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

Pushkin touches on another very important aspect in the occult context of the story. This is an aspect of occult genesis. All the characters in the story are connected with each other either by direct kinship or by mysterious spiritual ties, and all these connections go back to the old countess. They are all connected by a card game, a secret hidden in the game itself, and this secret is possessed by the old countess. She inherited this secret from St. Germain himself, who, as Pushkin says of him through the mouth of Tomsky, "pretended to be an eternal Jew, the inventor of the elixir of life and the philosopher's stone" (270). He was a great initiate, possessed of occult knowledge, in the words of the occultist Leadbeater, "an incarnate teacher of wisdom." One of his incarnations, Leadbeater argues, is Christian Rosicrucian. Saint Germain is the founder of Freemasonry. In women's Freemasonry, he is called the head of all true Freemasons. His portrait hangs in the boxes in a place of honor. The Countess was apparently initiated into Freemasonry by St. Germain. In any case, Pushkin unequivocally ascribes such a dedication to her.

The mystery of the three cards is the great mystery of life: three, seven and ace symbolize the main arcana in the secret Egyptian knowledge. In sum, they make up the number 21, which is the number of earthly perfection: the number 7 multiplied by 3. In the secret knowledge, this number symbolizes success, satisfaction with one's position, the presence of material goods - this is exactly the material success that Hermann strives for. The Holy Book of Thoth, as the occultists themselves claim, the oldest book on earth, contains this secret knowledge, symbolically expressed in the form of the Great Arcana of the Tarot. Everyone who has ever seen a deck of playing cards knows what these symbols are. The well-known interpreter of the arcana, Vladimir Shmakov, writes: "Many tens of centuries ago, the white race now reigning on earth received from its predecessor this great heritage, this great synthesis of man's knowledge and the Divine Revelation accessible to his genius. She appreciated it, and this Monument of Divine Wisdom formed the essence of all Initiations" [85]. Therefore, only the initiated can possess this great knowledge. "Only occultists and Kabalists," writes Blavatsky, "are the true heirs of Knowledge and Secret Wisdom" [86].

The origin of this knowledge is not very clear to the occultists themselves. "In the midst of the stormy waves of the all-consuming ocean of time," writes Shmakov, "stands immovably the great Monument of the long past. Where he came from, where his homeland was, what superhuman genius gave him the strength to resist everything – we do not know, and probably will not know. But its fabulous antiquity, in comparison with the pitiful fragment of history known to us, should already inspire a reverent attitude towards it... in this Monument the beginnings of all the threads of all the deeds of mankind during its entire planetary life are hidden in inscrutable ways" [87]. From this vague explanation only one thing is clear, that the source of this knowledge is superhuman genius. Who is this genius? What is his name?

The Book of Enoch, which was once part of the canon of the holy books among the early Christians, tells the story of how a group of angels led by an angel named Semeiza leaves heaven and settles on earth, where they begin to reveal the secrets of heaven to people, teaching them the occult sciences. The main theme runs through the entire book, like a refrain: there will be no forgiveness for the fact that they revealed the heavenly secrets to people ahead of time. This story is very similar to the story of the fallen angels. However, occultists do not hide this. Blavatsky in the second volume of The Secret Doctrine directly says that these secrets were revealed by Satan. He was "the Keeper of the Gates in the King's Temple: he stood in front of Solomon. He held the keys of the Sanctuary so that no man could enter it except the anointed one who possessed the Secret Teaching of Hermes" [88]. Its adepts, the high spirits of the Dhyan Chohans, were the "Builders," the "Guardians," the "Fathers," and the "first instructors of mankind."

Their first disciples were the first initiates. "It is now understood," writes Madame Blavatsky, "why the very first Initiates and Adepts, or 'Wise Men,' who are said to have been initiated into the Mysteries of Nature by the Almighty Intelligence Himself, represented by the highest Angels, were called 'Serpents of Wisdom' and 'Dragons,' and also why the first physically completed couples, after they had been initiated by the Ophis. V.S.), manifested by the Androgynous Logos into the Mystery of Human Creation through the tasting of the fruit of Knowledge, gradually began to be accused by the materialistic spirit of posterity of committing sin and disobeying the "Lord God" at the instigation of the Serpent" [90]. The serpent, in the understanding of occultists, is "the greatest Light in our plan" [91]. Therefore, it is quite "natural," Blavatsky concludes obviously, "to consider Satan, the Serpent in the Book of Genesis, as the true creator and benefactor, the Father of Spiritual Humanity" [92]. Hence, by what Christians understand as the Fall, occultists mean initiation. Although the Fall was essentially a spiritual initiation, only a wrong initiation (from the wrong spirit), so it painfully perverted man's nature and led him to a spiritual catastrophe.

There are as many arcana as there are letters in the Hebrew alphabet (22 letters). Each of them is even named after these letters. Hermann pulled back and instead of an ace pulled out a queen whose numerical value is 12. But the sum of the numerical values of three, seven and queen is 22. Symbolically, this expresses the mastery of complete knowledge contained in the 22 arcana. Occultists believed that the combination of different letters, subject to a certain pattern, was able to exert an incantatory effect on spirits. Therefore, the study of the arcana was at the same time a training in the art of incantation. Magic has the property of technology – the performed action and spell leads to the fulfillment of what was planned or ordered. This is the art of those of little faith, those who believe not in God, but in technology, in spirits. "Having little true faith, he had many prejudices" (288), Pushkin characterizes Hermann's faith. Therefore, he believed in the magical power of three, seven and ace.

What are three, seven and ace in the arcana system? The first three arcana symbolically express the inner Divine life, which expresses itself in three aspects. The third aspect, according to the Kabalistic interpretation, is the "Divine Manifestation" or "the Universe as such is the real world, or God made visible." "Arcanum III is the doctrine of the Divine Nature inherent in the One Homogeneous Cosmic Spirit" [94]. But this means that God is not a person if He and the universe are identical. Pushkin expresses his attitude to such total pantheism in the fact that he does not call all his characters, with the exception of Lizaveta Ivanovna (more on this later), by name. If we learn the names of the characters, it is only from the dialogues, Pushkin himself calls Countess Anna Fedotovna a countess everywhere, Pavel Tomsky - Tomsky, and Hermann is not a name, but a surname, and Pushkin writes it with two "n" - Hermann. By this, Pushkin wants to emphasize that the characters have not formed a personality – they are impersonal. Since the God in whom they believe is impersonal, then man cannot have a personality, but only the race to which he belongs. And Pushkin conveys this clan affiliation with the surname of the characters. But the old countess does not even have a surname - he leaves to her only a title of nobility. Nobility is the main thing in a decanter. There was nothing else left in this half-dead man.