A card table is essentially only an enlarged copy of the sheet in which the results of the game were recorded; it is the "throne" on which this diabolical action is performed, and the leaf is the devil's copy of the "antimension" (instead of the altar or portable "throne"). Anyone who has ever played preference knows how players mark the sheet on which they enter the results of their game. So, this marking is a carbon copy of the ancient Greek marking of houses in the horoscope. Chekalinsky sits at the head of this table. At the head of the astrological table is the occult sun. When Pushkin draws a portrait of Chekalinsky, it seems that he describes the radiant sun.

"He was a man of about sixty, of the most respectable appearance; his head was covered with silver gray; his full and fresh face showed good nature; his eyes shone, enlivened by his ever-present smile" (292). Pushkin constantly emphasizes his invariable smile, courtesy, affection and gaiety. Even during the most critical moment of the game, Chekalinsky only turned pale, but retained his smile. And when Herman lost, Chekalinsky, as Pushkin writes, "said kindly": "Your lady is killed" (294).

Narumov and Surin are episodic characters, but even the little information that Pushkin provides us with about them gives us some grounds for their astrological recognition. Surin says to himself that he never gets excited, and Narumov, surprised by his calculated game, throws out a phrase that is interesting to characterize Surin: "And you have never been tempted? I have never put it on a rue?.. Your firmness is amazing to me" (269). Surin is cold, calculating, firm. This firmness of his, a certain rigidity, expressed in coldness and prudence, are the characteristics that quite accurately indicate his astrological affiliation – he is Saturn. Even his surname begins with the same letter, and through the three common letters, s-r-n, which follow each other in the same sequence as they appear in the name of the planet, there is something in common in their sound. In the occult tradition, where planets have the widest connections with various phenomena, in particular, planets, according to occultists, can also have an influence on metals. Interestingly, Saturn rules the lead surik in this connection. In this association, there is a certain indication of the character's surname. Obviously, Pushkin was familiar with all this occult Kabbalah, and such associations could have taken place in the process of writing the story. It is curious that Mercury rules mercury – in alchemy, it is the metal from which gold is obtained. But it is also a metal that can fatally poison a person. And Hermann is really poisoned by a passion for gold. This association was understandable in Pushkin's time (occult knowledge was very common at that time) – and it could even work as an artistic image.

Narumov remains in the role of Jupiter. But we can make such an identification not only on the residual principle, and Pushkin himself gives grounds for this. He is a horse guardsman. This is a very important characteristic for the context of our study. Many researchers identify the Roman god Jupiter with the Slavic god Perun. It would not be a stretch to make such an identification within the framework of this study, since we are still talking about Russia. But the god Perun is a special patron of military squads; He is represented in Slavic mythology in the form of a rider sitting on a horse. Narumov clearly acts as a leader, and not only by right of the owner of the house in which the card game takes place. He is an unspoken mentor in the card game: he urges Surin to play more decisively, he tries to draw Hermann into the game, and when he finally decides to enter the game, he introduces him to Chekalinsky's house, and even expresses obvious displeasure with Hermann's risky game. He shows amazing sobriety and strength of mind, his questions make those who speak express their thoughts more clearly. These are all obvious psychological characteristics related to Jupiter.

Astrological houses in the story are the houses of the characters in which the action takes place. Their correspondence to astrological signs is not difficult to establish by the planetary affiliation of the characters and their psychological characteristics, but we will not do this for the reason stated below.

Pushkin constantly gives the exact time of action, although such accuracy is not required for artistic characterization. "Once," writes Pushkin, "and this would have been enough in an ordinary narrative, but he makes a detailed clarification, "it happened two days after the evening described at the beginning of this story, and a week before this scene on which we dwelt" (276). Moreover, Pushkin further specifies the time of this event – we learn that it took place two hours before lunch. And five minutes later it repeated. Knowing the usual time of dinner in noble houses, it is possible to calculate the time of this event with an accuracy of five minutes. What event does Alexander Sergeyevich describe with such temporal accuracy? It is only about how the young people met their eyes. Moreover, we learn that "from that time not a day passed that a young man, at a certain hour, did not appear under the windows of their house" (276). For a work of fiction, such temporal accuracy and regularity of an event occurring at the same hour is even superfluous, because such "accounting" removes the romantic veil from the narrative. But for the astrological aspect of the myth unfolded by Pushkin, such temporary scrupulousness is simply necessary, otherwise the whole myth falls apart – and an accurate astrological characterization of the event and characters becomes impossible. The daily repetition of this event has another aspect – Mercury makes a retrograde movement across the sky, repeatedly returning to the starting point.

Such accuracy in indicating the time is present in the description of almost all events. "The long winter night passed unnoticed; sat down to supper at five o'clock in the morning" (268) [81], Pushkin begins the story, immediately pointing to the winter season in which the story takes place. Moreover, there is no long winter night in the months close to spring. If we take into account that this happens in St. Petersburg, where closer to spring the nights become very short, then we are talking about the winter month in which the solstice has not yet occurred - this is December. Indirectly, this is confirmed by other details: the weather (this is wet snow with a strong wind), clothing (Elizaveta Ivanovna is dressed in a cold raincoat), transport (these are carriages, there is no mention of a sleigh anywhere, "the carriage rolled on loose snow" (281), and in the cold months they rode a sleigh). Even the phase of the moon is known: when the countess appears to Hermann, a bright "moon illuminates his room" (290). Pushkin also indicates the exact time: "a quarter to three" (290).

Hermann's meeting with the countess and his meeting with Lizaveta Ivanovna are practically timed by Pushkin to the minute. "At ten o'clock in the evening he was already standing in front of the countess's house" (281), he indicates the exact time of his appearance near the countess's house. "At exactly half past eleven, Hermann stepped onto the countess's porch" (281). Hermann went upstairs and "entered the dark study." At this time, "the drawing room struck twelve; in all the rooms, the clock rang twelve one after another – and everything fell silent again." After some time of waiting, "the clock struck the first and second o'clock in the morning, and he heard the distant knock of the carriage" (282). And only when morning had already come, the young man left the countess's house, saying goodbye to Lizaveta Ivanovna.

It is not difficult to calculate the date of this meeting. Pushkin gives the following clue: the meeting took place almost three weeks after Lizaveta Ivanovna "saw a young man through the window for the first time" (285). Three days after the fateful night, Hermann went to the *** convent for the funeral of the countess. "All day long Hermann was extremely upset," Pushkin describes the day on which the funeral took place, "returning home, he threw himself on the bed without undressing and fell fast asleep. He woke up at night" (290). But that night there was a full moon. Pushkin also comments on other events: "the next day" (279), "three days after" (280).

Thus, knowing exactly the year of action (this is the year close to 1833, it can be accurately established from the biography of Natalia Petrovna Golitsyna), the month (December), the date of the full moon in this month and the exact dates between the events (they are given by Pushkin to the day), you can make a complete temporal astrological picture. Perhaps the astrological characteristics obtained as a result of accurate calculations would provide even more interesting material for the content of the story. But we have never done this and will not do it. We will not advise others to do this either, because astrological miscalculations are no longer astrological analysis, they are an occult action that requires some kind of occult sacrifice. We have made such a detailed analysis of the data contained in the story only to show that such an aspect is hidden in the story.

But why does Pushkin devote so much space to this in his narrative? In the end, a hint at this circumstance would suffice, but Pushkin nowhere does he deviate from its scrupulous calculation, wherever it comes to the time of the event. The thing is that the astrological aspect is of great importance in the Masonic worldview, and the meaning of the Masonic initiation cannot be understood without pointing out its astrological meaning.

"The idea of wandering," writes the Freemason Foster Bailey, "lies at the heart of all Masonic initiation – the movement in search of knowledge; movement in search of the word of the Master. This is the plot of the candidate. It is repeated by the sun circumambulating the sky through the twelve signs of the zodiac" [82]. In Blavatsky's opinion, the cycle of initiations reproduces in miniature a great series of cosmic changes, which astronomers call the tropical or sidereal year. Astrology explains a lot in the Masonic worldview, based on the Kabbalistic and Pythagorean method of explaining the world order through the correlation of numbers. In this view, not only the world, but also God is subject to mathematical relations, because God and the world in this picture are one.

Therefore, Pushkin introduces the astrological aspect into his story and notes all the astrological milestones in such detail. Without these marks, it would be impossible to understand the symbolic language of his story. However, astrology itself does not interest Pushkin much, because for him it is only the background against which the main occult action associated with the card game unfolds. But this background is very important - it constantly focuses the reader's attention on the fact that the actions of the characters are due to some external circumstances. Against this background, the characters cannot act freely, as individuals, they can only work as parts of a vast mechanized cosmos, in which there are calculated realities through which the spiritual life of the individual cannot be expressed, for "God does not give the Spirit by measure" (John 3:34). The card game is a symbol of this mechanical cosmos, grinding people according to the occult laws of Fate.

The card game in the minds of Pushkin, and all the characters (and therefore the readers), is associated with Kabbalah. Narumov, having learned that Tomsky has a grandmother who knows the secrets of the card game, asks him: "You have not yet adopted her Kabbalah" (271)? Therefore, the entire astrological entourage is a background, but the background is precisely Kabbalistic – it gives the whole action a very definite coloring, against this background it is no longer possible to paint with ordinary pictorial colors – it can only be painted with colors that phosphorescent this occult "light" with which the whole story is imbued. And Pushkin skillfully and imperceptibly uses these colors to create a special mysterious and mysterious effect, in which a certain ironic shade is manifested in relation to all this Kabbalistic madness.