Theoretischer und praktischer Unterricht ueber das Buch Thot

The revealer of the future, if he now wishes to penetrate its secrets and unravel them for another, first mixes the 78 Blätter leaves or cards, so that as long as he mixes them, he does not cast a glance upon them: he then lays the book or the cards down to let them be cut by the questioner, and finally distributes the 78 cards, or the entire book, into three rows, so that in each row there are 26. This first Dreizahl triad of 26, 26, 26, 0, as the Bild des Zirkels image of the circle, lies there before him.

Thereupon he takes the 26 cards that lie in the middle row and lays them aside to his right hand. He then takes up the two remaining rows still lying there, 26 0 26, which makes 52 cards together, and follows the same rules with them that we have specified: namely, that he mixes them, lets them be cut, and lays them in three rows. In this way, through this second procedure, the second triad arises, 17, 17, 17, + 1, as the Bild der Einheit image of unity.

Finally, for the third time, after he has previously removed the middle row of 17 and laid it aside next to the 26, he again takes up the remaining rows 17 0 17, 1,

which makes 35, and follows the same procedure with them. Thus appears the third triad of the Buch Thot Book of Thoth, 11, 11, 11, + 2, as well as the Bilde des Menschen image of man.

After this third and final division of the Buch Thot Book of Thoth, his Rechnungstafel calculation table or the Book of Thoth lies before him in the following order:

How much now presses upon me to say! The language to express it and to describe everything must submit to the swift power of thought. Yet we shall try.

The number 26 has reference and relation to the first procedure of laying the Book of Thoth and telling the future from it. The number 17 stands in relation to the second procedure, and 11 with the third instance of the Eintheilungskunst art of division.

If we wish to know which numbers will come out for the fourth and fifth times of the Blätterlegen laying of the cards, and which will stand in relation to these: then we need only look back at the cards remaining from the distribution of the Book of Thoth performed for the third time...