AtDTDA (7) 186. 1-19

[robinlandseadel at comcast.net]

Page 186 offers up a quick little demonstration of Tarot cards, here 
being used as a fortune telling deck. Most readers would place the 
"Hanged Man" as the 12th trump, though a few might place the 
Fool [0] card at the start of the Major Arcana.  Lew's fortune 
seems a very good one. In addition to other things, the "Hanged Man" 
card indicates escaping from a slippery and dangerous situation. 

This reading is from a site that has halfway reasonable interpretations 
of the deck and an excellent potted history of Tarot cards.

        The Hanged Man represents reversal of view. 
        The significance of this card is that everything 
        isn¹t as it appears to be on the surface. The 
        man appears to be hanging but in fact he is 
        in perfect control and balanced and centered 
        within himself. He sees all of the others with 
        there problems and the err in there ways and 
        yet they look at him as though he is upside 
        down, when in fact, he has perfect vision.

http://www.crystalinks.com/tarot.html


186, 6: Anasazi ruins:

        The Anasazi (Hisatsinom) were likely the descendants of 
        an Archaic Desert culture in the southwest from 6,000 
        B.C.E. known as the Basketmaker I culture, or from the 
        Mogollon. They first appeared in the Four Corners region 
        (the intersection of New Mexico, Arizona, Utah, and 
        Colorado) around the time of the historic Christ.

http://www.faculty.de.gcsu.edu/~dvess/ids/amtours/anawciv.htm

186. 8: "Like a Red Indian Stonehenge!"

http://tinyurl.com/2f49uc

http://tinyurl.com/ywgky6


186 10: Mystic Triangle" 

        The simplest geometric figure, signifies motion in the 
        direction of its Apex
        Apex Upward - a sign of Fire
        Apex Downward - a sign for Water
        Apex Downward with a Line Parallel to the Base - 
        a sign for Earth
        Apex Upward with a Line Parallel to the Base - a 
        sign for Air. A combination of the Fire and Water 
        or the Earth and Air triangles - the Hexagram 
        or Shield of Solomon
        Triangle of Spirit - Points upward, often from 
        within a square, the three of the triangle added 
        to the four of the square add up to seven

http://www.themysticeye.com/info/tarotsymbols.htm

The mystic symbol of the triangle that we are most familiar with is the 
"All-seeing eye" (found most often on the backs of dollar bills). That 
also points to the Pinkertons, an organization that Lew has just been 
extricated from.

"Mystic Triangles" will appear in a wide variety of contexts throughout 
the book, however, allow me to point to the Rosecrucians here, an important 
mystical community active during this little card game and still active to this 
day.

http://tinyurl.com/27d4a8

http://mystictriangle.rosicrucian.org/

Note also:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Aleister_Crowley_4.png

186, 11: "Griffa": Slang for blessed Ganja.

http://parentingteens.about.com/cs/marijuana/l/bldicmarijuana.htm

186, 11 "A strange, though not all that strange, deck of cards".

That would be the "Rider-Waite" Tarot deck, the most common platform 
for a Tarot card reading, a version that has become the "default deck".

186, 14: Miss Coleman Smith, designer of the Rider-Waite Deck:

        Pamela Coleman Smith (nicknamed Pixie) was born of 
        American parents in Middlesex England, February 16, 
        1870. Her childhood years were spent between London, 
        New York and Kingston, Jamaica. During her teens, she 
        traveled throughout England with the theater company of 
        Ellen Terry and Henry Irving. Then she began formal srt 
        training a the Pratt Institute of Brooklyn, New York, 
        graduating in 1897. Although American by birth,  she 
        returned to England where she became a theatrical 
        designer for minature theater and an illustrator. 
        Around 1903, she joined the Order of the Golden 
        Dawn and began to paint visions that came to her while 
        listening to music. She turned to writing and illustrating 
        books which turned out to be not very profitable.

        Pamela Coleman Smith  met Arthur Edward Waite 
        when she was working on her play Where There is 
        Nothing, which became The Unicorn from the Stars'
        (1907)..In 1909, under the guidance of Waite, she 
        undertook, for a token payment, a series of 78 
        paintings for Waite's new tarot  pack. These original 
        black and white designs, who drew in the Victorian 
        Art Noveau style of Walter Crane, were published 
        in the same year by William Rider and Son. Who 
        added the color is unknown.

        Despite occasional art shows and favorable reviews 
        by critics, the continued slow sale of her paintings 
        and the rejection by commercial publishers, left her 
        deeply disappointed and feeling disillusioned. She 
        died September 18, 1951, broke and unrecognized.

        Pamela Coleman Smith would be totally forgotten 
        except for her 78 tarot paintings known as the 
        Rider-Waite Tarot Deck. More than six million are 
        in print. She would be astonished and delighted to 
        know that the deck that she illustrated became the 
        most popular tarot deck of all times, becoming the 
        standard against which all other decks are measured.

 http://www.aznewage.com/coleman_smith.htm


186, 15: Espadas: Spades/Swords, Copas: Cups

186, 186, 17: May I take the first card? Please?

http://www.sacred-texts.com/tarot/pkt/img/ar12.jpg

Some of the meanings of the Hanged Man derive from some of the 
Norse legends we have already witnessed, onboard the Etienne-Louis 
Malus, by depicting the myth/legend of Odin:

        Odin and his brothers, Vili and Ve, are attributed
        with slaying Ymir, the Ancient Giant, to form 
        Midgard. From Ymir's flesh, the brothers made 
        the earth, and from his shattered bones and 
        teeth they made the rocks and stones. From 
        Ymir's blood, they made the rivers and lakes. 
        Ymir's skull was made into the sky, secured at 
        four points by four dwarfs named East, West, 
        North, and South. And from Ymir's brains, they 
        shaped the clouds and Ymir's eye-brows 
        became a barrier between Jotunheim (giant's 
        home) and Midgard, the place where men now 
        dwell. Odin and his brothers are also attributed 
        with making humans. . . .

        . . . .In the Rúnatal, a section of the Hávamál, 
        Odin is attributed with discovering runes. He was 
        hung from the tree called Yggdrasill while pierced 
        by his own javelin. He hung for nine days and nights, 
        in order to learn the wisdom that would give him 
        power in the nine worlds. Nine is a significant 
        number in Norse magical practice (there were, for 
        example, nine realms of existence), thereby learning 
        nine (later eighteen) magical songs and eighteen 
        magical runes.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Odin

186, 19: Chartomancer is potentially a typo, as "Cartomancer"---a scryer or 
diviner of cards---a fortune teller who uses tarot cards, for example, seems to 
be the intended meaning. Of course, we do have a couple of T.W.I.T.s here, 
so it could be their mistake as well.