Introductory Notes for the Book "Bafomitras’ Grimoire of Arcana"

If you want to buy this book in English (and deck), write to dorijan.nuaj@gmail.com

The theme of this booklet is a special deck of thirty-six cards, each of which contains a specific mystery, has its own magical depth, and is accompanied by an exotic "fauna" of spirits and entities. They are divided into two groups: twenty-six Major Arcana and ten Minor Arcana. However, as I later observed, this structure needs to include a certain number of so-called mute arcana, which are not manifested but are encompassed by the descriptions given in this book. Honestly, I am not entirely sure of the full meaning of these cards or what exactly they represent. They are, for the most part, an expression of my visions and experiences, particularly during an intense period in my youth when I worked with an entity I named Amhazar. There is no particular intent or initiatory developmental story behind the order of the arcana; instead, they are simply numbered as they appeared.

These cards bear no relation to existing or traditional forms of tarot cards but are an expression of a different worldview. They can be understood as a pictorial catalog of magical forces or factors with which I have come into contact, from early childhood, through my student days, up to my middle age, in one way or another. To be more precise, some of the forces represented by the cards reached me through dreams. Some came through my magical teacher, Amhazar. Some of them I encountered when I was under the influence of psychoactive substances. Finally, some appeared suddenly and fatefully, without any prior warning or visible cause, abruptly and completely overwhelming my conscious mind. Regardless of how they reached me, these forces are interconnected. The cards are a list, a graphic-symbolic encyclopedia through which I have attempted to describe and basically interpret the hidden forces that have marked my life and my worldview. However, the purpose of Baphomitras' Grimoire of the Arcana is not exhausted by this occult geography. To make their purpose clearer, we need to shed light on why I named them as I did.

Let's start with the title itself. Baphomitras is the magical name I adopted during the shaping of the cards. This name is difficult to translate into conventional language, but in a deeper sense, I can formulate it as "founded in the Sun." Grimoire of the Arcana refers to the cards themselves and the accompanying book of this unique tarot, which is actually a magical and divinatory manual. In the subtitle of this manual, it reads: Tarot of the Dead Hand. Let me immediately dispel some doubts—the term "dead hand" has nothing to do with necromancy but clearly indicates that the consequences of magical work with these cards are intended to outlive the one who handles them. These consequences are far-reaching and permanent, and therefore one should not approach these arcana lightly. Their essential purpose is not divination or counseling, though they can be used that way, but only very conditionally, which excludes any commercial relationship. I do not recommend using these cards as a traditional tarot for predicting the future for clients in exchange for money. The forces they represent should not be disturbed by the trivialities of everyday life, nor even by more serious dilemmas related to higher aspirations. They respond well to an act of will. Like mindless courtesans, they are willing to mercilessly yield to anyone with a firm rod, but woe to the one who approaches them with stupidity, reservation, or doubt. With the help of the forces these cards relate to, a skilled and dedicated user will be able to create the causes of future consequences, regardless of the nature of those consequences or the motives with which they approach them. I am aware of the contradiction in these notes, but that is intentional.

Through these cards, we make contact with the forces and entities they represent. These forces are neither good nor evil, but they can become so. In a way, the arcana of the Dead Hand are tools of prophecy, but not in the sense of passive vision, rather of active action. With their help, the operator creates what they see, and even beyond that. So, who are these cards intended for? Certainly not for mediocrities or individuals with psychological problems or diagnoses. Also, I would like to thank my collaborator and co-author in this work, Dražen Pekušić, who visually interpreted my ideas, making a significant contribution to their shaping.

About the Book "The Ideology of Tarot"

A.O.S.

If you want to buy this book, write to dorijan.nuaj@gmail.com

The Ideology of Tarot is not a manual for laying out and interpreting card spreads. The book explores the ideas underlying the symbolism of tarot from a historical and esoteric perspective. It is rich with quotes from significant authors, insights, and a unique synthesis of meanings that have, over the centuries, transformed the pictorial esoteric jargon into today's occult and ideological tarot. The Ideology of Tarot represents a sort of compilation of my research and ideas about tarot, the occult, the esoteric, as well as reflections on the interweaving of these themes with the spirit of the times in which we live. The book is extensive, informative, but also quite speculative, so I believe it will be very interesting and instructive for readers, just as it was for me while working on it.

In this book, the perspectives of numerous authors, who at first glance seem to have nothing in common, are encountered and compared. The only thing they share is that their thoughts form the building blocks of the broad theoretical foundation of this book's author. In a way, these individuals also participated in writing this book, including Frances A. Yates, Aleister Crowley, Eliphas Levi, Manly P. Hall, Fulcanelli, Kenneth Grant, Arthur E. Waite, Marsilio Ficino, Pico della Mirandola, Giordano Bruno, Sallie Nichols, Ronald Decker, Michael Dummett, Nigel Jackson, Paul Huson, Helen Farley, Gershom Scholem, Isaac Luria, Carl Jung, Ioan Culianu, Mircea Eliade, Walter Leslie Wilmshurst, Thomas Moore, György Endre Szönyi, Gerald Massey, Albert Mackey, Julius Berkowski, Béla Hamvas, H.P. Lovecraft, William Stirling, Antoine Court de Gébelin, Carlos Castaneda, Rudolf Steiner, Adam McLean, Jean-Baptiste Alliette, Heinrich C. Agrippa, Papus, Oswald Wirth, E. Raymond Capt.

Someone once said that symbols should not be confined by meanings or restricted by explanations. Assigned meanings and explanations are like prisons for them. By attaching meanings and doctrinal or dogmatic interpretations, we close symbols off from understanding, effectively closing our minds to the symbols. We lock our intellect and intuition into constructs we have created ourselves or have taken from others, whether out of ignorance, laziness, enthusiasm, or lack of choice. Therefore, it is always useful to transcend given or assumed frameworks. However, this does not mean giving free rein to the imagination but rather opening ourselves to the possibility of different perspectives to deepen our understanding of the obvious. It is one thing to search for an answer to what the author of a work or symbolism intended to convey, and quite another to explore what various meanings the subject of our study might have. Some have developed particular doctrines of tarot on this latter point, often diverging from the initial premises, while others, due to a lack of understanding of these premises or disagreement with them, have completely altered the meaning and significance of the symbol system they have taken up. We don't have to accept anything, but it would be useful, if not enjoyable, to put ourselves in someone else's shoes, to view one thing from multiple angles, to develop arguments we fundamentally disagree with or that conflict with our values.

I first encountered the tarot at the age of nineteen when I acquired the Serbian edition of the "Thoth" deck in 1990. For me, that tarot and the accompanying "Book of Thoth" represented a true revelation and an unsolvable mystery, something I meticulously tried to study and practice, but without significant success. Compared to that symbolically and visually superior deck, other tarot decks available to me at that time seemed somehow poor and scant. I couldn't take them seriously next to such a wondrous masterpiece as the "Thoth" tarot. Crowley's deck appeared divine in my eyes, full of incredible images and meanings that I could barely grasp. As the years went by, my interests changed, and I set the "Thoth" tarot aside. As my knowledge grew and my interests became more focused, I eventually returned to my old fascination, this time much more prepared, mature, and determined to master the mystery. Thus began my unbroken journey toward the fullness of knowledge in areas I had long explored, with tarot representing one of the key themes.  

As a young man, I was interested in mythology, the history of religions, occultism, political and esoteric ideas, the philosophy of history, Kabbalah, and similar fields. I read many books, engaged in deep thought, made contacts with people of similar interests, and practiced certain ritualistic and meditative practices. My experience, discipline, and knowledge grew as my shelves filled with books by renowned authors and sages, philosophers, esotericists, thinkers, and historians. I wanted to understand the world's perspective from different angles, often exploring completely opposing authors. I didn't want to be confined to a single worldview that I might adopt from an authority; instead, I aimed to build my own views by gathering material from various sources. Driven by this feverish ambition, I resolved to master the basics of the tarot. I felt there was something valuable in it and that it was worth spending time uncovering the mystery of this famous system of symbols that had attracted many minds whose opinions I highly regarded. Now, having learned and experienced a great deal, my fascination hasn't faded, but my perspective on the subject has become more systematic, sober, and critical—not of the tarot itself, but of many of its authorities and ideologists. This book, therefore, represents an attempt to present my observations, often critical of the ideas and solutions of these authorities, in a thorough and understandable manner. All these tarot gods have embedded their worldviews into the versions and symbolism of the cards they either created or adopted, and have woven interpretations and explanations into them according to the doctrines they belonged to or embraced. Additionally, the historical development of ideas about the tarot and changes in its design represent an interesting indicator of the state of mind of what we call Western civilization from the 15th century to the present day.

Writing this book, I simultaneously learned a lot about tarot as well as about the philosophies and practices of many who have interpreted, designed, or preceded and inspired tarot. In this sense, writing this book represents a means of my own understanding. I carefully weighed every written word, striving to be as clear as possible, comparing sources, searching for meanings, researching literature, contemplating, and drawing certain conclusions. I devoted a lot of time to this, ensuring a thorough approach. I did not want to limit myself to just one type of interpretation or to recount doctrinal assumptions and commonplaces of various authors and schools of occultism. I endeavored to encompass and shape as much as possible, relying on various authors and experts while simultaneously opening up an alternative perspective based on a critical, comparative, and historical method. This book is not just about tarot but, above all, a specific philosophy of history and an examination of esoteric influences on the shaping of the historical process and the spirit of the times, which is reflected in the development of ideas about tarot, its ideology, and design. When I say "ideology of tarot," I have in mind two completely separate doctrines: an older one, which laid the foundation of tarot and whose keys were lost precisely when tarot was created, and a younger one that has been evolving since the Renaissance, especially changing in the 18th and 19th centuries, to become a well-rounded ideological entity in the 20th century, expressed in the so-called occult tarot.  

On personal energy and vampirism

During our interactions with many people, some of them, mostly unconsciously, due to various circumstances, often unnoticed, simply "capture" a certain amount of energy that is personally ours. Similarly, we also do this to others, even if we don't notice it. This is not about any "energy vampirism" but a simple fact of life. Recently, I posed a question in a conversation about ways to cleanse ourselves of the influences of others and to regain what we have lost. I believe that it is easier to return something to someone else, but to take back what is ours is more complex.

Some would say that energy circulates, it is renewed, but there are different types of energy. Some of them do not renew, and some tend to inertia. Also, other people's energy can contaminate us in some way, just as our energy can contaminate another person. Reclaiming what has been taken from us can happen spontaneously, but it can also be prompted by intention, or certain methods. One of my friends claims that our stolen energy is already absorbed into another person's aura and cannot be retrieved, and even if it were possible, why would anyone do it? Allegedly, that would mean that we behave vampirically. I completely disagree with my friend on this. It is always necessary to reclaim what is ours, and what is "absorbed" is often found, so to speak, at a shallow level, so it is not difficult to "peel it off" and retrieve it.

In terms of energy, human beings are like suitcases with stickers. Some people are so "covered" in other people's energy and exhausted by their demands that they eventually stop giving signs of life. It is true that our energy is renewed, but over time we become increasingly deficient because if that were not the case, we would be eternal and would not age. My question in this sense was about ways to reclaim personal energy that is captured by others. We must take back our energy because it is still ours. Why do I emphasize this? Because that small amount of energy that has been alienated from us is a kind of conduit that can serve for further drainage towards another person. To make this clear, it is necessary to awaken the perception of observing energy flows.

So all you need to do is 1) become aware of the exact moment when that person took "something" from you; 2) create an energetic outline of that person in your mind where you will find your "property", and 3) using your hands-breath-imagination, pull out your threads from that person and pour them into yourself, and attach back to that person whatever is theirs, if they have it."

Analogy and Magic

This text is taken from my book Ideology of the Tarot. 

If you want to buy this book, write to dorijan.nuaj@gmail.com

Many practitioners of modern esoteric teachings and practices have encountered the requirement to learn by heart and permanently memorize numerous tables of correspondences that connect various phenomena and symbols. This requirement was, and still is, present for students of some occult schools. Why is it necessary to know by heart the connections between certain symbols and phenomena to engage in occult and magical practices? Why is there this imperative of rote learning? In fact, it is not absolutely necessary, but people today have long since lost the ability to analogically connect phenomena and symbols because they are accustomed to thinking in concepts. These connections and attributions, are not something exact or scientifically established; they exist solely in the mind as schemes of analogy. They are landmarks of reason and the foundation of what is called the art of memory.

For example, those who consider astrology to be inaccurate and absurd, quite reasonably and logically, refute that the positions of planets have any influence on our lives. From that point of view, skeptics are entirely correct, but that is because they do not perceive the basic rule of the magical way of perceiving and thinking. Of course, stars and planets as physical bodies do not have that kind of influence, but there is a correspondence, an analogy between their movements and our fate, character, and life circumstances. So, there is an analogy that connects these phenomena, and that analogy does not exist objectively, in the sense of how we are accustomed today to consider something real, but exclusively in the mind of the one who deals with it. The same applies to tarot card readings, geomantic figures, or I Ching hexagrams. Objectively speaking, these are just some symbols with which someone is playing, but the main process of divination, interpretation, and forecasting takes place in the mind of the one who deals with it. It is something entirely subjective, yet the diviner often accurately guesses what has happened, what is, and predicts what will be from this position of subjectivity. A successful diviner actually reads from their own imagination. The positions of planets and stars in the sky, the way the cards are laid out, or the configuration of certain symbols serve as stimuli to the internal imaginative process, that is, the magical understanding of reality, and this understanding is archaic.

The Hungarian esotericist Béla Hamvas, in his book Scientia Sacra, states that the vision and thinking of historical man rest on logical oppositions. In contrast, the vision and thinking of archaic man are based on analogies. According to Hamvas, analogy means that between every phenomenon, event, personality, form, matter, and property, there is both a difference and a similarity. The fact that everything in the world is different, but still identical, everything is the same, yet this same thing appears in multiplicity, is a fact that in ancient times was called analogy. For Hamvas, in recognizing analogies, the decisive factor is not the logical activity of meaning, but rather a deeper and more elemental experience. Analogies are experienced by the inner sense. The historical man does not think in images but in meaningful oppositions and is completely blind compared to the archaic man. The intellectual activity of modern man is abstract and unreal. Everything similar is different, and everything different is similar, but in such a way that similarity never completely coincides, and difference never turns into complete opposition. Opposition is not a property of the world and not a property of reality, but of abstract meaning. Seeing in analogies is a sensitivity to similarities and differences. Finally, Hamvas concludes that in archaic times, human knowledge was not a conceptual construction of abstract properties, but rather personalized and genetic.

If someone wishes to engage in the occult in the 21st century, or simply wants to understand the world of ancient people, or desires to step out of certain contemporary frameworks, they must learn to use the mode of thinking inherent to that world. It's akin to reviving a kind of cognitive-atavistic understanding. Of course, it is difficult to achieve this completely, but learning the tables of correspondences and picturing and spatially imagining them is one of the initial steps in that direction. When we establish in our mind the relation Moon / silver / water / sound M / female / night / I Ching trigram Water / symbol of the bow / veil / cyclicity / left eye / dog / owl / dream, etc., and when we adopt that associative chain of similarities so that it begins to work automatically in our mind, that is a good starting point. We won't equate this chain, but we will learn how to connect something we perceive or encounter with the cosmos, ultimately with ourselves. Hence, I can take a silver coin and claim that it is the Moon, even though the coin in my hand obviously has no direct connection with the Earth's satellite, but the two objects share a common quality of conceptual significance. That is the nature of the magical link between them. Once the mind adopts a certain sequence of such connections, that sequence can endlessly develop and branch out. Ultimately, all phenomena are interconnected, but they are sufficiently different. It is up to our mind how we group the properties that connect or distinguish them in our catalog of the world.

Some have long correctly claimed that God is everywhere and in everything, but have nevertheless cried out that God cannot be in a statue, in stone, wood, or a picture. Yet God can very much be in a cloud, in a statue, in wood, in a picture, in a symbol, a letter, in a word, in the stars, ultimately in man himself. This view is essentially animistic, but it is precisely animism that embodies the ancient worldview which was more immediate than today's, founded during the historical process and the development of conceptual thinking at the expense of the visual and analogical. Those who said that God cannot be in something have, in their own minds, separated or cut that thing or phenomenon from the continuity of the unity of the world. In fact, they have closed themselves off to one possibility. In this sense, the continuous process of closing and separating has led us to the neo-barbaric state of today, where man does not respect nature, does not respect other people, does not respect himself, having separated the living from the non-living nature. 

Today, we have absurd attempts to reconnect living and non-living nature in some cyborgization process. Those who condemned the worship of stone statues of gods or stars feared that people would worship empty objects and not God, yet does worshipping a stone not mean discovering the divine in the stone? It was merely an expression of a turning point that occurred long before that. It was a radical reaction to the decadence of the previous religious-magical formulas, as the historical process meant moving away from the original unity of the world. The result of this is the abstract God, or God as a concept, which ultimately produced atheism as a negation, not only of that abstract God but also of the previous one that the appearance of the abstract God negated. In this sense, the tarot is a form of neo-animism, as its adherents often attribute more than archetypal significance to the images and symbols depicted. The tarot as a divinatory instrument is something that brings us into contact with the beyond, with the spirits of the tarot. For tarot initiates, the cards are alive. Why then should God not dwell in them? Moreover, tarot operators have meticulously engraved all the cards into their memory.

The Rise of Speculative

This text is taken from my book Ideology of the Tarot. 

If you want to buy this book, write to dorijan.nuaj@gmail.com

In a way, I dare say that the precursors of the modern tarot represent one of the expressions of the initiates' argot in Europe. The renowned tarotologist and occultist, Arthur Edward Waite, correctly identified the tarot as a pictorial language. In an age of literal interpretation and petty insistence on concrete explanations and simplification, argot as a symbolic and allegorical form of expression becomes increasingly distant from understanding. The works of its spirit, such as the tarot arcana, are becoming more incomprehensible and inaccessible, as the keys to their interpretation are lost amidst the general surge of vulgar, positivist, psychological, and pseudo-esoteric trends. In this spirit, I invite readers to reflect a bit on William Stirling's remarks in his book The Canon. According to Stirling, the emergence of various forms of mystical knowledge that were carefully concealed in past times is one of the most noticeable characteristics of the 17th and 18th centuries. However, as he emphasizes, it would be wrong to assume that these centuries were known for mysticism. On the contrary, the appearance of Rosicrucian, Hermetic, and Masonic societies was a sign of decadence and a forewarning of the extinction of esoteric traditions. As Stirling concludes, as long as the secret doctrines of Freemasonry were received as vital inspiration for the craft, no one heard anything about them. The mysteries, which in the past were spoken of only in secrecy and never written down, became poorly guarded and thus their power practically vanished. What Stirling wants to emphasize is that the appearance of Rosicrucian, Masonic, and Hermetic societies and their teachings in the 17th century is actually a sign of decadence, heralding the eventual disappearance of ancient esoteric traditions in Europe. The only evidence of this tradition's existence is found in buildings, monuments, images, symbols, alchemical manuscripts, and partially in the tarot.

The departure of operative and the rise of speculative also represent one of the signs of the decadence of esotericism in Europe and a change in the character of the spirit of the times. Operative masonry began to show signs of decline as early as the 15th century. In the 16th century, it was dealt a heavy blow in England by Henry VIII, who outlawed the Masonic guilds and confiscated their property. In line with the rigid stance of the Puritans, there was no longer a need for building monumental cathedrals laden with alchemical and pagan symbolism. The Puritans of Henry’s England stormed and vandalized monasteries and every material expression of what they treated as forms of idolatrous papist religion. In the rest of Europe, initiatory master guilds also saw a decline and disappearance as the spiritual climate changed.

Ioan Culianu, a student of the renowned historian of religion Mircea Eliade, wrote in Eros and Magic in the Renaissance that after the death of Giordano Bruno, the Puritan forces and their adversaries in Rome found a common enemy in the forms of imaginative abilities, which they regarded as idolatry and magical activity. Magical mental images—phantasms—were declared idols conceived by the inner sense. The Puritans went further by censoring art, relying on enlightening the faithful by teaching them to read and interpret the Bible correctly. The Catholic and Orthodox worlds relied significantly on images in the form of icons, frescoes, and statues, which, as objects of contemplation or worship, could provide believers with access to the world of symbols and a more immediate experience of the religious universe. As many people at the time were illiterate, these images and forms deepened their religious education. Puritanism rejected all this, relying on dry rationality in interpreting the biblical text. While this did lead to the spread of literacy, mental images as aids to learning, memory, and thinking became targets for elimination, as they were based on a pagan worldview that included Hermeticism, astrology, alchemy, and other occult sciences.

To keep pace with the advancing Reformation, the Catholic Church also turned to rationalization. Simultaneously, circumstances emerged that led to the disappearance of operative and the rise of speculative masonry, becoming evident at the beginning of the 18th century. This very transition from operative to speculative is an expression of decadence and the loss of the essential secrets of masonry. It is a significant question whether it was indeed a transition and developmental progression, as there was no longer a need for their master services, leading the brethren to turn to speculation, or if it represents a clear discontinuity. Additionally, the question arises whether there are any credible documents supporting the connection between 18th-century speculative masonry and their alleged ancient predecessors. Where exactly is the link, and what does it represent, between modern Freemasonry and the medieval and ancient masters and builders of magnificent sacred edifices?

The renowned American Masonic scholar Albert Mackey, in An Encyclopaedia of Freemasonry and Its Kindred Sciences, mentions that in 1480, Marsilio Ficino established the Platonic Academy under the sponsorship of Lorenzo de' Medici. Although this organization was neither formal nor secret, Mackey attributes a Masonic character to it, not only because the hall where its meetings were held was decorated with Masonic symbols but also for other reasons. Allegedly, Ficino's Academy was joined by (or supported by) honorary members and patrons of medieval Masonic fraternities who had left the building trade to devote themselves to the mystical aspect of their teachings. Mackey characterized this as the earliest instance of the separation of speculative from operative masonry. As Mackey defines the relationship between operative and speculative masonry, operative masonry represents the foundation upon which the doctrine of speculative masonry is built.

Let us further consult Walter Leslie Wilmshurst, who in his book The Meaning of Freemasonry states that since the Mysteries were suppressed in the 6th century, their tradition and teachings have continued in secrecy and various hiding places, and today's Masonic system should be attributed to this continuation. According to Wilmshurst, the modern Masonic system was assembled and designed several centuries ago as a basic expression of the old doctrine and initiation method by an anonymous group who were far more deeply acquainted with the ancient tradition and secret science than those who use their work today. Wilmshurst argues that Freemasonry today cannot identify its founding fathers and, as such, represents a kind of living monument about whose true nature and origin those who participate in it know little and can know little. So why does Freemasonry even exist? Wilmshurst says that the unknown founders of speculative Freemasonry brought to light a system of initiation as an experiment aimed at providing at least a small part of the public, living in an era of great darkness and materialism, with a document of the doctrine of regeneration. This doctrine taught by the Masonic system was intended to serve as a light to those capable of using this system. However, even Wilmshurst is not entirely sure of the truth of this theory, but he believes that the founders' intention was thwarted by subsequent events. In a short time, a Masonic organization of global dimensions with a large membership was created. This organization was inspired mainly by valuable ideals and, to a certain extent, engaged in philanthropy, but it completely overlooked its true and original purpose. According to Wilmshurst, this purpose was the promotion of the science of human regeneration. Due to this oversight, the Masonic organization was not aware that its great deeds in other directions were of little or no value.

In the spirit of what has been said, let us also pay attention to what the legendary Fulcanelli wrote about the Church of Our Lady in Paris in his book The Mystery of the Cathedrals. Among other things, he noted that the destruction caused by time to this magnificent building is nothing compared to the devastation wrought by human frenzy. Revolutions have left their mark on this ravaging. Vandalism, as an enemy of beauty, expressed its hatred through terrible mutilations, and even the restorers, no matter how well-intentioned, did not always know how to respect what the iconoclasts spared. Fulcanelli pointed out the fervent and vulgar fanaticism of the French revolutionaries, and more importantly, the ignorance of the restorers. Even if the pro-Masonic post-revolutionary government sincerely wanted to preserve the originality of this architectural masterpiece, is it not strange that those who claim to be in continuity with the ancient masters are unaware of the architectural and esoteric secrets of the famous cathedral? Fulcanelli, with regret, accuses the restorers and their superiors, who were shrouded in the darkness of ignorance, arrogance, and negligence by the spirit of modern times. They had, and still have, a poor attitude towards Gothic works. During the restoration of the Church of Our Lady after the revolutionary vandalism, the restorers were not guided to restore the destroyed details of the wall decorations (alchemical rebuses) as they were originally but wanted to do better! This directly showed that they could not do better and that they did not possess the secrets of the philosophers. Regarding the sloppy restoration work, Fulcanelli notes that this revised and supplemented edition of the cathedral’s decorations is certainly richer than the first, but the symbol is mutilated, the science is crippled, the key is lost, the esotericism extinguished. To paraphrase Fulcanelli, time crumbles, wears down, erodes the limestone, and clarity suffers, but the meaning remains. Then comes the restorer, the healer of stones; with a few chisel blows, he amputates, deforms, transforms the authentic ruin into an artificial creation and dazzling archaism, wounds and patches, separates and supplements, trims and falsifies in the name of Art, Form, or Symmetry, paying no heed to the creative thought. If France is ruled by the enlightened and speculative, then where does this astounding lack of respect and will towards the exceptional works of their own operative ancestors come from? It is no wonder then that this monumental cathedral burned in the 21st century.

Fulcanelli mentions a detail related to the immediate surrounding area of the Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris. There once stood a tall and slender stone statue, holding a book in one hand and a serpent in the other. This statue was part of a monumental fountain on which the following couplet could be read: "You who are thirsty, come here: if the source has accidentally dried up, the Goddess has gradually prepared the eternal water for you." Fulcanelli then reveals to us that this sacred monolith represented Febigenus, the son of Apollo, though some claimed it was Mercury or Asclepius. The monolith was removed from there in 1748 when the square around the Notre-Dame Cathedral was expanded. This event symbolically banished Apollo's son (or perhaps Mercury/Asclepius) from the "city of light," heralding the false light of the coming era when the old science would finally be forgotten and driven underground by the arrogant Enlightenment thinkers and illuminated revolutionaries. Furthermore, in 1781, Fulcanelli notes, the statue of Saint Christopher, erected in 1413, was also removed and shattered. It was as if someone was making way for Paris to be adorned with stolen Egyptian obelisks and symbols of a new esoteric fashion that identified itself with the spirit of ancient Egypt, forgetting that what was removed also traced its Egyptian origins through indirect lines. However, to the vulgar taste of a superficial and decadent era, this was not so evident. Fulcanelli concludes that the cathedral is a silent but picturesque celebration of the ancient Hermetic science for which, after all, it managed to preserve one of the old creators. Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris, as a "mutus liber" in stone, actually guards its alchemist, says Fulcanelli.

Fulcanelli pointed out that the frivolous 18th century was particularly hostile towards Gothic works. He observed that Renaissance artists were not capable of the effort equivalent to that of their predecessors, that they did not know medieval symbolism, and thus their works lacked esoteric depth. Unlike them, the medieval anonymous builders, creators of pure masterpieces, built for the sake of truth, for the affirmation of their ideal, for the dissemination and exaltation of their science. Renaissance artists, preoccupied with their personality and jealous of their value, built for the posterity of their name. Hence, according to Fulcanelli, the Middle Ages owe their magnificence to the originality of their creations. Gothic work is the triumph of the spirit, concludes Fulcanelli. It appeals to the heart, brain, and soul. Renaissance work appeals to the senses and is actually a glorification of matter.

New Trends in the Evolution of Tarot

This text is taken from my book Ideology of the Tarot. 

If you want to buy this book, write to dorijan.nuaj@gmail.com

Before we delve into the doctrine of the Minor Arcana, I would like to share some observations on the evolution of tarot. There is a clear tendency for tarot to undergo further transformation, less as a tool of occultism and more as an expression of certain exoteric ideological agendas and worldviews. Tarot is increasingly becoming a medium for propagating various ideas aimed at social and psychological transformation and indoctrination. The spirit of the times has gone to great lengths to strip tarot of its veil of mystery and the mute sublimity of its figures, which, like sphinxes, silently point to the great baggage that each card carries. Multiculturalism, feminism, environmentalism, holism, neopaganism, and globalized syncretism are expressions of this era, in comparison to which even the claims of 18th-century French enthusiasts about tarot as a codified source of cryptic wisdom from ancient Egypt, though naive in themselves, are expressions of a more substantive and focused worldview. The occult views on tarot, from the 18th century to Aleister Crowley, seem conservative and dogmatic when compared to the divergence of tarotism from the 1960s onwards, making the Marseille deck appear distant and mystical. The 15th-century decks are now so far removed from the spirit of our time that they can be compared to how Egyptian hieroglyphs appeared to European Egyptophiles before Champollion's discovery. Once, Britain and France, and more recently the USA, have increasingly become the stages for the new development of tarot forms that express current trends. In this sense, the cards are merely carriers of various speculative and ideologized messages.

Reformation and Imagination

This text is taken from my book Ideology of the Tarot. 

If you want to buy this book, write to dorijan.nuaj@gmail.com

Although altered by later interventions from occultists and trendsetters, the tarot still holds its secret and watches over its alchemist. It is evident that the fervor and fanaticism of revolutions and the Enlightenment did not suddenly emerge in 18th-century Europe but have their origins in the decadence of the Middle Ages and the tide of the Reformation. Ioan Culianu wrote in his book Eros and Magic in the Renaissance that modern Western civilization is a product of the Reformation in Europe. Although stripped of religious content, Luther’s and Calvin’s Reformation retained its conventions and rituals. On a theoretical level, Culianu states, the censorship of the imaginary resulted in the advent of modern exact science and technology. Practically, this led to the establishment of modern institutions. On a psychological level, according to Culianu, the consequence of this process is evident in the chronic neuroses of modern Westerners, caused by the entirely unilateral orientation of Reformation culture and its principled rejection of the imaginary. Based on these insights from Culianu, among others, we can conclude that the predominant civilization of today, which is modern Western, is actually a secularized form of the Reformation movement, its values, and mentality. The Reformation is its mother, not humanism and the Renaissance, whose basic assumptions it refuted in concert with the opposing Counter-Reformation forces of papal Rome. Catholics and Protestants unexpectedly found themselves in a natural alliance against the last glimmers of ancient times, embodied in figures and works such as Marsilio Ficino, Pico della Mirandola, Giordano Bruno, and others.

Culianu states that the revolutionary spirit and customs of the Reformation led to the destruction of Renaissance ideals. The Renaissance worldview perceived the entire universe as a spiritual organism where a constant movement of phantasmic messages occurred. The Renaissance inherited a magical and erotic view of the world because, as Culianu asserts, Eros itself belongs to the magical. The Reformation, according to Culianu, did something different. He explains that when the religious values of the Reformation lost all their effectiveness, its theoretical and practical opposition to the spirit of the Renaissance gained cultural and scientific interpretation. Since then, Western humanity has taken as fact that the imaginary and the real are two separate and distinct spheres. In this sense, magic became a form of absorption into fantasy as an escape from reality. The fate of Giordano Bruno is a clear indicator of the triumph of the Reformation's rationalist mentality. Regarding Bruno’s fate, Culianu said that he was far from being a man of the future misunderstood in his time. Bruno, as Culianu asserts, was misunderstood precisely because he belonged to a subtle past, too complex for the new, rationalist spirit. Bruno was a follower of those who inherited the most elusive secret of the phantasmic era – mnemonics and magic. Giordano Bruno is suitable to the modern mentality mainly because the obscurantism of his time burned him at the stake and because he defended Copernicus, linking heliocentrism with the idea of an infinite universe. Most of his work today is incomprehensible and incompatible with the mental schemas and standards of the current dominant thought.

The magical worldview is now unacceptable and incompatible with the prevailing intellectual and ideological order. In fact, even in Bruno's time and before, the magical worldview was deemed unacceptable and considered a superstitious remnant of the Middle Ages by many spirits inclined toward the emerging perspectives of secularism and atheism. For example, many humanists, especially Erasmus of Rotterdam, held such a view. To understand this, we must consider the general state of mind of that time. György Endre Szönyi, in his book John Dee and the Doctrine of Exaltation, pointed out that early 16th-century Renaissance magic was unacceptable to Christian humanist philologists from the Protestant North, like the aforementioned Erasmus, because the proponents of that magic inherited a specific, syncretic, and scholarly worldview devoid of dogmatism. As such, they were like free radicals, lacking foundation in the current political-ideological moment. Szönyi says that reformers, like Luther, Calvin, or radical anti-Trinitarians, were firmly tied to their communities and always acted as their representatives against other clearly defined groups. In contrast, mystically-oriented humanists awaited the end of all doctrinal divisions and aspired to a universal, syncretic religion. In the activities of mystical humanists, we can find the seeds of secret societies like the Rosicrucians, but, as Szönyi notes, we never encounter mass movements or tightly organized groups as is the case with clearly defined Reformation movements. Furthermore, Szönyi emphasizes that individuals dedicated to heterodox mysticism always troubled those in power. Therefore, they could not find peace either in their communities or among their rivals. Why did these brilliant Renaissance mystics provoke so much hostility? Szönyi explains that the reason lies in the individualism emanating from the magical-esoteric mindset, particularly its universalism. This universalism disrupted the interests of various groups and communities. Additionally, the secrecy and language shrouded in dark allegories and mysteries aroused fear of conspiracies.

Explaining why a genius like Isaac Newton never published his alchemical works, despite dedicating most of his time to them, Ioan Couliano highlights that the psychological and even physical repression imposed by the Church Reformation was of the same magnitude as the terror of the French and Soviet revolutions. The Reformation associated the ancient mnemotechnics, the art of memory that is fundamental to the magical worldview, with Catholicism and paganism, as mnemotechnics often relied on the creation of certain imaginative images, which largely followed the zodiac. Therefore, Protestants adopted a poorer concept of the art of memory without images, seeing imaginative images as phantasmic idols, a form of idolatry prohibited by their dry interpretation of the Bible. Everything created in the imagination, everything envisioned, is an idol, entirely contrary to Aristotle’s view that understanding means observing phantasms. The Vatican also adopted this view for opportunistic reasons, leading to the essential victory in building the new world we live in today being claimed by Protestantism, namely Luther, Calvin, and their later ideological descendants. The Reformation did not bring about the liberation and revival of the ancient science nourished by the new enthusiasm of an extraordinary generation of geniuses but rather a new form of suppression and loss in specializations. This led to one-dimensional rationality.

Magic was initially associated with the devil, and today with madness or irrationality. Magic has been pushed to the margins but has managed to find its way into the very center of the civilizational complex, entering film, art, literature, music, and even fashion. We witness a great hunger for the occult and the phantasmic. This hunger is what tarot owes its popularity to, even though the predominant spirit of today views tarot cards as the artistic expression of superstition. What is tarot but condensed codes in the form of images, mnemotechnical aids whose purpose is to remember the forces and relationships in the universe. They are symbolic elements of mapping the microcosm and the macrocosm and the connections between them. Knowing these cards is the basis for a large and complex superstructure of associative connections and correspondences that reveal the mechanism of nature, linking everything to everything else. Tarot is a complete phantasmic mechanism, a collection of images that cover the universe. The same can be said for zodiacal images, representations of individual degrees of the zodiac circle, images of planetary gods, astrological decans, magical images of Kabbalistic sephiroth, and so on.

Phantasmic images are reflected in the mirror of the mind, in our inner vision, on the mental screen—however we may call it. Without these images, we are unable to understand. Reflection is at the very essence of understanding. This aligns with Aristotle’s principles, but also with the Kabbalistic idea of the sefirah Binah, which means understanding and is associated with the nature of Saturn. According to Kabbalistic understanding, Binah is the "great motherly sea," or the great mirror on whose surface we observe reflections of things. Thus, our soul, which is deaf and blind to the external world, observes this same external world through the mirror of the mind, which is connected to the physical senses, but not directly—rather, through phantasms. The mind creates phantasms, or "interprets" immediate light and other impressions from the external world, turning them into images that the soul then understands through inner vision by observing them in the mirror of the mind. Phantasmic images are the language of the soul. Hence, imagination rules over reason because the soul rules over the mind, and through the mind, over the body, making it alive. The body transmits the absorbed light through the senses to the mind, which then shapes this light into a phantasmic image, forming the basis of perception. Thus, the principle of Reason’s dominance is, in a way, an absurd stance and represents the expression of the historical victory of Reformation Reason over ancient and Renaissance Imagination. Instead of aspiring to the principle of Imagination’s rule, the world has stepped into the abstract dominance of Reason, which has led to the replacement of phantasmic images with purely rational concepts. Interpretations have taken the place of visual perceptions, and relativization has replaced clarity. Abstract principles are easily lost from view since they lack a form that would be more easily engraved in the mind. Images, once well engraved, remain there forever. Hence, the impression that the modern world is soulless, but this is the price of advanced civilizational progress.

However, magic has survived, manifesting itself in today's world wrapped in many secular activities and principles. I am not talking here about some magical revival and the accompanying faddism that has seen a real boom in our time, but about deliberate and targeted actions on individuals and masses that can be described as magical. Principles of political, ideological, and economic propaganda, influence on consciousness through media and internet content—all these are forms of direct action based on magical principles. Magic, says Ioan Culianu, is aimed at the imagination, seeking to leave lasting impressions. Exposed to an endless flow of images and accompanying sounds, today's generations have been shaped in a systematic and, I would say, insidious manner. Through manipulation of Eros, an invasive phantasmic erotization, human consciousness is steered in the direction desired by those who carry out the manipulation. Although it is hard to say whether the manipulators themselves are victims of their own manipulation, or if they are, it is even harder to say whether they know what the ultimate consequences will be. I think that, even if they know or suspect, they simply do not care. Their primary interest is immediate gain and the maintenance of already established patterns to secure current and short-term future benefits and advantages, resembling kicking a can down the road. Their power speaks through their actions. The aim of power is control, and to succeed in this, power must transform people into a crowd. As social psychology pioneer Gustave Le Bon says, from the moment individuals become a crowd, both the ignorant and the knowledgeable become equally incapable of observation.

The Tree of Life of Sixteen Paths

 

This is my amateur attempt to connect the basic ideas of the Spanish mystic Ramon Llull (1232-1316) in the form of the Tree of Life scheme. I used the most rudimentary sixteen-letter version of the Greek alphabet.

Books by Dorijan Nuaj / Bafomitras Publishing

Here is a list of my books in preparation that will be available to order this year exclusively through the attached e-mail address:

• Tal'Bet Muabet - Invocation of the Circular Earth (118 pages, A5 format, hardcover, price 15 EUR + shipment)

• Song of the Twice Dead: A Necromantic Invocation
• Ideology of the Tarot: A Study of the Origin, Meaning, and Development of the Tarot Imaginary
• The Divine Revolution of Catastrophe: A philosophical view of the world of eschatological radical action
• The Spirit of CounterInitiation: Esoteric Essays
• Bafomitras Grimoire of the Arcana: A Deck of Spirit Cards with Accompanying Manual
• Mystical Occultism - Lessons in Occultism in Theory and Practice
• New Saltarello: A Collection of Occult Stories with Elements of Horror
• Black Nemes: A Collection of Poetry

dorijan.nuaj@gmail.com

More information about my publishing releases coming soon.