Chapter XVI (part 6)

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 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 leave a free field to individual investigation on this point, and pass on to the study of the Tarot from another point of view. ב 2 High Priestess ה 5 Pope ג 3 Empress ד 4 Emperor ת 21 World צ 18 Moon ר 20 Judgment ק 19 Sun ז 7 Chariot י 10 Wheel of Fortune ח 8 Justice ט 9 Hermit ע 16 Lightning-struck Tower מ 13 Death ס 15 Devil נ 14 Temperance 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 century, and fixed by the invention of xylography.