INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY OF THE TAROT

CHAPTER ONE

"That is why you must open the book and carefully weigh what is set forth within. Then you will know that the drug contained inside is of much greater value than the box promised; that is to say, the matters treated here are not as frivolous as the title above suggested."

RABELAISoriginal: "C’est pourquoi fault ouvrir le livre et soigneusement peser ce qui y est déduit. Lors connaîtrez que la drogue dedans contenue est bien d’autre valenr que ne promettait la boîte, c’est-à-dire que les matières ici traitées ne sont tant folâtres comme le titre au-dessus prétendait." — A famous passage from the prologue of Gargantua.

We are on the eve of a total transformation of our scientific methods. Materialism has yielded everything that could be expected of it, and researchers—most of them disillusioned—expect a great deal from the future without wishing to linger any longer on the errors of the present. Analysis has been pushed as far as possible in every branch of our knowledge, and it has only served to widen the gaps that separate the sciences.

Synthesis is necessary; but how can it be achieved?

If we deign for a moment to stop believing in indefinite progress and the fatal superiority of new generations over the old, we will easily discover that the colossal civilizations of the past possessed a true Science, Universities, and Schools.