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CHAPTER XIV.

GENERAL SUMMARY OF THE SYMBOLICAL TAROT. THEOGONY--ANDROGONY--COSMOGONY.

Involution and Evolution. Theogony--The Absolute according to Wronski, Lacuria, and the Tarot--Theogony of divers Religions identical with that of the Tarot-Summary. Androgony--Cosmogony.

Figure containing the Symbolism of all the Major Arcana, enabling the Signification of each Card to be defined immediately.

GENERAL SUMMARY OF THE SYMBOLISM OF THE MAJOR ARCANA.

THEOGONY--ANDROGONY--COSMOGONY.

Having completed our study of the twenty-two major arcana, considered separately, we will now review as clearly as possible the knowledge which may be gathered from the preceding explanations.

Woe have already established from the study of the first card, that three primary principles are considered throughout their evolution: the Universe, Man, and God.

We need only recall grosso modo the sense of each card of the Tarot to prove the existence of a well-established progression, which starts from God the Holy Ghost to end in Matter, while passing through a number of varying

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modalities. Another gradation leads from Matter to God, the primitive origin of all things.

This double current of the progressive Materialization of the Divine, or INVOLUTION, and of the Progressive Divinization of the Material, or EVOLUTION, has been too well studied by our eminent friend CH. BARLET, for us intentionally to vary from him in any way; we shall therefore quote his interesting work in extenso, 1 and thus enable the reader to see that our conclusions are absolutely identical, although we have been led to them by very different paths.

But our present object is to review as clearly as possible the meanings of the major arcana of the Tarot, regarded from a synthetic point of view. From the preceding, chapters it will be seen that this study is really a COSMOGONY, or study of the creation of the Universe, crowned by an ANDROGONY, or study of the creation of Man, and even by an essay on THEOGONY, or study of the innate creation of God.

THEOGONY.

The Tarot places at the origin of all things the Absolute undetermined, undeterminable, the ONE, both knowing and unknowing, affirmative and negative, force and matter., unnamable, incomprehensible to man. 2

The Unity manifests itself to itself by three terms, the highest and most general terms which the human comprehension can grasp; terms which form the basis of all theogonies, and which designate the same principles under a multitude of varying names.

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1. The first of these terms symbolizes Absolute activity in all its acceptations, the origin of all movement, of all masculine creative force.

GOD THE FATHER: OSIRIS--BRAHMA--JUPITER.

2. The second of these terms symbolizes Absolute passivity in all its acceptations, the origin of all repose, of all feminine preserving force. It is the humid principle of nature, even as the first is the igneous principle.

GOD THE SON: ISIS--VISHNU--JUNO.

The third of these terms is the most important to us. Synthetically it blends the two preceding terms in one UNITY; all study should be commenced by it, for no being is conceivable unless it be considered synthetically, and the third term is the origin of all synthesis. It is Absolute Union in all its acceptations, the origin of all reality, of all equilibrium, of all equilibrist transforming force. It is the mercurial principle in nature balancing the two first.

GOD THE HOLY GHOST: HORUS--SIVA--VULCAN.

*
*    *

It is necessary to give a few explanations before we proceed further, in order that the deductions which follow may be intelligible to our readers.

We have said that no being is conceivable unless it be considered synthetically: we must now explain this sentence.

Let us take Man for our example, and follow the advice of Claude de Saint-Martin: "We must explain nature by man, and not man by nature."

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Man, regarded synthetically, is composed of an acting, animated body.

If we would think of the being man as a body only, without reference to its animation or to its faculty of acting, its reality immediately disappears, it is no longer a man; we are considering but a phantom created by our spirit, a phantom which we can analyze, study in all its subdivisions, but which, since it conveys no synthetic idea, does not really exist.

If in the same way we wish to imagine by itself the principle which animates this body, which makes it live, the reality at once disappears. It is impossible for us to separate the life from the idea of the body, to conceive what this thing may be which is called the human Life, if we wish to see in it a kind of metaphysical being. It is on this point that materialistic savants find the most power in their arguments against exclusively idealist thinkers.

The difficulty increases considerably if it be a question of the principle which causes this body to act--of the Will, of the Soul. Analysis here, as elsewhere, can be brought into use, but we cannot possibly conceive what the soul can be like unclothed in a form, that is to say, in a principle that differs from itself. We picture to ourselves a small sphere, a winged head, in fact anything, according to individual fancy, but never the soul considered individually.

On the other hand, the moment we say A MAN, these three terms, thus synthetised, assume consistence and become the expression of a reality, and a being, formed of a body, a life and a will, defines itself quite clearly.

This synthetic action, the source of all existence and of all reality, is the innate property of the third term in

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our Trinity of principles. This is why the study of all realities should be commenced by this third term. Henri Wronski has always adopted this method; he names this principle the Neuter Element, and places it at the commencement of all his studies.

*
*    *

Consequently, the Trinity, composed of the three terms which we have specified, should be considered under two aspects.

1. We should first look at the synthesis of this trinity, the cause of its reality. The third term (God the Holy Spirit) contains these conditions in itself.

2. We should then analyze this synthesis by dividing it into its three constituent terms, and by determining the existence of the two opposite terms, active and passive, positive and negative. We must not forget that during this analysis we destroy the reality of the being thus divided into fractions.

Every reality, of whatever kind it mar be, is therefore composed of three terms, and these three terms are contained in one sole whole. This truth is quite as applicable to physics as to metaphysics; the works of Louis Lucas upon physics and chemistry, 1 and of Wronski in mathematics, 2 are an irresistible argument against those who think that a philosophical principle is a foolish idea, without any practical import.

The third term of our theogonic series, or God the Holy Ghost, therefore represents the whole body of God, who can be analyzed in this way--

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To sum up all that we have studied so far, we will say that we have discovered, first of all--

1. An indeterminable and unnamable principle, of which we are content to assert the existence only--

2. This synthetic principle, when analyzed, is found to consist of a Trinity thus constituted--

If we would use a common but very suggestive image, we should say--

The constitution of God is thus defined by the Tarot--

*
*    *

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We must now prove that the conclusions which we have reached through the Tarot agree in all points with those of every author who has treated the question on a higher level and with all the superior theogonies of antiquity.

1. THE PRINCIPAL AUTHORS WHO HAVE STUDIED THIS QUESTION.

We have chosen from amongst the authors who have studied this question of first principles, two writers who, starting from different points of view, support the conclusions of the Tarot: Lacuria and Wronski.

F. G. Lacuria.

This eminent writer, in his book on the Harmonies of the Being expressed by Numbers, starts in his deductions from the three words used by St. John: Vita, Verbum, Lux. He analyzes each of these words, establishes the connection that exists between it and the Christian Trinity, and defines each of the elements in this trinity--

"Here is the Trinity: the Father, who is life or immensity; the Son, who is word or form. and distinction or variety; the Holy Spirit, who is light and love, or unity. And these three persons are only one God. Their unity is not only in the external fact of their existence, but in the essence of things, for they are inseparable in the thought of man; no one can imagine one without the others." (p. 43).

"In the commencement was the BEING, the being is not undetermined, but it is distinct from the NON-BEING; it sees that it is the being, and these two points of view, participating in the unity of the substance which they affect, produce by their Union THE CONSCIENCE, which is also light or harmony" (vol. ii. p. 333).

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First principles of Lacuria.

_______________

Henri Wronski.

This author interests us doubly, for his conclusions not only agree with the data given by the Tarot, but they also throw great light upon them. Let us therefore listen to him (Apodictique, p. 5)--

"Thus the reality of the absolute, REALITY in itself or reality in general, is unquestionably the first determination of the very essence of the absolute, and consequently the first principle of reason. Without it as an indispensable condition, as we have just admitted it to be, every assertion made by reason would be valueless. And it is upon this fundamental principle of reason, upon this indestructible and in every way indispensable condition, that we shall now establish absolute philosophy itself with the same infallibility.

"In the first place this reality of the absolute, which we now recognize so profoundly, produces or creates itself; for, as we have already irrevocably concluded, the absolute, this indispensable term of reason, is that which is BY ITSELF. Thus this innate generation, this autogeny of the reality of the absolute, this creation by itself, is manifestly a second 

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determination of the very essence of the absolute; and the condition by which alone this determination can take place constitutes quite as manifestly, and in all its primitive purity, the faculty which is designated by the name of Wisdom (λόγος, das Wissen).

"We therefore discover WISDOM as the second essential attribute of the absolute; this primordial faculty which is the condition of all creation, or rather which is the creative faculty itself in its loftiest puissance, as we have now discerned it, is, if we may thus express it, the instrument of autogeny, that is to say, the faculty of the creation by itself. And consequently we discover in Wisdom, shown in this highest creative power, the second principle of reason, quite as infallible as the absolute itself, from which we have now deduced it.

"Moreover, in the reality of the absolute, the necessary result of its wisdom or of its innate creation is PERMANENT STABILITY, because, precisely through being what it is by itself, the absolute could not be other than itself. We can therefore understand that this permanent stability in the reality of. the absolute, which is properly its autothesis, constitutes a third determination of the very essence of the absolute, and we shall easily recognize that this stability, this permanent unchangeableness, this innate unalterability, is only that condition of the reality which we name Being (ὤν, das Seyn).

"Thus, we discover as the third essential attribute of the absolute, the Being, the condition of stability in reality, and therefore of its force or innate unalterability, which in the absolute constitutes its autothesis itself. And consequently we find in the Being, considered almost in its autothetic origin, the third principle of reason, as infallible as the absolute itself, from which we have deduced it.

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"We therefore already possess the three first principles of reason, which, as we have just seen, are the three first determinations of the very essence of the absolute. Moreover, if we notice on the one hand that Wisdom and the Being, taking them in all their generality, are opposed to each other, just as autogeny and autothesis--of which they form the conditions--are opposed, or spontaneity and inertia, which form their characters; and if on the other hand we notice that Wisdom and the Being, these antagonistic conditions, are neutralized in all REALITY in general, this reality--according to the deductions which we have given--being the fundamental principle of reason, its primitive basis, we shall understand that the three principles which we have discovered in the determinations of the essence itself of the absolute, are really the three primitive principles of the supreme Wisdom, or of Philosophy."

FIRST PRINCIPLES OF WRONSKI.

2. THEOGONIES OF DIFFERENT RELIGIONS.

We have now shown the identity of the three first principles of the Tarot with the philosophical discoveries of some modern authors. We need only revert to the study of the first arcanum to see the conclusions which Fabre d'Olivet and Claude de Saint-Martin have come to upon the same subject; and we will now say a few

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words upon the identity of the deductions of the Tarot with the religious ideas of various nations.

EGYPTIAN THEOGONY.

Osiris is an emanation of the Great Being; he reveals himself in three persons--

"The Egyptian god is called Amen when he is regarded as the hidden force which brings all things to the light; he is Ptah when he accomplishes all things with skill and truth; lastly, when he is the good and beneficent god, he is named Osiris."--JAMBLIQUE

Indeterminable Principle
RA
Divine Trinity:

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HINDU THEOGONY.
Indeterminable Principle
PARABRAHM:

Here is an analysis of this conception applied to Cosmogony.--

PRIMITIVE, HINDU COSMOGONY, ACCORDING TO THE RIG-VEDA.

There was neither being nor no-being, nor ether, nor the roof of the heavens; nothing enveloping nor enveloped. There was neither death nor immortality; nothing separated the darkness of night from the light of day.

But That One, the HE, breathed alone with HER, whose life was sustained in his breast. Of all those who have existed since that time, no other then existed. The darkness covered them like an ocean, which cannot be lightened. This universe was indistinct, like the fluids mingled with the waters; but this mass, which was covered by a crust, was at last organized by the power of contemplation.

The first wish was formed in its intelligence, and it became the original productive seed. This productive seed became Providence or sensitive souls; and Matter or Elements, SHE who was supported in his breast was the inferior part, and HE who observes was the superior part. Who can know exactly, and who in this world can assert, from whom or how this creation took place? The gods are posterior to this creation of the world.

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KABBALISTIC THEOGONY.

Indeterminable Principle 
EN SOPH
The Absolute
Divine Trinity:

We might carry these comparisons much further; but it is useless to prolong our studies unreasonably. The curious reader can refer to the works on the ancient theogonies, 1 and see the universal harmony that exists in the primitive principles of all religions.

It will be sufficient if we determine the universality of the three first principles, which we name, like the Christians, in order to be clearly understood--

These principles once defined, we shall see them in action throughout creation.

The first principle had manifested its existence to itself in the second principle named by Christians:

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the Son. Lastly, these two principles had embodied themselves in the third, which gave them substance. This is why we have named the Holy Spirit the body of God.

Now the same law of creation acting in the affinities of the first principle with the second, will manifest itself in the action of the first ternary upon itself, to give birth to the following Trinity:--

God the Father, the principle of Will, is entirely self-reflected in the rough ADAM, the principle of Power; God the Son, the principle of Intelligence, is self-reflected in the gentle EVE, the principle of Authority. Lastly, God as a whole, or God the Holy Spirit, clothed these two mystical unities in a body, and made a reality of them in the balanced creation of Adam-Eve, or of HUMANITY.

Humanity, the image of Love, also contains in itself a rough, astringent principle (see Jacob Boëhm 1), and a gentle, insinuating principle (Jacob Boëhm). The first of these principles, symbolized by Adam, is the origin of brute Force, of Power in all its manifestations. The second, symbolized by Eye, is the origin of feminine Grace, of Authority. We have seen that Power and Authority find their equilibrium in Love.

Each man, a reflected molecule of humanity made in its image, contains in himself an Adam, the source of the Will--that is the Brain; an Eve, source of the intelligence--the heart; and he should balance the heart by the brain, and the brain by the heart, to become a centre of divine love.

It is the same with man and woman, represented by Adam and Eve (הוה Eve, the life).

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But just as the Father and the Son have become realities in the Holy Spirit, as Adam and Eve are embodied in Humanity, so the third ternary will take rise in the reciprocal action of the other two.

NATURA NATURANS, or creating, will take her birth under the action and the reciprocal reaction of God the Father and of Adam, the two active and passive creative principles. Thus also appears the Universal creative Fluid, balancing and realizing in itself both will and power.

From this again will be born NATURA NATURATA, or preserving, realizing the union of God the Son and of Eve, at the same time that the Universal preserving Fluid, or Universal Life, will appear, balancing and realizing the Intelligence and Authority which define its innate qualities.

Lastly, the Holy Spirit and Humanity, the divine and the human bodies, unite and manifest themselves eternally in the LIVING UNIVERSE, the source of Universal Attraction.

For even as the Holy Spirit was the body of God, the Son his soul, and the Father his Spirit, even as Humanity was the body of Adam, Eve his life or soul, and Adam his Spirit; so also--

From this we recognize the truth of the opinion of the Pantheists, who declared that God was the Universe; but we also see their error, when they refuse to acknowledge in him any innate consciousness. For as the consciousness of man is independent of the millions of cells which compose his body, so the consciousness of God is independent of the molecules of the Universe and of man which form its body and its soul. We might partly destroy the

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[paragraph continues] Universe without in any way diminishing the Divine Personality, even as the four limbs can be cut off a man without his losing the consciousness of the integrity of his personality. This is why the conclusions of Schopenhauer and Hartmann are partly erroneous.

Before leaving this study, we must once more express our admiration for this wonderful book, this symbolical Tarot, which thus defines God--

God is the Absolute, the essence of which is impenetrable, formed of the Universe as body, of Humanity as soul, and of himself as Spirit.

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THEOGONY.

Click to enlarge

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ANDROGONY.

Each man contains in himself an Adam, source of the Will, i.e. the Brain; an Eve, source of the Intelligence, 1 i.e. the Heart, and he should balance the heart by the brain, and the brain by the heart, if he would become a centre of divine love.

In Humanity, the passive Realistic principle of God Himself, the Father and the Divine Son, are represented by Man.

Man accomplishing the functions of God the creator is the FATHER; the woman accomplishing the work of God the preserver is the MOTHER; lastly, HUMAN LOVE realizes the whole Divinity in Humanity.

The human family is therefore the representation of the Divinity upon earth. The Tarot also teaches us this fact by its minor arcana (king or father, queen or mother, knight or young man, knave or child); and it was so thoroughly understood by ancient science, that the whole social organization was based upon the family, instead of upon the individual, as it is in modern times. 2 That the social organization of China has been maintained for so many centuries, is solely due to the principle of basing everything upon the family. 3

The characteristics of the human Ternary are: Adam, Necessity, the image and reflection of Will and Power; Eve, Liberty, the image and reflection of Intelligence and Authority; and Adam and Eve, Charity, the image

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and reflection of Love and Beauty given by the constituent terms.

REALIZATION and JUSTICE, balanced by PRUDENCE, indicate the moral constitution of Man, whilst the POSITIVE ASTRAL LIGHT (or OD), the NEGATIVE ASTRAL LIGHT (or OB), and the EQUILIBRATE ASTRAL FLUID (or AOUR), demonstrate the origin of his physical constitution.

Magic Power, Courage, and Hope manifest the moral qualities of man, whilst Force potential in its manifestation, reflected Life, and Force balancing the two preceding qualities, indicate the influence of the Universe in him.

Thus, the law which governs all these manifestations of God in the series of his creations is Emanation.

From the unique but fathomless centre emanates, in the first place, a Trinity of absolute principles which serves as a model for all the posterior emanations of the Being principle itself. Each element of this Trinity manifests itself in two great principles, of which it is the source: from the first principle, or the Father, emanate successively Adam and Nature creating, naturans, according, to Spinoza; from the second principle, or the Son, emanate Eve and Nature naturata, or recipient; lastly, the third principle, or the Holy Spirit, serves as a model to the similar constitution of Adam-Eve, or Humanity and the Universe.

In this way also the Ternary, emanated from the mysterious Unity, soon constitutes a Septenary formed by the various emanations of these three Principles, like the seven colours of the scale of light formed by the combination of three simple colours, themselves emanated from one single light; or like the seven notes of the musical scale, formed by the fundamental trinity of sounds.

The Septenary formed of "two Ternaries in the midst of

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which the Unity upholds itself," 1 is therefore the expression of a being completely constituted. This is now confirmed by the recent data given by Hindu Theosophy upon the seven principles of Man, and upon the seven principles of the Universe. 2

We could apply the Tarot to the explanation of these data; but we feel sure that it will soon be done, and we consider it useless to lengthen our work too much.

We will therefore conclude our study upon man by pointing out his constitution as given by the Tarot, which teaches that his body comes from the Universe, his soul from the Astral plane, whilst his Spirit is a direct emanation from God. 3

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ANDROGONY.

Click to enlarge

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COSMOGONY.

As we descend the ladder of the emanations of the Absolute Being, the principles become more material and less metaphysical. The Tarot teaches us that the Universe results from the participation of the Human in the creative actions of the Divine, a profound mystery, which can throw much light upon the theological theories of the Fall. Jacob Boëhm, the sublime visionary shoe maker, and Claude de Saint-Martin, his admirer and disciple, give upon this subject some explanations which may be easily understood with the Tarot, and to which we refer curious inquirers.

God manifests himself in the Universe by his third trinitarian manifestation: Natura naturans, realized in the UNIVERSAL TRANSFORMING PRINCIPLE, Natura naturata, in INVOLUTION; and lastly in the mysterious cyclic force which we have analyzed, in reference to the 15th arcanum, and which we name the FATAL FORCE OF DESTINY. This is the God adored by materialist science, and we see that unconsciously its homage is offered to the Divinity itself under its most material form, even whilst it foolishly boasts of Atheism.

DEATH, CORPOREAL LIFE, and the DESTINY which rules their mutual connection, constitute the preserving principles of the Universe; lastly, PLASTIC FORCE, INDIVIDUAL LIFE, and the ASTRAL LIGHT IN CIRCULATION, show us the means of Transformation and of Realization used by the Cosmos.

But these are abstract principles; if we wish to see them in action we must consider the following ternary. The Universal Transforming Principle marks its existence

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by the DESTRUCTION of beings and of things; but the Opposing Principle, Involution, at once IMMORTALIZES Destruction by the influx of new divine currents into CHAOS.

Adam materialized his nature by the FALL of his spirit into matter, the source of Death; but the Corporeal Life, the source of HOPE, arises and provides the means of redeeming the fault, by suffering in the MATERIAL BODY.

Lastly MATTER itself appears, the final term of involution, after which recommences the grand Evolution towards the primitive centre.

It is unnecessary to say that we only wished to give a rapid sketch of the evidence of the Tarot upon Theogony, Androgony, and Cosmogony, without entering into detail. In fact these are very serious questions, which require whole volumes to themselves, and we had not the least intention of discussing them in a few pages.

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COSMOGONY.

Click to enlarge

p. 217

Let us now recapitulate a little, so that we may definitely end the involution of the three grand principles:

From GOD THE FATHER have emanated successively--

Adam realized in the Father has produced Realization and the Astral Light; whilst the Will was realized in Necessity, Supreme Power is shown in Magic Power, and the universal creative Fluid in Force Potential in its Manifestation.

Natura naturans realized in the Universal Transforming Principle has produced Death, and the Universal Plastic Force, with their forms, Destruction, the Fall of Adam, and the visible world.

These are all the principles that have successively emanated from the Father, and which represent him. We have reproduced them in a tableau--

The two following figures arranged upon the same plan as this one, give the emanations of the two other principles of the first ternary.

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In our Introduction to the study of symbolism we have given a numbered figure which enables us to determine immediately the meaning of any card in the Tarot.

If we now apply all that we have said upon the symbolism of each of our cards to this subject, we can condense the whole symbolism of the major arcana in one figure.

The new tableau thus formed will give us the sense of all our principles, whatever their number may be, and this is how we obtain this meaning--

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USE OF THE TABLEAU.

1. Seek in the horizontal column, to the left of the principle under consideration, the sense written there.

2. Having ascertained this meaning, return to your principle and search in the vertical column at the bottom the great principle (God, Man, or the Universe) which is written there.

3. Combine the meaning first obtained with the name placed in the vertical column, adding to it the word (itself or manifest) written in the vertical column which contains the principle of which you are seeking the meaning.

An example will explain this better.

Let us ascertain the meaning of the MOTHER-- The first term of the 8th arcanum.

1. I look in the horizontal column containing the word MOTHER and I find at the end, to the left, the following meaning--

The Mother is the Active preserving Principle. Of what?

2. In order to know, I seek in the vertical column containing the word Mother, and at the bottom I find Man or Humanity.

3. I add to the word Humanity the word placed in the small vertical column which contains the word Mother. This word is Himself if relating to man, or itself if we take the sense of Humanity. We should say--

The Mother is the Active preserving Principle of Man himself or of Humanity itself.

This example clearly indicates how this tableau should be used.

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TABLEAU

Recapitulating the Symbolism of all the Major Arcana, enabling the definition of any one of these Arcana to be immediately determined. (See its use on page 219.)

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Tableau indicating the revolutions yod-he-vau-he in numbers (positive arcana): (yod = 1, he = 2, vau = 3, 2nd he = 4).

(Key to the preceding Tableau.)

Footnotes

194:1 See p. 253.

194:2 Ch. Barlet, Initiation, p. 10,

197:1 Louis Lucas, La Chimie Nouvelle, Paris, 1854. 18mo.

197:2 Wronski, Messianisme, 1825, fol.; and above all Apodictique Messianique, 1876, fol.

198:1 Spirit is here taken in the sense of the superior and creative principle: soul in the sense of median and animator. Since many writers use these words in a different sense, it is useful to explain what is our meaning in this case.

205:1 See particularly P. Renand, Nouvelle Symbolique, Paris, 1877. 8vo.

206:1 Jacob Boëhm, The Three Principles.

210:1 Intelligence is here taken in the sense of Intuition, and not in the sense usually attributed to it by the Philosophy of the Universities.

210:2 See Saint-Yves d'Alveydre, Mission des Juifs, 1884.

210:3 See Simon, La Cité Chinoise, 1886. 8vo.

212:1 Sepher Yetzirah (trans. Papus), chap. vi.

212:2 See Sinnet, Esoteric Buddhism; H. P. Blavatsky, Secret Doctrine; and all the publications of the Theosophical Society.

212:3 See for further developments the works of Paracelsus and Van Helmont.