Chapter XX (part 2)

As the determining Fatality and the human Will usually unite, almost unconsciously, we see that the astrological Horoscope can predict two-thirds of the events. Later on reliable data were lost, and men commenced to read fortunes by chance, without using any scientific method. The astrological systems, called onomantic , that is to say, which use the numbers formed by the letters of the name and pronoun of the individual, are generally false, and produce no practical results. For this reason the astrological system described by Christian can be regarded only as a deceitful, lying dream. The truth of the predictions, then, depends upon the intuition of the prophet, and this leads us to consider the differences which may be noticed between the predictions of fortune-tellers. Intuition plays the most important part when the more exact methods disappear, and therefore woman's nature, which is essentially intuitive, is well qualified to read these divinations. The discussion of the wherefore of all this would lead us much too far from our subject. We cannot either teach astrology by the Tarot in a few pages--a whole volume is necessary for this purpose--nor have we the time to handle these difficult subjects. Perhaps we may decide to undertake them some day. However, we see that chance and intuition are the chief instruments in divination by the Tarot, as it is usually practised at the present time. We must therefore aid our readers to undertake it for themselves, and will now explain the most simple principles of the art, dividing them into seven lessons, so as to render them as clear as possible. We will arrange them so that they maybe complete, and therefore it will be unnecessary to read all the preceding abstract studies before using the Tarot from this point of view. Lastly, we will explain the principal methods used by masters in the art of fortune-telling, so as to enable our readers to become adepts in the prediction of the future. But we must remind them that science has little empire over the subject, and that imagination and intuition reign over this charming domain.