The Symbolism of the Tarot. Philosophy of Occultism in Pictures and Numbers.
St. Petersburg, Russia: Trood Printing and Publishing Co., 1913. First edition. Softcover. Octavo. 66pp. Original printed textured paper wrappers, reinforced at spine. The Russian-published first English language edition of this early work by one of the most significant metaphysical thinkers of the 20th century. Born in Moscow in 1878, Ouspensky became a well-known mathematician, author, and journalist. He wrote his major study on the psychology of higher consciousness, "Tertium Organum: A Key to the Enigmas of the World," in 1912, and a year later published this interesting short study which examines the Tarot in relation to other esoteric traditions such as alchemy, Kabbalism etc. In 1915 he became a student of G. I. Gurdjieff, whose work he spent much of the rest of his life promoting. The wrappers of this book are notoriously fragile. In this case the spine has been neatly reinforced with brown paper which extends half-an-inch on the front and back wrappers. The wrappers are lightly rubbed and marked as usual, and there is an owner's name and some shadowing to the top of the front wrapper. Cheap paper browned as always. Still overall a VG copy, and scarce as such, given the fragile binding and cheap paper. Item #56510
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