Chapter 51
CHAPTER XVIII.
THE KABBALISTIC TAROT.
Deductions by Etteila upon the Book of Thoth — Example of the
Application of the Tarot to the Kabbalah, the Hierogram of
Adam by Stanislas de Guaita.
Deductions by Etteila upon the Book of Thoth.
We will now recapitulate some of the conclusions which
Etteila attained in the course of his work upon the Book
of Thoth (the Tarot).
The Booh of Thoth Hermes indicates by its name alone
that our author had discovered its Egyptian origin. It
is composed of 78 leaflets, forming 4 volumes.
The 1st volume contains 12 leaves-
The 2nd — 5 —
The 3rd — 5 —
The 4th — 56 —
Thus the 22 major arcana form 3 volumes, and the 56
minor arcana form the last.
The 56 leaves of the last volume divide in the following
way, according to the operation indicated in the first
reading of the cards —
26 + 17 + 11+2-56.
292 THE TAROT.
The 4 divisions of the 56 leaflets (the 4 colours)
respectively represent —
1. Agriculture.
2. Priesthood.
3. Nobility,
4. People,
Magistrates.
Soldiers.
Art.
Commerce
The Book of Thoth contains three parts, viz. :
22 Major Atouts.
16 Minor Atouts (the figures).
40 Small cards.
It is formed like a living beings for —
78 is its body ;
3 its spirit or mediator ;
1 its soul.
If we add the 12 first leaflets of the book together, we
shall discover the number of its total —
1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 5 + 6 + 7 + 8 + 9 + 10 + 11 + 12 = 78.
If we now look back at the first operation in reading
the cards according to our author, new deductions will arise.
Number 78 will be found to represent Salt, or the
incorruptible Spirit.
The number 1 (a book) represents the Unity, the
Divinity ; lastly, the number 26, which divides the Tarot
into three parts, is exactly that of Jehovah (mrp).
Total
Yod - =
= 10
He
5
Vau =
6
He
5
al
26
THE KABBALISTIC TAROT. 293
In the first operation * upon the packets of 26 cards
nothing remains, — 0.
In the second operation upon the packets of 17 cards
1 remains, which represents the point in the centre of
the circle zero.
Lastly, in the third operation upon the packets of 11
cards 2 remain, which represent Man.
To sum up —
0 — The Circumference of the Universe.
1 — The point of the Centre-God.
2— The Male and the Female. Man.
God, Man, and the Universe, obtained by the mystic
system of Etteila !
We shall never end if we try to follow our author in all
the deductions he makes from the above ; let us content
ourselves, in closing, with demonstrating the meaning
which he gives to the numbers of the packets which have
been successively placed on one side.
26— The Soul.
17— The Spirit.
11— The Body.
Finally, the remainder of the cards 11 + 11 + 2 = 24 is
Life.
These few pages will suffice to give the student a
glimpse of Etteila's method of proceeding. We have
rendered his deductions as clearly, and presented them
as methodically, as possible. The curious had better
consult his work on the subject —
1 See, for an explanation of these packets and the method of
obtaining them, Chapter XX. (6th lesson).
294 THE TAROT.
Collection sur les Hautes Sciences, or a theoretical and
practical treatise upon the wisdom magic of the ancients,
absolutely complete in twelve books, which contain all that
Etteila has written upon the Hermetic philosophy, the art of
fortune-telling by cards . . . and particularly the sublime Book
of Thoth. 2 vols. 8vo., bound, 1780.
EXAMPLE OF THE APPLICATION OF THE
TAROT TO THE KABBALAH.
THE HÏEEOGRAM OF ADAM, BY
Stanislas de Guaita.
In asserting that the hierogram of Adam conceals the
most profound arcana of the living Universe, we shall
not astonish those who have made a serious study of the
Sepher Bereschit. By comparing the admirable translation
of Fabre d'Olivet with the pentacular revelations of the
Booh of Thoth, it is not impossible to strike out the
supreme light of truth. Here are a few data which will
aid us to reach it.
Adam £^N is written in Hebrew, Aleph, Daleth, Mem.
N (1st key of the Tarot : The Juggler). God and man; the
Principle and the end ; the Equilibrant Unity.
1 (4th key of the Tarot : The Emperor). The Power and
the Kingdom ; the verbal Quaternary ; the Multiplication of
the cube.
Û (13th key of the Tarot : Death). Destruction and Eestor-
ation ; Night and Day, moral and physical ; Eternity and the
Ephemeral ; feminine Passivity ; at once the gulf of the Past,
the matrix of the Future.
The ternary analysis of the fathomless principle that
Yod manifests in its inaccessible and synthetic unity, Adam
THE KABBALIST1C TAROT. 295
is, in fact, very analogous to the hierogram Aum, which
is so famous in the sanctuaries of India.
In Ens, Aleph corresponds to the Father, the source of
the Trinity ; Daleth to the Son (whom the Kabbalah also
names the King) ; and Mem to the Holy Spirit, whose
ethereal body, devouring yet fertilizing transitory forms,
causes life (inexhaustible and unalterable in its essence)
to blossom upon the changing hot-bed of Growth.
I have said that ms is the cyclic analysis of the
principle, of which > (Yod) is the inaccessible synthesis.
A simple calculation of the numerical Kabbalah confirms
my assertion. Let us translate the letters into numbers
(Tarotic method).
«1 li 72 13.
1+4 + 13 = 18. In 18, 1 + 8-9.
In Kabbalistic absolute numericals the analytical
number of Adam is then 9. Now we obtain 10 by
adding to 9 the specific unity which leads the cycle
back to its starting-point, and closes analysis in synthesis,
*and 10 is the number which corresponds to the letter
Yod: this we were anxious to prove.
The hierogram matic vocable DIS (Adam) then repre-
sents the ninth evolution of the cycle, which emanated
from i (Yod), and which closes in 10 by returning to its
starting-point. Principle and end of all, the eternal Yod.
revealed in its expanded form tertriune.
Let us go further still.
We have then the right (noting, however, that Adam
differs from Yod, or from Wodh, as the totality of the
sub-multiples differ from the Unity), — we have the right
to say, pursuing our analogies,
If Adam be equal to 1,
296 THE TAROT.
Adam-ah = I-ah ; and Adam Eve = I-eve. He (n)
represents Universal Life, natura naturans ; rh then
represents Yod united to Life, and ns*TS (Adamah),
Adam united to Life. This is the union of the Spirit
and of the Universal Soul at two different degrees (always
remembering the distinction noticed above).
Lastly, in mm (IEVE), as in mrrûlN (Adam-Eve),
Vau (i) represents the fecundity of this union, and the
last He (n) symbolizes natura naturata (issued from
natura natiirans, increased by the mixed principle).
These four letters, mm (IEVE), symbolize the
quaternary of Mercavah, the six letters of Adam-Eve,
mrrElN, the senary of Bereschith.
(Fragment of the Serpent of Genesis published in the Lotus
of March 1888, p. 327, and 328 note.)