The Tarot of the Bohemians (Papus) · 115 of 134 · tr. A.P. Morton
Page 52 (part 1)
SECOND LESSON.
MINOR ARCANA.
SIGNIFICATION FROM THE DIVINING POINT OF VIEW.
THE Tarot pack is composed of 78 cards or plates; 22 of them bear symbolical names (the Juggler, Sun, Moon, Hanged Man, etc.), and they should be separated from the 56 others, which are divided into four great series: Sceptres, Cups, Swords, and Pentacles.
These four series each contain 14 cards (King, Queen, Knight, Knave, Ace, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10), corresponding with the four series of common playing cards (clubs, hearts, spades, diamonds), but called Sceptres, Cups, Swords, Pentacles.
These are the Minor Arcana .
The 22 symbolical cards are the Major Arcana or Great Arcana.
1.
MINOR ARCANA, formed of four sequences of 14 cards each, or 56 cards in all.
2.
MAJOR ARCANA, formed of 22 cards.
These are the two great divisions which must first be remembered.
We have already said that the minor arcana were divided into four sequences: Sceptres, Cups, Swords, Pentacles.
Each of these series represents one of the four great principles, as follows-- The Sceptres represent Enterprise and Glory .
The Cups --- Love and Happiness .
The Swords --- Hatred and Misfortune .
The Pentacles --- Money and Interest .
ENTERPRISE, LOVE, HATRED, FORTUNE, are the four great principles which must be remembered.
If you now take one of these packets of 14 cards, you will see that it is formed of four figures, and of 10 other cards, which bear numbers formed by the symbols.
We will first look at the 4 figures-- The King represents Man .
The Queen --- Woman .
The Knight --- A Young Man .
The Knave --- A Child .
The Man represents the creator, the one who undertakes the enterprises ; the woman characterizes love ; the young man, conflict, struggle, rivalry, hatred ; the child symbolizes the absolute neuter, the second He, which varies according to circumstances, money , which addresses itself to all, and applies itself to all, universal transition .
Man, Woman, Young Man, Child, are therefore the same symbols applied to the family as the four great principles applied to humanity, and to know them in one case is to know them in the other.
To sum up all this, we may say that the first element represents the positive , the second the negative , the third the opposition between the two; finally, the last the absolute neuter ; and these elements are symbolized by the four figures of each of the minor arcana.
But even as the cards are divided into two colours, red and black, so humanity is divided into dark and fair .
The eight figures of the Sceptres and Swords therefore represent dark people , the eight figures of the Cups and Pentacles, fair people .
The figures of the Sceptres and Cups are good ; of the Swords and Pentacles, bad .
We shall presently repeat this in connection with each colour, and will now recapitulate the meanings of the four figures of the Sceptres.
King of Sceptres.
Dark man; good; a friend.
Queen of Sceptres: Dark woman; good.
Knight of Sceptres: Dark young man; good.
Knave of Sceptres: Dark child or messenger; good.
Besides our four figures we have to consider the 10 cards bearing numbers.
How can we discover the meaning of these 10 cards, and above all how can we recall it?
We have nothing new to learn, but need only apply all that we already know.
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 establishes a system where Tarot cards correspond to human principles (Enterprise, Love, Hatred, Fortune) and family roles (Man, Woman, Young Man, Child), embodying the 'as above, so below' structural mapping.
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).
The passage assigns specific symbolic meanings to King (Man/Creator), Queen (Woman/Love), Knight (Young Man/Conflict), and Knave (Child/Neuter), treating gender as a structural generative principle across the suits.
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 states that the four figures of the minor arcana represent the same symbols applied to the family as the four great principles applied to humanity, linking the individual/family unit to the broader human condition.
Numbers, proportions, and mathematical relationships as the underlying structure of divine reality.
The text emphasizes the structure of the deck based on specific numbers (78 cards, 22 Major, 56 Minor, 4 suits of 14, 10 numbered cards) as fundamental to their meaning and organization.
The Hermetic doctrine that apparent opposites are identical in nature but differ in degree — two extremes of the same scale (hot/cold, love/hate) — such that one pole can be shifted toward its opposite by a change of degree ('mental transmutation'). Distinct from opposites_transcended (a completion-state marking the path's end, not this doctrine's active technique) and magical_equilibrium (balance held BETWEEN two forces, not identity-by-degree of what looks like two forces).
The passage describes elements as positive, negative, opposition, and absolute neuter, and divides cards into red/black and good/bad, reflecting the Hermetic doctrine of opposites existing on a scale.