Tom Tarot or: A new research program for M & D

[Lawrence Bryan]

I always thought the 78 came from either the 78RPM of the first discs  
or that 78 is the sum of the months in a year, 1 + 2 + 3 + ... + 12 =  
78 but then what do I know?

Lawrence

On Dec 18, 2008, at 7:22 AM, Kai Frederik Lorentzen wrote:

>
>
>
>
> " ... long-practiced, all-out, contrary-to-fact, capital M  
> Magic" (TRP)
>
> "The dimensions of Belief are measured by the dimensions of  
> unbelief"(SK)
>
>
> * As I have emphasized one or two times before, Mason & Dixon has  
> neither
> 77 nor 79 yet exactly 78 chapters, as if --- in case this isn't pure
> chance --- its author wanted to hint at the Tarot (= R.O.T.A) whose
> number of cards is, right now you got it, seventy-eight ...
>
> Following this, an interesting research program might be to pair off
> each and every Tarot card with a corresponding chapter of M & D ...
>
> Sounds silly? Perhaps. Of course I cannot guarantee that your Pynchon
> understanding will improve (though I believe so), but afterwards you
> will know much more about the Tarot ...
>
> From AtD and GR (and also others: Aren't stamps lil' Tarot cards too?)
> we know that Pynchon is deeply interested in these matters. Probably  
> not
> as an actual adept but as a writer who knows that sometimes a picture
> tells more than mere words ever could ...
>
> Let's focus on the 22 cards of the Major Arcana which can be  
> considered
> to be real entities on their own, opening up the gates to the paths on
> the kabbalistic Tree of Life ...
>
> My example is "The Hanged Man" (connecting Geburah and Hod), a card  
> that
> is refered to already in GR:
>
> "The cable, brought up taut, sings under Slothrop's hand till he loses
> his grip on it, falls and is carried gently and upside down and  
> hanging
> by the foot ..." (p. 306), and later: " ... to send you to the tube  
> and
> watch the seventh rerun of the Takeshi and Ichizo show, light a  
> cigarette
> and try to forget the whole thing)---to no clear happiness or  
> redeeming
> cataclysm. All his [Zoyd's, äh sorry, Slothrop's.kfl] hopeful cards  
> are
> reversed, most unhappily of all the Hanged Man, who is supposed to be
> upside down to begin with, telling his secret hopes and fears...." (p.
> 738). Maybe the card was also in the background of Pynchon's mind when
> he wrote the following sentence in AtD (p. 209): "For miles along the
> trail, coming and going, every telegraph pole had a corpse hanging  
> from
> it, each body in a different stage of pickover and decay, all the way
> back to a number of sun-beaten skeletons of some considerable age".  
> Yet
> what chapter of "Mason & Dixon" might be relevant here?
>
> Since Crowley's basic number of Magick is eleven, this is easy  
> enough. Now
> pick up M & D and go to chapter 11 where we find Mason at the  
> hangings and
> you can read on page 108 [!]: "Out upon Munden's Point stand a pair  
> of Gallows
> simplified to Penstrokes in the glare of this Ocean sky. A Visitor  
> may lounge
> in the Evening the Platform behind the Lines, and, as a Visitor to  
> London may
> gaze St. Paul's, regard these more sinister forms in the failing  
> North Light,
> --- perhaps being led to meditate upon Commerce...for Commerce  
> without Slavery
> is unthinkable, whilst Slavery must ever include, as an essential  
> Term, the
> Gallows, --- Slavery without the Gallows being as hollow and Waste a  
> Proceeding,
> as a Crusade without the Cross". See also the discussion Mason and  
> the Lady
> have on page 111 about the next victim's degree of erection.  
> Crucifications,
> hangings, ejaculations --- and there you go with a bunch full of  
> mandrake ...
>
> (Very true a-and pretty 'cool' statement about "Commerce", nicht  
> wahr? Now
> think about the fact that there are more slaves today than ever  
> before on
> the planet ... This is Dubai calling ...)
>
> From the fact that not only "cross" but also "crusade" is there  
> (which makes
> it impossible to understand the cross as an Egyptian ankh as which  
> it is
> pictured in the Crowley/Harris deck) as well as from GR we know that  
> Pynchon,
> as far as the Tarot is concerned, is following "Mr. A.E. Waite" (GR,  
> p. 738).
> So let's have a look at "The Pictural Key of the Tarot" (dtsch. Der  
> geheime
> Tarot-Schlüssel. München 1996: Heyne). Mentioning Elipha'Levi's  
> interpretation
> that the card is simply about the adept's duties s/he has to fulfil  
> with
> devotion, Waite names the two crosses the gallow and, differing, the  
> legs do
> build in his version, insists that the card is not about death yet  
> about Life
> and murmurs something on "the holy mystery of Resurrection" ...
>
> Ok, folks, there are still 77 cards/chapters to pair off ---
>
>
> KFL+
>
> PS: A good American book on the Tarot which contains also some new  
> picturing
> of the Major Arcana is "Sex Magic, Tantra & Tarot" (Las Vegas 1996:  
> New Falcon
> Publications) by Christopher S. Hyatt and Lon Milo DuQuette.
>