The Tarot of the Bohemians: Absolute Key to Occult Science

Papus (Gerard Encausse)'s book originally published in French in 1889 as Le Tarot des Bohémiens: Le plus ancien Livre du monde, was translated into English as The Tarot of the Bohemians: The Absolute Key to Occult Science. Gérard Anaclet Vincent Encausse (July 13, 1865 - 25 October 1916), whose esoteric pseudonym was Papus, was the Spanish-born French physician, hypnotist, and popularizer of occultism, who founded the modern Martinist Order. His nom de plume ""Papus"" means ""physician"" As a young man, Encausse spent a great deal of time at the Bibliothèque Nationale studying the Kabbalah, occult tarot, magic and alchemy, and the writings of Eliphas Lévi. He joined the French Theosophical Society shortly after it was founded by Madame Blavatsky in 1884 - 1885, but he resigned soon after joining because he disliked the Society's emphasis on Eastern occultism. Encausse visited Russia three times, in 1901, 1905, and 1906 serving Tsar Nicholas II & Tsarina Alexandra both as physician and occult consultant.