lhe Tarot, on the other hand, being a book, is under Mercury, 
and the intelligence of each card is fundamentally Mercurial. Such 
symbols are therefore peculiarly proper to communicate thought. 
Ihey are not gross, like the geomantic daemons; but, as against 
this, they are unscrupulous in deceiving the diviner.1 
The Y i King is served by beings free from these defects. The 
intense purity of the symbols prevent them from being usurped 
by intelligences with an axe of their own to grind.2 
It is always essential lor the diviner to obtain absolute 
magical control over the intelligences of the System which 
lie adopts. He must not leave the smallest loop-hole for being 
tricked, befogged, or mocked. He must not allow them to use 
casuistry in the interprétation of his questions. It is a common 
knavery, especially in geomancy, to render an answer which is 
literally true, and yet deceives. For instance, one might ask 
whether some business transaction would be profitable, and find, 
after getting an affirmative answer, that it really referred to the 
other party to the affair! 
There is, on the surface, no difficulty at ail in getting replies. 
In fact, the process is mechanical; success is therefore assured, bar 
a stroke of apoplexy. But, even suppose we are safe from deceit, 
how can we know that the question has really been put to another 
mind, understood rightly, and answered from knowledge ? It is 
obviously possible to check one’s operations by clairvoyance, but 
this is rather like buying a safe to keep a brick in. Expérience is 
the only teacher. One acquires what one may almost calî a 
new sense. One feels in one’s self whether one is right or 
not. The diviner must develop this sense. It resembles the 
exquisite sensibility of touch which is found in the great billiard 
player whose fingers can estimate infinitésimal degrees of force, 
1. This does not mean that they are malignant. They hâve a proper 
pride in their office as Oracles of Truth; and they refuse to be profaned 
by the contamination of inferior and impure intelligences. A Magician 
whose research is fuily adapted to his Neschamah will hnd them lucid 
and reliable. 
2. Malicious or pranksome elementals instinctively avoid the austere 
sincerity of the Figures of Fu and King Wan. 
— 161 —