TAROT MAJORS

G.O. Mebes

with companion notes

1
 Tarot Majors

G.O. Mebes

(Gregory Ottonovich Mebes)

With companion notes

English Translation of text, copyright © 2020 Shin Publications

First Edition

Published 2020 by Shin Publications, England

All rights reserved

This book, or parts thereof, may not be reproduced in any form without permission.

ISBN: 978-1-9163365-3-7

http://alchemical-weddings.com/

The image on the preceding page Illustration was first published in Eliphas Levi's Dogme et
Rituel de la Haute Magie. Lévi was inspired by Johannes Trithemius (1462 –1516), who
devised a symbol composed of a white triangle joined at the base with a black triangle. The
base of the white is inscribed with the Tetragrammaton and the black contains a fool peering at
his own reflection. Lévi set much store by this, saying that "By meditating on the pentacle, one
will find "the last word of Kabbalism and the unspeakable formula of the Great Arcanum."
Dedicated to Our Lady of Guadalupe and St Francis of Assisi

Ask, and it will be given you;

Seek, and you will find;
Knock, and it will be opened to you.
For everyone who asks receives,
And he who seeks finds,
And to him who knocks it will be opened

(Matthew vii, 7-8)

Stella Maris, ora pro nobis

 Contents

In Memoriam 1
About the Author 2
About this Book 6
Foreword 9

Preface to the Russian Book 12

Arcanum I ‫א‬ 15
Arcanum II ‫ב‬ 26
Arcanum III ‫ג‬ 40
Arcanum IV ‫ד‬ 51
Arcanum V ‫ה‬ 71
Arcanum VI ‫ו‬ 107
Arcanum VII ‫ז‬ 118
Arcanum VIII ‫ח‬ 137
Arcanum IX ‫ט‬ 149
Arcanum X ‫י‬ 165
Arcanum XI ‫כ‬ 224
Arcanum XII ‫ל‬ 260
Arcanum XIII ‫מ‬ 275
Arcanum XIV ‫נ‬ 296
Arcanum XV ‫ס‬ 304
Arcanum XVI ‫ע‬ 337
Arcanum XVII ‫פ‬ 351
Arcanum XVIII ‫צ‬ 360
Arcanum XIX ‫ק‬ 375
Arcanum XX ‫ר‬ 387
Arcanum XXI ‫ש‬ 395
Arcanum XXII ‫ת‬ 410
Appendix 423
Appendix to Arcanum XVII 424
The Symbolic Degrees of Masonry 455
B.M.Pryamin-Morozov -

Afterword 467
 Tarot Majors, G.O. Mebes

In Memoriam

At St. Petersburg in Russia, around fifty years ago, there was a group of
esotericists who composed the flower of the capital's "intelligentsia".

At the head of the whole school was the professor of special

mathematics from the Pages College in St. Petersburg, Professor
Gregory Ottonovitch Mebes.

Now, it was after the Bolshevik revolution (which, it goes without

saying, put an end to this group and its work) that the one who is writing
these lines met some members of this dispersed group and became
friends with them. The friendship being true, i.e. based on unreserved
mutual confidence, they (who belonged to the so-called "Rosicrucian"
elite of the group) transmitted all that they knew and recounted
everything concerning the work of their group, including the crises and
painful experiences that they had undergone.

This was in 1920. It was then that the one who is writing these lines -
although he had already studied the masterly work by the engineer
Schmakov, Velikiye Arkany Taro ("The Major Arcana of the Tarot") and
the book on the Tarot by P.D. Ouspensky in 1917 - was struck to learn to
what degree collective work on the Tarot can be fruitful for study,
research, training and advancement in the esoteric domain. For the
whole work of the Martinist-Templar-Rosicrucian group was founded on
the Tarot.

Although the teaching and experiences of this group of St Petersburg

esotericists lives now in the soul of the author of these letters only as a
general impulse received in his youth to penetrate the symbolism of the
tarot more deeply.

It is a matter, therefore...of putting a 'memorial wreath' on the non-

existent tomb (ie, non-existent here below) of the group of St Petersburg
esotericists from the beginning of this century.

Meditations on the Tarot, Letter XXI, The Fool

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 Tarot Majors, G.O. Mebes

About the Author

The collegiate adviser Baron Grigory Ottonovich Mebes was born in

Riga in 1868. After graduating in 1891 from the Physics and
Mathematics Faculty of St. Petersburg University, Mebes gave up his
career and devoted himself entirely to the study of “secret knowledge”.
In the 1904-1905 school year he taught physics and mathematics at the
Czarskoye Selo real school and the Nikolaev gymnasium, as well as
physics at the women’s school of the Ministry of Public Education; in
1906-1917 he taught mathematics in the Page Corps and Nikolaevsk
Cadet Corps. His first wife was Olga Yevgrafovna Nagornova, with
whom he broke in 1912, which did not prevent her from subsequently
playing a prominent role in Martinism.
The Martinist Lodge, which was a branch of the French Order of the
same name (the Kabbalistic Order of the Rose and the Cross), was
founded in Russia by the French occultist Gerard Encausse, known
under the pseudonym Papus. At the end of 1910, Mebes became the
Inspector General (Secretary) of the St. Petersburg branch of the Order,
and in 1911-1912 he read in St. Petersburg a lecture course on the
Encyclopedia of the Occult, which followed Papus’ theory in almost
everything. These lectures, published under the pseudonym of G.O.M.,
were very popular, as evidenced by dozens of memories and reviews.
In August 1912, Mebes tried to be free from the tutelage of the Paris
leaders, announcing the proclamation of the independence of the Russian
Martinists. The Apollonia lodge, headed by Mebes, (with the initiatory
name of Butator1) was declared a great lodge (Grand Council of Russia).
The situation was cleared up by the end of 1912, after the official report
by Mebes, Papus’s report about his break with him and the
establishment in Russia of an independent order called “Autonomous
discharge of Martinism of Russian obedience” led by the “Invisible
Master”.
In 1913, St. Petersburg Martinists, led by Mebes, formed a special
autonomous chain of O.M.O.R. with a pronounced Templar colour. In
1916, it was transformed into the “Order of Martinist Eastern
Obedience”. It was ruled by the Order of the “Invisible Master” or the
Father (G.O.M.). His official representative was the student of Mebes,
Inspector-General I.K. Antoshevsky (the initiatory name Hyacinthus). In
the summer of 1917, when I.K. Antoshevsky was killed, he was replaced
in this position by another student of Mebes – V.V. Bogdanov. The

1
The Guardian Angel Butator is the regent of calculations, who serves in the third hour of the
day and is invoked during ritual magic
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 Tarot Majors, G.O. Mebes

Chapter of the Order consisted of seven persons and the official print
organ of the Russian Martinists was the occult magazine, Isis.
In 1918-1921 Mebes gave lectures on the Book of Zohar in Petrograd,
and his second wife Maria Nesterova lectured on the history of religion.
The declarative goal that the Russian Martinists had set for themselves
was, on the one hand, to prepare the one going for the Highest Initiation
(maximum programme), and on the other, to expand the esoteric
secondary education of those who were not recognised as capable of the
Highest Initiation. In addition to purely theoretical studies, practical
work was carried out in the “school” to develop its capabilities for
telepathy and psychometry among its members.
Aleksandr M Aseev2, the publisher of the book “Occultism and Yoga”,
owns the version according to which all three main branches of the
Russian initiating movement – Freemasonry, Martinism and
Rosicrucianism – existed in the form of separate and independent
organisations. However, they were led by the same person – G.O.
Mebes. Needless to say, all three orders worked in close contact with
each other and often included the same persons. Martinist and
Rosicrucian lodges were located, according to A.M. Aseev, in the
apartment of Mebes in the Sands and were beautifully furnished. The
text commentator on A.M. Aseev, N. A. Bogomolov, notes, however,
that in fact, Mebes’ apartment was not in Sand, but at the corner of
Greek Avenue and 5th Rozhdestvenskaya Street. This is in fact the case,
but Bogomolov does not take into account the fact that in 1917 – early
1918, Mebes really lived for some time in Peski, where he was a teacher.
All this indicates that A.M. Aseev was very, very well informed, and his
information can, therefore, be trusted, although his conclusion that
Mebes was supposedly the unofficial leader of the initiating movement
in Russia, not only at the beginning of the century, but also in the 1920s,
is a clear exaggeration. Another thing is that the Masons, the Martinists,
and the Rosicrucians, in essence, are links of one chain – they have
always worked and work in close contact with each other. Their
secretive activity in Russia, and then in the USSR, continued until 1925,
when the OGPU became seriously interested in their groups and work.
In the middle of 1928, the Leningradskaya Pravda and Krasnaya Zvezda
newspapers reported that “an investigation into the Great Lodge Astraea,
led by 70-year-old Black Occultist Mebes, was opened by KGB agents”.

2
Aleksandr M. Aseev (1902-1993) was a medical doctor by profession who founded the
annual publication, Occultism and Yoga. Fascinated by Agni Yoga, AM Aseev struck up a
correspondence with Nicholas Roerich in 1931 and went onto launch the publication,
Occultism and Yoga, in Belgrade, guided by Helene Roerich, wife of Nicholas. The published
correspondence between Aseev and Roerich was the highlight of the journal.
3
 Tarot Majors, G.O. Mebes

The investigation, as claimed by the newspaper, soon showed that

Leningrad had “quite serious Masonic lodges with several dozen
members, with Masters, with dedication, oaths signed by blood, statute,
foreign correspondence and membership fees.”
According to AM Aseev, Grigori Ottonovich Mebes died in Ust-Sysolsk
in 19303.

Notes

In his book, The History of Esotericism in Soviet Russia in the 1920s

and 1930s, Konstantin Burmistrov examines the hazardous trajectory of
the underground current of occultism and the influence of Maria
Nesterova, who in 1916 founded the Society for the Revival of Pure
Knowledge and the Martinezist Order.
Another society, the Promethean Group, was established with the
purpose of forming an inner circle of G.O.M.’s initiates within the
Society, to whom lectures were delivered in secret during the Civil War
years (1919-1922). G.O.M. focused on Kabbalah, Nesterova on the
history of religion4 and Boris Astromov5 led courses on the history of
Freemasonry.
Astromov was appointed Inspector General of the Martinist Order by
G.O.M. but the two fell into conflict and Astromov founded rival
groups, Autonomous Russian Freemasons and the Grand Lodge Astreia.
In 1925 he offered his services as an informant to the OGPU – the secret
police of the Bolshevik regime - and proceeded to betray his old friends.
The swathe of arrests which followed in 1926 became known as the
Case of the Leningrad Freemasons.
G.O.M. himself was arrested, accused of being a ‘Black Magician’ and
sent to a gulag on the White Sea islands where he is believed to have

3
Sources:
Aseev A.M. Ordinary orders: Freemasonry, Martinism and Rosicrucianism. Publ.
N.A.BoG.O.M.olova // Literary Review. M., 1998, №2.
Brachev V.S. Masons in Russia: from Peter I to the present day. SPb., 2000.
Magee against Stalin. Interfax Time, 08.26.1999.
Serkov A.I. History of Russian Freemasonry. 1845-1945 SPb., 1997.
Finkelstein K., a teacher of mathematics, physics, and French, GO Möbes
(kfinkelshteyn.narod.ru).
4
One wonders if Nesterova was the source of the fascinating treatise on ancient religions given
in the Eleventh Arcanum of the present publication.
5
1893 – 1941?
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 Tarot Majors, G.O. Mebes

died four years later6. With the bulk of his work destroyed by the OGPU
in the purges of those revolutionary years, the teachings of the great
Magus seemed destined to be all but lost in the mists of time7.
Thankfully, all was not really lost, for in the 1920s Russian esotericist,
Catarina Sreznewska-Zelenzeff, was making ready to leave Europe for
Brazil when her friend, Nina Rudnikoff – a disciple of G.O.M. who had
also escaped Russia – gave Catarina the notes she had written on the
Minor Arcana of the Tarot, as taught by G.O.M. to the Promethean
Group. Nina asked Catarina to transfer the legacy to someone
‘dignified’ and capable of preserving the lessons for humanity.
Years later, while she was living in Brazil, Catarina met Nadia
Iellatchitch, widow of Gabriel, who had also been a great friend and
disciple of G.O.M. The ladies decided to live together and invited
Nadia’s brother, Alexandre Nikitin-Nevelskoy – another follower of the
White Russian mage – to stay with them. With his profound knowledge
of esotericism, Alexandre proved to be the ‘someone dignified’ who
would translate the Minor Arcana into Portuguese.
In later years copies of the Encyclopedia of Occultism found their way
to Brazil where they were translated by Marta Pecher, who with help
translated them into Portuguese under the title Os arcanos Maiores do
Tarô. This book was edited by Editora Pensamento, in Brazil.

6
This date might possibly be disputed, as other sources have claimed that G.O.M. died four
years later.
7
The notes of his lectures on the Sefer ha-Zohar given to his closest disciples were amongst
those confiscated. Only the text of twelve lectures he gave in 1921 appears to have survived
and these were published recently in Russian.
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 Tarot Majors, G.O. Mebes

About this book

We have included at the start of each Arcanum an illustration created by

Papus (Gérard Analect Vincent Encausse, 1865 - 1916) of the relevant
Tarot Trumps. These were first published in Paris, 1909, in his book, Le
Tarot Divinatoire, Le Livre des Mystères et les Mystères du Livre (The
Divinatory Tarot, The Book of the Mysteries and the Mysteries of the
Book). These images have been made available to the public domain and
can also be found online at: http://insightfulvision.com
Sketched variations of these images were included in the original
Russian edition of G.O.M.’s Tarot Majors course. The High Priestess of
these images, all of which are coloured with a distinctive blue tone, has
been enhanced to make the cover of this book, whilst the fourteenth
Arcanum, Temperance, is depicted on the back in honour of our
Guardian Angel. We have also found space within the text to include
each of these sketches somewhere alongside their relevant Arcana.
Following each illustration page are reflections on the Arcana as they
have been given by the occult teachers Eliphas Lévi (Alphonse Louis
Constant, 1810 - 1875), Paul Christian (Jean-Baptiste Pitois, 1811-1877)
and P.D. Ouspensky (Pyotr Demianovich Ouspenskii, 1878 – 1947).
These were not part of GOM’s original book. We have included them in
an attempt to help synthesise and draw closer together various threads of
the tradition, and to provide material for reflection which we hope will
complement the core work of G.O.M.
This is not an arbitrary whim, for the attainment of ‘Transcendental
Synthesis’ is a key hermetic task and readers will see many instances of
G.O.M. using the term ‘synthetic’ in his own lecture material. This urge
to ‘synthesise’ is partly inspired by the idea that there is a ‘Perennial
Philosophy’, wherein all of the world's religious traditions are seen as
tapping a single fountain of metaphysical truth from which all
knowledge – both esoteric and exoteric – originates and has sprung
from. This idea of a unified font of wisdom was inspired by the neo-
Platonism of the Renaissance and its concept of the ‘One’ source of
divinity. The integration of Hermeticism with Hellenistic and Judeo-
Christian thought was carried out in the 15th Century by Marsilio Ficino
(1433-1499), amongst others.
Alongside the symbolic representations of Papus, gems of insight from
Lévi have been included to acknowledge his status as a founding father
of the Western Mystery tradition. Based upon the 16th century treatise,
Christian Cabala, by Athanasius Kircher, Lévi’s Dogme et Rituel de la
Haute Magie (Dogma and Ritual of Transcendental Magic, 1856)
became the gold standard of European esoteric studies. Lévi associated
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 Tarot Majors, G.O. Mebes

each Tarot Trump with a letter of the Hebrew alphabet and integrated all
78 cards into the Kabbalistic Tree of Life. He emphasised the mysteries
of the Tetragrammaton, the four Hebrew letters which denote the name
of God spelled, ‫( י ה ו ה‬typically pronounced as ‘Adonay’ to shield the
sacred name from taint or abuse). Almost half a century later, Papus
also focused on this holy name as a word of power and used it as the
foundation for his system of Tarot correspondences. As readers shall see,
the hero of the present book, G.O.M, fully embraced this system and
used the same correspondences in his own course on the Tarot Majors.
Paul Christian was an almost exact contemporary of Lévi and their lives
show certain parallels. They both undertook serious monastic training
and were a hair’s breadth away from joining the priesthood before
becoming more fully absorbed in the occult studies which fascinated
them. Christian encountered Lévi in 1852 and became rising star
amongst other pupils and seekers, emerging as a leader of the occultists
who followed in the master’s wake. His survey of occult history and
practice, Historie de la Magie, du monde Surnaturel et de la fatalité à
travers les Temps et les Peuples (1870) (trs: History of Magic, the
Supernatural World and Fate, through Times and Peoples), was a
popular success in Paris society, which by this time was enthralled by
the occult. Christian gained some renown as an astrologer – a rare art at
that time in Paris - and developed his own system of Kabbalistic
Astrology, an area of study which was also of great interest to G.O.M.
In his excellent publication, Eliphas Lévi and the French Occult Revival,
Christopher McIntosh cites from Le Petit Homme rouge des Tuileries by
the clairvoyant Mlle Le Normand: “Only two men in Paris read the
future like an open book”. By these two she meant Lévi and Christian,
who she described respectively as a “solitary magus” and an “eagle in
his eyrie”.
As for the relevance of tarot symbolism to occultists, this is summed up
rather well in a little book published in 1913 by Ouspensky, who might
possibly have encountered G.O.M. during his time in St Petersburg:

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 symbolical or logical systems of the same sort as Ars Magna
by Raymond Lully8. 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,

8
Ramon Llull, Third Order of St Francis (c.1232, Palma, Majorca – c.1315, Palma, Majorca)
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 Tarot Majors, G.O. Mebes

there is no doubt whatever that it is the most complete code of Hermetic

symbolism we possess9.

There is no sound evidence that Ouspensky was an initiate of G.O.M.,

but he was clearly inspired by the same esoteric ferment which brewed
in St Petersburg at that time. By including some of his visions we have
hoped to ‘build a bridge’ and to keep the magic circle open, so to speak,
whilst encouraging readers to awaken into their own personal reflections
on the Arcana. Let nothing here be set in stone, rather let it be blown by
the wind, for:

The wind blows where it wills, and you hear the sound of it, but you do
not know whence it comes or whither it goes (John iii, 8).

Mouni Sadhu (Mieczyslaw Demetriusz Sudowski, 1897 – 1971), who

reproduced much of G.O.M’s work in the book, The Tarot - A
Contemporary Course on the Quintessence of Hermetic Occultism
(1962), claimed that Ouspensky’s early occult master was G.O.M., but
we cannot be sure of Mouni Sadhu’s reliability as a source. Ouspensky’s
Symbolism of the Tarot is in concord with the teachings of Eliphas Lévi,
Papus and G.O.M. in many respects, especially in its emphasis on
associations between the first four Arcana and the letters of the
Tetragrammaton. On the other hand, Ouspensky’s numerical ordering of
the Tarot Majors does not precisely match that of the others, which is a
significant difference. Would a close disciple of G.O.M. have got this
wrong or dared to contradict his numbering?
The companion notes we have included at the end of each Arcana are
primarily based upon the work of Valentin Tomberg (February 27, 1900
– February 24, 1973), whose Meditations on the Tarot (MotT) is
considered a masterwork of Christian Hermeticism. Indeed, it was more
than two decades of studying this sublime opus which inspired us to
learn more about the equally enigmatic schoolmaster, G.O.M. For more
about this, please see our Afterword, from page 470.

9
The Symbolism of the Tarot, 1913, St Petersburg.
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 Tarot Majors, G.O. Mebes

Foreword

Over the course of the past few years we have been working on this
original translation of G.O.M.’s masterwork, with the invaluable help of
Russian, Portuguese and Dutch friends and a lot of time spent with
online translation programmes.
Lacking the advanced polyglot skills of the masters whose titanic
footsteps we have attempted to faithfully follow, we have done the best
we can in accordance with our knowledge and abilities. Our sincere hope
with this work is that we shall both honour the memory of the Master
G.O.M. and answer the call made by Valentin Tomberg in the twentieth
Arcanum of Meditations on the Tarot, The Judgement, where he requests
the reader to become an unreserved “trustee of the task in question”,
should they consent to do so:

“If you consent, do all that you judge to be proper”

The task in question is to continue the theurgical work of this spiritual

stream and to develop ‘The Book’ which rests upon the lap of The High
Priestess.
At the time of writing it is almost exactly 100 years since the most
advanced teachings of G.O.M. were shared with Valentin Tomberg and
we have strongly sensed that the time has come for the rich threads of
the tradition they represent to be woven together.
We do not flatter ourselves that we are able to complete this monumental
task alone, especially given that such work involves ‘administering’ the
fruit of intellectual and spiritual attainment far superior to our own. We
can but try to make the way forward a little bit easier for anyone else
who is willing and able to take up this mantle in future.
We have spent over two decades studying the works of Tomberg and he
is more familiar to us than G.O.M., though both men are mysterious, as
esoteric masters are wont to be. Whilst there are significant differences
between their work, the bonds of history, culture and fraternal affection
which unite them are a joy to behold for those of us who love them.
By reinforcing the connection between these two occult masters we hope
to fortify the structure of the road that is to be walked by Christian
Hermeticists of the future, to smooth over points along the way where
much became unclear, either lost in time or confused by the dividing
roads taken by later path walkers.
Drinking afresh from the fountain of wisdom that is Meditations on the
Tarot, in the light of our later study of G.O.M., we were delighted to see
countless indicators of Tomberg’s early education in the secret
9
 Tarot Majors, G.O. Mebes

schoolrooms of St Petersburg and later in Estonia with G.O.M.’s

intimate disciples. A turn of phrase here and a specific point of teaching
there make clear the indelible impression left upon him by his teacher,
though they are subtle tributes, the product of a well-formed magical
memory and touching proof that we cannot help but remember who and
what we love.
It is with the help of Meditations on the Tarot that we came to
understand what many intuitively know, which is that memory is
integral to higher supernatural realms: We remember, we awaken, we
live, or we forget, we sleep and we die. Let us, then, be awakened to our
memories of the divine, that we may live in the House of the Lord; in the
green pastures and beside the still waters.
In addition to such sentiments, there is another important reason for our
recourse to Tomberg for assistance with the commentary on G.O.M.’s
Tarot Majors course. The latter was in some definite sense preparing his
students for one of the most tragic periods of history, in and around the
two World Wars, and his work is uncompromising. Such rigour also
reflects the requirements of masonic degrees, of which he was the grand
Master, and underscores the peculiar qualities of the Russian mind,
which is, we shall wager, intrinsically more psychic and suited to
occultism than most.
The inner sanctum of G.O.M.’s threefold study group was strictly
limited to carefully selected pupils who were deemed capable of a high
degree of initiation. This is strong meat, and it was brought into the
world during terrible – some might say apocalyptic - times in one of the
most dangerous possible environments on Earth, especially for a
practising magician.
With Tomberg’s later text, written from a place of comparative safety
(albeit following a long, hard journey) and with the benefit of much
wisdom, hindsight and Christian piety, we are given a highly refined
resolution to the 22 Major Arcana. These are introduced with a potent
reminder that is to be impressed upon the minds of all readers, that the
yoke should be easy and the burden light, as offered by the Master Jesus
via St Matthew’s Gospel, ch. 11 (28-30).
It is worth bearing in mind that not all those who digested the teachings
of G.O.M. went on to become dazzling luminaries of the universal faith,
as in the case of Tomberg, or devoted followers who were able to
safeguard their Master’s work for posterity, as in the case of Nina
Rudnikoff and Catarina Sreznewska-Zelenzeff. Certain members of the
G.O.M. circle went onto form occult groups of their own where some of
the practices they engaged in did, in our opinion, quite clearly cross the
line into black magical sorcery. You will read in the present volume

10
 Tarot Majors, G.O. Mebes

what the teacher had to say about black and white magic, dark and light
initiations.
In desperate times people are pushed to desperate measures, and there is
another, more somber reason, for the sense of urgency we feel towards
our present mission, as humanity is haunted once again by the dark
egrégore of communism and other forms of political extremism. In his
foreword to Russian Spirituality and other Essays, Mysteries of our
Time seen through the eyes of a Russian Esotericist, by Valentin
Tomberg, Robert Powell writes:

“Even though Soviet communism has died, its spirit lives on in a variety
of contemporary manifestations – for example in a draconian apparatus
for control over the populace on a scale now undreamt of in the Soviet
Union. Aided by modern technology, it is more possible than ever for
‘big brother’ to keep a large portion of humanity under constant
surveillance.”

Readers can decide for themselves how prescient these words -

published for the first time in 2010 – have turned out to be.
By reinforcing and helping to advance the most powerful means of
neutralising the radical communist egrégore, which is the collective
force of the Western Mystery Tradition and universal Christian devotion,
we might hold the balance of this egregious entity in check.
How does one render impotent a monstrous egrégore, the product of
millions of minds and souls, generated over the past 100 years, and how
might the two extreme poles of contending powers be neutralised?

For the answers, please read on.

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 Tarot Majors, G.O. Mebes

Preface to the Russian language book

This book is just a sketch of the panorama of the greatest wisdom

unfolding before us in the evenings that Master has dedicated to us.
We have conveyed the essence of the lectures correctly and accurately,
but, inevitably, I had to greatly reduce the live oral presentation and not
to cite examples from life that so vividly and witty illustrated the
thoughts and positions expressed. Therefore, it is necessary to meditate
upon the text very much in order to extract from it everything that was
transmitted at the lectures.
We have also included here all the elementary instructions regarding the
development of intuition and the power of realisation.
Whoever, having studied this encyclopedia, applies the instructions
contained within it, can fearlessly take up the special branches of those
stages of the Initiation into Occultism, which can be briefly
characterised by the terms "Kabbalistic, Magical and Hermetic cycles".
Perhaps next year it will be possible to print the contents of these special
initiation courses, since this does not contradict the duty of the Secret of
the Initiates [vow of secrecy]. In the meantime, the appearance of this
information would be premature and even harmful.
For the convenience of readers, it was possible to attach an article by
B.M. Pryamina-Morozova, referred to by the lecturer in the presentation
of the fourth Arcanum.
The course of the Encyclopedia that I publish is based upon the Tarot
Major Arcana. According to tradition, the Memphis priests, predicting
the fall of Egyptian civilization, concealed their knowledge in the form
of a deck that is now known by name and bequeathed to the profane,
knowing that through repetition such knowledge would achieve
posterity.
The most important factors in the life of an intelligent person are the
degree of consciousness of life and the degree of realisation power
granted to this person. The desire for the so-called "dedication" is the
pursuit of one or another element, and most often - both.
Initiation is based on the so-called. "Arcanum" and here it will be
appropriate to find out the difference in the meanings of the three terms:
secretum, arcanum, mysterium10.
Secretum is something that several people, on a whim, fantasy or for
some everyday reason, agreed to hide from others.

10
In MotT the same distinctions are set out and explained in detail towards the start of Letter I,
The Magician.
12
 Tarot Majors, G.O. Mebes

Arcanum is a mystery whose knowledge is indispensable for

understanding a certain group of facts, laws or principles. Without the
knowledge of the "Arcanum", nothing can be done in the moment the
need for such understanding arises. "Arcanum" is a mystery accessible
to a sufficiently diligent intelligence in this sphere. In its broad sense, the
term "Arcanum" includes all theoretical science, referring to any
practical activity in a given field.
Mysterium is a harmonious system of arcana and secrets, synthesised by
a certain school, as the basis of its worldview and the measure of its
activity.
Today, the term Arcanum is important to us. An arcanum can be
expressed orally, by writing a common language, or even, symbolised.
The ancient initiatory centres used the third form of arcana transmission
and recorded them symbolically. We can distinguish three types of
symbolism:

1. The symbolism of flowers and colours

2. The symbolism of geometric figures and paintings
3. The symbolism of numbers11

There has come to us the grandiose monument of the symbolism of the

Egyptian schools12 in which the three types of symbolic presentations
come together in a deck, better known as the Gypsy Tarot, or Tarot of
the Bohemians, and is composed of 78 cards/letters (22 + 56). These
letters represent the so-called Archangels and they consist of 22 Major
Arcana and 56 Minor Arcana.
So we will consider tarot as a scheme of the metaphysical worldview of
the ancient initiates. But each nation has its own worldview, namely, the
language of this nation. If, moreover, the people have a written
language, then the elements of the language are represented by its
alphabet.

11
The author of the Preface assigns these three symbolic systems to what he terms the ‘black
race’, ‘red race’ and ‘white race’, respectively.
12
The French theologian who was known as Court de Gebelin, was an early proponent of the
idea that tarot symbolism was derived from the Egyptian school, which he wrote about in his
book Le Monde Primitif (1773). According to Christopher McIntosh in Eliphas Lévi and the
French Occult Revival, Court de Geblin’s “subsequent career is interesting, for in about 1776
he became a freemason and president of a Paris lodge”. This Egyptian-Tarot thesis was picked
up by one, ‘Alliette, who became another prominent exponent of Tarot under an anagram of
this name by which he is better known: Etteilla. To the Egyptian idea he added the idea that 171
years after the flood, “seventeen magi had collaborated for four years to produce” this symbolic
system, originally conceived by Hermes Trismegistus, “which was therefore called the Book of
Thoth.” (ibid). McIntosh asserts that Etteilla is also significant in this field of study for
synthesising popular kabbala into the work.
13
 Tarot Majors, G.O. Mebes

Thus, our tarot will be a kind of initiatory alphabet. The general outline
of the illustration will be the outline of the language(s) of this alphabet;
details of the illustrations, their shades and colours, with our comments
on these signs. We will associate the 22 major arcana of tarot with the
hieroglyphs of the. Hebrew alphabet
The signs of this alphabet are assigned certain numerical values, in the
order in which we will consider them, bearing in mind the motto of the
White Race "all by number, measure, weight."
One way or another, a numerical representation is associated with each
card. These images, according to legend, were placed on the walls of
subterranean galleries, which the neophyte penetrated only after a series
of tests. Each letter, in one way or another, corresponds to a numerical
value. According to tradition. The Tarot is considered a scheme of the
worldview of Initiates of antiquity.
It is true that people have their own vision of the world expressed by
their language. If an individual makes use of writing, language elements
are also presented in the alphabet. Consequently, the Tarot can be
considered as an initiatory alphabet. The [trump] cards represent the
letters of this alphabet. The details of the cards and the shades of their
colours constitute symbolic details about those letters."

We proceed to the Arcana.

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