AtDTDA: (8) 222 The Psychical Dective

[robinlandseadel at comcast.net]

Lew continues his introduction to Nookshaft and T.W.I.T. Yasmeen, 
currently the "Star" of our story , twits N. & N. (another name for the 
O.T.O. is A.:. A.:., thus N.:.N.:.) My charming neice tells me there is 
no such thing as a "seventeenth degree Adept", the O.T.O. only 
has 11, she writes off Pynchon's use of the number as the kind of 
boastful hyperbole one always encounters in magick circles. She 
was grabbing a "Star" card from the Thoth deck as she said this. 
Our Star disses N.:.N.:., leading to my personal favorite in the r
ealm of metaphysical jokes: Why do they call it ineffable? Cause 
you can't "F" it! 

After chiding (if not hating) his fellow T.W.I.T.s, the Grand Cohen
gives us Yasmeen's background, yet another student sent to college
for reasons other than that of receiving an education. It's about this
point we figure out that These T.W.I.T.s are some sort of spy ring.
"Our custody hence extends rather beyond simple caution." 222. 16

The T.W.I.T.s continue to dis each other. The Grand Cohen takes
Lew(cifer/minious) B(lack)asnight aside, assigning him the role of 
the "Psychical Detective".

For whatever it's worth---and by the way Happy Birthday out there, 
hope you're enjoying the show!!!---I can't help but think of:

http://www.firesigntheatre.com/albums/hcyb2.mp3

which mutated into:

http://www.firesigntheatre.com/albums/gros1.mp3

and further warped into Dick Private, Private Dick aka Dick Primate, Erect 
Detective.

Remember "The Shadow"---"Who knows what Evil Lurks in the Hearts of Men!?!?"
There's another "Kenosha Kid" for you:

http://www.pulps.westumulka.com/shadow/

As noted elsewhere "To know, to dare, to will, to keep silent" is very standard
"Magick" talk. My niece (let's call her "Thelma", shall we?), noted that passage
as one of the crucial early lessons in magickal advancement.

The Cohen then tells our illuminated Dick of the particular kink of the 
T.W.I.T.s that's O.T.T. in a specifically Pynchonian fashion 
[as if things weren't complicated enough anyway]:

        ". . . .There is but one 'case' which preoccupies us. 
        Its 'suspects' are exactly twenty-two in number. 
        These are precisely the cadre of operatives who, 
        working in secret, cause---or at least allow---History 
        upon this island to happen, and they correspond 
        to the twenty-two Major Arcana of the Tarot deck." 222. 30/34

These "Cards", in their sentient (or perhaps malkuthian) forms are degraded
into assignments no one would recognize from the (admittedly anachronistic)
Pamela Coleman-Smith versions. But we don't know that yet. Meanwhile, 
there are flesh eating sheep to contend with.