(urth) Sorcerer's House Comment

[Darth Ed]

On May 3, 2012, at 4:44 PM, Gwern Branwen wrote:
> Maybe we missed something by not looking at the Greater Trumps?

I think so. I'd certainly be interested in the definitive Tarot reading of
TSH. I'm not sure anyone has quite cracked it yet, other than perhaps
Gaiman.

Gaiman has mentioned the similarities to the Tarot before in his review of
TSH on GoodReads (http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/97189634), and it's
been discussed on this mailing list by Dave Stockhoff, Dave Tallman, and
others. Dave Tallman got the furthest, I think. Relevant links:

http://lists.urth.net/pipermail/urth-urth.net/2010-April/014621.html
http://lists.urth.net/pipermail/urth-urth.net/2010-April/014624.html
http://lists.urth.net/pipermail/urth-urth.net/2010-April/014631.html

But, alas, the topic is dropped just as the list starts to make some
progress.

Background for those who missed the Tarot discussion the first time:

Wikipedia says: "The Major Arcana (greater secrets), or trump cards,
consists of 22 cards without suits: The Fool, The Magician, The High
Priestess, The Empress, The Emperor, The Hierophant, The Lovers, The
Chariot, Strength, The Hermit, Wheel of Fortune, Justice, The Hanged Man,
Death, Temperance, The Devil, The Tower, The Star, The Moon, The Sun,
Judgement, and The World."

There are 44 letters/chapters in TSH, exactly twice the number of cards in
the Major Arcana. Two of the letters (letters 22 and 23) have the same
title ("Silver Bullets"). Presumably, we have a double deck of the Major
Arcana with each letter can be associated with one of the cards of the
Major Arcana in some fashion. Also, the repetition of "Silver Bullets" at
exactly the midpoint of the book implies a thematic mirroring relationship
to the letters on either side of the midpoint.

Hope this spurs some additional analysis,
Ed

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