SECTION 2

THE TRUMPS MAJOR AND THEIR INNER SYMBOLISM

ONE. THE MAGICIAN

A youthful figure in the robe of a magician, having the countenance of
divine Apollo, with smile of confidence and shining eyes. Above his head
is the mysterious sign of the Holy Spirit, the sign of life, like an
endless cord, forming the figure 8 in a horizontal position [Symbol:
Infinity]. About his waist is a serpent-cincture, the serpent appearing
to devour its own tail. This is familiar to most as a conventional
symbol of eternity, but here it indicates more especially the eternity
of attainment in the spirit. In the Magician's right hand is a wand
raised towards heaven, while the left hand is pointing to the earth.
This dual sign is known in very high grades of the Instituted Mysteries;
it shows the descent of grace, virtue and light, drawn from things above
and derived to things below. The suggestion throughout is therefore the
possession and communication of the Powers and Gifts of the Spirit. On
the table in front of the Magician are the symbols of the four Tarot
suits, signifying the elements of natural life, which lie like counters
before the adept, and he adapts them as he wills. Beneath are roses and
lilies, the _flos campi_ and _lilium convallium_, changed into garden
flowers, to show the culture of aspiration. This card signifies the
divine motive in man, reflecting God, the will in the liberation of its
union with that which is above. It is also the unity of individual being
on all planes, and in a very high sense it is thought, in the fixation
thereof. With further reference to what I have called the sign of life
and its connection with the number 8, it may be remembered that
Christian Gnosticism speaks of rebirth in Christ as a change "unto the
Ogdoad." The mystic number is termed Jerusalem above, the Land flowing
with Milk and Honey, the Holy Spirit and the Land of the Lord. According
to Martinism, 8 is the number of Christ.

[Illustration: THE MAGICIAN.]

TWO. THE HIGH PRIESTESS

She has the lunar crescent at her feet, a horned diadem on her head,
with a globe in the middle place, and a large solar cross on her breast.
The scroll in her hands is inscribed with the word _Tora_, signifying
the Greater Law, the Secret Law and the second sense of the Word. It is
partly covered by her mantle, to show that some things are implied and
some spoken. She is seated between the white and black pillars--J. and
B.--of the mystic Temple and the veil of the Temple is behind her: it is
embroidered with palms and pomegranates. The vestments are flowing and
gauzy, and the mantle suggests light--a shimmering radiance. She has
been called Occult Science on the threshhold of the Sanctuary of Isis,
but she is really the Secret Church, the House which is of God (Nature)
and man. She represents also the Second Marriage of the Prince who is no
longer of this world; she is the spiritual Bride and Mother, the
daughter of the stars and the Higher Garden of Eden. She is, in fine,
the Queen of the borrowed light, but this is the light of all. She is
the Moon nourished by the milk of the Supernal Mother.

In a manner, she is also the Supernal Mother herself--that is to say,
she is the bright reflection. It is in this sense of reflection that her
truest and highest name in bolism is _Shekinah_--the co-habiting glory.
According to Kabalism, there is a _Shekinah_ both above and below. In
the superior world it is called _Binah_, the Supernal Understanding
which reflects to the emanations that are beneath. In the lower world it
is _Malkuth_--that world being, for this purpose, understood as a
blessed Kingdom--that with which it is made blessed being the Indwelling
Glory. Mystically speaking, the _Shekinah_ is the Spiritual Bride of the
just man, and when he reads the Law she gives the Divine meaning. There
are some respects in which this card is the highest and holiest of the
Greater Arcana.

[Illustration: THE HIGH PRIESTESS]

THREE. THE EMPRESS

A stately figure, seated, having rich vestments and royal aspect, as of
a daughter of heaven and earth. Her diadem is of twelve stars, gathered
in a cluster. The symbol of Venus is on the shield which rests near her.
A field of corn is ripening in front of her, and beyond there is a fall
of water. The scepter which she bears is surmounted by the globe of this
world. She is the inferior Garden of Eden, the Earthly Paradise, all
that is symbolized by the visible house of man. She is not _Regina
coeli_, but she is still _refugium peccatorum_, the fruitful mother of
thousands. There are also certain aspects in which she has been
correctly described as desire and the wings thereof, as the woman
clothed with the sun, as _Gloria Mundi_ and the veil of the _Sanctum
Sanctorum_; but she is not, I may add, the soul that has attained wings,
unless all the symbolism is counted up another and unusual way. She is
above all things universal fecundity and the outer sense of the Word.
This is obvious, because there is no direct message which has been given
to man like that which is borne by woman; but she does not herself carry
its interpretation.

In another order of ideas, the card of the Empress signifies the door or
gate by which an entrance is obtained into this life, as into the Garden
of Venus; and then the way which leads out therefrom, into that which is
beyond, is the secret known to the High Priestess: it is communicated by
her to the elect. Most old attributions of this card are completely
wrong on the symbolism--as, for example, its identification with the
Word, Divine Nature, the Triad, and so forth.

[Illustration: THE EMPRESS.]

FOUR. THE EMPEROR

He has a form of the _Crux ansata_ for his scepter and a globe in his
left hand. He is crowned monarch--commanding, stately, seated on a
throne, the arms of which are fronted by rams' heads. He is executive
and realization, the power of this world, here clothed with the highest
of its natural attributes. He is occasionally represented as seated on a
cubic stone, which, however, confuses some of the issues. He is the
virile power, to which the Empress responds, and in this sense is he who
seeks to remove the Veil of Isis; yet she remains _virgo intacta_.

It should be understood that this card and that of the Empress do not
precisely represent the condition of married life, though this state is
implied. On the surface, as I have indicated, they stand for mundane
royalty, uplifted on the seats of the mighty; but above this there is
the suggestion of another presence. They signify, also--and the male
figure especially--the higher kingship, occupying the intellectual
throne. Hereof is the lordship of thought rather than of the animal
world. Both personalities, after their own manner, are "full of strange
experience," but theirs is not consciously the wisdom which draws from a
higher world. The Emperor has been described as (_a_) will in its
embodied form, but this is only one of its applications, and (_b_) as an
expression of virtualities contained in the Absolute Being--but this is
fantasy.

[Illustration: THE EMPEROR.]

FIVE. THE HIEROPHANT

He wears the triple crown and is seated between two pillars, but they
are not those of the Temple which is guarded by the High Priestess. In
his left hand he holds a scepter terminating in the triple cross, and
with his right hand he gives the well-known ecclesiastical sign which is
called that of esotericism, distinguishing between the manifest and
concealed part of doctrine. It is noticeable in this connection that the
High Priestess makes no sign. At his feet are the crossed keys, and two
priestly ministers in albs kneel before him. He has been usually called
the Pope, which is a particular application of the more general office
that he symbolizes. He is the ruling power of external religion, as the
High Priestess is the prevailing genius of the esoteric, withdrawn
power. The proper meanings of this card have suffered woeful admixture
from nearly all hands. _Grand Orient_ says truly that the Hierophant is
the power of the keys, exoteric orthodox doctrine, and the outer side of
the life which leads to the doctrine; but he is certainly not the prince
of occult doctrine, as another commentator has suggested.

He is rather the _summa totius theologiæ_, when it has passed into the
utmost rigidity of expression; but he symbolizes also all things that
are righteous and sacred on the manifest side. As such, he is the
channel of grace belonging to the world of institution as distinct from
that of Nature, and he is the leader of salvation for the human race at
large. He is the order and the head of the recognized hierarchy, which
is the reflection of another and greater hierarchic order; but it may so
happen that the pontiff forgets the significance of this his symbolic
state and acts as if he contained within his proper measures all that
his sign signifies or his symbol seeks to show forth. He is not, as it
has been thought, philosophy--except on the theological side; he is not
inspiration; and he is not religion, although he is a mode of its
expression.

[Illustration: THE HIEROPHANT]

SIX. THE LOVERS

The sun shines in the zenith, and beneath is a great winged figure with
arms extended, pouring down influences. In the foreground are two human
figures, male and female, unveiled before each other, as if Adam and Eve
when they first occupied the paradise of the earthly body. Behind the
man is the Tree of Life, bearing twelve fruits, and the Tree of the
Knowledge of Good and Evil is behind the woman; the serpent is twining
round it. The figures suggest youth, virginity, innocence and love
before it is contaminated by gross material desire. This is in all
simplicity the card of human love, here exhibited as part of the way,
the truth and the life. It replaces, by recourse to first principles,
the old card of marriage, which I have described previously, and the
later follies which depicted man between vice and virtue. In a very high
sense, the card is a mystery of the Covenant and Sabbath.

The suggestion in respect of the woman is that she signifies that
attraction towards the sensitive life which carries within it the idea
of the Fall of Man, but she is rather the working of a Secret Law of
Providence than a willing and conscious temptress. It is through her
imputed lapse that man shall arise ultimately, and only by her can he
complete himself. The card is therefore in its way another intimation
concerning the great mystery of womanhood. The old meanings fall to
pieces of necessity with the old pictures, but even as interpretations
of the latter, some of them were of the order of commonplace and others
were false in symbolism.

[Illustration: THE LOVERS.]

SEVEN. THE CHARIOT

An erect and princely figure carrying a drawn sword and corresponding,
broadly speaking, to the traditional description which I have given in
the first part. On the shoulders of the victorious hero are supposed to
be the _Urim_ and _Thummim_. He has led captivity captive; he is
conquest on all planes--in the mind, in science, in progress, in certain
trials of initiation. He has thus replied to the _Sphinx_, and it is on
this account that I have accepted the variation of Eliphas Lévi; two
sphinxes thus draw his chariot. He is above all things triumph in the
mind.

It is to be understood for this reason (_a_) that the question of the
sphinx is concerned with a Mystery of Nature and not of the world of
Grace, to which the charioteer could offer no answer; (_b_) that the
planes of his conquest are manifest or external and not within himself;
(_c_) that the liberation which he effects may leave himself in the
bondage of the logical understanding; (_d_) that the tests of initiation
through which he has passed in triumph are to be understood physically
or rationally and (_e_) that if he came to the pillars of that Temple
between which the High Priestess is seated, he could not open the scroll
called _Tora_, nor if she questioned him could he answer. He is not
hereditary royalty and he is not priesthood.

[Illustration: THE CHARIOT.]

EIGHT. STRENGTH, OR FORTITUDE

A woman, over whose head there broods the same symbol of life which we
have seen in the card of the Hierophant, is closing the jaws of a lion.
The only point in which this design differs from the conventional
presentations is that her beneficent fortitude has already subdued the
lion, which is being led by a chain of flowers. For reasons which
satisfy myself, this card has been interchanged with that of Justice,
which is usually numbered eight. As the variation carries nothing with
it which will signify to the reader, there is no cause for explanation.
Fortitude, in one of its most exalted aspects, is connected with the
Divine Mystery of Union; the virtue, of course, operates in all planes,
and hence draws on all in its symbolism. It connects also with
_innocentia inviolata_, and with the strength which resides in
contemplation.

These higher meanings are, however, matters of inference, and I do not
suggest that they are transparent on the surface of the card. They are
intimated in a concealed manner by the chain of flowers, which
signifies, among many other things, the sweet yoke and the light burden
of Divine Law, when it has been taken into the heart of hearts. The card
has nothing to do with self-confidence in the ordinary sense, though
this has been suggested--but it concerns the confidence of those whose
strength is God (Nature), who have found their refuge in Him. There is
one aspect in which the lion signifies the passions, and she who is
called Strength is the higher nature in its liberation. It has walked
upon the asp and the basilisk and has trodden down the lion and the
dragon.

[Illustration: STRENGTH.]

NINE. THE HERMIT

The variation from the conventional models in this card is only that the
lamp is not enveloped partially in the mantle of its bearer, who blends
the idea of the Ancient of Days with the Light of the World. It is a
star which shines in the lantern. I have said that this is a card of
attainment, and to extend this conception the figure is seen holding up
his beacon on an eminence. Therefore the Hermit is not, as Court de
Gebelin explained, a wise man in search of truth and justice; nor is he,
as a later explanation proposes, an especial example of experience. His
beacon intimates that "where I am, you also may be."

It is further a card which is understood quite incorrectly when it is
connected with the idea of occult isolation, as the protection of
personal magnetism against admixture. This is one of the frivolous
renderings which we owe to Eliphas Lévi. It has been adopted by the
French Order of Martinism and some of us have heard a great deal of the
Silent and Unknown Philosophy enveloped by his mantle from the knowledge
of the profane. In true Martinism, the significance of the term
_Philosophe inconnu_ was of another order. It did not refer to the
intended concealment of the Instituted Mysteries, much less of their
substitutes, but--like the card itself--to the truth that the Divine
Mysteries secure their own protection from those who are unprepared.

[Illustration: THE HERMIT.]

TEN. WHEEL OF FORTUNE

In this symbol I have again followed the reconstruction of Eliphas Lévi,
who has furnished several variants. It is legitimate--as I have
intimated--to use Egyptian symbolism when this serves our purpose,
provided that no theory of origin is implied therein. I have, however,
presented Typhon in his serpent form. The symbolism is, of course, not
exclusively Egyptian, as the four Living Creatures of Ezekiel occupy the
angles of the card, and the wheel itself follows other indications of
Lévi in respect of Ezekiel's vision, as illustrative of the particular
Tarot Key. With the French occultist, and in the design itself, the
symbolic picture stands for the perpetual motion of a fluidic universe
and for the flux of human life. The Sphinx is the equilibrium therein.
The transliteration of _Taro_ as _Rota_ is inscribed on the wheel,
counterchanged with the letters of the Divine Name--to show that
Providence is implied through all. But this is the Divine intention
within, and the similar intention without is exemplified by the four
Living Creatures. Sometimes the sphinx is represented couchant on a
pedestal above, which defrauds the symbolism by stultifying the
essential idea of stability amidst movement.

Behind the general notion expressed in the symbol there lies the denial
of chance and the fatality which is implied therein. It may be added
that, from the days of Lévi onward, the occult explanations of this card
are--even for occultism itself--of a singularly fatuous kind. It has
been said to mean principle, fecundity, virile honor, ruling authority,
etc. The findings of common fortune-telling are better than this on
their own plane.

[Illustration: WHEEL of FORTUNE.]

ELEVEN. JUSTICE

As this card follows the traditional symbolism and carries above all its
obvious meanings, there is little to say regarding it outside the few
considerations collected in the first part, to which the reader is
referred.

It will be seen, however, that the figure is seated between pillars,
like the High Priestess, and on this account it seems desirable to
indicate that the moral principle which deals unto every man according
to his works--while, of course, it is in strict analogy with higher
things--differs in its essence from the spiritual justice which is
involved in the idea of election. The latter belongs to a mysterious
order of Providence, in virtue of which it is possible for certain men
to conceive the idea of dedication to the highest things. The operation
of this is like the breathing of the Spirit where it wills, and we have
no canon of criticism or ground of explanation concerning it. It is
analogous to the possession of the fairy gifts and the high gifts and
the gracious gifts of the poet: we have them or have not, and their
presence is as much a mystery as their absence. The law of Justice is
not, however, involved by either alternative. In conclusion, the pillars
of Justice open into one world and the pillars of the High Priestess
into another.

[Illustration: JUSTICE.]

TWELVE. THE HANGED MAN

The gallows from which he is suspended forms a _Tau_ cross, while the
figure--from the position of the legs--forms a fylfot cross. There is a
nimbus about the head of the seeming martyr. It should be noted (1) that
the tree of sacrifice is living wood, with leaves thereon; (2) that the
face expresses deep entrancement, not suffering; (3) that the figure, as
a whole, suggests life in suspension, but life and not death. It is a
card of profound significance, but all the significance is veiled. One
of his editors suggests that Eliphas Lévi did not know the meaning,
which is unquestionable--nor did the editor himself. It has been called
falsely a card of martyrdom, a card of prudence, a card of the Great
Work, a card of duty; but we may exhaust all published interpretations
and find only vanity. I will say very simply on my own part that it
expresses the relation, in one of its aspects, between the Divine and
the Universe.

He who can understand that the story of his higher nature is imbedded in
this symbolism will receive intimations concerning a great awakening
that is possible, and will know that after the sacred _Mystery Of Death_
there is a glorious _Mystery Of Resurrection_.

[Illustration: THE HANGED MAN.]

THIRTEEN. DEATH

The veil or mask of life is perpetuated in change, transformation and
passage from lower to higher, and this is more fitly represented in the
rectified Tarot by one of the apocalyptic visions than by the crude
notion of the reaping skeleton. Behind it lies the whole world of ascent
in the spirit. The mysterious horseman moves slowly, bearing a black
banner emblazoned with the Mystic Rose, which signifies life. Between
two pillars on the verge of the horizon there shines the sun of
immortality. The horseman carries no visible weapon, but king and child
and maiden fall before him, while a prelate with clasped hands awaits
his end.

There should be no need to point out that the suggestion of death which
I have made in connection with the previous card is, of course, to be
understood mystically, but this is not the case in the present instance.
The natural transit of man to the next stage of his being either is or
may be one form of his progress, but the exotic and almost unknown
entrance, while still in this life, into the state of mystical death is
a change in the form of consciousness and the passage into a state to
which ordinary death is neither the path nor gate. The existing occult
explanations of the 13th card are, on the whole, better than usual,
rebirth, creation, destination, renewal, and the rest.

[Illustration: DEATH.]

FOURTEEN. TEMPERANCE

A winged angel, with the sign of the sun upon his forehead and on his
breast the square and triangle of the septenary. I speak of him in the
masculine sense, but the figure is neither male nor female. It is held
to be pouring the essences of life from chalice to chalice. It has one
foot upon the earth and one upon waters, thus illustrating the nature of
the essences. A direct path goes up to certain heights on the verge of
the horizon, and above there is a great light, through which a crown is
seen vaguely. Hereof is some part of the Secret of Eternal Life, as it
is possible to man in his incarnation. All the conventional emblems are
renounced herein.

So also are the conventional meanings, which refer to changes in the
seasons, perpetual movement of life, and even the combination of ideas.
It is, moreover, untrue to say that the figure symbolizes the genius of
the sun, though it is the analogy of solar light, realized in the third
part of our human triplicity. It is called Temperance, fantastically,
because, when the rule of it obtains in our consciousness, it tempers,
combines and harmonizes the psychic and material natures. Under that
rule we know in our rational part something of whence we came and
whither we are going.

[Illustration: TEMPERANCE.]

FIFTEEN. THE DEVIL

The design is an accommodation, mean or harmony, between several motives
mentioned in the first part. The Horned Goat of Mendes, with wings like
those of a bat, is standing on an altar. At the pit of the stomach there
is the sign of Mercury. The right hand is upraised and extended, being
the reverse of that benediction which is given by the Hierophant in the
fifth card. In the left hand there is a great flaming torch, inverted
towards the earth. A reversed pentagram is on the forehead. There is a
ring in front of the altar, from which two chains are carried to the
necks of two figures, male and female. These are analogous with those of
the fifth card, as if Adam and Eve after the Fall. Hereof is the chain
and fatality of the material life.

The figures are tailed, to signify the animal nature, but there is human
intelligence in the faces, and he who is exalted above them is not to be
their master for ever. Even now, he is also a bondsman, sustained by the
evil that is in him and blind to the liberty of service. With more than
his usual derision for the arts which he pretended to respect and
interpret as a master therein, Eliphas Lévi affirms that the Baphometic
figure is occult science and magic. Another commentator says that in the
Divine world it signifies predestination, but there is no correspondence
in that world with the things which below are of the brute. What it does
signify is the Dweller on the Threshold without the Mystical Garden when
those are driven forth therefrom who have eaten the forbidden fruit.

[Illustration: THE DEVIL.]

SIXTEEN. THE TOWER

Occult explanations attached to this card are meager and mostly
disconcerting. It is idle to indicate that it depicts ruin in all its
aspects, because it bears this evidence on the surface. It is said
further that it contains the first allusion to a material building, but
I do not conceive that the Tower is more or less material than the
pillars which we have met with in three previous cases. I see nothing to
warrant Papus in supposing that it is literally the fall of Adam, but
there is more in favor of his alternative--that it signifies the
materialization of the spiritual word. The bibliographer Christian
imagines that it is the downfall of the mind, seeking to penetrate the
mystery of God (Nature). I agree rather with Grand Orient that it is the
ruin of the House of Life, when evil has prevailed therein, and above
all that it is the rending of a House of Doctrine. I understand that the
reference is, however, to a House of Falsehood. It illustrates also in
the most comprehensive way the old truth that "except the Lord build the
house, they labor in vain that build it."

There is a sense in which the catastrophe is a reflection from the
previous card, but not on the side of the symbolism which I have tried
to indicate therein. It is more correctly a question of analogy; one is
concerned with the fall into the material and animal state, while the
other signifies destruction on the intellectual side. The Tower has been
spoken of as the chastisement of pride and the intellect overwhelmed in
the attempt to penetrate the Mystery of God (Nature); but in neither
case do these explanations account for the two persons who are the
living sufferers. The one is the literal word made void and the other
its false interpretation. In yet a deeper sense, it may signify also the
end of a dispensation, but there is no possibility here for the
consideration of this involved question.

[Illustration: THE TOWER.]

SEVENTEEN. THE STAR

A great, radiant star of eight rays, surrounded by seven lesser
stars--also of eight rays. The female figure in the foreground is
entirely naked. Her left knee is on the land and her right foot upon the
water. She pours Water of Life from two great ewers, irrigating sea and
land. Behind her is rising ground and on the right a shrub or tree,
whereon a bird alights. The figure expresses eternal youth and beauty.
The star is _l'étoile flamboyante_, which appears in Masonic symbolism,
but has been confused therein. That which the figure communicates to the
living scene is the substance of the heavens and the elements. It has
been said truly that the mottoes of this card are "Waters of Life
freely" and "Gifts of the Spirit."

The summary of several tawdry explanations says that it is a card of
hope. On other planes it has been certified as immortality and interior
light. For the majority of prepared minds, the figure will appear as the
type of Truth unveiled, glorious in undying beauty, pouring on the
waters of the soul some part and measure of her priceless possession.
But she is in reality the _Great Mother_ in the _Kabalistic Sephira
Binah_, which is supernal Understanding, who communicates to the
_Sephiroth_ that are below in the measure that they can receive her
influx.

[Illustration: THE STAR.]

EIGHTEEN. THE MOON

The distinction between this card and some of the conventional types is
that the moon is increasing on what is called the side of mercy, to the
right of the observer. It has sixteen chief and sixteen secondary rays.
The card represents life of the imagination apart from life of the
spirit. The path between the towers is the issue into the unknown. The
dog and the wolf are the fears of the natural mind in the presence of
that place of exit, when there is only reflected light to guide it.

The last reference is a key to another form of symbolism. The
intellectual light is a reflection and beyond it is the unknown mystery
which it cannot show forth. It illuminates our animal nature, types of
which are represented below--the dog, the wolf and that which comes up
out of the deeps, the nameless and hideous tendency which is lower than
the savage beast. It strives to attain manifestation, symbolized by
crawling from the abyss of water to the land, but as a rule it sinks
back whence it came. The face of the mind directs a calm gaze upon the
unrest below; the dew of thought falls; the message is: Peace, be still;
and it may be that there shall come a calm upon the animal nature, while
the abyss beneath shall cease from giving up a form.

[Illustration: THE MOON.]

NINETEEN. THE SUN

The naked child mounted on a white horse and displaying a red standard
has been mentioned already as the better symbolism connected with this
card. It is the destiny of the Supernatural East and the great and holy
light which goes before the endless procession of humanity, coming out
from the walled garden of the sensitive life and passing on the journey
home. The card signifies, therefore, the transit from the manifest light
of this world, represented by the glorious sun of earth, to the light of
the world to come, which goes before aspiration and is typified by the
heart of a child.

But the last allusion is again the key to a different form or aspect of
the symbolism. The sun is that of consciousness in the spirit--the
direct as the antithesis of the reflected light. The characteristic type
of humanity has become a little child therein--a child in the sense of
simplicity and innocence in the sense of wisdom. In that simplicity, he
bears the seal of Nature and of Art; in that innocence, he signifies the
restored world. When the self-knowing spirit has dawned in the
consciousness above the natural mind, that mind in its renewal leads
forth the animal nature in a state of perfect conformity.

[Illustration: THE SUN.]

TWENTY. THE LAST JUDGMENT

I have said that this symbol is essentially invariable in all Tarot
sets, or at least the variations do not alter its character. The great
angel is here encompassed by clouds, but he blows his bannered trumpet,
and the cross as usual is displayed on the banner. The dead are rising
from their tombs--a woman on the right, a man on the left hand, and
between them their child, whose back is turned. But in this card there
are more than three who are restored, and it has been thought worth
while to make this variation as illustrating the insufficiency of
current explanations. It should be noted that all the figures are as one
in the wonder, adoration and ecstasy expressed by their attitudes. It is
the card which registers the accomplishment of the great work of
transformation in answer to the summons of the Supernal--which summons
is heard and answered from within.

Herein is the intimation of a significance which cannot well be carried
further in the present place. What is that within us which does sound a
trumpet and all that is lower in our nature rises in response--almost in
a moment, almost in the twinkling of an eye? Let the card continue to
depict, for those who can see no further, the Last Judgment and the
resurrection in the natural body; but let those who have inward eyes
look and discover therewith. They will understand that it has been
called truly in the past a card of eternal life, and for this reason it
may be compared with that which passes under the name of Temperance.

[Illustration: JUDGEMENT.]

ZERO. THE FOOL

With light step, as if earth and its trammels had little power to
restrain him, a young man in gorgeous vestments pauses at the brink of a
precipice among the great heights of the world; he surveys the blue
distance before him--its expanse of sky rather than the prospect below.
His act of eager walking is still indicated, though he is stationary at
the given moment; his dog is still bounding. The edge which opens on the
depth has no terror; it is as if angels were waiting to uphold him, if
it came about that he leaped from the height. His countenance is full of
intelligence and expectant dream. He has a rose in one hand and in the
other a costly wand, from which depends over his right shoulder a wallet
curiously embroidered. He is a prince of the other world on his travels
through this one--all amidst the morning glory, in the keen air. The
sun, which shines behind him, knows whence he came, whither he is going,
and how he will return by another path after many days. He is the spirit
in search of experience. Many symbols of the Instituted Mysteries are
summarized in this card, which reverses, under high warrants, all the
confusions that have preceded it.

In his _Manual Of Cartomancy_, Grand Orient has a curious suggestion of
the office of Mystic Fool, as a part of his process in higher
divination; but it might call for more than ordinary gifts to put it
into operation. We shall see how the card fares according to the common
arts of fortune-telling, and it will be an example, to those who can
discern, of the fact, otherwise so evident, that the Trumps Major had no
place originally in the arts of psychic gambling, when cards are used as
the counters and pretexts. Of the circumstances under which this art
arose we know, however, very little. The conventional explanations say
that the Fool signifies the flesh, the sensitive life, and by a peculiar
satire its subsidiary name was at one time the alchemist, as depicting
folly at the most insensate stage.

[Illustration: THE FOOL.]

TWENTY-ONE. THE WORLD

As this final message of the Major Trumps is unchanged--and indeed
unchangeable--in respect of its design, it has been partly described
already regarding its deeper sense. It represents also the perfection
and end of the Cosmos, the secret which is within it, the rapture of the
universe when it understands itself in God (Nature). It is further the
state of the soul in the consciousness of Divine Vision, reflected from
the self-knowing spirit. But these meanings are without prejudice to
that which I have said concerning it on the material side.

It has more than one message on the macrocosmic side and is, for
example, the state of the restored world when the law of manifestation
shall have been carried to the highest degree of natural perfection. But
it is perhaps more especially a story of the past, referring to that day
when all was declared to be good, when the morning stars sang together
and all the Sons of God (Nature) shouted for joy. One of the worst
explanations concerning it is that the figure symbolizes the Magus when
he has reached the highest degree of initiation; another account says
that it represents the absolute, which is ridiculous. The figure has
been said to stand for Truth, which is, however, more properly allocated
to the seventeenth card. Lastly, it has been called the Crown of the
Magi.

[Illustration: THE WORLD.]