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    The Symbolism of the Tarot: Philosophy of occultism in Pictures and Numbers
    The Symbolism of the Tarot: Philosophy of occultism in Pictures and Numbers
    The Symbolism of the Tarot: Philosophy of occultism in Pictures and Numbers
    Ebook72 pages53 minutes

    The Symbolism of the Tarot: Philosophy of occultism in Pictures and Numbers

    By Peter D. Ouspensky

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    Pyotr Demianovich Ouspenskii (known in English as Peter D. Ouspensky,  5 March 1878 – 2 October 1947), was a Russian mathematician and esotericist known for his expositions of the early work of the Greek-Armenian teacher of esoteric doctrine George Gurdjieff, whom he met in Moscow in 1915. He was associated with the ideas and practices originating with Gurdjieff from then on. He shared the (Gurdjieff) "system" for 25 years in England and the United States, having separated from Gurdjieff in 1924 personally, for reasons he explains in the last chapter of his book In Search of the Miraculous.

    All in all, Ouspensky studied the Gurdjieff system directly under Gurdjieff's own supervision for a period of ten years, from 1915 to 1924. His book In Search of the Miraculous is a recounting of what he learned from Gurdjieff during those years. While lecturing in London in 1924, he announced that he would continue independently the way he had begun in 1921. Some, including his close pupil Rodney Collin, say that he finally gave up the system in 1947, just before his death, but his own recorded words on the subject ("A Record of Meetings", published posthumously) do not clearly endorse this judgement, nor does Ouspensky's emphasis on "you must make a new beginning" after confessing "I've left the system".
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarmakis Edizioni
    Release dateNov 23, 2017
    ISBN9788885519381
    The Symbolism of the Tarot: Philosophy of occultism in Pictures and Numbers

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    • 4/5
      Thought I did like some of the descriptions of the cards, it just suddenly ended, pretty abruptly I thought. I understand the progression through the named cards but he skipped a couple too. However I will read through it again. It does offer a nice insight and take on the cards and, like most of these things, it seems the symbolism is often open to interpretation.

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    Book preview

    The Symbolism of the Tarot - Peter D. Ouspensky

    Ouspensky

    WHAT IS THE TAROT?

    No study of occult philosophy is possible without an acquaintance with symbolism, for if the words occultism and symbolism are correctly used, they mean almost one and the same thing. Symbolism cannot be learned as one learns to build bridges or speak a foreign language, and for the interpretation of symbols a special cast of mind is necessary; in addition to knowledge, special faculties, the power of creative thought and a developed imagination are required. One who understands the use of symbolism in the arts, knows, in a general way, what is meant by occult symbolism. But even then a special training of the mind is necessary, in order to comprehend the 'language of the Initiates', and to express in this language the intuitions as they arise.

    There are many methods for developing the 'sense of symbols' in those who are striving to understand the hidden forces of Nature and Man, and for teaching the fundamental principles as well as the elements of the esoteric language. The most synthetic, and one of the most interesting of these methods, is the Tarot.

    In its exterior form the Tarot is a pack of cards used in the south of Europe for games and fortune-telling. These cards were first known in Europe at the end of the fourteenth century, when they were in use among the Spanish gypsies.

    A pack of Tarot contains the fifty-two ordinary playing cards with the addition of one 'picture card' to every suit, namely, the Knight, placed between the Queen and the Knave. These fifty-six cards are divided into four suits, two black and two red and have the following designation: sceptres (clubs), cups (hearts), swords (spades), and pentacles or disks (diamonds). In addition to the fifty-six cards the pack of Tarot has twenty-two numbered cards with special names:

    This pack of cards, in the opinion of many investi-gators, represents the Egyptian hieroglyphic book of seventy-eight tablets, which came to us almost miraculously. The history of the Tarot is a great puzzle.

    During the Middle Ages, when it first appeared historically, there existed a tendency to build up synthetic code symbolical or logical systems of the same sort as Ars Magna by Raymond Lully.

    But productions similar to the Tarot exist in India and China, so that we cannot possibly think it one of those systems created during the Middle Ages in Europe; it is also evidently connected with the Ancient Mysteries and the Egyptian Initiations. Although its origin is in oblivion and the aim of its author or authors quite unknown, there is no doubt whatever that it is the most complete of Hermetic symbolism we possess.

    Although represented as a pack of cards, the Tarot really is something quite different. It can be 'read' in a variety of ways. As one instance, I shall give a metaphysical interpretation of the general meaning or of the general content of the book of Tarot, that is to say, its metaphysical title, which will plainly show that this work could not have been invented by illiterate gypsies of the fourteenth century.

    The Tarot falls into three divisions: The first part has twenty-one numbered cards; the second part has one card 0; the third part has fifty-six cards,

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