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

[Kai Frederik Lorentzen]

Lawrence wrote:

>
> 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?
>

 
Both possible alternatives I had never thought of. Thank you!
Kai
 
 
 
 
>>
>> " ... 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.
>>
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