PREFACE

The Tarot deck, transmitted by the Bohemians from generation to generation, is the primitive book of ancient initiation, as shown by Guillaume Postel, Court de Gébelin, Etteila, Eliphas Lévi, and J.-A. Vaillant.

The key to its construction and its applications has not, to my knowledge, been discovered until now. I have sought to fill this gap by providing the initiates—that is to say, those who know the elements of occult science—with a rigorous instrument through which they can push their studies further.

The profane reader will find here an exposition of a philosophy and a science of the highest order, that of Egypt, and the ladies themselves will be enabled, through Chapter XX, to practice the handling—made easy—of the divinatory Tarot (1).

(1) This section has been developed in a special volume: The Divinatory Tarot, by Papus (Messrs. Hector and Henri Durville, publishers. Price (deck of 78 cards included): 6 fr.)