The Tarot of the Bohemians
Papus
Chapter 5
The Study Of The Four Colors
Supplied with these data, let us continue our study and apply the same principle to the other cards.
The laws which we have defined for the constitution of one colour, apply in the same way to the other three colours.
But when we consider the four colours of the Tarot, new deductions will be called forth. We must remember that these four colours are: the Sceptre, the Cup, the Sword, and the Money or Pentacles.
- The Sceptre represents the Male or the Active.
- The Cup is the image of the Passive or Feminine.
- The Sword represents the union of the two by its crucial form.
- Lastly, the Pentacles represent the second He.
The authors who have philosophically studied the Tarot are all unanimous in asserting the analogy that exists between the tetragrammaton and the four colours. Guillaume Postel1, and Eliphas Levi2, have developed these studies with great results, and they show us the four letters of the tetragrammaton applied in the symbolism of every cultus.
We must pause one moment to notice the analogy between these letters and the symbols of the Christian religion.
- The Yod or Sceptre of the Tarot is represented by the episcopal crosier.
- The 1st He or Cup is represented by the Chalice.
- The Vau or Sword by the Cross, bearing the same form.
- The 2nd He or Pentacle by the Host, the transition from the natural to the Supernatural world.
The series which we have studied in one colour is defined equally strictly in the four colours regarded as a whole, thus-
A Comprehensive Glance Over The Minor Arcana.
If we look back a little, we can easily judge the road we have traversed.
The four colors considered in globo have shown us the application of the law Yod-he-vau-he.
But the same law is reproduced in each of the colours taken separately.
The four figures represent Yod-he-vau-he;
The four series of numbers also.
Let us then arrange all the cards according to their affinities, and we shall obtain the following results-
| The 4 Kings | Yod |
| The 4 Aces | |
| The 4 Fours | |
| The 4 Sevens |
| The 4 Queens | He |
| The 4 Twos | |
| The 4 Fives | |
| The 4 Eights |
| The 4 Cavaliers | Vau |
| The 4 Threes | |
| The 4 Sixes | |
| The 4 Nines |
| The 4 Knaves | He |
| The 4 Tens |
If we wished to represent this arrangement by a synthetic diagram, we should place the sacred name in the center of a circle divided into four parts, which respectively correspond with each of the letters Yod-he-vau-he. In each of the quarters, the cards that are analogous to the letters of the tetragrammaton will radiate from the center. See the diagram on the page opposite.
The figures will hae the same connection with the colours as the numbers have with the figures.
The sequence of the figures is reproduced in the three worlds by the numbers; the same thing takes place in the sequence of the colours: Septre, Cup, Sword, Pentacles are reproduced in the figures.
- The Sceptre is the Yod of the 4 Kings.
- The Cup is the He of the 4 Queens.
- The Sword is the Vau of the 4 Knights.
- The Pentacles is the He of the 4 Knaves.
And just as each colour has a complete whole, formed of a body, of a soul, and of a mind or vital force, so the four colours form a complete whole thus composed:-
- The material body of the minor arcana:
- The 4 Knights
- The 4 sevens
- The 4 Eights
- The 4 Nines
- The vital body of the minor arcana:
- The 4 Queens
- The 4 Fours
- The 4 Fives
- The 4 Sixes
- The intellectual body:
- The 4 Kings
- The 4 Aces
- The 4 Twos
- The 4 Threes
- Reproductive Organs:
- The 4 Knaves
- The 4 Tens
We can only point out the very instructive affinities shown in these figures; they can be carried to a great length.
We give these indications in order to demonstrate the management of analogy, the method of the occult science, to which we have so frequently alluded in our preceding works.
We need only compare this last diagram, which represents the four colours, with the first, which depicted one only, to see at once that the law upon which these two diagrams are constructed is the same law by which the cells that form the human being group themselves to constitute organs, the organs group themselves to form members, and the grouping of the latter produces the individual3.
We have drawn the following conclusion from all that we have already stated -
The Pentacles, responding to the second He, indicates a transition.
Between what?
Between the minor and major arcana.
1. Clavis abscunditarum rerum.
2. Eliphas Levi, Dogme et Rituel de la Haute Magie.
3. See the Traite Elementaire de Science Occulte, chap. iii.