Theos-Talk Archives (June 1995 Message tl00017)

Jerry Schueler and others interested,

Hi Jerry

I sent copies of your postings of May 31 and June 1 re Tarot to
Nick Tereshchenko who has returned to Paris.  He has sent me the
following and asked me to post it to you:

"Mouni SADDHU (whom I knew well) looked on Tarot as being,
amongst other things, a useful 'magical tool', following in this
the Russian occultist who was one of his Masters.  It is easy to
draw the 16 other 'Paths' between the Sephiroth; try it yourself.
It is Frater ACHAD, in one of his books of the Q.B.L.  trilogy,
who suggested their existence, and B.O.T.A.  in one of the
courses mentions them.  My ideas on the Hebrew alphabet followed
much later and seem to confirm the presence of 38 Paths which,
added to the 10 Sephiroth gives 48 -- the number of 'Laws' to
which according to Mister Gurdjieff, the Earth is subjected,
which seem significant.  As well as 38 Major Arcana, I feel there
should be an additional Minor Arcana suit, attributed to
Ether/Spirit corresponding to the 5th Tattwa.  The completed
Tarot deck would thus have 108 cards (or leaves of the "Book of
Thoth"), another significant number, especially in India whence
the Tarot has possibly come via the Gypsies.  Recently I was told
a new book and deck 'The Transformational Tarot' has just been
published, having 27 Major and 73 Minor Arcana, 100 in all.  I
have not seen it yet, so can make no comment.  The 30 Arcana of
the 'Enochian Tarot', as published do not appear to have clear
correspondences to the Major Arcana of the Traditional Tarot or
of any of its legitimate variations; thus I am not sure that it
can legitimately claim to be a 'Tarot' (for the same reasons as
the so-called 'Tarot' of Kersaint is NOT a true Tarot), which
does not in any way deny its use and efficiency as an accurate
divination tool or/and probable usefulness for other purposes
also.  It must be clearly appreciated that, though undeniably it
is John DEE who did receive the elements of what is now called
'ENOCHIAN MAGIC', nevertheless neither he nor anyone else
employed it usefully until Samuel Liddell McGREGOR MATHERS licked
it into shape and properly taught it to the members of the Second
Order (the R.R.  & A.C.) of the HERMETIC ORDER OF THE GOLDEN
DAWN."

As Nick is not a subscriber to Theos-L and only began to look at
it when he was visiting me, he has asked me to post his address
in Paris in case you or anyone would care to correspond with him.
It is:

Nicolas Tereshchenko
87 rue Vercingetorix
75014 Paris
FRANCE

Cheers

Sy G.