SECTION 3

THE GREATER ARCANA AND THEIR DIVINATORY MEANINGS

1. _The Magician._--Skill, diplomacy, address, subtlety; sickness,
pain, loss, disaster, snares of enemies; self-confidence, will; the
Querent, if male. _Reversed_: Physician, Magus, mental disease,
disgrace, disquiet.

2. _The High Priestess._--Secrets, mystery, the future as yet
unrevealed; the woman who interests the Querent, if male; the
Querent herself, if female; silence, tenacity; mystery, wisdom,
science. _Reversed_: Passion, moral or physical ardor, conceit,
surface knowledge.

3. _The Empress._--Fruitfulness, action, initiative, length of
days; the unknown, clandestine; also difficulty, doubt, ignorance.
_Reversed_: Light, truth, the unravelling of involved matters,
public rejoicings; according to another reading, vacillation.

4. _The Emperor._--Stability, power, protection, realization; a
great person; aid, reason, conviction; also authority and will.
_Reversed_: Benevolence, compassion, credit; also confusion to
enemies, obstruction, immaturity.

5. _The Hierophant._--Marriage, alliance, captivity, servitude; by
another account, mercy and goodness; inspiration; the man to whom
the Querent has recourse. _Reversed_: Society, good understanding,
concord, over-kindness, weakness.

6. _The Lovers._--Attraction, love, beauty, trials overcome.
_Reversed_: Failure, foolish designs. Another account speaks of
marriage frustrated and contrarieties of all kinds.

7. _The Chariot._--Succor, providence; also war, triumph,
presumption, vengeance, trouble. _Reversed_: Riot, quarrel,
dispute, litigation, defeat.

8. _Fortitude._--Power, energy, action, courage, magnanimity; also
complete success and honors. _Reversed_: Despotism, abuse of power,
weakness, discord, sometimes even disgrace.

9. _The Hermit._--Prudence, circumspection; also and especially
treason, dissimulation, roguery, corruption. _Reversed_:
Concealment, disguise, policy, fear, unreasoned caution.

10. _Wheel of Fortune._--Destiny, fortune, success, elevation,
luck, felicity. _Reversed_: Increase, abundance, superfluity.

11. _Justice._--Equity, rightness, probity, executive; triumph of
the deserving side in law. _Reversed_: Law in all its departments,
legal complications, bigotry, bias, excessive severity.

12. _The Hanged Man._--Wisdom, circumspection, discernment, trials,
sacrifice, intuition, divination, prophecy. _Reversed_:
Selfishness, the crowd, body politic.

13. _Death._--End, mortality, destruction, corruption; also, for a
man, the loss of a benefactor; for a woman, many contrarieties; for
a maid, failure of marriage projects. _Reversed_: Inertia, sleep,
lethargy, petrifaction, somnambulism; hope destroyed.

14. _Temperance._--Economy, moderation, frugality, management,
accommodation. _Reversed_: Things connected with churches,
religions, sects, the priesthood, sometimes even the priest who
will marry the Querent; also disunion, unfortunate combinations,
competing interests.

15. _The Devil._--Ravage, violence, vehemence, extraordinary
efforts, force, fatality; that which is predestined but is not for
this reason evil. _Reversed_: Evil fatality, weakness, pettiness,
blindness.

16. _The Tower._--Misery, distress, indigence, adversity, calamity,
disgrace, deception, ruin. It is a card in particular of unforeseen
catastrophe. _Reversed_: According to one account, the same in a
lesser degree; also oppression, imprisonment, tyranny.

17. _The Star._--Loss, theft, privation, abandonment; another
reading says--hope and bright prospects. _Reversed_: Arrogance,
haughtiness, impotence.

18. _The Moon._--Hidden enemies, danger, calumny, darkness, terror,
deception, occult forces, error. _Reversed_: Instability,
inconstancy, silence, lesser degrees of deception and error.

19. _The Sun._--Material happiness, fortunate marriage,
contentment. _Reversed_: The same in a lesser sense.

20. _The Last Judgment._--Change of position, renewal, outcome.
Another account specifies total loss through lawsuit. _Reversed_:
Weakness, pusillanimity, simplicity; also deliberation, decision,
sentence.

_Zero._ _The Fool._--Folly, mania, extravagance, intoxication,
delirium, frenzy, bewrayment. _Reversed_: Negligence, absence,
distribution, carelessness, apathy, nullity, vanity.

21. _The World._--Assured success, recompense, voyage, route,
emigration, flight, change of place. _Reversed_: Inertia, fixity,
stagnation, permanence.

It will be seen that, except where there is an irresistible suggestion
conveyed by the surface meaning, that which is extracted from the Trumps
Major by the divinatory art is at once artificial and arbitrary, as it
seems to me, in the highest degree. But of one order are the mysteries
of light and of another are those of fantasy. The allocation of a
fortune-telling aspect to these cards is the story of a prolonged
impertinence.