TAROT RULES in SUSAN WANDS' Arcana Oracle fantasy series. In book 3, EMPEROR AND HIEROPHANT must master themselves for the survival of the natural world.

 

In Magician and Fool, the first book of Susan Wands’ Arcana Oracle Series, the Golden Dawn organization’s main purpose was to acquire magical knowledge. The Victorian era of science and invention included magic as a field of exploration for educated young men. They wanted to harness the forces of nature through hidden knowledge. In reality, there was a historical Golden Dawn organization. And magical knowledge, in Wands’ fantasy novels, creates forces that shapes the fates of historical characters, in theater, art, and politics. 

For them to succeed in Emperor and Hierophant, book three of the Arcana Oracle Series, they must go beyond their mastery of magical knowledge to become masters of themselves. In this novel, Pamela Coleman Smith is on tour with the Lyceum Theatre in Manchester, England, when she is suddenly kidnapped by a mysterious force and incarcerated in a stone prison. When she learns that Henry, the director and leading light of The Lyceum, is struck down with a mysterious illness, she realizes she must escape before more of her friends are hurt. Behind her abduction and Henry’s illness, are hints of renegade magician, Aleister Crowley, who takes her inspired tarot deck as a challenge to his magical authority.

Mysteriously, Pamela’s friends are linked into archetypes of the Tarot cards she is making. Meanwhile, her friends, Lyceum’s manager and Pamela’s mentors Bram Stoker and Ahmed Kamal, the Egyptology expert, who introduced her to Tarot decks, set about her rescue–challenged by Crowley. Will they find her in time?  Will she be able to fight such a battle–At stake is the survival of the natural world. And there is of course, a peculiar alligator. 

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TAROT FACTS

M Pamela Coleman Smith (1878-1951) is the artist who created the famous Rider-Waite tarot deck, perhaps the most used in the world. Her inspired designs are on display in the collection at NYC’s Whitney Museum of Art, as are her colored prints of ocean waves with female spirits. The real Coleman Smith attended Pratt School of Art, was a designer-illustrator, performer of folk tales, and an “empath.” 

The Rider-Waite Tarot, a wildly popular deck for tarot reading, was first published by William Rider & Son in 1909, based on the instructions of academic and mystic A.E.Waite and illustrated by Pamela Colman Smith. Both were members of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, who recognized “The cards’ ability to encourage people to encounter their own personal truths–especially in times of crisis.”

The oldest surviving tarot cards are 15 or so of the Visconti-Storza Tarot, painted in the mid-15th century for the rulers of the Duchy of Milan. In the first book in Wands’ series, Magician and Fool, Pamela is introduced to tarot decks, such as this one, as part of her education.

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PREVIOUS BOOKS IN THE ARCANA ORACLE SERIES 

Is magic fantasy, theory, science or lunacy? I was entranced by Magician and Fool, the first fantasy novel in Susan Wands’ Arcana Oracle Series (Spark Press.) I recently finished High Priestess and Empress (April, 2024), the second novel and looked forward to the third. Though not a regular reader of fantasy novels, nor ones about magic, I found the history, characters and sheer imaginative leaps enjoyable in this work. The series, projected to cover the creation of the entire tarot deck, is a challenge. But history is the bedrock for this series, which enriches the fantasy with depth and plausibility. Then there’s the characters, who would be fascinating in any time. 

It was easy to accept Pamela’s “second sight” in Magician and Fool, because it’s part of the history of this artist. The fantasy novel begins with Pamela Coleman Smith’s growing up in America, where she has paranormal experiences.  Her older friend and guiding light in childhood is Maud Gonne, a historical figure in the Irish Revolution. Pamela’s education begins in learning to understand the “hidden” world.

In Victorian London (1837-1901), magic was an art, as well as a science. The Order of the Golden Dawn was a secret society devoted to the study and practice of occult Hermeticism (Hermes and the Egyptian God Thoth). Theurgy (evocation of deities) was practiced in Great Britain. In the U.S., Wicca and other practices of spiritual development were inspired by the Golden Dawn. In Magician and Fool, the Golden Dawn’s main acquisition of magical knowledge, was part of the Victorian era’s fascination with science and invention. Magic was considered a field of exploration for educated young men, interested in harnessing the forces of nature through hidden forces. In this fantasy novel, magical forces shape the fates of historical characters, in theater, art, and politics.  

As part of the Golden Dawn, Aleister Crowley, a historic occultist and writer, is the “dark magician” to Pamela’s light. In the first novel, the objective of the Golden Dawn group was not to become magicians but to gain access to paranormal power. Only Crowley wished to be a god. The others seemed to assume that as higher beings (aristocrats) they were destined to responsibly manage such power. Yet these educated men had problems sharing it with the talented women who joined the group with different objectives.  

In America in the 1960s, Crowley’s writings were rediscovered as a supposed means to manipulate underlying reality. In Book 2, High Priestess and Empress, the fictional Crowley proves dangerous for Pamela and other gifted women. When he decides to bring the Egyptian God Horus to his time, he views Pamela as a threat. Having found her power in Magician and Fool, and completed two cards, she has interfered with his plans. A battle grows with her increased ability to use magic and faith in her own power. Though vulnerable and less experienced, the Pamela in High Priestess and Empress must address the day-to-day difficulties of an expanded consciousness. Clashes of her extraordinary abilities with Crowley’s enmity means constant conflict. 

Francis Farr, an important member of the Golden Dawn in High Priestess and Empress, is both balanced and fearless about her learning and abilities. Farr wants to literally see the language behind physical reality. For Ellen Terry, an ageless theater icon, magic’s purpose is to disperse love to all she finds dear and necessary. A dramatic figure of huge force, Terry finds emotion and justice in work, family, and her unconventional partnership with Henry Irving. And he, both aware of his power, yet unaware in a time of enterprising actor-managers, is able to help Pamela. The amazingly handsome and courageous William Terriss, and Bram Stocker’s generosity round-out Pamela’s protectors. Engaged with the monstrous Crowley, her battle needs such friends.  

The biggest invention in these fantasy novels may be that they allow readers to experience magic as a tangible force in the world. I applaud how Wands ties together both Crowley’s “will to power” harnessing a god and Pamela’s scrying in a Church, both create spiritual and worldly results.  In our era of technology, many people wonder what forces will triumph to what end? 

Literature is a safe battleground to play out such questions. Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein poses questions we might ask about AI–Is it possible to control machines who aren’t human? And our environmental crises ask the big question of intent. Suppose our instincts to transcend death didn’t focus on amassing as much wealth as possible, weapons of mass destruction, and subjugating nations with eternal warfare? Could human existence focus on serving the planet that allows us to exist?

For that answer, we may need more imagination.  Wands’ Arcana Oracle series shows history shaped by such forces. I recommend, for the fun of it, you read these magical novels. 

S.W.

Susan Wands is a writer, tarot reader, and actor. A co-chair with the NYC Chapter of the Historical Novel Society, she helps produce monthly online book launches and author panels. Magician and Fool, Book One Major Arcana Series, Susan’s first novel in a series based on the tarot artist Pamela Colman Smith, was published by SparkPress in May 2023, and won the Gold Medal in Visionary and New Age Fiction from the IPPY Awards, and the Gold Medal in Visionary from the Independent Book Awards. The second book, High Priestess and Empress, was published in May 2024, and Emperor and Hierophant, the third book in the series, will be published in May 2025.

Source: https://notanotherbookreview.blogspot.com/2025/05/tarot-rules-in-susan-wands-arcana.html