Dane Maddock: Arcanum (Kindle Worlds Novella) by Sean Ellis

Author:Sean Ellis [Ellis, Sean]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: Kindle Worlds
Published: 2017-06-05T00:00:00+00:00

12

Because air transport was a scarce resource in Antarctica, the helicopter that had brought them to the work site had returned to McMurdo Station, and wouldn’t be available again for several hours. So while Quinn and his partner Curtis Johnson—a gregarious fellow with a grin as big as a Halloween jack-o-lantern—began bulldozing the ice shavings into the borehole, both to rebury Oates and at least partially return the landscape to its original condition, Kismet, following Rose’s advice, went to work creating digital copies of both the journal and the strange tarot card.

Rose had immediately recognized the image on the card, confirming and clarifying Kismet’s original identification.

“This is the Magus card from the Thoth deck created by Aleister Crowley,” she said, enlarging the image on the screen of Kismet’s tablet computer. “A version of it, anyway. There are some differences.”

“Thoth was an Egyptian god, right?” Maddock said.

Rose nodded. “The god of wisdom and knowledge.”

“Isn’t Thoth also the Egyptian version of Hermes?”

“The ancients made that connection, though strictly speaking, the god on this card is a representation of Mercury.”

“Same dif,” Bones muttered.

“There are similarities, but they aren’t the same,” Rose insisted. “Crowley was very particular about the imagery he chose for this deck, and specifically this card. He wasn’t happy with the first few attempts, much to the chagrin of his collaborator, Lady Frieda Harris. He made her paint at least four different versions before finally settling on. He didn’t call it the Magus, though. His name for the card was the Juggler, which is more consistent with the symbolism used in earlier decks, where the magician isn’t a sorcerer but more of a sleight-of-hand performer. His decision to show a divine figure instead of a human was very controversial among occultists of his time.” She paused a beat and then delivered her caveat. “Lawrence Oates disappeared in 1912. Crowley didn’t start work on his tarot deck until 1938.”

“How is that possible?” Jade asked.

Bones shrugged. “Duh. Magic.”

Kismet stared at the image on the screen with renewed interest. “You said this isn’t exactly the same as Crowley’s card.”

“If we had WiFi down here, I’d show you a side-by-side comparison.”

“Is it possible that Crowley and Oates knew each other?”

“Assuming that he and Adam Garral are one and the same, I’d say it’s very likely. They traveled in the same circles, and I don’t just mean the occult. Crowley was a renowned mountaineer and world traveler. It’s also widely believed that he was working for British intelligence. That story you told us about Garral spending a night in the Great Pyramid. Crowley claimed to have done that also. Maybe they both did, or maybe he borrowed the story from Garral. Either way, I don’t think it’s a coincidence.”

Maddock saw where things were headed. “So maybe Garral-slash-Oates showed Crowley this card back in 19-aught-whatever, and thirty years later, Crowley tried to reproduce it from memory.”

“I still say magic,” Bones said. “But if the egg came before the chicken, where did iceman get the card in the first place?”

“Hand painted tarot decks have been around since the 15th Century.

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