THE TAROT OR DIVINATION CARDS
ment, according to the fall of the cards.
the power is merely lessened, not altered.
The Twentieth card
and is somewhat
though not a sympa-
But the reader
will easily see that this
idea does not apply to the final seven cards,
are mystic
reversed,
also a fateful one
is
after the character of the Fifteenth,
thetic third card.
When
143
all of
which
The card shows
Last Judgment," and is represented
and individual
in character.
what is called the "
by the usual Western idea of an Angel, while below we see
the graves opening and the dead rising. This card represents change of position, or
It will
if
reversed, a loss of position.
be noted that the change of position shown by the
normal card can be
for better or for
worse
;
here
is
the
resemblance to the Fifteenth card.
The
known
Twenty-first card, the last of the third series,
ticular
world of our own, which
as the Universe
;
but
it
is
does not refer to this paris
often carelessly called
the universe, but the entire Universe, Creation, everything
that
or
if
is
or can be.
It signifies great
and continuing
success,
reversed an inability to raise oneself above one's
present surroundings.
Apart from these three sets of seven cards there is always
an extra unnumbered card, known to-day as the Fool
it is not exactly like the Jester of an ordinary pack of cards,
but represents the " Extreme " in anything and everything,
but not in a good sense. It is somewhat typical of modern
life, all excitement and exaggeration.
When reversed it
represents the total neglect of our duties, negligence, care"
vanity— in fact, to use a modern word, " Swank
lessness,
in its worst form.
The Minor Arcana,
consisting of the four suits of fourteen
cards each, does not represent quite the
as are allotted to the
modern pack.
labour to commit to
memory
As
same series of ideas
it would be useless
another set of meanings, we