Chapter XVI (part 3)

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 Of the Eagle . The symbol of the East, of the morning, of the equinox of spring. Of the Lion . --- of the South, and of the solstice of summer. Of the Bull . --- of the Evening, the West, and of the equinox of autumn. Of the Man . --- of the Night, the North, and of the solstice of winter. 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 [paragraph continues] ( Eon ) of eternity ( Aon ) of centuries ( Aion ), has been qualified as præco justitiæ, revealer of justice.