Secret enemies, who had been trusted as friends, embittered his life in a way that nothing could overcome. A long journey undertaken for the sake of forgetfulness was filled with annoyances and mishaps. Some brightness entered into it through the companionship of a charming woman, which might have resulted in a happy marriage had not the jealous spirit that controlled the young man’s career prevented. An early death is prognosticated.
Let us now consider the other method of fortune-telling, which was followed by Etteila, a celebrated French fortune-teller, who lived in Paris about one hundred years since, who wielded a vast influence over his compatriots, who firmly believed, as, indeed, he did himself, that he had discovered the key to the Book of Thoth Hermes Trismegistus through an old pack of Tarots that fell by chance into his hands.
It is said that Napoleon Bonaparte had great faith in the deductions and revelations of this ci-devant hairdresser’s apprentice, to whom Josephine presented him. The empress was an ignorant and credulous woman, owing to her education in the West Indian island of her birth, the society of which was corrupted by Negro superstitions of a most complicated and far-reaching character.
Etteila published a book called “Collection sur les Hautes Sciences” (1780). It included an essay on “The Sublime Book of Thoth” that is now very rare, but he saw what few others had seen, that Playing Cards were of Egyptian origin, although he failed entirely to trace their progress through the temples of Nebo and Thoth to the Mercury of the Romans, so, of course, never connected the pips with the emblems of Mercury or discovered that they originated from the divine commands given to the Israelites, as well as to the desire of primitive people to consult the Tablets of Fate that were inscribed by Nebo, the great god of Babylonia. Many of the statements and beliefs of Etteila would have doubtless been received with greater credence if these tokens had been pointed out. But Etteila declared that he had discovered the different subtle meanings connected with the Tarots, and that he had elucidated many of the points that had previously been obscure. He certainly obtained astonishing results when consulting the Tarots, or a set of cards that were probably invented by himself, and which are now rare. They were adorned with figures of men and women dressed in the fashion of his day, with numbers on them, but with no pip marks. They were printed on a yellow-tinted paper, and when issued were accompanied by a small book of rules for their use in divining.
Papus, in his “Tarots of the Bohemians,” having digested various works on the Gypsies, kabalism, and occultism, worked out many rules for divining with the Tarots. He places great reliance on magnetic currents, the position of the stars, and the signs of the zodiac, suggesting astrology, but he finds these symbols in the Tarots. He also gives value to the letters of the Hebrew alphabet in connection with the Atouts, but, after all, he declares that intuition plays a most important part when reading the Tarots.
As has been pointed out, the Book of Thoth, or the Tarot pack, is divided into two volumes, twenty-two leaves of which are called Atouts and bear symbolic figures more or less correctly described by the names written on them. The fifty-six leaves of the second volume are divided into four suits, namely: Cups, Swords, Rods, and Money, with four court cards to each suit: King, Queen, Knave, and Cavalier, followed by nine numbered cards headed by the Ace.
Papus (page 308) defines the meaning of the suits as follows:
Rods.—Enterprise, glory.
Cups.—Love, happiness.
Swords.—Hatred, misfortune.