Chapter XXII (part 2)

The gigantic labours of Dupuis were fruitless, because he did not understand that the solar Myth was only a representation of the general law of evolution , and not that of the especial evolution of the sun. The method of occult science is neither induction nor deduction, but analogy, an unknown method at the present date which the Tarot reveals to us in all its splendour. Afterwards we have made other applications of it, and could have made still more; shown the key of Philosophy, of the Holy Kabbalah, of Theosophy, of the Physiology of Man and of the Universe in the Tarot; but we have restricted ourselves to giving the key, and to showing the way to use it by some examples. We were unwilling to exceed the strict limits of our engagement. Such as it is, our work still contains some imperfections which we would willingly efface. We are under no illusions on this point, and time alone can remedy it. But we would draw attention to the aim which is visible throughout its pages; the application of the most exact methods possible to occult science. Through the modern exact sciences we have reached the study of occultism, and starting ourselves from materialism, of which we were one of the most ardent disciples, we felt the necessity of advancing further. But we had retained one trace of our early affections, the taste for method, and it is the absence of this method which spoils occult science. Louis Lucas had clearly seen that physics must advance by the side of metaphysics to serve as its basis: in the same way we have endeavoured to place fixed principles, such as numbers and the Hebrew letters, side by side with the metaphysical data, like the symbols or abstract conceptions. Occultists as a rule are lost through this lack of precision. We have made every effort to avoid this stumbling-block, without however asserting that we have succeeded. An author is not qualified to judge his own work. Be this as it may, we have been frequently obliged to speak of occult science without the leisure to enter into these explanatory details--this is the reason we addressed our book TO INITIATES. An Initiate is one who possesses the elements of occultism, and who is therefore familiar with a whole vocabulary, which may well alarm a man of the world; this is our excuse for words which may sound pretentious to some minds, and this is why we were anxious to express our ideas quite clearly. Still, since it is customary for the Tarot to be used for fortune-telling , we have touched upon this subject, and rendered it as attractive as possible. We have tried to simplify the systems used, so that a woman of even little intelligence can easily and with little exercise of memory amuse herself with this art. But since our own system may not please all the partisans of Cartomancy, we have summed up the process of the great master Etteila , so that, even in this purely empiric region, we have tried to introduce as much scientific exactitude as possible. We hope that this recapitulation of the efforts of several years may prove useful to occultism, and to its revival, which becomes daily more pronounced. This is the aim which we have kept in view. May the social disorders which are preparing give rise to an era of peace and harmony amongst the now divided nations, and may the knowledge of these mysteries overthrow European Cæsarism in all its forms! This should be your aim, Kabbalists, Theosophists, Martinists, Rosicrucians, and Freemasons? On this point believe the humble disciple of your doctrines, who will be only too happy if his work has retained one feeble ray of the Eternal and Holy Truth.