The Greater Arcana

General Book of the Tarot, by A. E. Thierens, [1930], at sacred-texts.com

p. 46

II

SIGNIFICANCE OF THE CARDS

THE GREATER ARCANA

HE significance of the cards--Greater as well as Lesser Arcana--as it has been delivered through the ages, is often remarkably accurate, as far as can be verified. In what way, however, it has come down to us, and what reasonable ground there may be for the given meanings, remain mysteries, not to be elucidated by the present author. By verification we mean theoretical consideration on the basis both of astrological systematics and of the practice of divination. The fact is, that the traditional significance is generally in accordance with the astrological explanation of the cards as we have given it here, though this explanation has not yet been offered by any author before, as far as we know. So we may conclude, that this key has been lost or has been hidden from those who kept the practice alive and left the system to us.

In the following pages we shall give the meaning of both Greater and Lesser Arcana after the astrological theory expounded by us, together with a short résumé of the traditional significance, the latter taken chiefly from Papus and from the renderings of Mr. Waite. For the sake of shortness and simplicity we shall mark our quotations with P for Papus, W for A. E. Waite, M for S. L. MacGregor Mathers.