c. 1930 – Papus Tarot Study Card No. 12 – Le Pendu – Card Only - Papus & Saint-Yves Tradition

A fascinating and uncommon piece of French esoteric history, this card appears to originate from an early 20th-century occult publication inspired by the teachings of Papus (Dr. Gérard Encausse) and the broader Martinist tradition.

The card represents Le Pendu (Hanged Man) and presents a rich network of symbolic correspondences drawn from the French esoteric tradition.

🔹 Arcana No. 12 – Le Pendu
🔹 References to Saint-Yves d'Alveydre
🔹 Original mounted vintage card
🔹 Approximate card size: 12 × 7.7 cm (4.72 × 3.03 inches)
🔹 Presented inside a rigid magnetic photo holder/frame
🔹 Magnetic display holder size: 9 × 13 cm (3.54 × 5.12 inches)
🔹 Ready for display
🔹 Visible wear and patina consistent with age and use of the card

🪶 Collector's Note

During the first decades of the twentieth century, numerous French occult reviews and correspondence courses distributed tarot and initiatory teachings through detachable supplements. Students often mounted the cards themselves, creating personalized working sets that combined tarot symbolism, astrology, Kabbalah, and the teachings of influential occultists such as Papus and Saint-Yves d'Alveydre.

Rather than being part of a commercially manufactured tarot deck, the card was likely issued as a collectible magazine insert or educational supplement. Readers would cut out the cards and mount them onto cardboard to gradually assemble a complete set for study and divination—a practice common in French occult circles during the interwar period.

Surviving examples are increasingly difficult to find today, particularly as individual pieces. Beyond its value as a tarot-related artifact, this card is a genuine fragment of the French occult revival that shaped much of modern Western esotericism.

A wonderful addition to any collection of tarot history, Martinism, occult literature, French esotericism, or rare paper ephemera.