A* to A MANUAL OF CARTOMANCY " Another mode of divination ... is illustrated by . The Cabalistic Calculations of Pythagoras . , which I came across in an interesting little book on Occult Divination by Grand Orient. The Wheel of Destiny is the first part of an interesting Oracle of Human Destiny. ... It is partly numerical, partly astrological, and wholly magical. The mysterious device . called The Golden Wheel of Fortune, ... is said to have been used by Cagliostro. An account of this Wheel is given by Grand Orient, who states that he selected it from an old Latin manuscript on Astrology." —Mr. J. Holt Schooling on Fortune-Telling by Cards—and Otherwise. THE GOLDEN WHEEL [Frontispiece. 67fc^iK. A MANUAL OF CARTOMANCY FORTUNE-TELLING AND OCCULT DIVINATION Including The Oracle of Human Destiny, Cagliostro's Mystic Alphabet of the Magi, The Golden Wheel of Fortune, The Art of Invoking Spirits in the Crystal, The Various Methods / of Divination By GRAND ORIENT FOURTH EDITION, REVISED AND ENLARGED WITH PLATES WILLIAM RIDER AND SON, LIMITED 164 Aldersgate St., London, E.C. 1909 - THE LiiixiAiiY BRIGHAM YOUNG INIVERS1T PROVO, UTAH PREFACE The curiosities of esoteric literature, separated from the grandeurs of esoteric philosophy, are not with- out their individual interest, and the byways of practical occultism are not without their importance. It is desirable that they should be rescued from the mutilations of charlatans and distinguished from the worthless impostures which are foisted on public credulity as genuine remains of the ancient and traditional science perpetuated by the traditional Kings of the East. This little work has been compiled for the use of those persons, so numerous at the present epoch of psychic inquiry, who are desirous to test their in- tuitional faculties by some of the innumerable divina- tory methods which were used in the past. They are offered at their own value to be tried by the results of experience, without putting forward any specific claim concerning them. A few matters more curious than useful have been introduced for the sake of variety, but the chief aim has been to collect what is simple, practical, supported by the kind of authority which can be expected in matters of this kind and following to a certain extent the accepted lines of procedure. Some of the materials are presented for the first time to the English reader, and these, in particular, have been gleaned from remote and com- paratively unknown sources. vi PREFACE It will be understood that the successful conduct of all psychic operations depends on the temporary predominance of the intuitional faculties in the Seer, and the errors and uncertainties which commonly characterize the results are referable to the disabilities, limitations and untrained condition of these faculties in the great majority of men. The student should not be discouraged by several initial failures ; intui- tive perception exists in all minds, and practice will ultimately develop it ; as it is otherwise a natural faculty, when once it has free play, it will perform its operations with the accuracy that characterizes all the intellectual powers. A word must be added on the abuse of divinatory methods. It has not been unusual in the past to invest them with an inherent virtue of their own ; this is an ignorant superstition. Whatever the pro- cess, whatever the instruments, they are simply aids to elicit clairvoyance, and to cast the Seer for the time being into a subjective or interior condition. It should be also remembered that any attempt to force the oracles, for the utterance of a favourable augury, makes void the whole operation. The applica- tion of the bias of an interested person in the direction of the voice of prophecy, obviously renders the prophecy abortive, and befools all who consult it. Grand Orient. CONTENTS PAGE Preface ........ v Introduction : The Lesser Secret Sciences and the Tradition therein ..... i The Oracle of Human Destiny ; or, The Nine Hundred Answers to the Thirty Life-Ques- tions of Pythagoras 7 The Mystic Alphabet of the Magi ... 87 The Golden Wheel of Fortune . .89 The Art of Invoking Spirits in the Crystal . 97 An Egyptian Method of Fortune-Telling . .108 The English Method of Fortune-Telling by Cards hi An Universal Oracle, giving Answers to all Questions 119 The Book of the Secret Word and the Higher Way to Fortune ...... 125 How to Find Lucky Numbers with Dice . 145 To Read a Person's Character by means of Kabalistic Calculations 147 The Mathematical Fortune-Teller ; or, How to Learn any Person's Age . .152 vii —— — viii CONTENTS PAGE Astrological Prediction as deduced from the Char- acter of the Sign of the Zodiac ascending at the Birth of the Individual : the Pro- gnostications from the Ruling Sign . .154 Judgments Drawn from the Moon's Age . .188 The Virtues and Influences of Precious Stones 192 Somb Unheard of Curiosities . .196 The Hours, Virtues and Colours of the Planets 200 The Art of Ruling by the Law of Grace . 203 Fatality of Days and Places, including Fatal Presages : Part I. —How to Determine the Lucky and Unlucky Days of any Month in the Year . 207 Part II. Further Miscellaneous Notes on the Observation of Times and Seasons . 212 The Arts of Divination : Part I. Some Miscellaneous Methods . 220 Part II. —A Supplementary Lexicon of the Art 229 Of Divination by Dreams 237 u \ INTRODUCTION THE LESSER SECRET SCIENCES AND THE TRADITION THEREIN It will be understood that this is scarcely the place for a methodical and extended discourse on the philo- sophical basis of occult art, and still less of mystical science ; but, though the object of the present com- pilation is in the main one of diversion, it will not be out of place to indicate quite briefly and simply that on one side it leans towards seriousness. As a fact, in the body of the work one or two illustrative examples are given of this more important phase. Speaking for the moment of only one general prin- ciple, it is certain that the intuitive faculties do exist in man, and they are often developed by the induction of a pathological condition, of which the most recog- nized instance is the hypnotic state. There is no need to say by what methods this state is brought about usually, or that the occasional result is trance, clairvoyance, vision at a distance, the conversion or translation of certain senses, and the other evidences that our human organism contains within itself the elements of many things which were once grouped conventionally under the generic term of Magical Power. 1 B 2 A MANUAL OF CARTOMANCY The induction of hypnotism is by means of artificial pretexts—that is to say, by the use of objects in which there is no resident virtue on the hypothesis of the art ; but old Ceremonial Magic proceeded by the use of pretexts in which an occult power was supposed to reside—as, for example, in talismans properly prepared, and duly charged and conse- crated. This is one illustration of the fact that there was a kind of secret priesthood in Magic, the suc- cession of which was from master to pupil of the tradition concerning magical elements. By this communication the pupil was ordained authoritatively within the sphere of the particular mystery. But as in the true ordination of the Divine Priesthood of religion there is one thing which, on the hypothesis, goes before the imposition of apostolical hands on the part of a bishop, and that is the vocation of the postulant, so in the priesthood of practical Magic there is presupposed an antecedent faculty which corresponds to vocation, and that is the existence in the subject of natural, intuitive, psychic and occult gifts. The principle is contained in a nutshell, because the true magician is like the poet—born and not made. But as priests are sometimes ordained who have no vocation, so the elements of Magic in the past were no doubt—and perhaps often—communicated to persons who did not possess the dotations. These made poor and incompetent magicians, as the others make for the most part indifferent or bad priests. There is another analogy in distinction between the two hierarchies, for that which is communicated to the priest—that he may in his turn communicate it to others—is Divine Grace through sacramental INTRODUCTION 3 channels, while that which was communicated to the magician was the tradition of occult power. For example, by the hypothesis of his art, he could call spirits, could compel their appearance and ensure their obedience to his commands. This art was divided generally into White and Black Magic, otherwise, Celestial and Infernal ; but in the records the line of demarcation is often exceedingly thin, and in the liturgical and ritual procedure which has come down to us, nearly everything is composite in character. The Key of Solomon is supposed to be White Magic, but it has the blood sacrifice which characterizes the Black Art. It is indifferently dangerous in both orders ; and as it is madness in the one case, so in the other it works upon a pre- posterous principle, being the old doctrine that there is a power resident in words, which are sacred by fact or imputation, and that these words, used with science, can exercise a species of compulsion on high orders of planetary spirits, and even the Holy Angels. Where the power did reside was in the psychic nature of the operator, trained and developed in accordance with a traditional knowledge ; and what he did encompass was at most a sporadic, uncertain and unproductive intercourse with beings in posses- sion only of rudimentary intelligence on the unseen side of life—those natures concerning which we cloak our ignorance under the names of Elemental and Elementary Spirits.