CHAPTER XVI.

THE ASTRONOMICAL TAROT.

Egyptian Astronomy--The Four Seasons--The Twelve Months----The Thirty--six Decani--The Planets--Absolute Analogy with the Tarot--Figure containing, the Application of the Tarot to Astronomy--Key to the Astrological Works of Christian----Oswald Wirth's Astronomical Tarot.

THE ASTRONOMICAL TAROT.

IN order to demonstrate the accuracy of the principles upon which the construction of the Tarot is based, we will take the constitution of the Universe itself, as shown by Astronomy, for our example of the first application of its system.

It is known that the Egyptians divided the year into four seasons, each composed of three months. Each month contained three decani or periods of ten days, which gave three hundred and sixty days in each year. They added to complete it a period of five days, or Epagomenes, placed after the 30th degree of the Lion (August).

We must therefore find in our Tarot--

1. The four seasons;

2. The twelve months, or, better still, the twelve signs of the zodiac;

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3. The thirty-six decani.

Moreover each month, or, still better, each zodiacal sign, and each of the decani is ruled by a planet.

1. The Four Seasons.

The four figures of the Tarot correspond absolutely with the four seasons of the year.

If we then look at the twenty-first card of the Tarot, the origin, as we have seen, of all its applications, we shall see that the four figures in the corners represent the four colours of the Tarot, and in this case the four seasons of the year.

The elliptic space between these four figures and the centre correspond to the zodiac and its divisions.

Finally, the central portion corresponds to the planets, which influence the whole system.

2. The 12 Signs of the Zodiac.

Each colour represents one season. Each season is composed of three months. How, then, will the months be represented in our colour?

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The months will be represented by the figures, and the correspondence is established in this way--

(Consult, for further details, the first part of our study upon the Tarot.)

We therefore find twelve figures, which respond to the twelve signs of the Zodiac, as follows--

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3. The 36 Decani.

Each season is divided into three months, but each month is divided into three decani, or periods of ten days each.

We need only recall the analogy existing between the figures and the numbers in the minor arcana, to ascertain which cards of the Tarot represent these new divisions.

If we take one of the figures--the King, for instance--we know that this king governs certain cards: the Ace, two, three, and the first ternary.

We then obtain the following analogies--

KING OF SCEPTRES: zodiacal sign, the Ram.

The thirty-six decani are therefore represented in the Tarot in the following series--

Each decan, governing ten degrees of the zodiacal circle,

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corresponds to a certain number of days in the month. Consequently each card in the minor arcana, corresponding to a decan, represents a certain fraction of the year--

We need only consult the figure at the end of this study of the astronomical Tarot to see which days correspond to each decan.

This is the basis of the astrological Tarot, and by its cards a horoscope can be drawn out; but since this application lies beyond the purely scientific field to which we have limited ourselves, we must not dwell upon it here.

In short, our minor arcana are fully represented in the astronomical Tarot, and they exactly determine the limits in which move the planets, that we have still to consider.

The Planets.

The major arcana are represented in this application of the Tarot by the septenary of the planets acting upon the three worlds (3 x 7 = 21).

Each zodiacal sign and each decan is governed by a planet, and the connection between the planets and these different signs is indicated upon the tableau which follows.

This tableau enables us to comprehend all the work that Christian 1 and Ely Star 2 accomplished upon Astrology. Moreover it indicates the astronomical correspondence of

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every card in the Tarot. Here is an explanation of its construction--

Here the four figures of the twenty-first card of the Tarot represent the four seasons of the year and the four colours of the Tarot.

The centre of the twenty-first card responds to the seven planets, which animate the yearly system.

Lastly, the ZODIACAL ELLIPSE revolves between these two terms, and it contains the key to the influence exercised by the major arcana (the planets) over the minor arcana (the signs and decani).

This tableau is therefore both a proof of the accuracy of our system of explaining the Tarot, and also a magnificent key to the Tarot itself.

(Consult the tableau.)

We shall now quote two extracts from La Vaillant (Les Rômes, Histoire des Bohémiens), which demonstrate the harmony which exists between our deductions and the traditional explanations given by the gypsies.

SOME OF THE GYPSY TRADITIONS

UPON THE ASTRONOMICAL TAROT.

The 21st card, entitled the Universe or Time, is, in fact, the time of the temple and the temple of time.

It represents an oval crown of flowers, divided into four by four lotus flowers, and supported by the four symbolical heads, which St. John borrowed from Ezekiel, and the latter from the cherubim and seraphim of Assyria and Egypt.

The four heads are those

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In the midst of this crown, the symbol of the egg of the world, stands a nude woman, the symbol of Eve; one of her feet is raised, symbolizing the flight of time; and she holds two wands of equal length, symbols of the balance and equilibrium of time, of the justice and equity of men, of the equality of day and night, of man and woman.

This Eve is the great Mother (Ava or Ebe) who pours out to the stars the men-gods of heaven, and to men the star-gods of earth, the nectar and ambrosia of immortality, the shadow and light of eternity (Aon), of which the crown which surrounds her is the sea or the ocean, the enclosure or the vase, the ark or the vessel.

This symbol is not new. It was throughout antiquity used to express the nature of the Universe, the synthesis of the arcs of the circle, the union of the arches of the sphere, which the Hebrews made into the ark of the covenant, the modification of the ancient coins of Crete, which took this arch of the world, the covenant of the rainbows, for the principle of justice which gives it its name. And, in fact, the name of Kudas, of that Ebee of Crete, clearly expresses justice, saduk, which makes of this Melchi sedek, the spirit of the Lord, and of this spirit (Eon) of the sun, the law of the times of the stars, of the life of man; consequently Noah, who is himself the spirit

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[paragraph continues] (Eon) of eternity (Aon) of centuries (Aion), has been qualified as præco justitiæ, revealer of justice.

The Tarot is a deduction of the sideral book of Henoch, who is Henochia; it is modelled from the astral wheel of Athor, which is As-taroth, resembling the Indian ot-tara, the polar bear or arc-tura of the north; it is the major force (tarie) upon which is based the solidity (ferrale) of the world and the sideral firmament of the earth; consequently, like the polar bear, called the chariot of the sun, the chariot of David and of ARTHUR, it is the Greek luck (tuché), the Chinese destiny (tiko), the Egyptian chance (tiki), the fate (tika) of the Romanies; and the stars, as they incessantly revolve round the polar bear, reveal to the earth ostentation and misery, light and shade, heat and cold; whilst from them flow the good and evil, the love and hatred, which form the happiness (ev-tuchié) and the misfortune (dis-tuchié) of men.

*
*     *

In truth Sephora is one of the harmonies in that triad s. f. r., which united form the light (Sapher), the number (Sipher), and the word (Sephora) of the Hebrews, from the Sphere of the Universe. From this sphere,

of which the light is the truth,

the zodiac the book which contains it, the stars the numbers and letters which explain it, the Anaks have drawn their Tara, the Gypsies their Tarot, the Phoenicians their As-tharot, the Egyptians their Athor, and the Hebrews their Thora.

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But we cannot end this study upon the astronomical Tarot without some allusion to the work of Oswald Wirth upon this subject. In some respects his conclusions differ from our own; but we are anxious on that account to copy his essay upon it, in order that each reader may judge between us for himself.

ESSAY UPON THE ASTRONOMICAL TAROT BY OSWALD WIRTH.

According to Christian the twenty-two major arcana of the Tarot represent the hieroglyphic paintings which are found in the spaces between the columns of a gallery, which the neophyte was obliged to cross in the Egyptian initiations. There were twelve columns to the North and the same number to the South, that is, eleven symbolical pictures on each side. These pictures were explained to the candidate for initiation in regular order, and they contained the rules and principles for the Initiate.

The arcana corresponding to the twenty-two letters of the Hebrew alphabet must have been arranged upon the, walls of the secret crypts in the temples of Osiris in the following order. (See p. 243.)

This opinion is confirmed by the correspondence which exists between the arcana when they are thus arranged.

It is at once evident that the arcana 2, 3, 4 and 5 form a complete group; this group corresponds to another formed by the arcana 21, 20, 19 and 18. Now in the interpretation of the symbols each arcanum should be studied in its relations with the neighbouring arcana, and particularly with those which are pendant to it in the grouping that we have pointed out. For instance, the 2nd

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NORTH

SOUTH

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arcanum (ב), the High Priestess, should not only be compared with the 1st arcanum (א), the Juggler, the 3rd, and 4th (ד), the Empress; but also with the 5th arcanum (ה), the Pope, with the 21st (ת), the Universe, and even with the 18th (צ), the Moon. By studying each of the twenty-two arcana in this way, we shall discover that the whole are closely linked together, and we shall acquire unexpected light upon the most ancient of all the sacred books which we possess.

It should be noticed that the 7th, 8th, 9th, and 10th arcana represent a quaternary, to which a last group corresponds, formed of the 16th, 15th, 14th, and 13th arcana. We therefore have sixteen pentacles divided into four quaternaries, which give a definite general meaning. Six other pentacles are placed in pairs at the commencement, the centre, and the end of the double series of the arcana of the Tarot. These six arcana appear to frame the others, and this fact gives them great importance. Their signification is easily discovered by their mutual comparison, and the judicious application of the laws of analogy supplied by the keys of the Book of Thoth, as well as by those of the Eternal Book that Nature, symbolized under the form of Isis, holds half-opened in the 2nd arcanum (ב), the High-Priestess.

But it is necessary to proceed methodically in these researches, by means of a progressive analysis starting from the whole, before we can grasp each arcanum separately, for each one must be carefully examined under the numerous aspects which it presents. When this work of dissection is once accomplished, the student must retrace his steps, and synthetically recompose the whole by a reverse operation.

In applying these principles here, we must first repeat

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that the Tarot considered as a whole is pre-eminently the Sacred Book of occult initiation. Now we attain this initiation by two different paths, by one of which we develop the powers which we innately possess to their utmost extent; by the other we subdue ourselves, and thus attain a state of being which renders us susceptible to the action of the cosmic forces which surround us. Although these two methods differ completely, we can accomplish this great work by following either of them. This is the meaning of the Hermetic precept, "that the philosopher's stone can be prepared by the dry path or by the moist, by the red dye or by the white." Initiation, androgynous as a whole, is therefore subdivided into male and female. It is masculine from the 1st (א) to the 11th (כ) arcana, and becomes feminine in the arcana 21 (ת) to 12 (ל). With regard to the arcanum 0 (ש), which is unnumbered in the Tarot, although it is eminently passive in itself, it must not be included in the feminine series, for reasons easily discerned in the study of the exact signification of each arcanum taken separately.

Let us then content ourselves for the moment with asserting that masculine or Dorian initiation starts from א to end in כ, whilst feminine or Ionian initiation starts from ש to end in ל. The two unite and complete each other in the androgynous initiation, which can start from א to end in ש, or start from ש to return to it again, after traversing the whole series of the arcana, taking their numbers in the inverse order.

But initiation can be regarded not only under the double aspect of activity and passivity represented by the North and South, but it can be also contemplated as light and life, that is to say, as the intellectual instruction as well as the moral education of the Initiate. In this respect

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the Tarot is divided by the 6th arcanum (ו), the Lovers, and the 17th (פ), the Stars, into two parts, which represent the West and the East.

This double division produces the four quaternaries of which we have already spoken. Each represents one especial section, its general sense being indicated by its orientation; the North-West thus corresponds with intellectual activity; the North-East with moral activity; the South-West with intellectual passivity, and the South-East with moral passivity. These four sections are also united in the arcana 1 (א) the Juggler; 11 (כ) Strength; 12 (ל) the Ranged Man; and 0 (ש) the Foolish Man.

The 6th arcanum, the Lovers, indicates the passage of intellectual activity to its moral application, the 17th פ. The stars form the transition between passive intellectuality and its practical employment in the exercise of the occult powers.

We think that enough has been now said to enable each student to discover for himself the complex signification of every arcanum in the Tarot. We will therefore end this sketch by some classifications, intended to prove that the order in which we arrange the arcana of the Tarot does not form a purely arbitrary system.

It will, in fact, be easily seen that connection in their opposition links the arcana when they are grouped in four quaternaries of different formation from the four first, which we have already examined. (See p. 247.)

The analogy of these significations is particularly striking between the arcana 7 and 16, 10 and 13, which yet present an antagonistic meaning, as soon as 7 is compared with 16, and 10 with 13. It is the same with the other quaternaries represented here, although the fact may be less visible at the first glance. But we will now

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leave a free field to individual investigation on this point, and pass on to the study of the Tarot from another point of view.

The 22 major arcana of the Tarot compared to the figures representing the constellations upon the celestial sphere, according to the Greek and Egyptian planispheres.

The Tarot which we possess represents a series of symbolical images adapted to the ideology of the fourteenth

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century, and fixed by the invention of xylography. It is impossible for us to retrace through the darkness of the middle ages the origin of the twenty-two significative figures known as atouts, in the pack of seventy-eight cards by which the Gypsies claim to reveal the secrets of fate.

Still it has been proved that the major arcana of the Tarot are disfigured reproductions of a primitive model dating from the earliest ages. It would be difficult to refind this model in its original purity; and if it were possible to do so it could only be through judicious study of every manifestation of symbolism throughout the history of Oriental mythologies. They have bequeathed to us an hieroglyphic monument of immense importance in the representative figures of the signs of the Zodiac, and of the constellations of the celestial Sphere. But it would be most interesting if we could prove that these allegorical figures absolutely reproduce the 22 major arcana of the Tarot. From this affinity we might obtain great light upon the genesis of human knowledge. For the same identity of origin which manifestly unites the plates of the Book of Thoth to the subdivisions of the Greek and Egyptian planispheres, leads to the conclusion that in both cases we possess a special adaptation, made from documents which we have not yet found, but which may still give us complete information respecting primitive India.

In any case the arcana of the Tarot explain many of the anomalies in Greek mythology. We cannot now enter into any minute details upon this subject, for it would lead us beyond the limits of this book. We must content ourselves with giving the reader a tableau indicating the constellations which appear to correspond with the 22 major arcana of the Tarot, and therefore with the 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet, although their correspondence

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with the latter is much less clearly defined. We will then trace a planisphere grouping the arcana of the Tarot according to the order of the constellations, and we will end by a pentacle in the form of a double hexagram, in which the Hebrew letters will represent the signs of the zodiac, and the circumpolar constellations to which they correspond, according to our first tableau.

OSWALD WIRTH'S TABLEAU.

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PLANISPHERE,

ACCORDING TO THE DATA OF THE PRECEDING TABLEAU,

BY OSWALD WIRTH.

Click to enlarge

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Click to enlarge

PENTACLE OF OSWALD WIRTH.
Signs of the Zodiac and Circumpolar Constellations.
Affinities with the Tarot.

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Click to enlarge

Footnotes

235:1 Thus the Tarot places one epagomene, or complementary day, after each season.

238:1 Christian, Histoire de la Magie, Paris, 1854. 8vo.

238:2 Ely Star, Les Mystères de l'Horoscope, Paris, Dentu, 1888. 18mo. (3 fr. 50.)