WHEEL OF LIFE

VERNAL EQUINOX

1937

Copyright 1937

by

Paul Foster Case

Published by

Tarota

P.O. Box 155

East Pasadena
Calif.

Made in U.S.A.
 THE WAY of Self Mastery

Every man is engaged in a ceaseless search for the secret of happiness. The great Sages who
have found that secret are agreed that it can be known only to those who have achieved complete
mastery of self.

TAROTA has but one aim – to show earnest seekers that way to attain that mastery. This is done
in only logical way – through graded instruction. The following two courses will give you the
right start on your quest for happiness.

SEVEN STEPS IN PRACTICAL OCCULTISM

A course that tells you what to do to attain your goal.

TAROT FUNDAMENTALS.

Gives you the Keys to the portal of your Inner Self.

Correspondence courses are available to those who make contact with us direct.

TAROTA

P.O. Box 155 East Pasadena. Calif.

 CONTENTS

Tarota Announcements 4

PROLOCUTOR’S CHAIR 5

Detachment and Distortion in Relation to Money 20

Do You Do These Things? 25

MEDITATION 27

EDITORIAL 28

What are you Searching for? 35

“Death,” the Deliver 47

Twenty-five Good Books 52

The opinions of writers of signed articles are their own, and do not necessarily agree with those
of Tarota or the B.O.T.A.
 FORWARD

WHEEL OF LIFE is a published quarterly or oftener by TAROTA to disseminate reliable

information on occult matters of immediate concern to students of Tarot and allied subjects, as
taught by Paul Foster Case.

WHEEL OF LIFE

If you like the magazine yourself, write us why. If you would like an article on some particular
subject relevant to Tarot, send in your request. Perhaps we can comply. If your meditations bring
out points you think would be helpful to other students send them in. We will use them as we
can.

TAROTA ANNOUNCEMENTS

Tarot Fundamentals may be paid for month by month - $2.25 the first month, $1.25 each of
eleven succeeding months.

CALIFORNIA STUDENTS!

California sales tax should be added to the price of all new books ordered through TAROTA.

ALL STUDENTS!
PLEASE HELP US BY:

Making checks and money orders payable to TAROTA. Mr. Case is not always here. Putting
your address on each letter you write us.

Notifying us when you move.

Addressing business letters to TAROTA.

Our permanent mailing address:

P.O. Box 155

EAST PASADENA
CALIFORNIA.

The publisher also quotes Dion Fortune, who has written: “there is no legitimate reason that I
have ever been able to see for keeping these things secret. If they have any value as an aid to
spiritual development, and I believe they have the highest value, there can be no justification for
withholding them from the world.

This is true enough, so far as the essential teachings are concerned, but it is also true that
members of the Golden Dawn are obligate not to reveal their knowledge as being that which is
taught by the Golden Dawn, or in the specific forms uses by that society.

As one familiar with all the work of this Order, and charged with continuing its practical
demonstration in modified form, through the B.O.T.A., I feel that Frater Regardie takes a risk in
assuming the responsibility for the publication of these rituals and lectures.

Yet I recommend the careful study of these volumes to all who can afford to buy them. To
B.O.T.A. members, in particular, they will be of great interest as a compendium of information
difficult to find elsewhere.

B.O.T.A. is a direct of-shoot of the Golden Dawn, but its work has been purged of all the
dangerous and dubious magic incorporated into the Golden Dawn’s curriculum by the late S. L.
MacGregor Mathers, who was responsible for the ceremonials based on the skrying of Sir
Edward Kelly.

There is much in these Golden Dawn rituals and ceremonies that is of the greatest value; but
from the first grade to the last it is all visited by these dangerous elements taken from Dee and
Kelly. Furthermore, in many places, the practical working is not provided with adequate
safeguards, so that, to the present writer’s personal knowledge, an operator working with the
Golden Dawn rituals runs vary grave risks of breaking down his physical organism, or of
obsession by evil entities.

Frater Regardie has protested to your Prolocutor that he has worked all these ceremonies again
and again with no harmful results. Yet it seems to me that willingness to violate so solemn an
obligation as that taken by every neophyte of the Golden Dawn, and as that taken by every
Zealator Adeptus Minor, indicts a dangerous departure from normal standards. This, of course, is
only an opinion, and is not intended to reflect at all on the essential good intentions of Frater
Regardie. But it does seem to me that he advances, as excuses for breaking his obligations, what
should be classed as rationalizations, rather than as reasons.

Before entering this Golden dawn, Frater Regardie has been for some time secretary to the
notorious and unfortunate Aleister Crowley, who published partial exposures of the Golden
Dawn work in his magazine, The Equinox. The sad spectacle of Crowley’s later life might, it
seems, have deterred his former associate from taking a similar course.

What needs emphasis is that the publication of these books will by no means expose the real
esoteric teaching of the Rosae Rubae et Aurae Crucis. It is impossible to initiate oneself by
reading, or even by the practice of the most carefully described rituals. One might as well expect
to gain real knowledge of what it means to be married by reading the wedding ceremony in the
Book of Common Prayer.

The publication of this work means that much which has hitherto been kept secret is now brought
to light. Yet it should be remembered that a whole body of arcane knowledge, not yet suitable for
open dissemination, is being formulated in those more recently organized societies which have
made contact with the True and Invisible Order.
So long as those societies function as they should, they will be the true outer custodians of the
Western Tradition and its later developments. For occult science, like other forms of knowledge,
is always growing. Its more advanced researchers are always ahead of their times. Thus, while
things kept secret in the past are now brought into the open, there will be always, in any
generation, some tings that it is the part of wisdom to reserve for the use of persons who give
satisfactory evidence that they have established the right ethical foundations on which to erect a
superstructure of practical work.

When we speak of the Invisible Rosicrucian Order, we mean a company of men and women,
incarnate in physical bodies, and living in various parts of the world. This Company of Adepts
was responsible for the publication, in the early seventeenth century, of the original Rosicrucian
manifestos, Fama Fraternitatis and Confessio Fraternitatis.

At the time of their publication, few understood what these little books really meant, and the
same misunderstanding prevails to this day. But some readers are in a position to grasp the true
meaning, and these made contact with the Invisible Order, as others have done in every
generation since.

The True Order has many grades, from that of the person who is a Rosicrucian without knowing
it, to that of the great Adepts who rule and govern the Order itself, and supervise the various
societies which are its outer channels.

The Golden Dawn was, at one time, a channel for the Invisible Order. At present it appears to
have failed, and it present writer is persuaded that its failure is due in large measure to the
inclusion in its rites and curriculum of materials which were not only foreign to true
Rosicrucianism, but also actually opposed to the spirit and purposes of the true order.

Thus we are glad that these books are to be made available for occult students, and for two
reasons. Their publication will expose the true origins of much that is widely advertised as “the
only genuine” Rosicrucianism several organizations have been carrying on, during the last few
years, with no other basis, in the main, than what is provided by Aleister Crowley’s partial
exposure of the Golden Dawn. It looks as if Frater Ragardie’s books might do something to curb
the activities of these shameless plagiarists. Secondly, with the work available for students
everywhere, it will be possible to trace its sources, and where the Golden Dawn departs from the
old, true Western Tradition, point out how these foreign elements vitiate the whole scheme.

Every Chapter of the B.O.T.A. may well invest in a set of these books, which will be a mine of
valuable information for every member.

****

We are most happy to announce that the Societas Hermetica, under the direction of Carl F.
Propson, has taken the steps necessary to correct the misunderstandings which led to our caustic
comments in the preceding issue of this magazine.

The Societas Hermetica is now working under authority from the True and Invisible Order,
Rosae Rubae et Aurae Crucis, derived through the Builder of the Adytum.

Ability to take even harsh criticism in the right spirit, and willingness to make amends even for
well-intentioned mistakes are marks of the true aspirant to occult wisdom. We congratulated our
Frater, Carl F. Propson, for his evident possession of these indispensable requisites to success in
practical occultism.

****

“Magic is the book of all scholars. All that will learn must first learn Magic, be it a high or a
lowly art. Even the peasant in the field must go to magical school, if he would cultivate his field.

“Magic is the best theology, for in it true faith is both grounded and found. And he is a fool that
reviles it; for he know it not, and blasphemes against God and himself, and is more a juggler than
a theologian of understanding.

“… For it is godlike, and he is ungodlike, yea, devilish, according to the property of each
principle. In sum: Magic is the activity in the Will-spirit.” – From the Fifth Mystical Point, by
Jacob Boehme.

STARLIGHT

Dorothy Spring

THE PLANETS OF CIRCUMSTANCE

In these articles we are dealing with house position only. As mentioned with regard to Jupiter
and Saturn, the sign occupied by a planet, and the aspects to it will modify these house readings
as applied to any particular horoscope.

Mars and Venus are the two planets which relate most closely to everyday affairs. We shall
consider Mars first, and explain his influence in the mundane houses. In any chart, Mars shows
the first impulse – in what manner an individual starts things.

1st

Self-esteem is strong – this man is RIGHT, right or wrong. He always has an alibi for any
seeming error. He may madden you with his “have it your way, I’m right,” or he may actually
fight it out. He is very likely to assume an “I told you so” attitude if you fall after having used
your own plan instead of his advice. And be sure that he is lavish with advice, whether anybody
asks for it or not! All in all, a person with this placing of Mars is not one to choose for give-and-
take companionship. He’ll give, or he’ll take – and you’ll sit by and like it! To change his mood,
get him into action, physically or mentally, in a way that stirs up his sense of self-importance.
2nd

The first impulse here is to trace down the true worth of a thing, a person, or an idea. When Mars
is in this position in a mental chart, the native is likely to be extremely critical. He is uncannily
able to find the weak spot in whatever he is considering. In a more materialistic chart, this
position indicates a great interest in finances, and money comes and goes easily. When a mood
has possession of this man, take him out and let him but you orchids.

3rd

To one with Mars in this house, nothing is really ever satisfactory. In a weak chart it indicates
continual grumbling, and a critical attitude toward those in the environment, and toward living or
working conditions. In a well fortified chart this tendency toward dissatisfaction takes a positive
expression and an effort is made to affect some constructive change in the environment. The sign
in which Mars is placed will give a clue to the type of activity the individual will respond to.
This position is found often in the charts of creative artists. For them, their art affords an escape
into more felicitous realms.

4th

This position is indicative of one who “rules the roast.” Regardless of his seeming harmlessness
in other ways. He will force his will on those in the home sphere. There is his center. If you are a
women, and have this placing of Mars, take head – your men folk may seek more responsive
companionship if you do not curb your desire to be the outstanding figure. You can still be the
real force in your home, but learn to be TACTFUL and DIPLOMATIC. (You with Mars in
Cancer, make a not of this.)

5th

These people live in a world of make-believe. The fifth house shows where the personality
extends itself, where through “acting as if” it finally becomes more versatile. Do you remember
the play, “The Great Lover”? That character must have had Mars in the fifth house. Women with
this placing need to take care not to be too ardent in their affections. It is not unusual to see
women with Mars here who are perfectly convinced that every man they meet is in love with
them. The wish is truly father to the thought! Teachers and parents find a natural outlet for their
force of Mars in the fifth house. There extension of personality is achieved through the children
committed to their care.

6th

The people with Mars here fall into two broad general classes. Those who labor willingly and
with enthusiasm, and accomplish much, and those who are forever complaining about the kind of
work that falls to their lot. This latter type often develops some acute ailment of one kind or
another whenever there is a possibility of being forced to do something that brings no personal
recognition.
 DETACHMENT AND DISTORTION
IN RELATION TO MONEY

The fact is that mostly we never practice detachment at all unless deprived of what we want.
Then how nobly we try to detach ourselves! Then how strenuously we strive to live in the spirit
and remain aloof from the material! What a laugh for the temper! See him grin as he drops a
golden coin at our feet. Watching, does he see us pounce on it, and hug it to our breasts with
cries of exultation? Or does he see us shudder at the ring of it and flee or (with grin fading and a
dawning look of respect) does he see us calmly pick it up and carry it casually and detachedly as
the Fool his rose? Does the Fool conceal his rose in cold storage in order to preserve it? No, he
joyously shares its beauty and fragrance with the world, knowing the endless and abundant
supply of roses where that came from. He appreciates it. He does not abuse it nor fling it away.
He is its custodian, but dwells apart from it.

The white race has built up a thought-form around money that has made it the most important
thing in life. Of course in our financial system it is important. But we do not always realize to
what degree we make it a fetish (i.e. any object or special and unreasoning devotion.) We will
accept the time, care, and life blood of our friends, but let them offer a few paltry dollars, and see
our gesture of proud refusal. Does not that make the dollar the most important of all these? We
can have food, shelter, and comforts, and the promise of these in abundance, yet bargain out of a
few extra pennies someone barely able to earn a living – and what is more, shamelessly boast
about it. (See the tempter’s expression now!) we can have all these things and more, yet deprive
our brother of any of them by competition – by crowding him out. We make hideous the
exchange of an object and its cash equivalent (money value) by an air of suspicion and
graspingness that dishonors us and darkens the day of the one we buy from. We have abundance
hoarded away, yet impoverish our customers by overcharging them.

Then we take a few of the pennies thus saved or obtained and give them as charity to the very
ones we have impoverished – feeling a fine glow of virtue at such dispensing.

Money is a trust from God and we are his stewards. The spiritual worker never “gives to
charity.” He merely administers the money as guided by his Inner Voice. He is an instrument
through which the Real Giver works. He knows this, and is embarrassed at being thanked,
realizing where the gratitude is really due.

Proper administration in incumbent upon us, but thrift, as it is practiced, is a curse to the soul. It
is a pure menace. But so ingrained are the precepts and warnings to save, hoard, and be frugal,
that we have come to consider as a virtue what is in truth a very shame. One should blush rather
than brag about a purchase below its legitimate price. One should blush rather than brag at
selling above the legitimate price. Subtly the distortion reveals itself. It dwells in the kind and
generous as well as the miserly. A well-to-do man told with pride and a big laugh of stopping at
the vineyard of a poor man who peddled his grapes, and of how he persuaded him to give him
some bags of his produce; and yet that man had always had money had he and his family had a
tradition of “helping the poor.” A women of wealth noted for her generosity bragged about
buying a priceless antique form a poor country woman for three dollars, taking advantage of her
ignorance. It is a game, but a sorry one, and shrivels the heart.
Why don’t we ponder, and find the true adjustment and restore our souls by a grand new freeing
ourselves form this false idea of thrifty – purge ourselves of acquisitiveness, and apply only the
Higher Law to the management of our Father’s estate? Surely we cannot enter the Kingdom of
Heaven with even one little meanness in our luggage. – Elisabeth Hart.

Is “WORRY” a big Word in your vocabulary? Try replacing it with “CONCERN.”

DO YOU DO THESE THINGS?

Fill your letter paper with writing from edge to edge? If you do you are over-conscious of
financial limitations. TRY THE MAGIC OF WIDE MARGINS.

Do your long letters of one line overlap those of the next? If they do you feel harassed by the
small details of life which seem to allow you no time to do the things you enjoy. TRY THE
MAGIC OF WIDER SPACES.

Is you writing large and sprawling. If so you are please with yourself but not aiming your life.
TRY USING A TYPEWRITER, AND WATCH YOURSELF IMPROVE YOU EXPRESSION.

Does your writing slant up? Does it slant down? If either is habitual your mental tendency is
toward unbalance optimism or pessimism.

USE A RULED UNDER SHEET AND SEE YOUR REACTIONS TO LIFE BECOME MORE
STABLE.

“I” AND “YOU”

“I” and “you” are but the lattices,

in the niches of a lamp,
through which the One Light shines.
“I” and “you” are the veil
Between heaven and earth;
Lift this veil and you will see
No longer the bond of sects and creeds.

When “I” and “you” do not exist,

What is mosque, what is synagogue?
What is the Temple of Fire?

Sa’d ud din Mahmud Shabistari,

The Secret Rose Garden.

 THE DIVINE SPIRIT IN MAN SPEAKS TO THE INDIVIDUAL

“I AM,
Forms pass.
From me they go
And again they come to me.
Their retuning
Is what men call destruction.
Be not deceived thereby.
I tear down only to build anew.

Verily destruction is the foundation

Of existence,
And the tearing down thou seest
Is but the assembling of material
For a grander structure.”

The Book of Tokens, - Meditation on Peh.

Use the above as your DAILY MEDITATION for the next fortnight.

LIFE TECHNIQUES

One of the criticisms hurled at occultism and occultists, is that the former is merely a way of
escape, and that the latter are usually the world champions in the art of evading the real business
of life.

Genuine occultism, which seeks only to discover and use the reality hidden behind the veils of
appearance, does not merit this criticism. Yet it must be admitted that among the professed
occultists there is an enormous proportion of escapes artists.

Some escape into cosmogony, and devote most of their time to considering elaborate theories of
how what is came to be. Others escape into what they believe to be memories of past lives, and
compensate for the drab quality of their present existences by their supposed recollections of
former glories, upon which they rely for their hopes of a better future. Yet others take refuge in
ceremonial – churchly or magical – and get their feelings of work well done from the smooth
performance of ritual.

Then there are those for whom occultism is a transmogrified Puritanism composed almost
entirely of prohibitions against this or that form of enjoyment. Some cast out sex. Others pin
their hope of salvation on total abstinence from alcohol, or meat, or tobacco, or (if they have
Billiardists) garlic and onions.

Then there are the idealist, who are so pained by the world as it looks that they will never be
persuaded that the horrid spectacle they see is really caused their spiritual astigmatism. So they
image Utopias, and fall down and worship them without sin, inasmuch as there is nothing actual
corresponding to their dreams, whether in the heavens above, in the earth beneath or in the
waters under the earth.

In the first issue of this magazine we recommended Wake UP and Live. How many of you read
it, promised yourselves that you were going to do something about it, recommended it to your
friends, - and then laid it aside? An unkind questions? Very likely, but if it stings you once more
into wakefulness, it will not have been asked in vain. And if you really have done even part of
what you promised yourself last summer, that’s all the better.

And now come two more books, Dale Carnegie’s How to Win Friends and Influence People, and
Dr. Henry Link’s The Return to Religion. They should be read and lived together.

The Utopians and pseudo-idealist will tell you that it is interference with other people’s Karma if
you try to influence them. Bosh! If that be true, why did the Masters and H. P. B. spend so much
time writing their letters, founding the T. S. and getting Isis Unveiled and the Secret Doctrine
into print? Surely, they had hopes of making friends and influencing others to accept their
doctrines and live the way of life they preached! As did Jesus, and Buddha, and Moses, and St.
Paul, and all the company of teachers to whom the world owes its spiritual progress.

Others will say: “But Dale Carnegie is teaching people how to influence others so that they will
buy goods, or do something the influencer what’s to see accomplish.” True enough, but he is also
careful to point out that his methods are to be distinguished from high-pressure salesmanship in
one important particular. The high-pressure salesman gets people to buy what they do not want,
or what they cannot afford. The black magic of this, and of influencing people to do what is not
really for their best interests, fails in the long run because it violates the Golden Rule.

But Jesus never told anybody it is wrong to what the good things of this world. What he warned
against was the mistake of putting the things of this world first, and relegating the order of
heaven to a secondary position. He did not say, as the King James version of the New Testament
makes him seem to say, “Take no thought for the morrow.” What he did say was: “Be not
anxious as to the needs to tomorrow.” And the reason he gave was: “Your Father knows ye have
need of these things.”

To the rash young man he gave the counsel to sell all he had, because he knew the rich young
man was putting all his trust in material possessions. But he provided wine for a marriage feast,
and food for thousands, with no thought whatever that there is anything wrong in using spiritual
powers to produce practical physical results.

What Jesus taught, rightly understood, is a technique for making the spiritual power in man
available for the complete control of man’s circumstances. He stressed reliance upon the inner
power, and prescribed many practical methods for intensifying that reliance. But always, as a
direct consequence of seeking and finding these laws of the inner life that is called the kingdom
of heaven. Jesus emphatically and distinctly promised the full satisfaction of all outer
requirements.
Dale Carnegie and Dr. Link teach the same essential doctrine, They have both contributed
something of great and lasting value to the real aspirant to practical occult knowledge and
power.

Here, shouted from the house-tops, so to say, is a truly magical art of making manifest the
kingdom of heaven. Things kept secret for ages are made plain in these two books.

No Tarot student should be without them. Every Tarot student should begin at once to put their
simple, clear explanations of fundamental life techniques to the test of daily practice.

Tarot is intended to teach you the art of evoking the Inner Light. Books like How to Win Friends
and The Return to Religion will help you to learn how to let that Light shine before men.

How to Win Friends and Influence People, by Dale Carnegie. 337 pages, Simon and Schuster,
New York. $2.00

The Return to Religion, by Dr. hennery Link, Macmillian’s, New York. $1.75

ORDER YOUR COPIES THROUGH TAROTA

 WHAT ARE SEARCHING FOR?

A prominent scientist stated recently that man’s development as contrasted with that of the
animals shows three distinct qualities; courage, sympathy and curiosity. The meeting of
responsibility through years of toil and sacrifice shows true courage; a response like that to the
Red Cross appeal during the flood crisis proves that sympathy for our fellow man is real. The
mental attitude of a sincere student of occultism is one of the best examples of the highest quality
of curiosity – the ever burning desire to know more about the why and how of life.

What is the motive behind the constant search by large numbers of people interested in
metaphysics? Is it not these seekers feel incomplete, and are looking outside themselves for
something to supply the lack?

This urge drives beginners, sometimes into strange excesses. One of the marks of the tyro in
occultism is the delusion that reading books will supply his needs. Nearly every beginner reads
too much, and buys more volumes than he really needs, and many more than he can digest.

Another mark of the beginner is the desire for the marvelous, the notion that occultism has to do
with bizarre and unusual phenomena. This folly, in combination with the book hunger just
mentioned, makes a market for those mirific products of human fancy that are to be found on the
shelves of easy believers. In the Tarora library is a “nut shelf” filled with many such wondrous
tomes. Their authors, almost without exception, lay claim to exclusive possession of “spiritual”
wisdom – but hardly two writers agree, even as to general principles, and in the details of their
instruction there is hopeless confusion.

Going to lectures is well enough in its way, and in moderation; but we have known persons
afflicted with the lecture habit to attend one class in the morning, eat a hasty lunch, and go in the
afternoon to another class, at which most of the ideas of the morning speaker were totally
reversed. Nor is it uncommon for the more confirmed victims of “lectureitis” to finish off the
third session at night.

Again, the desire for completeness is responsible for the sad spectacle of supposedly intelligent
human beings sitting with eager eyes at the feet of some self-styled messenger of the gods,
looking up from the same avid express one sees in the eyes of a dog begging for a bone. Sooner
or later the glamour wears off. The emptiness of the teacher’s promises becomes only too
evident. The dream pictures conjured up by the silver tongued dealer in mental mirages fade out.
And – the seekers go to sit at the feet of some other master!

This would be funny, if it were not so pathetic. Laughable, if it were not so dangerous. The time
that is wasted by this misdirection of curiosity is enough for the work of turning the average
human being into an adept. The energy expended in these aimless wanderings is enough to take
one to the very highest goals attainable by man.

Most people seen to have to work through various groups. From ordinary orthodox religion to
Christian Science is a step taken by many. Then they go into Unity or some other version of New
Thought. Many dabble with the various phenomena of spiritualism. For some years applied
psychology was all the rage, through the orators in that field do not reap today the harvest they
did once.

Out of the mysterious East comes a procession of dark men in flowing robes, and yogis and
rishis have their day – and pass. Rosicrucianism, each brand labeled, “None genuine without this
signature,” offers the secrets of heaven and earth to eager joiners. A new Omar, surveying the
occult landscape today, would find his “two-and-seventy jarring sects” multiplied like the loaves
and fishes.

Fortunate the person who can mingle with all these different groups and yet retain his health,
emotional poise and good sense. Pity those who never escape the snares of illusion set for those
who continue to seek outside for the satisfaction of their hunger for completeness.

The Way to Freedom leads within. It is narrow, because it is a way of intense concentration. Its
first steps have to do within the elements of self-knowledge. A student who seeks first to
understand human personality has made a beginning in the right direction. He will develop
understanding of his own character and temperament through the study of astrology and by
means of psychological analysis. He will learn, if he has the advantage of honest guides, that the
completeness he seeks is not to be acquired, but rather to be made manifest.

This continual running after new wonders outside, this blind following of blind leaders, this mad
quest for the book or course of lessons that is to be the final revelation of the Supreme Mystery
has no end because it forever hunts in the wrong place. The majority of persons who call
themselves students of occultism, or who blandly declare, “I’ve been this Thought for twenty
years,” have never been able to demonstrate the least ability to differentiate between the teacher
who has true spiritual experience and the hoarder of mere entertainers and charlatans.

The find the goal of realization it is necessary to pass form knowledge to understanding. He who
wishes to make the most of his opportunity in this incarnation must learn that true illumination is
never bestowed upon us without effort, or through the mediation of some Master. It results form
a search directed toward the flaming Center of one’s own being.

Yet even that search will be of no value, unless one’s underlying purpose in this quest for light is
the heartfelt desire to shed that light on the darkened lives of others. This implies a fixed
intention to develop some real ability for practical service to others. To dedicate oneself, without
reservation, to helping others whenever and wherever possible, is the indispensable preliminary
to real success in practical occultism.

The light must be sought within, it does not shine elsewhere. But the enlightened life is always
the outgoing life, entering activity into the lives of others. No confirmed introvert is ever a
successful practical occultist. This is the paradox of the Secret Path which baffles many seekers
for completeness.

The work by which one gains true illumination is, to be sure, a method of introversion. What
must be avoided is making a habit of what is only a method. The method whereby one makes the
radiance of the Inner Light a power to transform circumstances and help his fellow men is one of
extroversion, but here, also, we are dealing only with a means, not with an end.

Tarot emphasize this in many ways. It puts the picture of Justice in the midst of the series, as if to
tell us that equilibrium is the great secret. It is as Light on the Path tells us:

“Seek out the way.

Seek the way by retreating within.
Seek the way by advancing boldly without.
Seek it not by any one road.”

Meditation is a most difficult and arduous practice for the average American. He approaches it
under a terrific handicap. Why? Because any genuine success in meditation is the consequence
of: 1) good health; 2) freedom from worry; 3) ability to dismiss the problems that occupy our
working hours; 4) stilling the sense perceptions; 5) ability to concentrate; 6) regular and
systematic practice; 7) willingness to accept one’s own place in the cosmic order.

All this means taking ourselves in hand and deliberately polarizing our whole lives toward the
great subject world within us. Meditation is the means whereby we may pierce the veil of surface
appearances, and find the reality hidden below and within the surface forms. And what must be
thoroughly understood by the aspirant to occult knowledge is that what seems to be a form
outside himself is really a mental image held within. This it is that holds the liberating
significance.

For this reason all the earlier stages of our work with Tarot and intended to transform the picture
printed on a card into a clear mental image imprinted indelibly upon the mind of the student.

The Tarot is the real tool of all occultists working according to the Western Tradition. From the
thirteenth century on it has been one of the main instruments employed in the training of pupils
of the Inner School.

Rejoice with me, brother, that you have had the good fortune to come in touch with Tarota, and
with the clear and practical application of Tarot to psychology that is the outstanding feature of
the texts issued by this outer agent of the Inner School.

Paul Foster Case has done the work of preparation. If you and I have the right attitude, the will-
to-service, can we rest content with taking what he has so lavishly given us? Ours is a debt that
can only be paid by doing everything in our power to interest others in this great undertaking. It
is not a debt we owe to Paul Case, the man. He has never sought to win the praise of others, nor
has he ever desired to be looked upon as a leader. It is to the Inner School whose agent he has
been and is that we owe our dept – a debt that is not to be reckoned in terms of money, a debt we
never can fully repay.

Tarot has brought enlightenment and understanding to you and me. It has shown us the Way to
Freedom. It has set our feet on the Path. It has made clear the inner significance of our own lives
and of the lives of our contemporaries. It has put in our hands a golden key that unlocks all the
treasure houses of Ageless Wisdom.
Let us, then, do everything in our power to bring others to this knowledge. We are all agreed that
Tarot ought to be in the hands of thousands. Well, one way to make a beginning is to see that it
gets into the hands of the persons in our own circle of acquaintances and friends.

Yes, this is a call for Tarot missionaries. It is a call to the courageous. It is a call to those who are
aware that the way must be sought by advancing boldly without.

Talk to people. Write letters. Be willing to stand up for the faith that is in you. That faith, if you
have made any progress with Tarot at all, is founded on the bedrock of firsthand experiences.
Don’t wait for somebody else to take the initiative. Use your own initiative! Make up your mind
to this, and you will have any number of opportunities to perform this inestimable services for
you fellows who are stumbling through life, instead of making straight for their goals. – Charles
A. Mussy.
 “DEATH,” THE DELIVERER

By

The Rev. Newell K. Chamberlain

At sunset the dark Angel comes and stands behind the left shoulder of each mortal. Some there
be who fear his soft approach; some, who suffer much, great him with joy and gratitude as a
friend and as a benefactor. To some he comes with the swiftness of a might whirlwind, and to
others quietly in the soft silence of the night. But his coming is inevitable and sure, and when his
voice calls out one may resist its power.

At sunset the dark Angle comes and takes the hand of those whom he delivers from their prison
house of flesh, and at his firm, yet tender touch even those who fear him feel their terror flee; and
when he has led them to the other side they see that he is not, in truth, a dark Angel but is an
Angel of Light – and behold, the sun is not setting, but riseth.

We may know this by the evidence of many little things, for the dark Angel is with us throughout
all our lives, a kindly benefactor and the very means of preserving us; yet often he wears a
terrible mask. His other name is “CHANGE,” and wherever change occurs, wherever form is
dissolved, there he is, and it is his magic touch that brings the change about.

Sometimes he comes as the great examiner, testing us in the fires of agony; but these same fires
but away he dross and leave the pure gold in the crucible of our souls. Again he comes as the
great surgeon, cutting out some diseased and festering part: soul or body, but his is the quick and
merciful stroke. Sometimes he comes as a thief in the night and takes away our most dearly
beloved possessions, human and otherwise, but thus he teaches that all true value is within
ourselves, never in the possession of another person or object. Often he comes as a friend and
leads us out of our dark caves of our ignorance and reveals to us again the sunlight and the bird
songs which we had forgotten.

We pray to the Father, “Give us this day our daily bread.” Only by the dissolution of the form of
that bread may the life energy within it be released to us as food. We may not take a step, think a
thought, or move a muscle but that the dark Angel changes the chemistry of our bodies to permit
the action. No progress of any kind is possible until the old forms are dissolved, and wherever
the old order changes, giving place to the new, the dark Angel presides and blesses.

We wrestle with him, fight with him or flee from him in terror, but when we know him and can
look upon his face with opened eyes, we perceive that he is beautiful. We thing of him as
terminating, but he is the germ in the seed which changes and unfolds and grows into a new
form, a greater and more glorious expression. He is sadness when winter comes, but he is the
song in our hears in the springtime. He is the luxuriant growth of summer, and he is the golden
fruition when the great wheel completes its revolution in harvest time again.

Thus it is that the patterns of his presence during our pilgrimage tell us that his final coming at
the close of our earth life can not be otherwise then beneficent. In all things which are touched
by his transforming power the life is not changed but only liberated which in the eternal
economy of nature the useless form which once described the limits of that life’s expression
returns in dissolution to nature’s treasure house.

At sunset the dark Angel comes and leads us through the gateway to a higher life of freedom. He
brings not terror, but healing in his wings; and as he comes to sings a lullaby more sweet than
earthly ears have ever heard before, and then – he gives his beloved sleep. And those who sleep
soon hear a voce which cries, “Sleepers awaken, for the new day is at hand.” And behold, the
Lord of Death has become the Lord of Life.

****

“All knowledge comes form the stars (the Universal Mind). Men do not invent or create ideas;
the ideas exist, and men are able to grasp them. If all professors of music in the world would die
in one day, heaven, being the original teacher of music, would not die, and it would teach other
persons this art.” – Paracelsus, trans. By Hartmann.

TWENTY-FIVE GOOD BOOKS

Nearly New

May of the titles listed below are out-of-print. All are interest to Tarot students. ONLY ONE
COPY of each is in stock, and we cannot undertake to secure other copies. It must needs be “first
come, first served.”

ADORERS OF DIONYSUS. Translation of the Bukcyhai of Euripides. With an original

Interpretation of the Myth of Kadmus. By James Morgan Pryse, author of the Apocalypse
Unsealed, 164 pp.

APOCALYPSE UNSEALED. An esoteric interpretation of the Book of Revelation, with new

translation, by James M. Pryse. Third Edition. $1.60.

THE APOSTOLIC GNOSIS, (Part 1). By Frederick Bligh Bond and T. S. Lea. Of special
interest to students interested in Greek Gematria. 127 pp. $1.00

ASTROLOGY, YOUR PLACE IN THE SUN by Evangeline Adams. 343 pp. $1.00

BHAGAVAD-GITA, translated by William Quan Judge. 133 pp. 35 cents.

BROTHERHOOD OF THE ROSY CROSS, by A. E. Waite. Of interest to all students of

Rosicrucian origins and history. 643 pp. $2.50.

COMTE DE GABALIS, by the Abbe de Villars. With a commentary containing many points of
interest to occultists. 352 pp. $1.00

CONJECTURA CABBALISTICA, by Henry More. London, 1653. 251 pp.

CREATIVE PROCESS IN THE INDIVIDUAL. By Judge Thomas Troward. One of the best of
this writer’s book. $1.00

CHALICE OF ECSTASY. An occult interpretation of Parsifal, by Frater Achad. 75 cents.

CRYSTAL VISION TRHOUGH CRYSTAL GAZING, by Frater Achad. 75 cents.

DEGREES OF THE ZODIAC SYMBOLIZED, by Alan Leo. 35 cents.

EGYPTIAN REVIVAL (THE), by Frater Achad. An autographed copy. Of particular interest to

students of magic and Qabalah. $1.00

GNOSIS OF THE MIND (THE), by G. R. S. Mead. 69 pp. 25 cents.

HOLY BIBLE. Pronouncing edition. Black leatherette. $1.00

HYMN OF JESUS (THE), a Gnostic fragment of great beauty. Translated, with comment, by G.
R. S. Mead. 25 cents.

INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY OF THE KABALAH (AN), by Wm. Wynn Westcott. A

brief, but valuable, outline of the main points of the Hebrew Wisdom. 67 pp. 75 cents.

KEY TO THE HEBREW EGYPTIAN PYRAMID EGYPT, by Joseph A. Seiss. $1.00

MYSTERY OF SPACE (THE), by Robert Browne. Studies in the Forth Dimension. $1.50

NATURE OF THE PHYSICAL WORLD (THE), A. S. Eddington. $2.00

NEW TESTAMENT, Interlinear Translation. Invaluable to students who need guide to the actual
Greek phrasing of the New Testament. $1.75.

PROPHETICAL, EDUCATIONAL AND PLAYING CARDS, by Mrs. John King Van

Rensselaer. Contains many interesting and valuable suggestions concerning Tarot symbolism,
and includes plates of compete Italian Tarot. $1.50

SECRET TRADITION IN ALCHEMY (THE), by A. E. Waite. We dissent from Mr. Wait’s

views but this book is of no small value to students of the Hermetic Art. $2.00

STANZAS OF DZYAN. The occult text from which H. P, B. developed THE SECRET
DOCTRINE. 25 cents.

These titles are duplicates from our library. All are in good condition. They well be sent post
paid.