SECTION 3

THE FOUR SUITS
OTHERWISE, LESSER ARCANA

The resources of interpretation have been lavished, if not exhausted, on
the twenty-two Trumps Major, the symbolism of which is unquestionable.
There remain the four suits, being Wands or Scepters--_ex hypothesi_, in
the archæology of the subject, the antecedents of Diamonds in modern
cards: Cups, corresponding to Hearts; Swords, which answer to Clubs, as
the weapon of chivalry is in relation to the peasant's quarter-staff or
the Alsatian bludgeon; and, finally, Pentacles--called also Deniers and
Money--which are the prototypes of Spades. In the old as in the new
suits, there are ten numbered cards, but in the Tarot there are four
Court Cards allocated to each suit, or a Knight in addition to King,
Queen and Knave. The Knave is a page, valet, or _damoiseau_; most
correctly, he is an esquire, presumably in the service of the Knight;
but there are certain rare sets in which the page becomes a maid of
honor, thus pairing the sexes in the tetrad of the court cards. There
are naturally distinctive features in respect of the several pictures,
by which I mean that the King of Wands is not exactly the same personage
as the King of Cups, even after allowance has been made for the
different emblems that they bear; but the symbolism resides in their
rank and in the suit to which they belong. So also the smaller cards,
which--until now--have never been issued pictorially in these our modern
days, depend on the particular meaning attaching to their numbers in
connection with the particular suit. I reserve, therefore, the details
of the Lesser Arcana, till I come to speak in the second part of the
rectified and perfected Tarot which accompanies this work. The consensus
of divinatory meanings attached both to the greater and lesser symbols
belongs to the third part.