ATDDTA (8) Towers and Zeros (219-221)

[Keith]

So far in our Section (8), the references to towers and pillars are  
plenteous. They're showing up again in the T.W.I.T. sanctuary  
(220:35-36). The Tarot's Tower Card is highlighted in Section (9).  
Amidst these tower references, as well as many here noted references  
to Bush, et al. in the Jeshimon section, the following quote is  
evocative of our more recent Ground Zero...

"seekers of certitude, of whom there seemed an ever-increasing supply  
as the century had rushed to its end and through some unthinkable  
zero and on out the other side" (219:24-26)

...as is Lew's arroyo piss blast back on 184-5...

"into that radiant throatway leading to who knew what, in the faith  
that there would be something there, and not just Zero and  
blackness" (185:5-6)

...which is conceptualized by Nicholas Nookshaft as an unintended  
gift presented to Lew by his assailants, who are defined as Shamans,  
and that the blast opened a portal between lateral Worlds for the  
unsuspecting Lew, who, vis a vis the TWITs, leans more towards his  
ignorance black as night than to his state of enlightened grace.  
Regardless, the Grand Cohen suspects that Lew himself, in light of  
this perceived initiatory experience, is something of a shaman as  
well. (221:2-30)

http://www.shamanlinks.net/Journey.htm

Lew's thoughts about the knowledge of Good and Evil at the beginning  
of the chapter are typical of that naive pioneer spirit, thinking it  
knows all about evil because of the rugged life, yet in actuality  
being the infantile beginnings of what remained (and so far under W,  
remains) an arrogant adolescent country until 9/11, and which now can  
decide to enter a New World Order at its own peril or join a more  
inclusive global consciousness. The stuff of Magick and the Occult in  
Pynchon's novels is less about an adoption of those  
conceptualizations, and more about showing the common invisible  
archetypal structure shared across disciplines from philosophy to  
science to religion and mysticism.

The blast that almost took Lew, the blasts of prophet Reef, are being  
framed (at least from some perspectives in the novel) as prophetic  
gifts, as initiatory events, offering an opportunity for deeper  
awareness.