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.

In a similar way, Pushkin tries to banish this astrological wisdom from himself, but, apparently, he did not succeed in getting rid of astrological faith completely, because all the last years of the poet passed under the strong pressure of the impression made on him by a tall, handsome blond, who predicted his imminent death [83]. Astrological predictions come true only when we believe in them, for through this faith the freedom of man is realized, but this same God-given freedom frees man from the influence of these cosmic forces. Moreover, the freedom given to man subdues him to the elements and cosmic forces, making him not their slave, but their ruler and administrator.

The Occult Aspect

Genesis