The Tarot of the Bohemians (Papus) · 98 of 134 · tr. A.P. Morton
Page 46 (part 1)
THE DIVINE NAME IN THE TAROT.
By Ca.
BARLET.
The totality of the symbols which form the Tarot is distributed through a series of 78 plates or cards, instead of being presented in a single figure; the reason for this is, that the signification of this totality is very multiple; for it is at the same time theologic, cosmologic, psychologic, and divining, and this variety is the result of the different combinations which can be produced by the arrangement and comparison of these 78 cards.
This variety is not one of the lesser beauties of this unique masterpiece, in the sense that it adds movement and consequently life to the usual immobility of every written representation, without counting the diversity of its appliances, which include numbers, words, form, and colour.
The Tarot can therefore be made to speak when one of its innumerable combinations has been found; that is to say, when the student knows how to arrange the whole or part of his cards upon the table, in the order necessary to discover the answer which he seeks.
We ask him: What is the Creation from man's point of view, that is to say, what is the life of the Great All, and how can or should man participate in it?
The whole Tarot, with its 22 great arcana and 56 minor arcana, will answer us, as we shall show by quoting only a few of the profound interpretations which it provides.
To obtain this information we must remember that the three first cards which express the Trinity form at the same time the key to the 22 great arcana, which, when the 0 is abstracted, are only seven repetitions of this Trinity.
We must also notice that the card M, the fourth term of the divine tetractys, is both the realization of the Trinity restored to the unity, and the first term of the following Trinity.
The four first cards thus represent the divine name of 4 letters, IEVE (יהוה) so that if we repeat the Trinity seven times, to obtain the sequence of the 21 great arcana, the numbers will correspond to the four letters as follows-- Numbers 1.
2.
3 -- 4.
5.
6.
-- 7.
8.
9 -- etc.
Letters י ה ו ה י ה ו ה י -- etc.
I E V -- E I E V E I -- etc.
We will assume that these letters are thus attached to the corresponding arcana, and this remark will be the first key to the arrangement which we are looking for.
' To find a second key, we must redeal our cards in a.
given space; at first only their place in the plane will appear; then it will be clearly defined.
We know that the Kosmos is conceived as the final expansion of the mathematical point, that is to say, of the Absolute, which before this expansion included all force or potentiality in its nothingness.
Let us draw this sphere (see Fig.
1 ).
The centre of it will be represented by one of the cards, 0, the Foolish Man or Crocodile , which is the pivot of the whole pack, at the same time that it participates in all the other cards, for they include all the properties of our universe.
From some point of the sphere, a point which becomes our north pole, the movement will start, by which the creation will appear on its surface.
FIG.
1 Around this point upon the sphere, the reflex of the centre, we will place the cards of our 3 first arcana: I.
(the Mage, the Spirit, י); II.
(Knowledge, Substance, ה); III.
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 states the Tarot is 'theologic, cosmologic, psychologic, and divining' simultaneously, reflecting the Hermetic axiom that cosmic structures are mirrored in the card system.
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 outlines a creation narrative where the Kosmos is conceived as the expansion of a mathematical point (the Absolute) onto a sphere surface.
The doctrine that the divine is present within all things and the universe itself, pervading creation rather than remaining solely transcendent above it. Distinct from unity_of_being (the general claim that all existence is one substance, agnostic about whether that substance indwells its parts) and from kingdom_within (the divine present specifically IN THE INDIVIDUAL human, accessible without mediation) — divine_immanence is the general pervading-presence claim applied to all of creation, not a human-specific indwelling.
The text suggests man can participate in the life of the Great All and that the cards include all properties of the universe, implying divine presence within the system.
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 describes the Kosmos as an expansion from a mathematical point (the Absolute) and structures the Tarot cards as repetitions of the Trinity flowing from this source.
The twenty-two Hebrew letters as the building blocks through which God creates and sustains all existence.
The text explicitly maps the four letters of the Divine Name (IEVE/YHWH) to the Great Arcana and states these letters are attached to corresponding arcana as a key to arrangement.
The divine reason, word, or ordering principle through which the universe was created; mediates between the transcendent God and the material world.
The text discusses the 'Divine Name' (IEVE/YHWH) and letters attached to arcana as keys to arrangement, implying a creative ordering principle through language.
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 text asks 'What is the Creation from man's point of view' and positions the Tarot as a tool for man to participate in the life of the Great All, linking human inquiry to cosmic structure.
The absolutely simple, undivided first principle from which all multiplicity and existence flows.
The text identifies the 'mathematical point' or 'Absolute' as the center containing all force or potentiality before expansion, representing a simple first principle.
Numbers, proportions, and mathematical relationships as the underlying structure of divine reality.
The passage details the mathematical structure of the Tarot (78 cards, Trinity repeated seven times, Tetractys) as the key to understanding divine names and creation.