The Tarot of the Bohemians (Papus) · 103 of 134 · tr. A.P. Morton
Page 46 (part 6)
The watery trigon ( , , ), corresponding to the Pentacle and to the letters ההה, comprising, this time, the final E of the name of 4 letters twice repeated, and the E of the name of 3 letters--the dominant character, the inferior feminine.
But we must leave the minor arcana to the investigations of the reader--they would lead us too far--and return to some further notice of the great arcana.
Let us first notice how the three chief sectors preserve and reproduce their innate characters in all their divisions.
We find, in the first, that of the letter Yod (י), the Spirit, the numbers of the unity, I., IV., VII., X.
(repeated in the minor arcana); as figure , the Kings; as colour , the Sceptre; in the Zodiac , the lines of the ascension of the sun above the Equator from the spring to the solstice.
In the second sector (ה) the substantial principle is the feminine numbers II., V., VIII., XI.
(repeated in the minor arcana); as figure , the Queens; as colour , the Cup; in the Zodiac , the four signs of the descent of the sun towards the Equator; the season of harvests and vintages, fecundity in all its forms.
FIG.
2 In the third sector (ו), the Son, the Element, are the sacred numbers which participate in the two preceding orders, III., VI., IX.; as figure , the Knight; as colour , the Pentacle of the practical world, and the Sword also, which close the preceding sector; in the Zodiac , the signs through which the sun passes in the southern hemisphere; our winter, the season for the consumption of the produce of the earth, of renovation for the cycle which follows: Christmas is in the centre; the new birth in the winter of death; the time when the Son was born into an inferior world to reanimate it.
The divine Name יהוה is not only written in the series of concentric circles, it is also found upon the lines belonging to those circles, either in descending or in remounting.
The first sector gives it without transposition, as we see in Fig.
2 .
In the second sector the divine Name is preceded by the feminine letter E, the Mother, and finally pauses at it: E, IEVE, IE.
(See the figure .) In the third, it commences by the letter of the Son and ends by that of the Father, to which he returns: VE, IEVE, I.
We shall now inquire from the symbols of the cards the different ways of pronouncing the divine Name, and also the various manifestations in the Kosmos of each of these four letters .
Let us question even the spirit of these symbols, instead of their number, colour, or form, which have chiefly occupied us at present.
By first following the regular order of our arrangement we shall find-- In the divine world: the arcana I., II., III., IV., the divine Tetractys, comprising: (1) the Absolute Being ; (2) the Consciousness of the Absolute; (3) Love or the power of fecundity; (4) the realization of the virtualities of the Absolute .
In the world of laws: arcanum V., the laws of the relation of the Created with the Uncreate (the Initiator , Fear also ).
VI.
( Liberty , Beauty ); knowledge of good and evil; knowledge of the Law.
VII.
(Glory); rule of the Spirit over Matter, the fertile power of the Law; and VIII.
( absolute Justice , Victory ), realization of the Law.
In the physical world: arcana IX.
( the veiled Lamp ), the light extinguished in the darkness of the substance, the spirit imprisoned in the material world, Yesod .
X.
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.
Centrally demonstrates the Hermetic axiom by linking Tarot cards to letters, numbers, zodiac signs, and cosmic principles.
The Stoic and Plotinian doctrine that all parts of the cosmos are bound by hidden affinities, so that a movement in one part resonates through the whole; the metaphysical basis for astrology, magic, and divination.
Describes hidden affinities between sectors, numbers, letters, and zodiacal signs.
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.
Describes the structural origin of worlds (divine, laws, physical) through symbols.
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 text outlines a descending structure from the divine world (Tetractys) to the world of laws and finally the physical world.
Augustinian and Plotinian doctrine that evil has no positive being of its own but is a lack, distortion, or absence of the good — denying ontological dualism while preserving moral seriousness.
Describes darkness as the state where light is extinguished in substance.
The Hermetic doctrine that a masculine-feminine generative principle operates on every plane of being, not only the biological — present at all times as a structural feature of creation itself. Distinct from divine_marriage (a specific reunification event or symbol) and aeons (paired divine beings arranged in syzygies, not a universal structural claim).
Explicitly discusses masculine (Father, Son) and feminine (Mother, inferior feminine) principles as structural features.
The Hermetic doctrine of a measured swing or pendulum motion between poles — action and reaction, flow and outflow, rise and fall — operating in mental, physical, and cosmic-historical registers alike. Distinct from apocatastasis (cosmic-scale eschatological restoration after vast cycles) in naming a constant, ever-present oscillation rather than a singular restorative event.
Mentions the sun's ascent and descent and seasonal cycles of harvest and winter.
The felt condition of exile from one's divine origin — Rumi's reed flute torn from its bed, Plotinus's 'we have forgotten,' the Gnostic forgetfulness; the affective wound that complements return_to_source and gives the return its motive.
Portrays the spirit as extinguished or imprisoned in the darkness of substance.