CHAPTER XVII.

THE INITIATIVE TAROT.
Ch. Barlet's Essay on this Subject— Involution and Evolution— The Hours of Apollonius of Tyana— The Phases of Initiation re- presented by the Tarot.
The Initiative Tarot.
APPLICATION OF THE TAROT TO THE THEORETICAL AND PRACTICAL DOCTRINES OF INITIATION.
Our friend F. Ch. Barlet has written a very interesting article upon this subject, which we will quote in extenso. Our readers will then see the exactitude with which his conclusions harmonize with our own.
INITIATION.
Amongst the ancients the scientific men were also the sages, such as Pythagoras, Plato, Aristotle ; in modern times, on the contrary, science and wisdom are unsuccessfully seeking for each other, or struggling in mortal conflict over the religious question. That such a separation is against nature is easily seen by the study of those Positivist philosophers whose extensive learning and
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admirable efforts to build up a synthesis of scientific wisdom merit high rank in the modern intellectual world. Whilst their fundamental aphorism is that nothing is attainable by man beyond the world of phenomena, their works display an increasing though unintentional tendency to cross the limits which they seek to impose upon themselves, for they are led by that nature which they love, and which in its final manifestations they know better than any one else. We may compare them to insects imprisoned behind a window ; in despair they beat themselves against the glass, clearly seeing the sunbeam which should lead them to the source of all li^ht, yet unable to follow it beyond the invisible wall of their prison. On the other hand, the Spiritualists are outside, free, and as it were lost in the luminous ocean, wandering without a compass, unable to find the guiding sunbeam which is the despair of the Positivists.
However, one school exists which promises to guide the one, to free the other, and to direct each student towards the centre of Truth so ardently desired ; an unknown school, little frequented, like every transcendent degree, although its masters have always given proofs of considerable learning — the school of Theosophy, a positive spiritualism preserved for ages in the ancient mysteries, transmitted with more or less purity by the Kabbalists, Mystics, Templars, Rosicrucians, and Freemasons, often degenerate, like every other doctrine prematurely divulged, yet hidden at the root of every religion, and carefully per- petuated in a few unknown sanctuaries, chiefly situated in India.
The secret of Theosophy, in the reconciliation between science and metaphysics, lies in a certain practical develop- ment of those human faculties which are best fitted to
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extend the limits of reliable knowledge. Let us first try to understand this possibility.
An attentive examination of any scientific method, however positive it may be, proves that there is no evidence or certainty save in axioms, and that the fragile and changeable scaffolding of our sciences, built upon this immovable basis, is entirely due to intuition, of which observation and experience are only instruments.
But the field of direct perception in which intuition exerts itself is capable of extension; this fact is now demonstrated by the phenomena of hypnotism and magnetism, the torments of our modern sciences ; for by them the limits of opaque matter, of space and time, are suppressed in variable but incontestable degrees.
But still, in this realm of transcendental faculties the perception is not always so reliable as the unvarying certainty which characterizes an axiom ; for amongst the hypnotizable or magnetizable subjects, the material lucidity presents a number of gradations which are reproduced in the intellectual order, and which vary between the fancies of a disordered imagination and the sublime revelations of healthily inspired genius.
We do not therefore exceed the possibilities given by the reliable evidence of observation and experience, when we assert that the physical or intellectual perception of the human being is capable of extending beyond the limits of ordinary judgments and sensations; and that in the transcendental regions which it can attain it is susceptible of more or less certitude in its impressions. This assertion opens new fields for human knowledge, an hierarchy of new immediate causes, and the prospect of an indefinite progress in science.
Now Theosophy inspires man with the enthusiasm
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which enables him to draw near to these transcendent regions of perception, whilst it guards him from illusion, through the forces and the new beings which he will meet there : it is this instruction which constitutes Initiation.
The slight sketch which will now follow will at least give some idea of the principles by which Religion and Philosophy, Wisdom and Science, are united in Theosophy. Any defects which the reader may find in it must be attributed to want of skill on the part of the student who has undertaken it.
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Initiation comprises two different but united sections. The Theory of the resources and necessities of his enter- prise, which the neophyte always receives as an inheritance which leaves him absolute liberty of thought — and the Practice in which he exercises, under the direction of his masters, the physical, intellectual, and moral self- control which will render him an Initiate.
The Theory, the primary instruction of Theosophy, is a preliminary definition, consisting almost exclusively of the contents of the Theosophical publications ; but a student should not fancy himself one of the Initiate because he possesses these public works ; the knowledge of them is an excellent preparation, but nothing more.
This theory is found scattered throughout a number of more or less well-known and accessible books ; but there are very few of them which explain it as a whole, simply and methodically enough to satisfy a beginner. This first difficulty, chiefly due to the actual state of many minds, which will not admit regular instruction, also
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corresponds to the numerous varieties of intelligence which examine them. Some, previously opened to theosophical doctrines, approach every detail with equal profit to themselves ; others, on the contrary, who cannot at first accept them as a whole, willingly examine them by means of a secondary door which especially suits them, but which often forces them to make enormous digressions through our sciences and philosophies. The first steps are consequently very varied, and they require guidance from some more advanced brother, who is capable of discerning the intellectual and moral state of the neophyte.
This is why no work on the subject can be especially recommended here. An excellent bibliography of theo- sophic works will be found in the Traité Elémentaire de Science Occulte, by Papus. We now add to it an excellent list of a series of studies, long but reliable, which will form a gradual transition from Positivism to Theosophy :
For facts. Study: Richet, d'Assier, Liebault, Philipps, Dupotet, Reichenbach, Mesmer, &c.
Hypothesis of the whole : Comte, Stuart Mill, Bain, Ribot, Spencer, Taine, &c.
Philosophers: Du Prel, Hartmann, Schopenhauer, Hegel. Great profit can then be derived from older works : Spinoza, Leibnitz, and even from the ancients : Aristotle, Plato, the Neoplatonists, the Pythagorists ; then the modern mystic scientists : Wronski, Fabre d'Olivet, Lucas, &c.
The student will then fully understand Theosophy.
This series will, however, require further modifications, according to the character and the scientific aptitudes of the student. We must also point out some features of the theory, which are necessary for the comprehension of
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our principal subject ; the reader must only remember that this explanation is entirely due to the author of this article, and he must not impute any of its errors to Theosophy itself.
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Our positive sciences give the last formula of the visible world in the following words —
There is no matter tuithout force : no force without matter.
An indisputable but incomplete formula, unless the following commentary be added to it —
1. The combination of what we call Force and Matter presents itself in various proportions, from that which is called materialized Force (rocks, minerals, simple chemical bodies), to subtilized Hatter or Matter-Force (a grain of pollen, spermatozoid, the electric atom). Matter and Force, although we cannot isolate them, there- fore present themselves as the extreme and opposing mathematical limits (or contrary signs) of a series of which we see only a few medium terms, abstract but indubitable.
2. The terms of this series, that is to say, the substances of nature, are never stable ; Force, which is characterized by infinite mobility, sways essentially inert matter from one pole to the other, as though it were drawn by a continual current, while it retorts by a counter-current, which leads it back to its inert condition. For instance, an atom of phosphorus borrowed by a vegetable from the mineral phosphates, becomes the element of a human cerebral cellule (subtilized matter), then through dis- integration falls back into the inert mineral kingdom.
3. The movement resulting from this unstable equili-
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briu m is not disorganized ; it presents a series of chained harmonies which we call Laws, and which are synthetized in our eyes in the supreme law of Evolution.
One conclusion is forced upon us : This harmonious synthesis of phenomena is the eminent manifestation of what we call a will.
Therefore, according to positive science, the visible world is the expression of a will which manifests itself by the unstable but progressive equilibrium of Force and Matter.
It is represented by this quaternary —