For convenience, here follows a list of these cards:

Knight of Wands, Fire of Fire
Queen of Wands, Water of Fire
Prince of Wands, Air of Fire
Princess of Wands, Earth of Fire

Knight of Cups, Water of Fire
Queen of Cups, Water of Water
Prince of Cups, Air of Water
Princess of Cups, Earth of Water

Knight of Swords, Fire of Air
Queen of Swords, Water of Air
Prince of Swords, Air of Air
Princess of Swords, Earth of Air

Knight of Disks, Fire of Earth
Queen of Disks, Water of Earth
Prince of Disks, Air of Earth
Princess of Disks, Earth of Earth

The Tarot trumps are twenty-two in number; they represent the elements between the Sephiroth or Things-in-Themselves, so that their position on the Tree of Life is significant. Here are one or two examples. The card called "The Lovers", whose secret title is "The Children of the Voice, the Oracle of the Mighty Gods", leads from the number 3 to the number 6. The number 6 is the human personality of a man; the number 3 is his spiritual intuition. Therefore, it is natural and significant that the influence of the 3 upon the 6 is that of the intuitional or inspirational voice. It is the illumination of the mind and the heart by the Great Mother.

Consider again the card joining the number I to the number 6. This card is called "The High Priestess", and is attributed to the Moon. The card represents the Heavenly Isis. It is a symbol of complete spiritual purity; it is initiation in its most secret and intimate form, descending upon the human consciousness from the ultimate divine consciousness. Looked at from below, it is the pure and unwavering aspiration of the man to the Godhead, his source. It will be proper to enter more fully into these matters when dealing separately with the cards in turn.

From the foregoing it will be clear that the Tarot illustrates, first of all, the Tree of Life in its universal aspect, and secondly, the particular comment illustrating that phase of the Tree of Life which is of peculiar interest to those persons charged with the guardianship of the human race at the particular moment of the production of any given authorised pack. It is therefore proper for those guardians to modify the aspect of the pack when it seems to them good to do so. The traditional pack has itself been subjected to numerous modifications, adopted for convenience. For instance: the Emperor and the Empress, in the medieval packs, were referred quite definitely to the Holy Roman Emperor and his Consort. The card originally called "The Hierophant", representing Osiris (as is shown by the shape of the tiara) became, in the Renaissance period, the Pope. The High Priestess came to be called "Pope Joan", representing a certain symbolic legend which circulated among initiates, and became vulgarised in the fable of a Female Pope. More important still, "The Angel", or "The Last Judgment", represented the destruction of the world by fire. Its hieroglyph is, in a way, prophetic, for when the world was destroyed by fire on 21st March, 1904, [See The Equinox of the Gods, loc. cit. ] one's attention was inevitably called to the similarity of this card to the Stele' of Revealing. This being the beginning of the New Aeon, it has seemed more fitting to show the beginning of the Aeon; for all that is known about the next Aeon, due in 2,000 years' time, is that its symbol is the double-wanded one. [See AL III, 34. The reference is to Maat, Themis, Lady of the Balance.] But the new Aeon has produced such fantastic changes in the settled order of things that it would be evidently absurd to attempt to carry on the outworn traditions, "the rituals of the old time are black." It has consequently been the endeavour of the present Scribe to preserve those essential features of the Tarot which are independent of the periodic changes of Aeon, while bringing up to date those dogmatic and artistic features of the Tarot which have become unintelligible. The art of progress is to keep intact the Eternal; yet to adopt an advance-guard, perhaps m some cases almost revolutionary, position in respect of such accidents as are subject to the empire of Time.

Ill

THE TAROT AND THE UNIVERSE

The TAROT is a Pictorial representation of the Forces of Nature as conceived by the Ancients according to a conventional symbolism.

The Sun is a star. Around him revolve a number of bodies called Planets, including the Moon, a satellite of the Earth. These bodies revolve in one direction only. The Solar system ~ not a sphere, but a wheel. The planets do not remain in exact ~ but swing to a certain (comparatively small) extent from one side of the true plane to the other. Their orbits are elliptical. The Ancients imagined this wheel very much more clearly than modern minds are wont to do.