool's cap along a dusty road beneath the blazing sun towards the abyss where the crocodile awaits him. It is he with his companion in the Garden of Eden under the protection of the beneficent genie; it is also he who is bound with her to the black cube of lies; it is he who stands as the conqueror for a monent in the deceptive chariot, drawn by the sphinxes ready to rush in opposite directions; and it is he again in the desert who looks for Truth with a lantern in the bright light of day.
"And now he has found Truth."
1911-1929.