CHAPTER I.

INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY OF THE TAROT.

Approaching End of Materialism — Synthesis — The Occult Science —
The Secret Societies — The Cultus — The People, Organ of the
Transmission of Esoterism — The Gypsies — The Sacred Word
of Freemasonry — Our Work.

" Therefore you must open the book and carefully weigh the statements made
in it. Then you will know that the drug within is of very different value from
the promise of the box, that is to say, that the subjects treated in it are riot
so frivolous as the title may imply." — Rabelais.

We are on the eve of a complete transformation of our
scientific methods. Materialism has given us all that we
can expect from it, and inquirers, disappointed as a rule,
hope for great things from the future, whilst they are
unwilling to spend more time in pursuing the path
adopted in modern times. Analysis has been carried, in
every branch of knowledge, as far as possible, and has
only deepened the moats which divide the sciences.

Synthesis becomes necessary ; but how can we realize it ?

If we would condescend to waive for one moment our
belief in the indefinite progress and fatal superiority of

4 THE TAROT.

later generations over the ancients, we should at once per-
ceive that the colossal civilizations of antiquity possessed
Science, Universities, and Schools.

India and Egypt are still strewn with valuable remains,
which reveal to archaeologists the existence of this ancient
science.

We are now in a position to affirm that the dominant
character of this teaching was synthesis, which condenses
in a few very simple laws the whole of the acquired
knowledge.

But the use of synthesis had been almost entirely lost,
through several causes, which it is important to enumerate.

Amongst the ancients, knowledge was only transmitted
to men whose worth had been proved by a series of tests.
This transmittal took place in the temples, under the
name of mysteries, and the adept assumed the title of
priest or Initiate.1 This science was therefore secret or
occult, and thus originated the name of occult science, given
by our contemporaries to the ancient synthesis.

Another reason for the limited diffusion of the higher
branches of knowledge, was the length and difficulty of
the journeys involved before the most important centres
of initiation could be reached.

However, when the Initiates found that a time was
approaching when these doctrines might be lost to
humanity, they made strenuous efforts to save the law
of synthesis from oblivion. Three great methods were
used for this purpose —

1. Secret societies, a direct continuation of the mysteries ;

2. The cultus, a symbolic translation of the higher
doctrines, for the use of the people ;

1 See Jamblichus, Porphyry, and Apuleius.

INTRODUCTION. 5

S. Lastly, the people itself became the unconscious
depository of the doctrine.

Let us now see what use each of these groups made of
the treasure confided to it.

THE SECRET SOCIETIES.

The school of Alexandria was the principal source from
which the secret societies of the West arose.

The majority of the Initiates had taken refuse in the
East, and quite recently (in 1884) the West discovered
the existence in India, and above all in Thibet, of an
occult fraternity, which possessed, practically, the ancient
synthesis in its integrity. The Theosophite Society was
founded with the object of uniting Western initiation with
Oriental initiation.

But we are less interested in the existence of this
doctrine in the East, than in the history of the develop-
ment of the initiative societies in the West.

The Gnostic sects, the Arabs, Alchemists, Templars,
Rosicrucians, and lastly the Freemasons, form the Western
chain in the transmission of occult science.

A rapid glance over the doctrines of these associations
is sufficient to prove that the present form of Freemasonry
has almost entirely lost the meanings of the traditional
symbols, which constitute the trust which it ought to
have transmitted through the ages.

The elaborate ceremonials of the ritual appear ridiculous
to the vulgar common sense of a lawyer or grocer, the
actual modern representatives of the profound doctrines
of antiquity.

6 THE TAEOT.

We must, however, make some exceptions in favour of
great thinkers, like Ragon and a few others.

In short, Freemasonry has lost the doctrine confided
to it, and cannot by itself provide us with the synthetic
law for which we are seeking.

THE CULTUS.

The secret societies were to transmit in their symbolism
the scientific side of primitive initiation, the religious sects
were to develop the philosophical and metaphysical aspects
of the doctrine. I

Every priest of an ancient creed was one of the Initiates,
that is to say, he knew perfectly well that only one
religion existed, and that the cultus merely served to
translate this religion to the different nations according;
to their particular temperaments. This fact led to one
important result, namely, that a priest, no matter which
of the gods he served, was received with honour in the
temples of all the other gods, and was allowed to offer
sacrifice to them. Yet this circumstance must not be
supposed to imply any idea of polytheism. The Jewish
High Priest in Jerusalem received one of the Initiates,
Alexander the Great, into the Temple, and led him into
the Holy of Holies, to offer sacrifice.

Our religious disputes for the supremacy of one creed
over another would have caused much amusement to one
of the ancient Initiate priests ; they were unable to suppose
that intelligent men could ignore the unity of all creeds
in one fundamental religion.

Sectarianism, chiefly sustained by two creeds, equally

INTRODUCTION. 7

blinded by their errors, the Christian and the Mussulman,
was the cause of the total loss of the secret doctrine, which
gave the key to Synthetic Unity.

Still greater labour is required to re-discover Synthesis
in our Western religions, than to find it in Freemasonry.

The Jews alone possessed, no longer the spirit, but the
letter of their oral or Kabbalistic traditions. The Bible,
written in Hebrew, is marvellous from this point of view,
for it contains all the occult traditions, although its true
sense has never yet been revealed. Fabre d'Olivet com-
menced this prodigious work, but the ignorant descendants
of the Inquisition at Rome have placed these studies on
the list of those prohibited.1 Posterity will judge them.

Yet every cultus has its tradition, its book, its Bible,
which teach those who know how to read them the
unity of all creeds, in spite of the difference existing in
the ritual of various countries.

The Sepher Bcrescliit of Moses is the Jewish Bible, the
Apocalypse and the Esoteric Gospels form the Christian
Bible, the Legend of Hiram is the Bible of Freemasonry,
the Odyssey the Bible of the so-called polytheism of
Greece, the JEncid that of Rome, and lastly the Hindib
Vedas and the Mussulman Koran are well known to all
students of ancient theology.

To any one possessing the key, all these Bibles reveal
the same doctrine ; but this key, which can open Esoterism,
is lost by the sectarians of our Western creeds. It is
therefore useless to seek for it any longer amongst them.

1 See Fabre d'Olivet, La Langue Hébraïque Restituée.

THE TAROT.

THE PEOPLE.

The Sages were under no illusions respecting the
possible future of the tradition, which they confided to
the intelligence and virtue of future generations.

Moses had chosen a people to hand down through

succeeding a^es the book which contained all the science
© ©

of Egypt ; but before Moses, the Hindu Initiates had
selected a nation to hand down to the generations of the
future the primitive doctrines of the great civilizations
of the Atlantides.

The people have never disappointed the expectations
of those who trusted it. Understanding none of the
truths which it possessed, it carefully abstained from
altering them in any way, and treated the least attack
made upon them as sacrilege.

Thus the Jews have transmitted intact to us the letters
which form the Sepher of Moses. But Moses had not
solved the problem so authoritatively as the Thibetans.

It was a great thing to give the people a book which
it could adore respectfully, and always guard intact ; but
to give it a book which would enable it to live, was yet
better.

The people intrusted with the transmission of occult
doctrines from the earliest ages was the Bohemian or
Gypsy race.

THE GYPSIES.

The Gypsies possess a Bible, which has proved their
means of gaining a livelihood, for it enables them to tell

INTRODUCTION. 9

fortunes ; at the same time it has been a perpetual source
of amusement, for it enables them to gamble.

Yes ; the game of cards called the Tarot, which the
Gypsies possess, is the Bible of Bibles. It is the book of
Thoth Hermes Trismegistus, the book of Adam, the book
of the primitive Revelation of ancient civilizations.

Thus whilst the Freemason, an intelligent and virtuous
man, has lost the tradition; whilst the priest, also intelligent
and virtuous, has lost his esoterism ; the Gypsy, although
both ignorant and vicious, has given us the key which
enables us to explain all the symbolism of the ages.

We must admire the wisdom of the Initiates, who
utilized vice and made it produce more bénéficiai results
than virtue.

The Gypsy pack of cards is a wonderful book according
to Court de Gébelin1 and Vaillant.2 This pack, under
the name of Tarot,3 Thora,4 Rota,5 has formed the basis
of the synthetic teachings of all the ancient nations
successively.6

In it, where a man of the people only sees a means of
amusement, the thinker will find the key to an obscure
tradition. Raymond Lulle has based his Ars Magna
upon the Tarot; Jerome Cardan has written a treatise
upon subtility from the keys of the Tarot;7 Guillaume
Postel has found in it the key to the ancient mysteries ;
whilst Louis-Claude de Saint- Martin, the unknown

1 Court de Gébelin. — Le Monde Primitif.

2 Vaillant. — Les Homes, Histoire des Bohémiens.

3 Eliphas Levi.— Rituel de la Haute Magie.

4 Vaillant.— Op. cit.

5 Guillaume Poste). — Clavis.
c Vaillant. — Loc. cit.

7 Eliphas Levi. — Op. cit.

10 THE TAROT.

philosopher, finds written in it the mysterious links which
unite God, the Universe, and Man !

Through the Tarot we are now able to discover and
develop the synthetic law, concealed in all these
symbolisms.

The hour is approaching when the missing word will
be refound. Masters, Rosicrucian and Kadosh, you who
form the sacred triangle of Masonic initiation, do you
remember !

30th
— Knight Kadosh —

Master _^ Rosicrucian

3rd ISth

Remember, Master, that illustrious man, killed through
the most cowardly of conspiracies ; remember Hiram,
whose resurrection, promised by the Branch of Acacia,
thou art looking for in faith !

Remember, Rosicrucian, the mysterious vjord which
thou hast sought for so long, of which the meaning still
escapes thee !

Remember, Kadosh, the magnificent symbol which
radiated from the centre of the luminous triangle, wdien
the real meaning of the letter G was revealed to thee !

HIRAM— INRI— YOD-HE-V AU-HE ! indicate the
same mystery under different aspects.

He who understands one of these words possesses the
key which opens the tomb of Hiram, the symbol of the

INTRODUCTION

11

synthetic science of the Ancients ; be can open the tomb
and fearlessly grasp the heart of the revered Master, the
symbol of esoteric teaching.

The whole Tarot is based upon this word, ROTA,

arranged as a wheel.

T

yod

(i)

A he (N)

(I) lie 0

(R)
vau
(R)

INRI ! is the word which indicates the Unity of your
origin, Freemasons and Catholics !

Igne Natura Benovatur Integra.

Iesus Nazareus Bex Iudeorum are the opposite poles,
scientific and religious, physical and metaphysical, of the
same doctrine.

YOD-HE-VAU-HE QTBT) is the word which indicates
to you both, Freemasons and Kabbalists, the Unity of your
origin. TAROT, THORA, ROTA are the words which
point out to you all, Easterns and Westerns, the Unity of
your requirements and of your aspirations in the eternal

12 THE TAROT.

Adam-Eve, the source of all our knowledge and of all our
creeds.

All honour, therefore, to the Gypsy Nomad, to whom
we are indebted for the preservation of this marvellous
instrument, the synthetic summary of the whole teaching
of antiquity.

OUR WORK.

We will commence by a preliminary study of the
elements of the Kabbalah and of numbers.

Supplied with these data, we will explain the construc-
tion of the Tarot in all its details, studying separately each
of the pieces which compose our machine, then studying
the action of these pieces upon each other. Upon this
point we shall be as explicit as possible. We will then
touch upon some applications of the machine, but upon
a few only, leaving to the genuine inquirer the work of
discovering others. We must confine our personal work
to giving a key, based upon a synthetic formula ; we can
only supply the implement of labour, in order that those
who wish for knowledge may use it as they like ; and we
feel assured that they will understand the utility of our
efforts and of their own.

Lastly, we will do our best to explain the elements of
divination by the Tarot as practised by the Gypsies.

But those who think that occult science should not be
revealed must not be too angry with us. Experience has
taught us that everything may be fearlessly said, those
only who should understand can understand ; the others will
accuse our work of being obscure and incomprehensible.

INTRODUCTION. 13

We have warned them by placing at the head of our
work —

For the exclusive use of Initiates.

It is one characteristic of the study of true occult
science, that it may be freely explained to all men. Like
the parables, so dear to the ancients, it appears to many
only the expression of the flight of a bold imagination :
we need, therefore, never be afraid of speaking too openly,
the Word will only reach those who should be touched
by it.

To you all, philosophers of Unity, enemies of scientific,
social, and religious sectarianism, I now address myself, to
you I dedicate this result of several years' study. May I
thus aid in the erection of the temple which you are about
to raise to the honour of the Unknown God, from whom
all the others emanate throughout Eternity !

V