The Tarot of the Bohemians (Papus) · 35 of 134 · tr. A.P. Morton
Page 13 (part 2)
But our conclusions do not stop here.
If we study these three primitive principles more attentively we shall find in the first: Providence or the Element of Wisdom, represented in philosophy by the word God .
Destiny or Being shows us its identity with the immutable laws which govern the Universe .
Lastly, it does not require much study to prove to its that the human Will responds to Man.
GOD, MAN, AND THE UNIVERSE.
This is the basis of all the esoteric philosophy of the ancients, and not only Wronski and Fabre d'Olivet agree in their conclusions respecting this mysterious ternary; occult science itself proclaims its identity with these principles by the mouth of all its disciples.
Hermes Trismegistus , the Holy Kabbalah , Neo-Platonicism , and the Alchemists through Pythagoras and all the Greek philosophers assert the division of the Great All into THREE ENTITIES OR WORLDS.
In less remote ages Guillaume Postel gives the key of the Tarot without explaining it, and the basis of this key is formed by this mysterious entity-- DEUS, HOMO, ROTA.
Trithemie and his pupil Cornelius Agrippa also give us this fecund and sublime trinity in all their analogical figures.
The Jesuit Kircher describes this division into three worlds as the basis of the Egyptian mysteries.
Lastly, Claude de Saint-Martin has written a book entirely based upon the keys of the Tarot, and it is entitled-- Tableau Naturel des rapports qui unissent DIEU, L'HOMME, ET L'UNIVERS.
Let us question India upon the law of the absolute, she replies-- Trimurti : BRAHMA, SIVA, VISHNU.
Let us ask China for the great secret of her philosophy, and she will give us the Tri-grams of Fo-Hi .
Address ourselves to one of the ancient initiated Egyptians, he will tell us-- OSIRIS, ISIS, HORUS.
The founder of Greek Cosmogony , the disciple of the science of Egypt, Hesiod , also transmits this law to us, and they all confirm Louis Lucas when he states: "I feel that hidden beneath this mystical formula of the Trinity is one of the most important scientific laws that man has ever discovered." God, Man, and the Universe, these are the most general principles that we can attain, and they constitute the three meanings of the first card of the Tarot.
It remains for us to ascertain first, whether these meanings respond to the primitive hieroglyphic, and then to determine bow far they extend through the whole Tarot.
The Hermetic axiom that the structure of the cosmos is reflected at every scale — 'as above, so below; as within, so without' — making each level a legible map of the others.
The passage explicitly links the Tarot's first card to universal principles (God, Man, Universe) found across diverse traditions (Egypt, India, China, Greece), implying a structural correspondence between the microcosm of the card and the macrocosm of reality.
Narratives or doctrines of cosmic origin — how heaven, earth, and the primordial deities first came into being. The Kojiki's deities born alone on the Plain of High Heaven, Voluspo's Ginnungagap, Genesis's tohu wa-bohu, the Timaeus's Demiurge fashioning the Receptacle, the Hesiodic Theogony, the Kalevala's egg-cosmogony, Egyptian Nun-and-Atum. Distinct from emanation_hierarchy (structural-ontological cascade), letters_of_creation (mechanism of creation), and apocatastasis/frashokereti (end-state restoration); cosmogony is temporally-narrative beginning.
The passage references Hesiod and Greek Cosmogony as transmitting the law of the Trinity, linking the ternary structure to origins narratives.
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.
Neo-Platonicism is cited as a source that asserts the division of the Great All, which implies an emanative structure, though the text focuses more on the ternary than the cascade.
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 text lists a long chain of authorities (Hermes Trismegistus, Kabbalah, Pythagoras, Postel, Agrippa, Kircher, Saint-Martin) to validate the esoteric teaching, establishing a historical transmission of secret wisdom.
Esoteric teachings reserved for those ready to receive them; outer meaning conceals an inner liberating truth.
The text refers to 'keys of the Tarot' that are given without explanation or hidden beneath mystical formulas, indicating esoteric knowledge reserved for initiates.
The doctrine that human volition, cultivated by discipline and emancipated from passion and servitude, is the primary instrument of magical operation — will confirmed by persistent acts acquires causal power over self, others, and nature; distinct from faith and from mere desire.
The third principle is identified as 'human Will' responding to Man, positioning will as a fundamental cosmic force alongside God and the Universe.
The human being as a small-scale image of the entire cosmos; the body, soul, and intellect mirroring the structure of the heavens and the divine — distinct from correspondence in that it makes the human the privileged mirror.
The central theme is the ternary relationship of God, Man, and Universe, positioning Man as a mediating principle within the cosmic structure, which is the essence of the microcosm-macrocosm doctrine.
Numbers, proportions, and mathematical relationships as the underlying structure of divine reality.
The passage emphasizes the 'mysterious ternary' and the division into 'THREE ENTITIES OR WORLDS' as a fundamental law of the universe, highlighting the mystical significance of the number three.
The doctrine that all existence is ultimately one substance or one divine reality; non-duality as a theological claim.
The text refers to the 'Great All' and the identity of principles across different traditions, suggesting an underlying unity despite the ternary division.