THE EGYPTIAN!Giordano Berti — Tiberio Gonard — Silvana Alasia THE EGYPTIAN TAROT LO SCARABEO ies} Aaa J UsoTHE EGYPTIAN TAROT Essays: Giordano Berti, Tiberio Gonard Cover image and illustrations by Silvana Alasia Graphics: Pietro Alligo English translation: Harriet Graham Photolith: Lo Scarabeo © Lo Scarabeo. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever, including Internet usage, without written permission from Lo Scarabeo, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. English Edition First printing, September 1988 Current printing, September 2021 Italian Title: I Tarocchi Egizi Printed in China Lo Scarabeo S.r.l, Via Cigna 110 10155 - Torino - Italy info@loscarabeo.com - www .loscarabeo.comCONTENTS CHRONOLOGICAL HISTORY OF TAROT CARDS .... INTRODUCTION ..... THE ARCANA OF DESTINY THE PYRAMID CEREMONY. ......... THE MAJOR ARCANA AND THE MAGICIANS’ DOCTRINE ..... THE MINOR ARCANA THE MYSTERIES OF THE HOROSCOPE THE ART OF CARTOMANCY SUGGESTIONS EPILOGUE ... NOTES FURTHER READINGS 13 25 35 81 109 121 141 . 143 145 . 153 onNCHRONOLOGICAL HISTORY OF TAROT CARDS 1442 The acquisition of “triumph cards for the knights” is documented in the Registro dei Mandati of the Este duchy. This is the first known document about the ludus triomphorum, which would be- come famous over the subsequent cen- turies as the game of tarot cards. During the fifteenth century the /udus triompho- rum became one of the most widespread card games in the courts of northern Italy. What remains of the thirty or so il- luminated packs conserved in public and private collections in Europe and the United States undoubtedly refers to the Visconti-Sforza family of Milan and the Este family of Ferrara. 1456 The Ferrarese jurist, Ugo Trotti, called the triumphs a game of pure intelligence in De Multipliciti ludo. In about 1480, though, an anonymous Dominican preacher railed against the game of tri- umphs Calling it an “opus diaboli” in the Sermones de Ludo cum Aliis. Subse- quently he provided a list of the figures, whose names were identical to those that came into common use. c. 1460 An anonymous Ferrarese engraver made a pack of cards that have passed into his- tory as “Mantegna’s Tarot Cards”, CHRONOLOGICAL HISTORY OF TAROT CARDS 1where numerous similarities with illu- minated tarots can be seen. According to historians this was a didactic game since it reproduced the cosmic order exactly, according to theology and the intellec- tual and material hierarchies of the world. Pietro Aretino wrote Pasquinate per V’elezione di Adriano VI, a collection of sonnets where the cardinals united in conclave were ironically called by the name of each triumph. Thirty years later a historian from Como, Paolo Giovio, was to use the same satirical weapon to deride the participants at the long-lasting conclave after the death of Paul III. 1534 In Frangois Rabelais’ Gargantua, the tarau appeared in a long list of the au- thor’s preferred games. This is the oldest testimony about the presence of tarot cards in France. The first French pack known today was printed in Lyons in 1557 by Catelin Geofroy, who was in- spired only by the twenty-two triumphal figures of Italian tarots. 1570 An anonymous author defined the cards as “hieroglyphic figures” in the Discorso perché fosse trovato il gioco del tarocco and in order to explain them he divided them into two groups: the first related to “things moral and earthly”, the second to “things heavenly and divine”. In short, a 8 CHRONOLOGICAL HISTORY OF TAROT CARDS1660 1781 1784 CHRONOLOGICAL HISTORY OF TAROT CARDS moral, ethical and religious reading was proposed for the tarots: they were useful for understanding the miseries of life and for getting closer to God. The Parisian engravers, Jean Noblet and Jacques Vieville, printed a new model of tarots that became famous during the next century with the name of “Marseil- lais Tarot Cards”. During the eigtheenth century, this model spread rapidly throughout France, Switzerland and northern Italy, where local card makers were obliged to adapt their production methods to the new fashion. In the eighth volume of Monde primitif, Antoine Court de Gebelin analysed a pack of Marseillais tarots declaring them. to be of Egyptian origin. In the archaeol- ogist’s opinion they were pages from the legendary Book of Thoth, the Egyptian god who had invented writing and was patron of the magic arts. A Parisian-esoteric called Etteilla (the pseudonynmof Jean Frangois Alliette) published Manieére de se recréer avec un jeu de cartes nommées tarot, where he embraced Court de Gebelin’s theory as- serting that the figures of the tarots had beeen reproduced imperfectly over the centuries. Consequently, he re-designed them, transforming them into a manual of magic and a pack of cards for predict- ing the future. Called the Book of Thoth,these cards were extremely successful and contributed enormously to the spread of cartomancy. 1856 Eliphas Levi (the pseudonym of Alphonse Louis Costant) published Dogme et rituel de la magie, where he criticised Court de Gebelin’s and Et- teilla’s beliefs, stating that the tarots had really been designed by ancient Jewish cabalists and handed down through the centuries in the form of hieroglyphic fig- ures: the twenty-two letters of the Jewish alphabet. 1863 In L’Homme rouge des Tuileries, Paul Cristian (the pseudonym of Jean Baptiste Pitois) demonstrated a complex astro- mantic system based on tarot figures. In Histoire de la magie, pupblished in 1871, the same author described the initiatory use of tarots by an imaginary Egyptian confraternity called the Society of the Rosicrucians. 1885 William Westcott, already a member of the “Societas Rosicruciana in Anglia” and founder of the “Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn”, composed the Magi- cal Ritual of Sanctum Regnum, attribut- ing it to Eliphas Levi. It was a manual of magic based on tarots where the twenty- two phases that lead the magician to completion of the Great Opera are illus- trated. 10 CHRONOLOGICAL HISTORY OF TAROT CARDS1889 1909 1910 1912 1927 Gerard “Papus” Encausse, a member of the “Ordre Cabbalistique de la Rose Croix” and founder of the “Ordre Mas- sonique des Martinistes”, published Le Tarot des bohémiens, where he identified the phases of Adam’s fall from the mate- tial World and, vice versa, the steps per- mitting man’s return to paradise in the twenty-two Arcana. Papus published Le Tarot divinatoire, a manual containing a new pack of tarot cards in an Egyptian style designed by Gabriel Goulinat. Arthur Edward Waite, head of one of the factions of the Golden Dawn, published The Pictorial Key to the Tarot, dedicated to tarot mysticism and divination and il- lustrated with figures from a splendid pack in a Pre-Raphaelite style painted by a disciple of the Golden Dawn, Pamela Colman-Smith. Aleister Crowley, expelled from the Golden Dawn, revealed the mysteries of Liber T., which are the secret attributions of the tarots communicated to the initi- ates of the Golden Dawn, in the maga- zine The Equinox. Oswald Wirth published Le Tarot des imagiers du moyen age, a résumé of eso- teric interpretations of tarots realised in France by the historic heads of the French occult movement. The book was THE SUN CHRONOLOGICAL HISTORY OF TAROT CARDS iaccompanied by a pack of tarot cards il- lustrated by the author himself in order to blend the dogmas of the Cabala, of As- trology and of Alchemy with the sym- bolic grades of Freemasonry. 1944 The “Great Beast”, as Aleister Crowley defined himself, published The Book of Thoth in a limited edition of 500 copies for the members of the “Ordo Templi Orientis”. The book contained the sey- enty-eight figures of a pack invented by the author himself, the Thoth Tarot, illus- trated by Frieda Harris. With the publication of the deck known. as Rider Waite Smith, abbreviated as RWS, Tarot began spreading to all levels of society and throughout the world. This cultural process, which became part of a widespread movement known as “New Age”, was fundamental for the evolution of Tarot. It is no longer possible to point out particular dates or events of refer- ence, but over the past 50 years, Tarot has continued in its transformation. In particular, credit should given to 4 pub- lishers who have contributed to this process more than anyone else; in the United States, U.S.Games System and Llewellyn, the Swiss company of AG- Muller, and the Italian Lo Scarabeo. The latter, founded in 1987, in particular, has dedicated much energy to exploring and developing Tarot in all its forms. 2 CHRONOLOGICAL HISTORY OF TAROT CARDSINTRODUCTION The vogue for ‘Egyptian tarot cards’, or better, a belief in the Egyptian origin of tarots, was closely connected to a revival of Egyptianism which, traversing Europe twice between the mid fifteenth century and the beginning of the nineteenth century, left a lasting impression on the culture of this continent, deter- mining the birth of philosophical movements, literary trends, ar- chitectural styles and even political tendencies. This revival was in its turn linked to the myth of the “Book of Thoth” and to the spread of the enormous, heterogeneous magical-religious liter- ature that was called “Hermeticism’”, whose success was appar- ently due to its ability to adapt to the most diverse cultures. As Mircea Eliade has noted, “in the hermetic view, the transmis- sion of the Mysteries no longer implicates an initiatory chain. The sacred text can remain forgotten for centuries; it is suffi- cient that it is then rediscovered by a competent reader so that its message becomes intelligible and up-to-date once again.”! The attraction that hermeticism exercised on intellectuals of every period thus derives from the freedom conceded to those who set about reinterpreting the sacred texts. From its very beginnings hermeticism appeared as a reli- gion soaked in esoterism. It began to develop in Egypt, particu- larly in Alexandria, from about the fourth century B.C., following a meeting between Greek priests, holders of the “Mys- teries of Eleusis”, and Egyptians, disciples of the cult of Isis. This meeting gave rise to intense philosophical speculations: the origin of the world, the relationship of men with gods and demons, and the significance of the manipulation of matter, were the basic themes of hermetic literature. This was an “extremely rich group of treatises and formularies of Egyptian derivation, INTRODUCTION ‘4 13originating in Greek and attributed to the name of Hermes Tris- megistus [the Egyptian Thoth, divine scribe], but also of other gods, kings and wise men of Egypt, or else Iranian magicians and Jewish prophets who, according to several legends, had taught in Egypt”? Under the Roman Empire, hermetic literature was hugely widespread and much respected. Treatises of astrology and med- icine, alchemic prescriptions about the magical virtues of plants, animals and minerals, formularies for making talismans, or evoking demons and planetary spirits, in short, the whole corpus of Egyptian magic was reinterpreted in the light of Greek phi- losophy, and in the first place the teachings of Pythagoras and Plato. During the first centuries of the Christian era, the “Books of Thoth” were so highly considered they were carried in pro- cession and adored by the populace.3 From the third century AD, hermetic books were submitted to close examination by Christian thinkers, giving rise to con- troversial opinions. In virtue of similarities between certain seg- ments of the Gospel and certain hermetic writings (especially Pimander and Asclepius), Lactantius judged Trismegistus to be the most important of the diviners and pagan prophets, one who had foreseen the advent of Christianity. St Augustine, instead, proclaimed harsh condemnation of the “Egyptian Hermes, called Trismegistus”, mainly because he had described the way in which the Egyptians magically animated the statues of the gods.4 The problem of the Hermes-Thoth figure, whether he had been a prophet, merely a wise man, or a magician inspired by the devil, remained unsolved for a long time, together with other questions: whether he had lived before Moses or after; which of the two had invented writing, and so on. In any case, through- out the Middle Ages the name of Hermes remained shrouded in a halo of religious respect, while the gloomy prophesy of As- clepius cited by Augustine continued to echo through all the en- 14 / INTRODUCTIONcyclopedic works: “Egypt, Egypt, only a memory of the tales of your gods will remain, astounding far-off grandchildren, in- scribed in the mute rock. With men extinct, the bewailing gods will return to the heavens...” But those who knew its origin knew that the return of the Egyptian gods to earth and the restoration of ancient theology was also prophesied in Asclepius. During the Dark Ages, only a few hermetic texts were avail- able to Europeans, handed down from ancient Latin, but with the intensifying of cultural relationships with the Arabs a con- siderable number of these texts were transmitted to Europe. The Arab world, in fact, had collected the legacy of hermeticism through Greek-Alexandrian and Sabean writings. Between the tenth and the fourteenth centuries, works of natural magic were translated from Arabic (astrology, alchemy and medicine in the first place), and also works of talismanic and ceremonial magic that included demons below ground and spirits of the air in their experiments. All these works raised much interest among the learned of every nation, but also provoked lively theological dis- cussion and even persecutions for their heretic, if not exactly di- abolic, content, such as Picatrix and Liber Hermetis for example. Suffice to say that at the beginning of the twelfth cen- tury bishop Gerard of York ran the risk of not being given a Christian burial because one of these writings was found under his pillow: Pietro d’Abano (1250-1318), a translator of numer- ous hermetic works, succeeded in escaping from the Inquisition thanks to the University of Paris, while Cecco d’ Ascoli was not so lucky, being burnt at the stake in Florence in 1327. Despite medieval magic deriving indirectly from Egyptian magic, references to Egyptian culture and religion in that period were extremely scarse. A few mentions in encyclopedias and the collections of grammarians existed, but the Egyptian gods were always considered only for their supposedly Greek origin. This state of affairs changed completely from the fifteenth cen- INTRODUCTION 15tury onwards. In 1419, a Florentine priest brought back from Greece a manuscript by an obscure Alexandrian who had lived in the second century of our era that claimed to reveal the mean- ing of ancient Egyptian writing: it was Horapollon’s Hierogli- phyca. A few decades later, after the Council for the Union of the Catholic and Orthodox Churches held in Florence in 1439, many learned Byzantine scholars arrived in Italy bringing with them books that were unknown in Europe, mainly works by neo- platonic Alexandrian philosophers. Coming into possession of these, Cosimo de’ Medici commissioned Marsilio Ficino, a doc- tor and priest who had previously translated Hierogliphyca, to translate them, and sent emissaries out to look for other volumes. In 1460 Cosimo was brought a manuscript that had been found in Macedonia, attributed to Hermes Trismegistus, and he im- mediately ordered Ficino to translate this first. Ficino’s translation, called Corpus Hermeticum, had enor- mous repercussions, starting off a true ‘fashion for hermetics’ that immediately flourished “in a world of curiosity and expec- tation, fuelled by quotations from the Fathers, especially Lac- tantius and Augustine, and still more by-Asclepius and the magical-astrological texts circulating in the Middle Ages under the name of Hermes”.5 Corpus Hermeticum (1463) was followed by numerous works in which Ficino discussed the diagnostic and therapeutic use of ceremonial magic, describing the evocation of planetary devils, the making of talismans, and the magical use of plants and stones. Theologia Platonica (1482) and Libri de vita (1489) exercised considerable influence on Renaissance culture. Suf- fice to think of the extraordinary figure of Giovanni Mercurio da Correggio who, believing himself to be a sort of hermetic Christ, walked the streets of Rome in 1484 with a crown of thorns on his head bearing the words: “This is my son Pimandro, by me cho- sen”. The frescoes by Pinturicchio (1494) in the Borgia apart- 16 7 INTRODUCTIONments in the Vatican should not be forgotton either, where Her- mes Trismegistus appears in one scene together with the Sibyls, and in another with Isis and Moses in the “Cycle of Isis and Osiris”.° Then there is the marble inlay work by Giovanni di Stefano (1498) in the entrance to the Cathedral in Siena that represents “Hermes Mercurius Trismegistus” next to Moses in the act of donating a book on which is written: “suscipite o licteras et leges aegyptii’ .” However, Ficino’s translations gave rise above all to widespread and bitter debate about every form of magical act. It should be remembered that precisely in that period Inno- cent VIII's anti-sorcery bull was published, the Summis desider- antes affectibus (1484), followed shortly afterwards by the sadly famous work by the Dominican Jakob Sprenger, Malleus Maleficarum (1486). This book provided the tribunals with many indications for discovering, torturing and destroying witches and followers of demonic cults. Although witchcraft op- erated with completely different assumptions and aims from the hermetic and neoplatonic philosophers’ magic, there was a great tisk of seeing the two magical trends associated. This is why, towards the end of the fifteenth century, dis- tinctions between “magia naturalis” and “magia cerimonialis” began to emerge, while at the same time those works considered survivors of ‘primitive theology’ began to be recovered. In the first place, Inni Orfici, attributed to Orpheus, Oracoli Caldaici, attributed to Zoroaster, and the “Book of Splendours” (Sepher ha Zohar), a cabalistic work that referred to the Jewish tradition and indirectly to Moses himself;8 and then writings. by Alexan- drines that brought back into vogue the neoplatonic reveries of the late Roman Empire. It would be difficult to reassume the themes and arguments of a debate that soon went beyond Italian boundaries and be- came the object of study of the most learned European thinkers INTRODUCTION — - 17for more than two centuries, from Pico della Mirandola to Cor- nelio Agrippa, from John Dee to Tommaso Campanella, Gior- dano Bruno and Robert Fludd. This debate also saw dramatic results: Tommaso Campanella was imprisoned for many years at the end of the sixteenth century and in 1600 Giordano Bruno was condemned to death at the stake; both guilty of having spread a socio-religious message centred on a hermetic reform of society that would have led to the restoration of a sort of ‘Egyptian wisdom’, as prophesied in Asclepius. This attempt, though, did not remain an isolated phenomenon in the history of western thought. The cabalistic-hermetic tradition, stripped of its purely magical aspects and with its alchemical contents more thoroughly examined, became the first reference point of the controversial political and philosophical Rosicrucian move- ment, which then united with Freemasonry.’ The precise dating of Corpus Hermeticum, which occurred in London in 1614 thanks to Isaac Casaubon, demolished in a single blow the cult of Hermes Trismegistus and cabalistic-hermetic doc- trines. Stating that the hermetic works had been drawn up during the first centuries of the Christian era by mixing passages from Plato with others taken from the Gospels, Casaubon caused enor- mous shockwaves among the intellectuals of the period whose di- mensions have still not been explored today. In spite of this, the Renaissance idea of ‘Egyptian’ magic survived for a long time. Meanwhile, the ‘fashion for things Egyptian’ had taken dif- ferent paths from hermetic speculations. On one side, many no- bles commissioned historiographs to trace genealogies of Egyptian heroes or princes. On the other, mythographers and ico- nologists went further into the studies of the Egyptian divinities and tried to decipher the meaning of hieroglyphics. In 1525, the discovery of the so-called “Isis Tablet”, (today in the Egyptian Museum in Turin, Italy) initiated new investigation into the Egyptian myths, which were finally understood to be independ- 18 INTRODUCTIONent from the Greek tradition. However, the desire to take every cult back to a single origin generated the mistake of believing that the Egyptian gods were the prototypes for all the divinities of Europe, India, China, Japan and even the Americas.'° In the seventeenth and eigtheenth centuries, the debate on Egyptian antiquities was obvious and sterile: while the mythog- raphers tended to reduce myths to moralising fables, the archae- ologists, little more than antiquarians, limited themselves to compiling illustrated inventories of ancient statuary and objects. Nonetheless, these scholars helped increase the interest of artists Le Sphinx et la grande Pyramide [The Sphynx and the great Pyramid], illustration from Historie de La Magie, Paris 1870 INTRODUCTION 19and craftsmen in Egyptian motifs and, at the same time, stimulate the imagination of men of letters. In particular, two works exist that exercised considerable influence on eighteenth-century cul- ture. The first was Les voyages de Cyrus (1728) by Michael An- drew Ramsey, the founder of Freemasonry in France, which includes an imaginary description of the “Mysteries of Isis”. The second was Sethds (1731) by Jean Terrasson who, narrating the adventures of an Egyptian prince, described a series of terrifying initiatory trials that were carried out in ancient times inside the Sphinx at Ghiza and the Pyramid of Cheops. The publication of these works was followed by an au- thentic ‘Egyptomania’ that lasted almost uninterruptedly until the beginning of the twentieth century. In France the musician Rameau, together with Chausac, wrote the ballet Les fétes de V'Himen et l’Amour, ou le Dieux de l’ Egypte in 1749, followed by La naissance d’Osiris in 1754. In Germany, Von Koppen published Crata Repoa, or initiation to the ancient society of Egyptian priests (1770); Gebler composed the drama Thamos (1771) and Wieland Dschimistan (1786); while Goethe and Schiller launched harsh invectives against this Egyptian craze. At the height of this long series of dreams came Die Zauberfléte (The Magic Flute) by W. A. Mozart, a work inspired by Sethds, which translated the ideals and ritual practices of Freemasonry, to which the musician himself belonged." Within Freemasonry, in fact, the conviction that the origin of Masonic doctrines and rites dated back to ancient Egypt, pass- ing by way of the Templars and Rosicrucians, had gained hold some time ago. Consequently the debate about the Egyptian Mysteries in the Masonic lodges reached levels of pure infatu- ation, to the point of inspiring Cagliostro to found the “Mother Lodge of the Adaptation of High Egyptian Freemasonry” (1784), which was to spread a neo-Egyptian religion capable of replacing existing cults throughout the world.!2 20 ; INTRODUCTIONIn 1791 Cagliostro was imprisoned in the papal prisons of St Leo thus putting an end to this adventure although not di- minishing interest in the “Egyptian mysteries” in any way. On the contrary, precisely at the end of the eighteenth century, this interest was further revived by the discovery of the “Book of Thoth” by the archaeologist A. Court de Gebelin, an illustrious member of French Freemasonry. From this moment onwards, the fashion for hermeticism was taken up again; a fashion no longer linked to controversial literary testimonies, as during the Renaissance, but to the rediscovery of a game of cards: Tarots. In the eighth volume of Monde primitif, analisé et comparé avec le monde moderne, a mythographical encyclopaedia that had appeared between 1773 and 1784, Court de Gebelin had launched his historic affirmation: “The Book of Thoth exists and its pages are figures of tarot cards”. According to the archaeol- ogist these cards, which had reached Europe during the Middle Ages in the wake of a tribe of Egyptian gypsies, would have de- scribed all the cosmological and magical-religious knowledge of the Egyptians. Invented by the god Thoth himself, the tarots would have been used by the highest ranking priests to carry out divinatory acts that would have helped discover the destiny of the nation." These affirmations, in spite of being supported by weak ar- guments (false etymologies, distorted iconographic parallels, fantastic mythological similarities), created an enormous amount of interest, thanks to the historic period and the author’s stand- ing, and were even taken up and examined in detail by numer- ous followers: first among these was Jean Frangois Alliette, the self-styled “professor of Algebra, or Pythagorean Cabalah” also linked to a Masonic brotherhood. In his work Maniére de se re- créer avec un jeu de cartes nommées Tarot (1783-1785), signed with the pen-name Etteilla, the author asserted that the game of tarots had been invented in 2170 B.C., that is 171 years after the INTRODUCTION 21Flood, during a meeting of magicians presided over by Hermes Trismegistus; it was then inscribed on sheets of gold preserved in the Temple of Memphis; finally it was reproduced by “mediocre medieval engravers”, after various vicissitudes. In order to restore the earliest model, Etteilla believed it necessary to correct the iconography of the cards and overturn their numerical order on the base of hermetic texts, firstly Pi- mander and Asclepius. In this way the first pack of ‘Egyptian tarots’ originated, which, according to their inventor, would have contained the mysteries of the Cosmos, the formulas of “philosophical medicine” applicable to various levels of the human spirit, and the “sentences to guide the path of mortals’. \ In 1788, the foundation of the “Societé des Interprétes du Livre de Thoth” by Etteilla helped to spread the new ‘game’ throughout Europe, while publication of a Dictionnaire du Livre de Thoth (1791) codified the magical-divinatory meanings of the tarots for the first time. The fashion for ‘Egyptian tarots’ took off, therefore, thanks to cartomantic use of the figures, made even more fascinating by the political uncertainties of the period and Napoleon’s military campaigns in Egypt (1798) and by Champollion’s deciphering of Egyptian hieroglyphs (1822). By strange coincidence, in the same moment that Europe was once again making ready to welcome ancient Egyptian cul- ture, the magic traditions (also of Egyptian origin) that had been relegated to the ranks of diabolic works during the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, or foolish superstition during the Enlight- enment, were also being re-considered. Alphonse Louis Con- stant (1810-1875), former deacon at Saint Sulpice in Paris, was the main promoter of the new occult trend. Under the pen-name of Eliphas Levi, he published a series of volumes, considered milestones in European esoterism. Eliphas Levi did not stop at unearthing mantic techniques, theurgical practices and theosophical doctrines, but went further 22, ~~ INTRODUCTIONand attempted to give a unified structure to the western tradition of magic, proposing a vision of the world that, in its basic trends, reproduced the magical-religious doctrines of Renaissance her- meticism. This philosophy was fully expressed in his most fa- mous work, Dogme et rituel de la haute magie (1855-1856), two volumes divided into twenty-two chapters each, each being headed by a letter of the Hebrew alphabet and by the “Hermetic Keys” of the tarots. Levi explained the correspondence of each of these with the results of magic operations, the relationship between the hierarchies of the planetary spirits, the correspon- dence with the initiatory symbolism of Freemasonry, and paral- lelism with the stages that led to the realisation of the “Great Alchemic Opera”.'* Following publication of Levi’s works, a real explosion of interest in occult sciences in general and in tarots in particular occurred throughout Europe, the latter being considered the nu- cleus of all esoteric knowledge. One of the most important of Levi’s followers was Jean Baptiste Pitois (1811-1877), a little, or very summarily, quoted writer by historians of esoterism, even though his work profoundly influenced divinatory prac- tices with tarots and their initiatory interpretations. He was the first popularizer of modern astrology and re- discoverered onomantic magic. He conceived the jargon of car- tomancy, still in use today (Arcana, Lames, Lamenes) and described a pack of tarots inspired from ancient Egyptian art, which was, and still is, the ‘mute Bible’ of many secret soci- eties, where the Arcana are applied to man’s spiritual and in- tellectual life. Even though the myth of the Book of Thoth has had con- verts also in more recent times (from Madame Blavatsky to Ger- ard “Papus” Encausse, Aleister Crowley, John King van Rensselaer and Schwaller de Lubicz), the book we are present- ing here is dedicated exclusively to Jean Baptiste Pitois because INTRODUCTION : ; 23with his work he helped understand the original spirit of mod- ern esoterism, always poised between a romantic exhaltation of the Christian ascetic and temptations of a ‘Faustian superman’; between the anxiety of individual redemption and the desire for collective emancipation. This ambiguous, or ambivalent, ten- sion is redeemed in the lucid, crystalline sentences of the ‘Ar- cana of Destiny’, where all material and spiritual human experiences are condensed into one single magic formula: DARE - KNOW - WANT - KEEP QUIET; the key to the mys- tique of every period and place. M435 INTRODUCTIONTHE ARCANA OF DESTINY Very few traces exist of Pitois’ life and these leave one with the idea that he constantly did everything he could to remain anonymous. We know he was born in Remiremont, in the de- partment of the Vosges, into a middle-class family. From 1829 to 1830 he was a novice in the Order of Trappist Monks, with the name of Don Marie Bernard (a name he would use many years later for signing articles and historical essays), but after a year of novitiate, although he had declared himself ready to take vows, he changed his mind at the last moment and left the seminary.'> He then went to Strasbourg, where he studied under the direc- tion of an uncle, rector of the Academy of Letters. In 1836 he went to the French colonies of Martinique, perhaps as a journal- ist, but three years later he was once more in France, where he was employed as a librarian by the Ministry of Public Educa- tion.'* At the same time he continued his journalism and writing, signing with various pen-names. He was an activist in a far-left political formation for a while, chairing the Jacobin Club in Paris and founding the short-lived Le Journal des Jacobins." Subse- quently, and rather curiously, he was the editor of magazines of a Catholic stamp, such as Moniteur du soir and Moniteur catholique, and produced books on the most varying subjects.'* As for Pitois’ friends, it seems that he belonged to the re- stricted clique of intellectuals (Hugo, Balzac, Delacroix, Dumas, Gautier, de Chateaubriand, among others) that gravitated around Charles Nodier, director of the Arsenal Library and member of the French Academy.'? This is practically everything that has been written about him, but other information can be gleaned from his works. For example, we know his interest in occultism began in 1840 when the Minister for Public Education, Count de THE ARCANA OF DESTINY 25Salvandy, gave him the task of cataloguing the books that ex- isted in double copies in the departmental libraties, where they had accumulated after the French Revolution. In his words, the discovery of certain “important astrological manuscripts” brought him into contact with the esoteric sciences, which then became his main object of study.2° Whether Pitois ever had connections with any secret society is difficult to establish, From some of his writings, for example the chapter entitled “Les Mystéres des Pyramides” in Histoire de la magie, one has the feeling that he might have been a member of some sort of Masonic brotherhood; if this were so, he. would not have been an orthodox member, seeing that he showed him- self to be quite sceptical on more than one occasion, declaring among other things, by mouth of Cagliostro, that Freemasonry held no secrets and that the “the secret of Hiram was merely a grotesque absurdity”.?! Indeed, falling in with certain counter-revolutionary opinions, Pitois even declared that Freemasonry was to a large extent re- sponsible for the revolutionary Terror: “The high-ranking digni- taries of western Freemasonry possessed until 1789 the mysteries of Rosicrucian astrology. Armed with the privilege, thanks to this noble science, of reading the future of peoples in the Horoscope of Sovereigns, they were the most powerful of the invisible societies. But, drunk with pride, [...] they forgot that the Liberty that demol- ishes thrones is an anapostasy of intelligence [...] and they plunged Europe into a sea of blood. Fathers of Terror, they became the hired assasins of Fate, and this Sphinx with a death’s head [...] devoured them to the last. The defiled Rosicrucian disappeared with them. Today’s Freemasons, eminent men for the most part, are searching for the word lost by their tragic predecessors.”?? These words would obviously not have come from the mouth of a member of the Scottish Rite, but could easily have come from a person affiliated to one of the many occult sects 26 THE ARCANA OF DESTINY(Rosicrucians, Martinists, Martinezists, theosophical and so on), which contended the role of holder of the “lost word”, or the “true, primordial initiatory wisdom”, between the end of the eigtheenth and the middle of the nineteenth centuries.” Isis écrivant ses mystéres [Isis writing her mysteries], illustration from Historie de La Magie, Paris 1870 THE ARCANA OF DESTINY 27It must be said, that Pitois’ attacks on Freemasonry coin- cided, at least as far as regards the French Revolution, with the positions of the Jesuits and the Catholic Church, although these opinions were from different sides. The astrologer while de- claring his faith in Christianity, in actual fact staunchly con- firmed the greatness of the ancient mystery religions, “from which Catholicism had reaped a large part of its ideas and cer- emonies”. But he then harshly criticised, and this time directly, the Church, defining it a “triumphant sect that has implacably lingered on over the centuries against those who have not wanted to subject themselves to its invasive egoism and anti- Christian domination’”.* In virtue of these fleeting contradictions, it is not possible to place Pitois in any precise ideological position, although it is ev- ident that he wanted most of all to elevate the magic arts, and in the first place astrology, to the rank of science of the soul and spirit, as well as of predictions, “since magic is not contrary to wisdom, nor to our religious beliefs”.?5 At this point it would be a good idea to clarify that with the term “magic” Pitois did not mean superstitious or sorcerous prac- tices but, like the Renaissance neoplatonists, a “sublime philo- sophical doctrine that must be followed with perseverance and methodical application”: that is, with respect for those “golden rules” transcribed in the 22 Arcana of Destiny, the tarots, which lead to progressive “elevation of the Absolute in the concentric spheres”. This magical-religious mysticism, common to all nine- teenth-century western occult literature (deeply imbued with hermetic and cabalistic culture), represents one of the major points of contrast with Catholic orthodoxy, due to its rigidly fatalistic conceptions on the one hand and, on the other, to the recovery of a typically pagan religiousity: “The Fate of an- cient theology, obeyed by the Gods themselves (that is, the oc- oe bl THE ARCANA OF DESTINYcult forces of nature) together with men, personifies absolute Wisdom”. And again: “Believing in Destiny, in the noble sense of this idea, means glimpsing God’s plans” 6 For the Christian religion, gnostic theories are even more blasphemous. According to these, to be admitted to the presence of the divinity, faith alone is not sufficient, one has to be pre- destined and sustained by a strong will: it is necessary, therefore, to act on one’s conscious with magic ceremonies, as though it were a rough stone to purify and transform into gold, the perfect metal representing inner illumination; the Philosopher’ s Stone. For Pitois, however, as for all esoterics, every aspect of re- ality was magical, and in his works the conviction that even His- tory is a “Great Magic Opera”, dominated by Planetary Geniuses but orchestrated by mysterious strangers who act in the shade of governments conditioning the ideology of the masses with oc- cult means banally called “fashions”, crops up everywhere.’ In any case, we will not deal here with Pitois’ political thought, pre- ferring to dwell only on his ‘operative’ texts, the works in which he discussed the “keys of magical wisdom”: the tarots. Pitois’ interest in tarots probably began in about 1852, when he met Eliphas Levi and joined him in studying the Cabala. Levi’s influence would be ever present for Pitois, to the extent that many critics have considered his works on tarots to be sim- ple plagiarism of the “Livre d’ Hermes”, the famous Chapter 22 included in Volume 2 of Levi’s main work Dogme et rituel de la haute magie (Paris, 1855-1856).*8 In actual fact, Pitois considerably expanded the famous ma- gician’s brief comments, identifying in the Arcana a more precise initiatory path. Furthermore, Levi dabbled only briefly in the merits of divinatory practices, whereas Pitois conceived an orig- inal astro-mantic system based on the tarot figures. The astrologer has left a short mention of his collaboration with Eliphas Levi in his preface to L’Homme rouge des Tuileries THE ARCANA OF DESTINY . 29(Paris, 1863): “I remember that war broke out at the beginning of 1854 [...] and all Europe trembled, as Naples trembles when Vesuvius begins to rumble [...]. In the middle of all this general consternation only two men, in Paris, read the future as an open book [...]. The first of these men, taciturn as an eagle in its nest, contemplated the prescribed plans of his glorious mission, thanks to the flashes of his Genius. The second, a solitary magician, grew older studying the Infinite, meditating on the Algebra of the Heavens. Suddenly, future events took shape in a fleeting vi- sion [...]. The Arcana of the great Isis-Urania, evoked through the rites of Ancient Egypt, showed him a crowned cradle, borne by six victories [...].”2° Commenting on this extract, Macintosh identified the silent eagle as Pitois and the solitary magician as Levi. As for the “eagle’s plans”, we do not know them, but it was precisely this vision that made the name of Paul Christian, the pen-name al- ways used subsequently by Pitois, famous. In 1854 he told Em- press Eugénie the date of the birth of the future Emperor, and in February 1856 he published a pamphlet entitled Carmen Sybillinum: prédiction de la naissance du fils de Napoleon III, par les Arcanes du Magisme égyptien, consultés le 3 avril 1854, in which he made known the complex calculations necessary to predict the happy event. When the prophesy came true on 16 March 1856, the sovereign’s faith in the astrologer was complete and from that moment he had free access to the court and aristo- cratic salons. Many years later, the disastrous results in Sedan, where Napoleon III was taken prisoner by the Prussians, and the tragic death of Napoleon Eugéne in South Africa in 1879 during the war against the Zulus, rather contradicted Paul Christian’s luminous prophesies about the destiny of the Prince, heir to the throne of France. Meanwhile, however, the astrologer continued his career, publishing numerous other works. In 1863 Christian decided to reveal the origins of his “in- 30 THE ARCANA OF DESTINYfallible science’’. A science “whose mysterious keys are trans- mitted from century to century by secret tradition [...], handled by few men who live in contemplation of the immutable laws of universal movement. Napoleon received these keys of the an- cient sanctuaries of Chaldea as a youth, and since in his turn he forgot to use them, like a modern Prometheus, he became prey to forces that he had already subjugated.”°° In this way Pitois introduced the main theme of L’Homme rouge des Tuileries, the story of a Benedictine monk, Don Bonaventura Guyon, former prior of Lagny and a scholar of oc- cult sciences. In the pages of this beautiful novel the author de- scribed, in a decidedly Balzac-like style, the events that led the elderly prior to become Napoleon Bonaparte’s astrologer: the legendary ‘Red Man’ who, protected by the Emperor, hid in the Palace of the Tuileries. Gradually, as the story unfolds, the de- scription of a complex divinatory system is revealed that Guyon had learnt from an ancient manuscript conserved in the Vati- can, Le Porte di Hermes, aperte dal rabbino Simeon Bar Jochai. Naturally this was a piece of literary artifice and, later, Pitois himself admits that he had drawn widely from Renais- sance astrological treatises: from Speculum Astrologiae (Lyons, 1581) by Francesco Giuntini da Firenze; from Astrologia Gal- lica (Leipzig, 1645) by Jean Baptiste Morin de Villefranche; Curiosités inouiés (Paris, 1629) by Jacques Gaffarel, Riche- lieu’s librarian; and above all from Jugements astrologiques sue les nativités (Paris, 1551) by Auger Ferrier, Catherine de Medici’s astrologer.*! But Pitois’ work differed from the ‘astrological classics’ due to the addition of various details that complicates realisation of a Horoscope. Firstly, a study of the anagrammatic and cryptographic meanings of the individual and family name is made, which re- veal a great deal, according to the principles of onomancy.*? Then. the onomantic data is inserted in the astrological picture and in- THE ARCANA OF DESTINY 31terpreted by means of the “78 Lodges of the Samaritan Oracle”, the tarots. In this way it is possible to show the importance and character, beneficient or malevolent, of certain dates in the quer- ent’s life. Finally, after the birth theme has been drawn up, the as- trological picture can be further deepened thanks to consultation of the Geniuses, rulers of the days (that is of the 360 degrees of the Zodiac), of which Pitois is the first to provide the ‘hieroglyphic figure’ and divinatory meanings. From this brief summary, the at- traction and complexity of the method are clearly revealed; a method, among other things, that implies knowledge of the main languages of antiquity - Greek, Latin and Hebrew. Perhaps for this excessive complication, L’Homme rouge was not greatly successful on publication. Only in the years after Pitois’ death did the work begin to enjoy a certain reputation, when many authors pillaged it in order to compose various man- uals of divination. Instead, Histoire de la magie et du monde surnaturel (Paris, 1871) was immediately successful and reprinted several times in just a few years. This book is divided into seven long chapters, of which the last two and part of the second take up what had al- ready been written in L’Homme rouge. This work was almost en- tirely dedicated to the divinatory arts. In spite of his claimed erudition, Pitois affronted treatise writing in a non-historicist way. In fact, Histoire de la magie could well be catalogued in the group of fantastic-historical nov- els, since anecdotes dreamt up by the writer’s imagination were mixed in alongside historically accurate information: except for the fact that the occulist’s stories allegorically express concpets inspired by a magical vision of Time and History, on the basis of which individual freedom is always in conflict with superior forces, sometimes called “destiny” and at others “astral influ- ences”. The result of this clash not only determines future events, but also the growth and spiritual decline of each being. 32 "THE ARCANA OF DESTINYIt is clear that in describing the history of magic beliefs Pitois wanted to render them emotionally more intense, evoking historical or legendary characters that he made come alive again through imaginary dialogues and situations. For example, he nar- rated the adventure of Louis Ennius in St Patrick’s Purgatory, placed in the centre of the earth; he reported a conference held by Cagliostro in a Masonic lodge; he invented a dialogue between the Magi and the Virgin Mary, and another between the as- trologer-onomant Pierre le Clerc and Napoloen Bonaparte. These dialogues are often supplied with compiled horo- scopes relating to famous people in recent French history (like Louis XVI, Cardinal di Rohan and Napoleon I himself). In this way Pitois intended to show how the fate of these men was al- ready written in the “Book of Destinies”. His idea was probably simply that of endowing his science with greater prestige, or per- haps it was a device to steep the reader in a magical dimension, where the “Arcana reveal themselves and open the doors to the supernatural world”. Besides, “every legend is a symbol that veils permanent truths”, he admonished in the preface to L’Homme rouge, and it is on this narrow line between history and legend, reality and fantasy, that Jean-Baptiste Pitois’ genius dances, deriding historians and attracting the credulous. THE ARCANA OF DESTINY 33THE PYRAMID CEREMONY The term cartomancy never appears in Pitois’ books, nor in the list of the more widespread divinatory techniques. Even the origin of tarots (renamed by him “Arcana” and “Hermetic Lames”, terms that then entered the occult jargon) is a problem he never poses, but it is evident that he believed, or pretended to believe, that their genesis was to be looked for in Egyptian an- Premiere épreuve de I'Initié [The first trial of the Initiate], illustration from Historie de La Magie, Paris 1870 THE PYRAMID CEREMONY 35tiquity, as Court de Gebelin had asserted for the first time in 1791 and after him Etteilla, Eliphas Levi and the numberless ranks of cartomancers that made a profit from the fashion for tarots. Like his predecessors, Pitois endowed the tarots with the value of receptacles of all magic knowledge. In the chapter ded- icated to the mysteries of the pyramids in Histoire de la magie, he placed the description of the Arcana at the centre of an initi- ation ceremony that he described in the minutest details, declar- ing he had been inspired by De Misteriis Aegyptiorum by the Roman philosopher Iamblichus.** Below, we report a large ex- tract from Pitois’ tale.35 The rite began inside the Sphinx of Ghiza, which served as an entrance to secret underground chambers; hidden up to our days by sand and rubble, this entrance is found between the legs of the giant. Once it was closed by a bronze door that only the Magicians knew how to open; however, the only guard was the fear and respect of the populace. Corridors spread out in the belly of the Sphinx, communicating with the underground tunnels of the Pyramid of Cheops. The two highest initiates, holding the rank of thesmothetes, or guardians of the rite, were charged with flanking the aspiring neophyte admitted to the ritual trials. Blindfolded, he was led into the Sphinx and guided along long stone corridors to a spiral stairway of twenty-two steps; at the bottom there was a large cir- cular room. Here the trials were staged. With bound eyes the candidate could not see where he was and the two initiators made him believe he was on the edge of a precipice. “This abyss,” they warned him, “surrounds the Tem- ple of Mysteries and protects you against the curiosity of the pro- fane. Shortly the mobile bridge will be lowered that allows communication with the Sacred Land. If you care for your life, do not move, cross your hands over your chest and do not re- move the bandages until you are given the signal.” 36 THE PYRAMID CEREMONYWhile the postulant froze rigid, trying to contain his emo- tion, the thesmothetes took sacred vestments from the altar and disguised themselves; one with a lion’s head, the other with a bull’s, thus becoming the representatives of the two Geniuses L'epreuve supréme de l'Initié [The supreme trial of the Initiate], illustration from Historie de La Magie, Paris 1870 THE PYRAMID CEREMONY _ ay,that govern the evolutions of the Sun and the Moon, Pi-Rhé and Pi-Ioh. At a certain point a crevass opened in the floor with a great thundering noise and a mechanical sphectre arose from the smoke, waving a sickle and shouting in a dismal voice: “Misfortune to the profane who comes to disturb the sleep of the dead!” At that moment, the thesmothetes removed the blindfold from the posulant and he found himself face to face with the sphectre who, with a rapid movement, scythed the air with the sickle, brush- ing close to his face seven times. In spite of his fear, he was not to try and escape if he wanted to overcome the first trial. After the sphectre had disappeared, the two initiators took off their masks saying: “You have felt the ice of iron and did not retreat; you have contemplated fear and your gaze vanquished it. In your own country you might be a hero, but among us there is a higher virtue than courage: voluntary humility that triumphs over vain pride. Are you capable of achieving a similar victory over yourself?” If the postulant nodded, one of the two initiators pressed a lever and a tunnel appeared in the wall that was so narrow it was impossible to go down it except on one’s knees. “Take this lamp,” they told him, “and go without fear. You have nothing to fear but yourself in this trial of solitude. This passage is the image of the tomb in which everyone will finally repose, on the evening of his earthly life, before waking in the eternal dawn of the spir- its’ life. You have vanquished the spectre of death, now go, and triumph over the horrors of the tomb!” At the thesmothetes’ invitation the postulant could hesitate but, once he had gone a few steps in the tunnel, the stone door closed behind him and a voice from afar yelled: “Here the fool- ish who have desired Science and Power perish!” Due to an astounding acoustic effect, these words echoed for a long time, confusing the postulant’s mind. Indecision com- 38 THE PYRAMIDbined with terror as he proceeded, dragging himself along the tunnel, and he was assailed by mounting anxiety. Suddenly, the passage widened and he found himself in front of a deep crater in the form of a funnel, whose walls were faced in such smooth cement they seemed like steel in the light of the flickering lantern. A narrow spiral stairway was the only access to those fathomless shadows, but reason cautioned him to proceed slowly, step after step, in order to seek a way out. Grip- ping the stair with one hand and holding the lamp in the other, the postulant descended the crater, where the path at the bottom was interrupted by a bronze grille. Quickening his gaze he perceived a long gallery sustained on both sides by twenty-four caryatids carved in the rock and, in the space of wall separating one from the other, he managed to make out twenty-two mysterious paint- ings. He stayed put in that place for a few minutes, until a man arrived to open the gate. This was the pastophore [priest who carried the statues of the gods during processions], guardian of the sacred symbols, who welcomed the postulant with a smile: “Welcome, Son of the Earth, you who have overcome the abyss and discovered the path of the Sages. Since great Isis protects you, she will lead you, I hope, right to the sanctuary where virtue is crowned. I must tell you that other dangers await you, but I am allowed to encourage you, explaining these symbols by means of which intelligence creates an invulnerable armour around the heart of man. Come and gaze on these sacred images with me; listen to my words and fix them in your memory.” Leading the postulant into the gallery, the pastophore ex- plained the meaning of the figures to him. THE PYRAMID CEREMONY 39THE MAJOR ARCANA AND THE MAGICIANS’ DOCTRINE “The Science of Will, Principle of Wisdom and Fount of every Power,” said the pastophore, beginning his lesson in magic, “is contained in twenty-two Arcana [...],components of an Absolute Doctrine that is reassumed in memory for its corre- spondence with the Letters of the Sacred Language and with the Numbers that are linked to these Letters [...]. Depicted in one of these paintings, every Arcana is the formula of human activity in its relationships with spiritual forces and material forces, whose combination produce the phenomena of life.” The descriptions of the twenty-two Arcana, or Hermetic Lames, are reported in their entirety in Histoire de la magie (pp. 109-124). The figures that accompany the text have been re-named “Pitois’ Tarots” for the symbolic characteristics that closely match the descriptions provided by the occultist. In actual fact, they were designed by Maurice Otto Wegener and published in R. Falcon- nier’s Les XXII Lames hérmétiques du tarot divinatoire (Paris, 1896), where the name of Christian-Pitois never appears.?6 In Silvana Alasia’s recent interpretation of the pack, she moved away from some of the original figures to approach a more authentically Egyptian iconography, something that Pitois and his followers had neglected to do. For example, in the Arcana XII she replaced an improbable Hanged Man with a scene of rit- ual sacrifice; in the Arcana XIII the god of the dead, Anubis, was painted instead of the Skeleton Reaper; in the Arcana XIX, in place of a couple of young people, Ka is depicted, the spirit that raises its arms towards the god of life, Ra-Aton; in the Arcana XX, the Wakening of the Dead, Anubis appears again, this time as the guide of spirits. THE MAJOR ARCANA AND THE MAGICIANS’ DOCTRINE 41These small incongruencies between the text and the im- ages, do not, however, in any way jeopardise understanding of the magical-religious meanings of the Arcana, which remain intact. On the following pages, alongside the Major Arcana, we have included both the original image (below) by Maurice Otto Wegener, which the text refers to, and the modern image (above) by Silvana Alasia. 42 THE MAJOR ARCANA AND THE MAGICIANS’ DOCTRINEI-THE MAGICIAN Will Letter Athoim (A) —- Number 1 “A = | and expresses, in the Divine World, the Absolute Being, which contains, and from which emanates, the Infinite of possibles. In the Intellectual World it is Unity, the principle and synthesis of numbers, and Will, the prin- ciple of actions. In the Physical World it is Man, the highest of the relative beings, called to elevate himself for perpetual expansion of his faculties to the concentric spheres of the Absolute. The Arcana I is represented by the Magician, an example of a perfect type of man, that is in full possession of his physical and moral fac- ulties. He has been painted standing, in an at- titude of will ready for action. He is clothed in white, symbol of original and reattained pure- ness. A serpent biting its tail serves as his belt: the symbol of eternity, His forehead is bound by a circle of gold: gold signifies light and the circle expresses the universal circumference within which created things gravitate. His right hand holds a golden sceptre, implying com- mand, that he raises towards the heavens in a sign of aspiration towards wisdom, science and strength. The index finger of his left hand points towards the ground signifying that the mission of perfect man is to reign over the ma- terial world. This double gesture also expresses the fact that human will must reflect down THE MAJOR ARCANA AND THE MAGICIANS? DOCTRINE 43below divine will, in order to produce good and impede evil. There is a cup, a sword and shekel, or gold coin, in the middle of which a cross has been engraved, in front of the Magician, on a cubic stone. The cup signifies a mixing of the passions that con- tribute to happiness or unhappiness, according to whether we are their masters or slaves. The sword signifies work, struggle against obstacles and the trials that pain makes us suffer. The shekel, sym- bol of determined value, portrays aspirations re- alised, completed works, the sum of power conquered by will’s perseverance and efficiency. The cross, seal of the infinte that marks the shekel, announces the future ascension of this power to the spheres of the Future. Remember, oh son of Earth, that man must act, like God, without pause. To want nothing or to do nothing is no less grievous than to want or to do evil. If the Magician appears among the prophetic signs of your Horoscope, he is an- nouncing that strong will and faith in yourself, guided by reason and love for justice, will lead you to the objective you want to reach, and will preserve you from danger on your way.” Positive: initiative, dexterity, astuteness, polit- ical skills, diplomacy, ability, autonomy. Re- fusal of any suggestion or prejudice. Start of sentimental, professional or economic under- takings. Negative: unscrupulously ambitious, swindler, profiteer, liar, charlatan. Will at the service of evil (editor’s note).3” 44 “THE MAJOR ARCANA AND THE MAGICIANS’ DOCTRINEII THE HIGH PRIESTESS The Door to the Occult Sanctuary — Science Letter Beinthin (B) — Number 2 “B = 2 and expresses, in the Divine World, knowledge of the Absolute Being, which em- braces the three terms for all manifestations: the past, the present and the future. In the In- tellectual World it is Binary, reflection of Unity, and Science, perception of visible and invisible things. In the Physical World it is the female, form of Man, uniting herself to him to complete an equal destiny. The Arcana II is represented by a woman seated on the threshold of the Temple of Isis, between two columns. The column to her tight is red: this colour signifies a pure spirit and luminous ascension above matter. The column to her left is black and stands for the night of Chaos and imprisonment of an im- pure spirit in the bonds of matter. The woman is crowned with a tiara sur- mounted by a crescent moon, and a transpar- ent veil falls over her face. A solar cross hangs from her neck and an open book, half-covered by her cloak, lies on her knees, This symbolic ensemble personifies Occult Science waiting for the initiate on the threshold of the Sanctu- ary of Isis in order to tell him the secrets of Universal Nature. The solar cross, similar to the Indian Lingam,°* signifies fecundity of matter by the spirit; it also expresses, as the seal of the infinite, the science that comes THE MAJOR ARCANA AND THE MAGICIANS’ DOCTRINE 45from God and that has no borders like its source. The veil around the tiara and falling over her face announces that Truth avoids the gaze of profane curiosity. The half-hidden book under her cloak signifies that mysteries are revealed, only in solitude, to the sage ab- sorbed in silent contemplation in the full quiet silence of himself. Remember, oh son of Earth, that the spirit lights up seeking God with the eyes of Will. God has said: “Let there be light!’, and light flooded space. Man must say: “Let Will show itself, and let Good come to me!’ If man pos- sesses a healthy will, he will see Truth shine again and, led by it, will reach the good he as- pires to. If the Arcana II appears in your Horo- scope, knock resolutely at the door of the Future and it will be opened; but reflect long over the way you are about to walk. Turn your face towards the Sun of Justice, and the Sci- ence of Truth will be given you. Keep quiet about your plans, so as not to free them for contradiction by men.” Positive: study, severity in judgement, wis- dom, intuition. The woman, the mother, air, the secrets of knowledge, Occult Science. Pla- tonic love, tendency to avoid ties. Negative: presumption, ignorance, egoism, evil intentions. Immorality, nastiness, hate. 46 THEMAJOR ARCANA AND THE MAGICIANS’ DOCTRINETI - THE EMPRESS Isis/Urania — Action Letter Gomor (G) — Number 3 “G = 3 and expresses Supreme Power in the Divine World, balanced by eternally active In- telligence and absolute Wisdom. In the Intel- lectual World it is the universal fecundity of Being. In the Physical World it is Nature at work, the seed of the actions that blossom from Will. The Arcana III is portrayed by the image of a woman seated in the centre of a radiant sun; she is crowned with twelve Stars and her feet rest on the Moon. She personifies universal fecundity. The Sun is the emblem of creative power; the starred crown symbolises, with the number twelve, the Houses or stations that this heavenly body travels from year to year around the zodiacal circle. This woman, Ce- lestial Isis or Nature, holds a sceptre sur- mounted by a globe; this is the sign of her perpetual action on things that have been, or will be, born. In her other hand she holds an eagle, symbol of the heights a spirit can rise to. The Moon placed under her feet portrays the inferiority of Matter and its domination by the Spirit. Remember, oh son of Earth, that to affirm what is true and want what is just is already to create; to affirm and want the contrary means to devote oneself to destruction. If the Arcana II is shown among the prophetic symbols of THE MAJOR ARCANA AND THE MAGICIANS’ DOCTRINE 47your Horoscope, you can hope for success in your undertakings, provided that you know how to unite fecund activity to a rectitude of spirit that makes works flourish.” Positive: intelligence, understanding, benefi- cial influence. Action, initiative, divine na- ture, fertility. Authoritative but polite person, resolving help. Abundance, complete success. Negative: stupidity, error, indecision, lack of lucidity. Vanity, frivolity, waste. Sterility, in- ability to create concrete and tangible things. 48 THE MAJOR ARCANA AND THE MAGICIANS’ DOCTRINETV - THE EMPEROR The Cubic Stone — Realisation Letter Dinain (D) — Number 4 —— “D = 4 and expresses the perpetual and hier- archical realisation of the virtualities con- tained in the absolute Being, in the Divine World. In the Intellectual World it is the real- isation of the ideas of the contingent Being thanks to the four-fold work of the spirit: Af- firmation, Negation, Discussion and Solution. In the Physical World it is the realisation of the acts directed by the Science of Truth, Love for Justice, Strength of will and Work of the organs. The Arcana IV is represented by a man wear- ing a helmet with a crown. He is seated on a cubic stone. His right hand holds a sceptre aloft and his bent right leg rests on the other in the form of a cross. The cubic Stone, the fig- ure of a perfect solid, signifies the completed human work. The crowned helmet is the em- blem of strength that has vanquished power. This dominator is in possession of the sceptre of Isis, and the stone that serves him as throne signifies matter dominated. The cross traced out by the position of his legs symbolises the four elements and the expansion of human power in all its senses. Remember, oh son of Earth, that nothing re- sists steadfast will that has the science of truth and justice as a lever. To fight to ensure real- isation of them is more than a right: it is a THE MAJOR ARCANA AND THE MAGICIANS’ DOCTRINE 49duty! The man who triumphs in this struggle is only carrying out his terrestial mission; he who succumbs, dedicating himself to it, ac- quires immortality. If the Arcana IV appears in your Horoscope, it means that the realisa- tion of your hopes depends on a more power- ful Being than yourself; try to get to know it and you will obtain its support.” Positive: strength, stability, earthly power. Authority, legality, moral integrity and un- shakeable will. Powerful and generous pro- tector. Solution to material problems. Negative: tyranny, arrogance, immaturity, weakness, indecision, ineptitude. Legal or fi- nancial problems. Job dismissal, loss of prop- erty. 50 THE MAJOR ARCANA AND THE MAGICIANS’ DOCTRINEV - THE HIEROPHANT The Lord of the Arcana — Inspiration Letter Eni (E) — Number 5 “E = 5 and expresses Universal Law, ruler of the infinite manifestations of the Being in the unity of substance, in the Divine World. In the Intellectual World it is Religion, the relation- ship of the absolute Being with the relative Being: from the infinite to the finite. In the Physical World it is aspiration communicated by the vibrations of heavenly fluids; it is the proof of man in front of Liberty of action, in the unbreakable circle of Universal Law. The Arcana V is depicted as the Hierophant, master of sacred mysteries. This prince of oc- cult doctrine is seated between two columns of the Sanctuary. He is leaning on a three- barred cross and is tracing the sign of silence on his breast with the index finger of the other hand. Two prostrate men lie at his feet, one dressed in red, the other in black. The Hiero- phant, supreme organ of sacred science, rep- resents the genius of the good inspirations of the spirit and the conscience; his gesture in- vites one to concentrate in order to hear the voice of the heavens in the silence of the flesh’s passions and instincts. The right column symbolises Divine Law; the left one, the freedom to obey and disobey. The three-barred cross is the emblem of God pen- etrating into three worlds, in order to make all the manifestations of Universal Life flower. THE MAJOR ARCANA AND THE MAGICIANS’ DOCTRINE 5152 The two prostrate men represent the Genius of Light and the Genius of the Dark, both of whom obey the Master of the Arcana. Remember, oh son of Earth, before saying whether a man is happy or unhappy it is nec- essary to know what use he has made of his will, since every man creates his life in the image of his works. The Genius of Good is to your right and that of Evil is to your left; their voice only extends to your conscience: absorb it and it will reply.” Positive: modesty, piety, clemency. Relief from troubles, spiritual guide, the wise man to whom one turns - priest, doctor, lawyer. Reli- gion, family, tradition. Inspiration, magnet- ism. Negative: excessive generosity, kindness ill rewarded. Loss of faith in self and in others; loss of one’s own morality, vulgar and mate- rial actions. Rancour, intollerance, enmity. THE MAJOR ARCANA AND THE MAGICIANS’ DOCTRINEVI - THE LOVERS (THE BELOVED) The Two Roads — The Trial Letter Ur (U, V) — Number 6 “U, V = 6 and expresses the Science of Good and Evil in the Divine World. In the Intellec- tual World it is the balance between Neces- sity and Liberty. In the Physical World it is the antagonism of natural forces and the chaining of effects to causes. The Arcana VI is represented by a man stand- ing immobile on the corner formed by the junction of two roads. His eyes are fixed on the ground and his arms crossed over his chest. Two women, one to his right and the other to his left, place one of their hands on his shoulders, showing him the two roads. The woman on the right has her brow bound with a golden circle and personifies Virtue. The one on the left is crowned with vine shoots and represents the tempter Vice. Above this group the Genius of Justice, gliding in a daz- zling halo, tigthens his bow and directs the arrow of chastisement towards Vice. The whole of this scene expresses the struggle be- tween passions and conscience. Remember, oh son of Earth, that for common men the attractions of Vice are more presti- gious than the austere beauty of Virtue. If the Arcana VI appears in your Horoscope take care in selecting your solutions. Obstacles in front of you block the road you are looking for; opposing probabilities glide around your THE MAJOR ARCANA AND THE MAGICIANS’ DOCTRINE 5354 head and your will vacillates between oppos- ing parties. In all cases, indecision is more dis- astrous than a bad choice. Go forwards or retreat, but remember that a chain of flowers is more difficult to break than a chain of iron.” Positive: trial, exam, attempt. Important choice in the affective, professional or com- mercial field and others. A decision is neces- sary. Marriage, pledge, pact. Negative: falsity, temptation, guilty love. Fail- ure in a trial, unfaithfulness, separation, love not exchanged. Missed promises, indecision. ‘THE MAJOR ARCANA AND THE MAGICIANS’ DOCTRINEVil - THE CHARIOT Osiris’ Chariot — Victory Letter Zain (Z) — Number 7 “Z = 7 and expresses the Septenarius, the domination of the Spirit over Nature, in the Divine World. In the Intellectual World it is the Priesthood and the Empire. In the Physical World it is the submission of the Elements and the Forces of Matter to Intelligence and to the Work of Man. The Arcana VII is portrayed by a square- shaped war chariot, surmounted by a starry baldachin sustained by four columns. An ar- moured victor advances in this chariot, hold- ing a sceptre and a sword in his hands. He is crowned with a gold circlet ornated with three pentagrams, or five-pointed stars. The square chariot symbolises the completed Opera of the Will that vanquishes obstacles. The four columns of the starry baldachin represent the Four Elements subject to the Master of the Sceptre and of the Sword. On the square front of the chariot a sphere sustained by two un- furled wings is painted: a sign of the bound- less exhaltation of human power in the infinite of space and time. The golden crown on the yictor’s brow signi- fies possession of the intellectual light that il- luminates all the Arcana of Fortune. The three stars that ornate it symbolise Power balanced with Intelligence and Wisdom. Three squares are traced on his armour signifying the recti- THE MAJOR ARCANA AND THE MAGICIANS’ DOCTRINE 55tude of Will, Justice and Action, donated by the Strength that the chariot symbolises. The upturned sword is the sign of victory. The sceptre is surmounted by a triangle, symbol of the Spirit, by a square, symbol of Matter, and by acircle, symbol of Eternity. It signifies the perpetual dominion of Intelligence over the forces of Nature. Two sphinxes, one white and the other black, draw the chariot. The white one symbolises Good, the black Evil: the one conqueror and the other conquered; both have become the handmaids of the Ma- gician who triumphed in the trials. Remember, oh son of Earth, that the empire of the world belongs to those who possess sovereignty of spirit, that is the light that illu- minates the mysteries of life. Smashing ob- stacles you will overcome your enemies, and your desires will be realised if you confront the future with daring armed by the awareness of your right.” Positive: triumph, success, spiritual or mate- rial evolution achieved with intelligence. Ho- nours, recognised merits, ambitions, direction, government. Negative: failure, lack of success, defeat. In- capacity, problems due to one’s own mis- takes. Sudden loss of an already certain result, bad government. 56 THEMAJOR ARCANA AND THE MAGICIANS’ DOCTRINEVU — JUSTICE The Scales and the Sword — Equilibrium Letter Héletha (H) — Number 8 “H = 8 and expresses absolute Justice in the Divine World. In the Intellectual World it is Attraction and Repulsion. In the Physical World it is relative, fallible Justice that em- anates from men. The Arcana VIII is portrayed by a woman seated on a throne, whose brow is encircled by a crown decorated with sword points. In her right hand she is holding a sword turned upwards, and in her left some scales. She is Themis, the ancient symbol of Justice who weighs actions and, as a counterweight, op- poses the sword of Expiation to evil. Justice that emanates from God is the balanced re- action that rebuilds order, that is the equilib- rium between right and duty. The sword here is a sign of protection for the good, and a threat for the evil. The eyes of Justice are bandaged to point out how she weighs and strikes without taking the conventional dif- ferences that men establish among them- selves into consideration. Remember, oh son of Earth, that to reproduce victory and dominate obstacles already over- come is just a part of man’s task. To achieve it completely it is necessary to establish equi- librium between the forces that are brought into play. Every action produces a reaction and Will must foresee the clash between op- THE MAJOR ARCANA AND THE MAGICIANS’ DOCTRINE 57posing Forces, in order to temper and annul them. Every future act is balanced between Good and Evil. Every intelligence that does not know how to balance itself resembles an aborted sun.” Positive: law, equilibrium, equity, justice, harmony. Fatality, subjection to consequen- tial logic, respect for natural hierarchy and order, rule of life. Negative: prejudices, factions, incorrectness, abuse of power, fraud, injustice, false accusa- tions. Loss of a process, problems of all sorts deriving from one’s own behaviour, arrest. 58 THE MAJOR ARCANA AND THE MAGICIANS’ DOCTRINEIX - THE HERMIT The Veiled Lamp — Prudence Letter Thela (TH) — Number 9 “Th =9 and expresses absolute Wisdom in the Divine World. In the Intellectual World it is Prudence, ruler of Will. In the Physical World it is Caution, guide to Actions. The Arcana IX is depicted by an old man leaning on his stick as he walks, carrying be- fore him a lit lamp that he hides under his cloak. This old man personifies the experi- ence acquired during one’s life’s work. The lit lamp signifies the light of intelligence that must be spread over the past, the present and the future. The cloak half-hiding the lamp sig- nifies discretion. The stick symbolises the support that Prudence gives the man who does not free his own thought at all. Remember, oh son of Earth, that Prudence is the wise man’s armour. Caution enables him to avoid rocky coasts and precipices, and have a presentiment of treachery. Take it as your guide in all actions, even in the smallest. Here below nothing is indifferent; a pebble can overturn the chariot of a Master of the World. Remember that if words are silver, silence is golden.” Positive: wisdom, prudence, caution. Soli- tude, search for spirituality. Silence, reserve, austerity, celibacy. Person able to offer pre- cious advice, clarify mysteries and resolve se- rious problems. Doctor, healer, alchemist, expert in every field. THE MAJOR ARCANA AND THE MAGICIANS’ DOCTRINE 5960 Negative: sadness, misanthropy, persecution complex. Imprudence, recklessness, obsti- nacy. Delays due to excessive prudence. Fail- ure deriving from haste or unfounded fears. Sterility, inconclusiveness, betrayal, impris- onment. THE MAJOR ARCANA AND THE MAGICIANS’ DOCTRINE :X- THE WHEEL The Sphinx — Destiny Letter Joithi (I, J, Y) - Number 10 “T, J, Y = 10 and express the active Principle that enlivens beings in the Divine World. In the Intellectual World it is the governing Au- thority. In the Physical World it is good or bad luck. The Arcana X is represented by a wheel sus- pended on its axis between two columns. Her- manubis, the Genius of Good, is on the right, trying hard to climb to the top of the wheel. Typhon, the Genius of Evil, has fallen. The Sphinx, balancing on the wheel, holds a sword between its lion’s claws. It personifies Des- tiny, ever ready to strike to right or left. As the wheel turns under its impulses, it lets the most humble climb up and overturns the arrogant. Remember, oh son of Earth, that to have Power it is necessary to Want; to Want effec- tively it is necessary to Dare; to Dare suc- cessfully it is necessary to know how to Keep Quiet until the moment for action.%° In order to acquire the right to possess Science and Power, it is necessary to work patiently, with untiring perseverance. In order to stay on the heights of life, if you succeed in reaching them, it is necessary to have learnt how to probe in one glance, and without vertigo, the deepest depths.” Positive: undeserved success, casual advan- tages, unexpected events, propitious occa- THE MAJOR ARCANA AND THE MAGICIANS’ DOCTRINE 61sions immediately seized. Measurable time, month, year, natural cycles. Negative: sudden, unfavourable changes, in- stability, temporary benefits, end of a favourable cycle. Inconstancy. Reincarna- tion. 62 ‘THE MAJOR ARCANA AND THE MAGICIANS’ DOCTRINEXI- STRENGTH The Tamed Lion —- Strength Letter Caitha (C, K) - Number 20 “C, K = 20 and express the Principle of every Force, spiritual and material, in the Divine World. In the Intellectual World it is Moral Force. In the Physical World it is Organic Force. The Arcana X1 is portrayed by a young girl who effortlessly closes a lion’s jaws with her hands. It is the emblem of strength com- municated by faith in one’s self and by the in- nocence of life. Remember, oh son of Earth, that to have Power it is necessary to Believe that one can have it. Go forward in faith: the obstacle is a mere illusion. In order to become strong, it is necessary to oppose silence on the weak- nesses of the heart; it is neceessary to study Duty, the law of Right, and to practice Justice with Love.” Positive: courage, strength, energy. Intelli- gence that triumphs over brute force, mastery of oneself and one’s own actions. Work, ac- tivity, action. Moral strength, defence of just causes, defeat of evil. Negative: weakness, laziness, cowardice. Cruelty, anger, tyranny. Illness, danger, stu- pid recklessness. Impulsive reactions, strong and dangerous enemy. THE MAJOR ARCANA AND THE MAGICIANS’ DOCTRINE 63XII —- SACRIFICE (The Hanged Man) Sacrifice — Expiation Letter Luzain (L) - Number 30 “L = 30 and expresses the revealed law in the Divine World. In the Intellectual World it is the teaching of Duty. In the Physical World it is Sacrifice. The original Arcana XII in Pitois’ pack was represented by a man hanging by a foot from a plank placed on two trees, each having six cut branches. The hands of this man were tied behind his back, and the bend of his arms formed the base of an upturned triangle, with his head as the apex. It is the sign of violent death, due to a fatal accident or the expiation of a crime, or accepted through heroic devo- tion to Truth and Justice. The twelve cut branches portray the extinction of life, the de- struction of the twelve Houses of the Horo- scope. The overturned triangle symbolises catastrophe. Remember, oh son of Earth, that devotion is a divine law that no one is absolved from, but do not expect anything but ingratitude from men. Keep your spirit, therefore, always ready to justify its deeds to the Eternal, because if the Arcana XII appears in your Horoscope, vi- olent death will set its traps along your path. But if the world makes an attempt on your earthly life, do not expire without accepting this end on the part of God with resignation, and without pardoning your cruel enemies; 64 THE MAJOR ARCANA AND THE MAGICIANS’ DOCTRINEbecause those who do not pardon are con- demned, after this life, to eternal solitude.” Positive: disinterest, altruism, repentance. Inner search, idealism, utopia, art. Detachment from matter, moment of transition, punishment. Mystic ascent, initiation, illumination. Negative: egoism, delusion, imposed sacri- fice. Illusion, unrealisable projects, vain at- tempts, lack of will. Pain, serious illness, impossibility of action, constraint. THE MAJOR ARCANA AND THE MAGICIANS’ DOCTRINE 65XII - DEATH The Reaper Skeleton — Transformation Letter Mataloth (M) — Number 40 “M = 40 and expresses the perpetual move- ment of Creation, Destruction and Renewal in the Divine World. In the Intellectual World it is Ascension of the Spirit to the heavenly spheres. In the Physical World it is natural death, that is the transformation of human nature that has reached the end of its last organic period. The original Arcana XIII in Pitois’ pack was represented by a skeleton reaping heads in a meadow from where mens’ hands and feet appeared on every side, as the sickle con- tinued its work. It is the emblem of the per- petual destruction and renewal of all the forms of Being in the reign of Time. Remember, oh son of Earth, that terrestial things do not last for long and that the high- est powers are mown down like grass in the fields. The dissolution of your visible organs will arrive earlier than you expected, but do not fear it, because death is nothing but part of another life. The Universe unceasingly reabsorbs everything that came from its breast that has not been spiritualised. But the release from material instincts for a free and voluntary union of our soul with the Laws of Universal Movement creates in us a sec- ond man, the Celestial Man, and so our im- mortality begins.” 66 THE MAJOR ARCANA AND THE MAGICIANS’ DOCTRINE