Papus - Absolute Key To Occult Science, The Tarot Of The Bohemians

Absolute Key To Occult Science, The Tarot Of The Bohemians
by Papus

First published in 1892

This ebook edition was created and published by Global Grey on the 15th June 2018 and updated on the 8th June 2022

The artwork for the cover is Lentulo (XVIII) card from the Sola Busca tarot deck
painted by an unknown artist.

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ABSOLUTE KEY TO OCCULT SCIENCE.
Frontispiece

THE Tarot pack of cards, transmitted by the Gypsies from generation. to generation, is the primitive book of ancient initiation. This has been clearly demonstrated by Guillaume Postel, Court de Gbelin, Etteila, Eliphas Levi, and J. A. Vaillant.

The key to its construction and application has not yet been revealed, so far as I know. I therefore wished to fill up this deficiency by supplying Initiates, i. e. those who are acquainted with the elements of occult science, with an accurate guide, which would assist them in the pursuit of their studies.

The uninitiated reader will find in it the explanation of the lofty philosophy and science of ancient Egypt; whilst ladies are enabled to practise the use of the divining Tarot, by methods which we have rendered easy in Chapter XX.

The book has been so arranged that each part forms a complete whole, which can, if necessary, be studied separately.

I have used every effort to be as clear as possible; the public that has warmly welcomed my other books will, I hope, forgive the imperfections inherent to a work of this kind.

PAPUS.

Therefore you must open the book and carefully weigh the statements made in it. Then you will know that the drug within is of very different value from the promise of the box, that is to say, that the subjects treated in it are not so frivolous as the title may imply.--RABBLAIS.

WE are on the eve of a complete transformation of our scientific methods. Materialism has given us all that we can expect from it, and inquirers, disappointed as a rule, hope for great things from the future, whilst they are unwilling to spend more time in pursuing the path adopted in modern times. Analysis has been carried, in every branch of knowledge, as far as possible, and has only deepened the moats which divide the sciences.

Synthesis becomes necessary; but how can we realize it?

If we would condescend to waive for one moment our belief in the indefinite progress and fatal superiority of later generations over the ancients, we should at once perceive that the colossal civilizations of antiquity possessed Science, Universities, and Schools.

India and Egypt are still strewn with valuable remains, which reveal to archologists the existence of this ancient science.

We are now in a position to affirm that the dominant character of this teaching was synthesis, which condenses in a few very simple laws the whole of the acquired knowledge.

But the use of synthesis had been almost entirely lost, through several causes, which it is important to enumerate.

Amongst the ancients, knowledge was only transmitted to men whose worth had been proved by a series of tests. This transmittal took place in the temples, under the name of mysteries, and the adept assumed the title of priest or Initiate. This science was therefore secret or occult, and thus originated the name of occult science, given by our contemporaries to the ancient synthesis.

Another reason for the limited diffusion of the higher branches of knowledge, was the length and difficulty of the journeys involved before the most important centres of initiation could be reached.

However, when the Initiates found that a time was approaching when these doctrines might be lost to humanity, they made strenuous efforts to save the law of synthesis from oblivion. Three great methods were used for this purpose-

1. Secret societies,, a direct continuation of the mysteries;

2. The cultus, a symbolic translation of the higher doctrines, for the use of the people;

3. Lastly, the people itself became the unconscious depository of the doctrine.

Let us now see what use each of these groups made of the treasure confided to it.

THE SECRET SOCIETIES.

The school of Alexandria was the principal source from which the secret societies of the West arose.

The majority of the Initiates had taken refuge in the East, and quite recently (in 1884) the West discovered the existence in India, and above all in Thibet, of an occult fraternity, which possessed, practically, the ancient synthesis in its integrity. The Theosophite Society was founded with the object of uniting Western initiation with Oriental initiation.

But we are less interested in the existence of this doctrine in the East, than in the history of the development of the initiative societies in the West.

The Gnostic sects, the Arabs, Alchemists, Templars, Rosicrucians, and lastly the Freemasons, form the Western chain in the transmission of occult science.

A rapid glance over the doctrines of these associations is sufficient to. prove that the present form of Freemasonry has almost entirely lost the meanings of the traditional symbols, which constitute the trust which it ought to have transmitted through the ages.

The elaborate ceremonials of the ritual appear ridiculous to the vulgar common sense of a lawyer or grocer, the actual modern representatives of the profound doctrines of antiquity.

We must, however, make some exceptions in favour of great thinkers, like Ragon and a few others.

In short, Freemasonry has lost the doctrine confided to it, and cannot by its self provide us with the synthetic law for which we are seeking.

THE CULTUS.

The secret societies were to transmit in their symbolism the scientific side of primitive initiation, the religious sects were to develop the philosophical and metaphysical aspects of the doctrine.

Every priest of an ancient creed was one of the Initiates, that is to say, he knew perfectly well that only one religion existed, and that the cultus merely served to translate this religion to the different nations according to their particular temperaments. This fact led to one important result, namely, that a priest, no matter which of the gods he served, was received with honour in the temples of all the other gods, and was allowed to offer sacrifice to them. Yet this circumstance must not be supposed to imply any idea of polytheism. The Jewish High Priest in Jerusalem received one of the Initiates, Alexander the Great, into the Temple, and led him into the Holy of Holies, to offer sacrifice.

Our religious disputes for the supremacy of one creed over another would have caused much amusement to one of the ancient Initiate priests; they were unable to suppose that intelligent men could ignore the unity of all creeds in one fundamental religion.

Sectarianism, chiefly sustained by two creeds, equally blinded by their errors, the Christian and the Mussulman, was the cause of the total loss of the secret doctrine, which gave the key to Synthetic Unity.