Webb Traverse, AtDTDA (7) 186. 1-19

[robinlandseadel at comcast.net]

             Chris Broderick :
             What I'm curious about is the linguistic freight of
             the term 'Jeshimon'.  It just strikes me as a nice
             piece of pseudo-biblical westernism, but I confess
             ignorance.  I'll admit that the whole section made me
             think of Cormac McCarthy, particularly the parallel
             between the governor in AtD, and the judge in Blood
             Meridian.  For what that's worth.

Well,  'Jeshimon' means "The Waste", which sure got the beavers 
of my brain pumping

http://www.christiananswers.net/dictionary/jeshimon.html

So yesterday, I picked up a copy of "The Waste Land" by T.S. Eliot:

     . . . . What are the roots that clutch, what branches grow
             Out of this stony rubbish? Son of man,
             You cannot say, or guess, for you know only
             A heap of broken images, where the sun beats,
             And the dead tree gives no shelter, the cricket no relief,
             And the dry stone no sound of water. Only
             There is shadow under this red rock,
             (Come in under the shadow of this red rock),
             And I will show you something different from either
             Your shadow at morning striding behind you	
             Or your shadow at evening rising to meet you;
             I will show you fear in a handful of dust. . . .

http://world.std.com/~raparker/exploring/thewasteland/table/explore5.html

While that might seem a stretch, considering the following:

             "Apparently I felt I had to put on a whole extra 
             overlay of rain images and references to 
             "The Waste Land" and "A Farewell to Arms". 
             I was operating on the motto "Make it literary," 
             a piece of bad advice I made up all by myself 
             and then took." Slow Learner 4

. . . .and. . . .

             ". . . .The next story I wrote was "The Crying of 
             Lot 49," which was marketed as a "novel," and 
             in which I seem to have forgotten most of what 
             I thought I'd learned up till then." Slow Learner 22

I'm going to hazard a guess that "The Waste Land" was on Pynchon's
mind when he came up with W.A.S.T.E.  

I'm sure the author is aware of the nature of his audience, is aware of
readings that might be called "overdetermined", though "paranoid" is
closer to the mark as far as I'm concerned. The time and the place of
the setting of "Jeshimon" fits as regards "The Waste Land" and 
W.A.S.T.E.

Note also, from "The Waste Land":

                  Madame Sosostris, famous clairvoyante,
             Had a bad cold, nevertheless				
             Is known to be the wisest woman in Europe,	
             With a wicked pack of cards. Here, said she,
             Is your card, the drowned Phoenician Sailor,
             (Those are pearls that were his eyes. Look!)
             Here is Belladonna, the Lady of the Rocks,
             The lady of situations.	
             Here is the man with three staves, and here the Wheel,
             And here is the one-eyed merchant, and this card, 
             Which is blank, is something he carries on his back,
             Which I am forbidden to see. I do not find	
             The Hanged Man. Fear death by water.
             I see crowds of people, walking round in a ring.
             Thank you. If you see dear Mrs. Equitone,	
             Tell her I bring the horoscope myself:		
             One must be so careful these days.

So "The Hanged Man" is not in this reading---which is all the weirder for having 
cards not found in the Rider-Waite deck. 

"The Wheel" is most likely the wheel of fortune. . . .

http://www.starbridge.com.au/images/opt/big/La-Rone-du-Fortune-The-Whee.jpg

. . . .and the man with three staves the three of wands.

http://www.astrologysoftware.com/tarot/decks/waite/Wand03-b.jpg

I don't know when Pynchon began his interest in Tarot cards, though 
"Low-Lands" has "The old woman with the eye patch who is called 
Violetta read my fortune many years ago. . . ."

But now, I'm sure that Pynchon could give as good a "cold" reading as 
any scryer of the Tarot. He seems to know about as much as any reader 
concerning this "strange, though not all that strange, set of cards".

Here's A. E. Waite's reading of "the Hanged Man:

             XII
             The Hanged Man

             The gallows from which he is suspended forms a 
             Tau cross, while the figure---from the position of 
             the legs---forms a fylfot cross. There is a nimbus 
             about the head of the seeming martyr. It should 
             be noted (1)  that the tree of sacrifice is living 
             wood, with leaves thereon; (2) that the face 
             expresses deep entrancement, not suffering; 
             (3) that the figure, as a whole, suggests life in 
             suspension, but life and not death. It is a card 
             of profound significance, but all the significance 
             is veiled. One of his editors suggests that Eliphas 
             Levi did not know the meaning, which is 
             unquestionable---nor did the editor himself. It has 
             been called falsely a card of martyrdom, a card of 
             prudence, a card of the Great Work, a card of 
             duty; but we may exhaust all published 
             interpretations and find only vanity. I will say very 
             simply on my own part that it expresses the 
             relation, in one of its aspects, between the Divine 
             and the Universe.

             He who can understand that the story of his higher 
             nature is embedded in this symbolism will receive 
             intimations concerning a great awakening that is 
             possible, and will know that after the sacred Mystery 
             of Death there is a glorious Mystery of Resurrection.

             A.E. Waite:
             The Pictorial Key to the Tarot
             pg 58

A number of "readers and advisors" have told me that the "Veiled Meaning" 
of Atu XII is of Odin. Odin recieves a very kabbalistic sort of knowledge while 
seeming to be in a state of martyrdom. Odin slips from the knot that ties him 
to "the tree of Life", Yggdrasil, but while suspended from that tree receives 
knowledge of the runes, the first Norse language in written form.

http://www.theosociety.org/pasadena/odin/odin-2.htm

another "Tree of Life":

http://tinyurl.com/27egzj