This is a repost from the Raleigh-Durham Tarot Meet-up Messageboard to alert TarotSchoolists about this Esoteric Graphic novel series Thoth tarot.
Promethea, a 32 chapter graphic novel of initiation based on the Thoth Tarot is my first item for your consideration..[/i]
In this gorgeous, often brilliant series, now complete in five volumes, Moore signals his return to deconstructionist super-hero comics. Anyone with an interest in tarot symbolism and its connection with general occultism will find Alan Moore's Promethea a wonderful guide to the basic symbolism of the major Arcana and the tree of life. In fact Promethea?s particular powers are based on the four suit-elements, earth, air, water, fire.
The general comic book audience was somewhat put off by what for them was the pseudo-mysticism of Moore, and I have not read what the general occult audience might think of this literary graphic novel adaptation of basic occult themes, but I find that if one is knowledgeable in western magicks and tarot there will be many useful insights gleaned along the way while reading this wonderful collection of comics. The artistry of Williams and Gray provides some unexpected visual interpretations of the Sephiroth.
Anyone who reads in the occult or magical literature must be aware of that we are talking about a particular cultivation of the imagination. People can study this literature quite a long time before it wakes up inside them. I am sure that there are even many who never experience any inner awakening. But the imagination is a powerful source of knowledge and interpersonal transformation that can channel power this little comic book suggests playfully. The more didactic parts of the story beginning in book 2 and composing the bulk of books 3 and 4 is a tour of the inner worlds based on the meaning of the Tree of Life. Each Sephiroth is given some due as Sophia and a previous incarnation of Promethea travel the full tree of life. The paths between the stations are analogous to Major Arcana as channels of planetary energy. This Gnostic view, though not as oppressive as classical Gnostic views of the world, will ring true in its general formulation for most occultists unless they are suffering from some forms of dogmatic literalisms or pre-formed ideological fixated prejudice, not as rare as one might think. So take a look at the world a new through the eyes of the comic book heroine Promethea.
Promethea (Book 1) by Alan Moore, J. H. Williams III, Mick Gray, and Charles Vess (Wildstorm) The story begins with a prologue set in Alexandria, 411 A.D., in which a strange old man with mystical powers saves his daughter from a group of killer monks. We then jump ahead to a New York existing in the year 1999 that has cabs hovering without wheels, police in flying saucers, and a successful comic book about the "Weeping Gorilla." Here we meet Sophie Bangs, just an ordinary college student in a weirdly alternative and scientistic New York, who is writing a term paperfor a class on folklore and visits Barbara Shelley, the widow of the last guy to write the Promethea comic book. However, Sophie gets a big time brush off and the following advice from Barabara: "You don't wanna go looking for folklore. And you especially don't want folklore to come looking for you."
There is something of misdirection to this advice, not only because it is too late for Sophie, who is going to become the new "host" for Promethea, but also because ultimately Moore is not really writing about folklore here but about the female super hero. Ignoring the cautionary warning, Bangs continues her studies and is almost killed by a shadowy creature (Smee) when she learns the secret of Promethea. Surviving the encounter, Sophie soon finds herself transformed into Promethea, a living story of many icarnations and the human embodiment of the reality of imagination. Her incarnation has hardly begun when she must perforce master the secrets of her predecessors before she is destroyed by several of Promethea's ancient enemies.
Moore forges a stunning substitute world dominated by scientistic ideas with a nod to superheroes With the Five Swell Science Guys representing classic comic vigilantism. Most graphic novel readers find the exploration of the inner world of cosmogonic imagination (Immateria) a bit dull and lacking the easy conflict of good versus evil, that often drives the action and narrative drive. However we tarotists should find a careful reading and appreciation of the visual clues useful reminders of profound tarot meanings and, I suggest even suggests some original ones that have been not thoroughly commented upon before.
The first three stories deal with Sophie getting indoctrinated into the ways of Promethea, although there are always more questions than answers. Meanwhile the city's resident superheroes, the Five Swell Guys, are dealing with their arch-enemy the Painted Doll. But in issue #4, "A Faerie Romance," Moore adds a great conceit to the mix, as the various incarnations of Promethea sit around in the Immateria discussing the newcomer. The idea of the archetype becomes reinforced, not by going back to the beginning, but rather by showing how each generation has had a Promethea it could call its own. This is where the series slips into the high gear and exhibits visionary promise.
Promethea (Book 2) by Alan Moore, J. H. Williams III, Mick Gray, and Jose Villarrubia (Wildstorm) This collection follows Sophie Bangs, the latest in a long line of Prometheas, on a winding journey of discovery as she continues to learn the secrets of the Immateria and the nature of her enhanced self herself. Her transcendental adventure brings young Sophie to realms of magic and wonder that none have experienced before. Collecting issues #7-12, this book contains such fan-favorite stories as "Rocks and Hard Places," where Sophie learns about the Promethea named Bill, and "Sex, Stars, and Serpents," where Sophie learns first-hand the nature of Tantric sex magick, from a skid row denizen named Jack Faust (nothing is explicitly shown but boobies), with a discussion of the theory and practice of magical symbolism and chakras that eventually leads to a priceless last-page joke.
One entire chapter in this volume is given over to an exploration of humanity's history through the metaphor of a modified tarot deck, as told by the snakes on Promethea's caduceus, Mike and Mack (Micro and Macro - who speak in rhyming quatrains of iambic pentameter, flawlessly, each keeping his recognizable viewpoint towards either the big picture or the minutiae). Along the bottom of each page is both an anagram of Promethea's name that is pertinent to that page's content, and a serialized joke whose phrases again echo and reinforce the other three threads on each page.
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