The Tarot of the Bohemians (Papus) · 7 of 134 · tr. A.P. Morton
Chapter I (part 4)
Iesus Nazareus Rex Iudeorum are the opposite poles, scientific and religious, physical and metaphysical, of the same doctrine.
YOD-HE-VAU-HE (יהוה) is the word which indicates to you both, Freemasons and Kabbalists, the Unity of your origin.
TAROT, THORA, ROTA are the words which point out to you all, Easterns and Westerns, the Unity of your requirements and of your aspirations in the eternal [paragraph continues] Adam-Eve, the source of all our knowledge and of all our creeds.
All honour, therefore, to the Gypsy Nomad, to whom we are indebted for the preservation of this marvellous instrument, the synthetic summary of the whole teaching of antiquity.
OUR WORK.
We will commence by a preliminary study of the elements of the Kabbalah and of numbers.
Supplied with these data, we will explain the construction of the Tarot in all its details, studying separately each of the pieces which compose our machine, then studying the action of these pieces upon each other.
Upon this point we shall be as explicit as possible.
We will then touch upon some applications of the machine, but upon a few only, leaving to the genuine inquirer the work of discovering others.
We must confine our personal work to giving a key, based upon a synthetic formula; we can only supply the implement of labour, in order that those who wish for knowledge may use it as they like; and we feel assured that they will understand the utility of our efforts and of their own.
Lastly, we will do our best to explain the elements of divination by the Tarot as practised by the Gypsies.
But those who think that occult science should not be revealed must not be too angry with us.
Experience has taught us that everything may be fearlessly said, those only who should understand can understand; the others will accuse our work of being obscure and incomprehensible.
We have warned them by placing at the head of our work-- For the exclusive use of Initiates .
It is one characteristic of the study of true occult science, that it may be freely explained to all men.
Like the parables, so dear to the ancients, it appears to many only the expression of the flight of a bold imagination: we need, therefore, never be afraid of speaking too openly, the Word will only reach those who should be touched by it.
To you all, philosophers of Unity, enemies of scientific, social.
and religious sectarianism, I now address myself, to you I dedicate this result of several years' study.
May I thus aid in the erection of the temple which you are about to raise to the honour of the UNKNOWN GOD, from whom all the others emanate throughout Eternity!
A chain of divine beings or principles flowing downward from a single transcendent source (the One or the Father), each level less perfect than the one above.
The passage explicitly states that all other gods emanate from the 'UNKNOWN GOD' throughout Eternity.
A historical or mythical chain of transmission for secret wisdom from master to disciple across time and cultures — the credential of the teaching, not merely its content. Distinct from oral_tradition (the spoken-not-written modality of transmission, which a lineage may or may not use) and hidden_sayings (the concealment-for-readiness of a teaching's meaning, independent of who transmitted it or in what unbroken chain).
The author honors the 'Gypsy Nomad' for preserving the instrument and addresses 'Freemasons and Kabbalists', implying a chain of transmission.