dodalisque: Edward Gorey's Fantod Pack

[dodalisque]

Oct. 31st, Halloween, falls on Saturday, the final day for this week's readings, at Full Moon, no less, for the first time since 1944. Spooky. It's also a Blue Moon, the second Full Moon this month - the first was on Oct. 1st. So I thought I would use Edward Gorey's "The Fantod Pack" (Pomegranate, 2007), a sort of dark, spoof tarot/oracle, which has just 20 cards. I can show you the entire deck by doing four 5 card readings in the days leading up to Halloween. The full moon shown in the picture is my crystal ball, a polished 4 inch diameter sphere of a type of crystal known as "phantom quartz". Phantom...Fantod.

A fantod is the name given to an affable Gorey creature like a miniature dragon that crops up occasionally in a variety of contexts without explanation. The creature balanced on the unicycle (Wheel of Fortune?) on the box and the cardback is called Figbash. Webster's dictionary defines a fantod as "a state or attack of uneasiness or unreasonableness". A tod is "a bushy mass of foliage, especially ivy" or "an English unit of weight, chiefly for wool, commonly equal to 28 pounds (12.7 kilograms) but varying locally". "Tod" is also the German word for "death".

I will use 5 card spreads because 5 is a significant number at this time of year: on the qabalistic Tree of Life the 5th sephiroth is Geburah, also known as Severity, "the left hand of God", the essence of judgement and limitation. This is why the 5s in the Rider-Waite deck and others using the Golden Dawn system are generally dark or unlucky cards.

The card shown on the bottom left is The Black Doll, a combination of the un-numbered Fool and the untitled Arcanum XIII ("Death"). In the Tarot de Marseille, the Fool and the skeleton on Death are virtually identical figures, which suggests that Gorey probably knows more about the tarot than he lets on. The Black Doll appears as an unlucky totem in several of Gorey's books - a child's doll without arms, incapable of returning affection, without ears, eyes or mouth.

Everyone by now must be familiar with the work of Edward Gorey (1925 - 2000). He is an illustrator from New York whose eccentric tiny stories, laden with Edwardian gloom, are his own unique Absurdist blend of Edward Lear, Agatha Christie, and Samuel Beckett. In the LWB that comes with the deck the suggested meanings for each card are deliberately puzzling and inconsistent, seemingly unrelated to, or very, very distantly related to, the images on the cards.

For example, the meanings for The Child card are given as "sties/hallucinations/September/denigration/sexual inadequacy/breakage/rust/crawling sickness/forced restraint/catarrh". I take this to be a parody of some of the peculiar fortune-telling associations that have become attached over the years to certain cards, or perhaps how readers bend and stretch cards to fit the story they want to tell. All of the suggested meanings for all of the cards are depressing or unpleasant and we will probably ignore them. But all the same, it would be shocking if these readings for Halloween did not lean toward the dark side, into the unwholesome realm of fancies, fears and failures.

[dodalisque]

The Blue Dog/The Ancestor/The Burning Head/The Insects/The Plant

The Blue Dog speaks:
"Welcome to the entrance to the Underworld. My name is Cerberus, Guardian of the Gates of Hell, Sentinel of the Secret Realm, Warden of the World of Shadow, Defender of the Dark, Concierge of the Collective Unconscious. Don't be alarmed. Of course, like the Lion on the tarot Strength (XI) card, if you try to bully your way past me I will rip you to pieces, but I am easily mollified. If you offer me a biscuit or a piece of honey cake or scratch me behind the ears, I'll be happy to let you in. I know it's always cold up there in the real world but I think you will find it's good and toasty down here, so you probably won't need that coat. And I will ask you to please leave your Ego at the door."

As soon as I remove my unnecessary coat and face, my intuition immediately bursts into flame and becomes a torch to light my way through the dark. The Insects seem happy to see me, almost as if they were cheering and applauding. They look like waiters in a restaurant welcoming me to a feast in my honour, or like parents celebrating the return of their long lost child. The flower and the roots of The Plant are identical, fulfilling the Hermetic maxim: As above, so below. The Insects card and The Plant are full of energy, waving their limbs and leaves about. The cards seem to be advising me that in the coming year regular trips to the Underworld will do me good.

[dodalisque]

The Tunnel/The Bottle/The Feather/The Waltzing Mouse/The Bundle

The seemingly frightening, claustrophobic, dark tunnel carries with it a promise of light and release at the other end. Contrariwise, in the bottle, light is everywhere and we see with great clarity but we are trapped. As in yesterday's reading the darkness of the unconscious is a positive whereas the light of the conscious mind is restricting. The Tunnel is like a birth canal and the bottle like a womb.

Feathers are for tickling and laughter. If the woman in the middle card puts the feather into the bottle, that poor little creature will be able to climb up it and escape. So humour is important. The feather in the bottle would look like the TdM Tower card, La Maison Dieu (XVI). Jokes can be liberating.

So as to be sure that we get the message, The Waltzing Mouse and The Bundle simply repeat what is said by The Tunnel and The Bottle. The ocean is vast and the person tied up in the bundle can hear the wind and the waves, but The Bundle can't swim, so it is like the little creature trapped in The Bottle. The table is as small as the Tunnel is narrow, but The Waltzing Mouse can skip and prance to his heart's content. Like Shakespeare's Hamlet the mouse seems to say, "O God, I could be bounded in a nutshell and count myself a king of infinite space" (act II, sc. ii).

It might be argued that The Bundle looks more like a nutshell than the mouse's table, but the point is that The Waltzing Mouse is nearer to The Feather, and so has the correct light-hearted attitude toward the inevitable limitations of life on the material plane.

[fire cat pickles]

Is this open for others to join? If we have the Fantod, I mean...

[dodalisque]

Is this open for others to join? If we have the Fantod, I mean...

Sure, that would be great. Did you want to offer alternative readings of the cards I pick or draw your own? I don't mind either way. Always good to meet another Gorey fan.

[fire cat pickles]

I am! I've actually been to the Gorey house!

I will dig out my Fantod tonight and be ready tomorrow.

We can alternate storytelling like you've started if you'd like. It's very much in the spirit of Halloween.

[dodalisque]

I am! I've actually been to the Gorey house!

I'm pretty envious. I have that book about it called "Elephant House" but even those lovely photographs can't substitute for actually being there. I happened to be visiting the home of his publishers, the Gotham Book Mart in New York, not long after Gorey died and the store was full of his cats. They looked exactly like his drawings of them. My own favorite work of his is "[The Untitled Book]", but there's nothing of his I don't like. My first exposure was back in '76. I was (still am) a huge fan of the American jazz pianist/arranger Carla Bley and I had just bought an album by her husband on which she played, "The Hapless Child and Other Gorey Stories". The music was pretty horrible but after reading the lyrics by Gorey I was immediately hooked.

[fire cat pickles]

I think they had to moved the cats out before I went, though you could still smell them. My understanding is that most of the cats were adopted out. Gorey was obsessed with natural round rocks that he found on the beaches on the Cape. They were all over the house.

[fire cat pickles]

Not an easy deck to figure out but a way to stretch my intuitive wings! I am using the spread from Gorey’s LWB. I am including the meanings included though not using them (really, well, maybe just a little…)

On top of the world me, careers three. Heart of stone as the career firefighter, volunteer firefighter and teacher. Just recently moved back to my teaching career in the better interest of retirement—calling this “a distasteful duty” is a bit harsh, I’m rather enjoying it for now although the micromanaging is a bit ridiculous. The little mouse dances on top of the table, taking any crumbs he can get. Is this the best I can do? I had missed teaching though I’m being offered a firefighting job at half the pay as my teaching position, and it’s very tempting. I went back to teaching because of retirement, working until I’m almost 70 as a teacher is far better than doing the same as a firefighter, a no-brainer, “involuntary seclusions”. But what’s under the tablecloth? Therein lies the temptation. This is a “the grass is always greener” card. More crumbs or a big piece of ham? Maybe it’s better to be happy and poor? I plan on going back to firefighting during summer break (this station) as PRN when they create the job posting though won’t be available until the July 31st budget season. Cold stones in the Present, a monolithic life, bureaucracy; or a return to the Past, the happy mouse playing while the cat’s away, always looking forward to what’s under the table—a life of danger (sometimes) or a (trick or) treat? Perhaps I need to look to the “Inner-Self”: The Bottle, which could be my totem card as someone with seasonal depression. “December, melancholia, unfortunate publicity, loss of feeling, vexation, abandonment, frustrated hopes”, a lot to unpack here. And the weird little creature with the face of a human trapped in the bottle brings up more questions than answers. I didn’t really expect this deck to hit so close to home for me today. As we move into the fire season, and as I am spending more time at my “old” station, this homesickness kicks in. Looking to my inner-self requires soul-searching. The little creature is in a position to do only this: peer within as it is trapped inside. Know thyself. Once I do this (not that this is ever completed) understanding of the Outer World is a bit easier: The Ancestor… “hereditary weakness, loss of money, morbid dependency”. Loss of money is no mystery. If I go back it would be a substantial pay cut. The morbid dependency is my addiction to adrenaline. Hereditary weakness may seem like a joke to some, but it actually makes sense, as my family has been in this area for hundreds of years. This is my ancestral home. It’s as if I’m drawn to be there. Is it destiny? Is it my vocation, my calling? Do I stay or do I go? So many more questions than answers…. What does the Future hold? The Urn… “a broken heart, broken communications, injustice, interference, miscalculation” seems on par. But in which career? The present one or the past? The firefighting job will be there later. For now I’m teaching. This card is not a card I’d take as “pack your bags”. This is a “you’re ok where you are” card. The association with an urn with fire and ashes is a bit of a concern. Is it a warning?

[dodalisque]

The Effigy/The Limb/The Child/The Urn/The Écorché

This reading must have something to do with my parents, who are represented by the tall grown-ups on the two outside cards of the spread. The Effigy is wearing a sort of dress so must be my mom, and the dapper gent in the top hat striking an athletic pose must be dad. The Effigy has extra-long arms, which are useful for hugging, while the man has his hands tucked away safely behind his back, which sounds about right. Écorché means "skinned" or "flayed", but has a secondary meaning of "gibberish". Like the Hanged Man, who also has his hands behind his back, he's been tortured but seems quite calm about the whole thing. Both of them died about 15 years ago but maybe they are paying me a visit this Halloween. I must be The Child in the middle card. You can see the family likeness. I have my mom's eyes and my dad's physique.

The other two cards, The Limb and The Urn, must explain why they might be paying me a visit. Oh, I see. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic the bookstore where I have worked for a long time is being forced to close and I'm going to be out of a job. The Limb must be my means of support, the leg I don't have to stand on. The Urn...yes, how am I going to "earn" a living now? My job ends on Dec. 1st and at the age of 66 and no savings to speak of I'm wondering how I'm going to survive. My finances are down to the bare bones. I guess the concerned spirits of my parents are going to continue to take care of me from "the other side", to pull some occult strings and arrange for a new Limb and Urn.

[dodalisque]

The Ladder/[The Black Doll]/The Stones/The Sea/The Yellow Bird

Happy Halloween everyone! These cards immediately make me think of the tarot itself. Perhaps on Halloween the Fantod Pack is having the last word and claiming for itself the same divinatory status as more famous tarot decks. Or perhaps it is recommending that I might find useful solace in the months to come in the world of tarot.

The Ladder is like the Major Arcana: a progressive numbered sequence that presents a symbolic model of how to climb the spiritual ladder. We learn how to transcend our previous limitations in the same way that the top of the ladder extends beyond the upper frame of the card. This must be a spiritual ladder because an ordinary ladder in the material world needs to be anchored to the ground.

The Black Doll looks like something that has been burned, which makes me think of the Minor suit associated with the element of Fire (Wands). Also, Wands are made of wood and The Black Doll looks like a clothes-pin. (Clothes-pin --> laundry --> purification?) The Stones make me think of the element of Earth (Coins), perhaps even of Stonehenge and Druidic pentacles. The Sea, of course, is Water (Cups). The Yellow Bird is Air (Swords). Its beak even looks like the tip of a sword. The bird doesn't seem to have wings but is still managing to fly, unless the wind driving the branches to the right, toward the future, is carrying the bird with it. This final word of advice might be just to relax and "go with the flow".

I find that length of string hanging on grimly to the bottom rung of the ladder quite poignant. But in some ways it is an optimistic image. The string is long enough to reach the next rung and haul itself higher.

[dodalisque]

Not an easy deck to figure out but a way to stretch my intuitive wings!

But what’s under the tablecloth? Therein lies the temptation. This is a “the grass is always greener” card.

The Ancestor… This is my ancestral home. It’s as if I’m drawn to be there. Is it destiny? Is it my vocation, my calling? Do I stay or do I go?

The Urn… This card is not a card I’d take as “pack your bags”. This is a “you’re ok where you are” card. The association with an urn with fire and ashes is a bit of a concern. Is it a warning?

Very nice. You seemed to surprise yourself with how personal the reading became. Maybe the dark depressive Gorey images make us approach the cards with an attitude of seriousness, and maybe encourage us to think of sombre things like matters of life and death. Like you, I was a bit worried at first about trying to read with this deck. The images didn't seem to have any "juice", too simple, not enough elements to provide a variety of possible interpretations. But like you I found that, though minimalist, they had enough going on to stimulate a stream of association. But I have seen Enrique Enriquez in the movie "Tarology" tell fortunes very convincingly with a handful of salt/pepper/vinegar/ketchup packages on a restaurant tabletop, and by interpreting the relationship between variable color tones of bricks in a wall. So I suppose pretty much anything can suggest metaphors for divination if we look closely enough. And I suppose at first glance there is more to go on in the Fantod Pack than in the TdM pip cards.

Are you seriously telling me that you are at retirement age and still working as a fireman?! If you are one of those kick-hungry thrill-seekers, does that mean the Crowley Thoth deck is your favourite deck?

[fire cat pickles]

Although I am no EE fan, I can see his point in being able to tell fortunes in a grain of rice, so to speak. He certainly wasn't the originator of the idea...

I was a career fireman, having gone into that profession for almost three years after teaching for nearly 15. I decided to go back to teaching for retirement reasons, for the very reason you mention--my retirement age. Thrill-seeking really isn't my thing. It really is about serving the community, as I volunteer as a firefighter currently, that, and a healthy sense of the macabre.

[fire cat pickles]

The fire and ashes in the Urn from yesterday is closed up tight and neat in the Bundle today. I’ve even gone so far as to dusted it off with the Feather. I had made my decision last night before bed, to stay put after my return to the teaching profession. The chandelier above my head is rather precarious, as if it could fall at any second, though: The guidebook gives the keyword “imbroglios”−potentially embarrassing situations. Perhaps this means I need to keep this decision to myself. I shouldn’t let others know it’s a “no” (returning to career firefighting) just yet. String them along. To add, there is string there tying up the Urn, after all. No need to burn bridges (there’s that “burning” motif again); after all, I may be hitting them up for that PRN this summer. The Bundle is in a precarious position on the edge of the table, as well. Let’s play off of the LWB meaning from yesterday, shall we? “The Ancestor” (in the Outer World position), and its “unstable furniture” meaning that it carried, cannot be ignored. This serves as a reiteration that I need to stay put for now. I cannot see myself working in a manual labor job until nearly 70 years old lest I end up in an urn myself! The hinge card is itself the Urn, tidied up in a nice little bundle, a nice book-ended wrap-up to yesterday’s reading, a confirmation what I suspected after a good night’s sleep, ‘twas the correct decision made for me, what is meant to be will be.