Papus's Tarot Discovery Spread

Papua's Tarot Discovery Spread

A presentation of the spread.

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.

Gerard Encausse was born at A Coruña in Spain on July 13, 1865, of a Spanish mother and a French father, Louis Encausse, a chemist. His family moved to Paris when he was four years old, and he received his education there.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

Madame Blavatsky

in 1884–1885, but he resigned soon after joining because he disliked the Society's emphasis on Eastern occultism.