2.19.24

From Lord Peter Wimsey to 17th-century Japan, by way of serendipity . . .

Welcome everyone—and especially, new readers.

We’ll start out today with a practical idea, then go on to a serendipitous journey spanning centuries and cultures.

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An Experiment

There are a gazillion planner products and productivity systems out there (trust me, I know), but most are variations of a few now-familiar strategies. And in my view, they all lack the scope and inventiveness to work well for highly creative/imaginative/intuitive folks.

So I’ve been inventing my own approach. Approaches, actually. And I’m bundling them into a new Substack called Art of the List. It won’t be ready for a while—but along the way, I’ve come up with a Tarot twist on one idea I got from productivity guru Shawn Blanc.

Although his very detailed, all-encompassing system (The Focus Course) is not a good fit for me, one of his ideas really resonated. He makes a practice of writing at the end of the day his focus (or primary task) for the following day. He puts it on a simple card, and leaves it where he will see it first thing.

I’ve been road-testing the practice, and it’s really useful—in part because it allows tomorrow’s focus to bubble in your unconscious overnight. Last night, my first-thing focus was to write an EP post. And sure enough, I woke up with a Tarot spin on the “focus card” concept.

Simple enough: Just pick a Tarot card at the end of the day, and put it where you’ll see it first thing the next morning. But don’t look at it until then. Put it face down and turn it over after you’ve looked at the “focus card.”

I’m going to experiment with this idea over the next week or so, and I’ll let you know how it goes. You might want to start your own experiment as well, and share your findings here on EP.

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Following The Fool

I came across two allusions to The Fool in the past week. Both were somewhat unlikely, but in different ways.

First: As a long-time fan of Dorothy Sayers’ Lord Peter Wimsey mysteries, I was totally surprised to see one of them listed in this post: Five Speculative Fiction Books Featuring Tarot. Here’s the commentary . . .

Tarot does not appear directly in the narrative, but some of the major arcana resonate both with the novel’s themes and the themes of the series overall. Sayers’ eighth Lord Peter Wimsey mystery is based on her experiences working in the advertising industry: to catch a murderer, Peter spends almost the whole book undercover, working in an advertising office as Death Bredon. During his investigation, he repeatedly encounters a dissolute group of “bright young things” led by the aristocratic Dian de Momerie, who is usually high out of her mind.

Dian’s ravings about seeing a “hanged man” behind Peter point to the major arcana: she herself can be taken as the Moon, while Peter—in costume as the Harlequin—resonates with the Fool, the protagonist of the major arcana as well as of the novel. On top of that, Peter is closely associated with three cards that follow each other in many decks: Justice, the Hanged Man, and Death.

One of Lord Peter’s several names is indeed “Death,” though it’s pronounced with two syllables: Dee-ath. And he does indeed dress up as a Harlequin for a costume party.

It’s even possible that Sayers had knowledge of the Tarot—in academic life she was a specialist in medieval history, and produced a very fine translation of Dante’s Divine Comedy. When I asked ChatGPT to look for any evidence along these lines, “they” came up instead with this inventive hypothetical:

One notable commentary that discusses these connections is likely to be "The Tarot of Dorothy L. Sayers" by an expert in symbolic literature analysis or tarot studies.

In this commentary, the author may explore the subtle references and symbolic parallels between Sayers's works, particularly "The Nine Tailors," and the imagery and themes found in tarot cards. By examining the intersections of Sayers' narrative techniques and tarot symbolism, the commentary could offer insights into how Sayers utilized esoteric elements to deepen the thematic resonance of her stories.

Honestly—I never get bored with AI! And I’d love for someone to write that imaginary book.

Meantime, I’m going to follow up soon with notes on several other books I found in the Speculative Fiction/Tarot post—not in the list of five, but in the suggestions offered by quite a few commenters. Most I wasn’t aware of, including a Young Adult series I’d love to read.

Second: An allusion to The Fool came into my Inbox—but this one is purely my own interpretation. I noticed it in the first paragraph of “The Victim,” by Jun'ichirō Tanizaki. This 1910 short story is among the oldest items in The Paris Review archives, and was unlocked in last week’s Sunday newsletter.

You can read it there, or even listen to a reading by George Takei. But let me warn you—it’s strange and disturbing. Beautifully written, though. And it begins this way:

I was taken by this passage because it highlights the enduring, cross-cultural significance of archetypes we find in Tarot’s Major Arcana. That time when the occupation of clown (Fool + Magician) was “held in high esteem” appears to have been the Edo Period, which began in 1603—the same time Shakespeare was including Fools in several of his plays.

And of course I wondered whether there were playing cards in Japan during that period. Absolutely! They had arrived a bit earlier, in the 16th century—around the same time our painted Tarots first appeared. Playing cards were brought by Portuguese traders and adapted into a Japanese version called kurata. One of the most popular games played with cards was . . .

Uta Karuta, a game where the players try to match a reading of a poem being read out loud with the corresponding card featuring the second half of that poem. This game is often played using classical Japanese poems called "waka."

I’m just delighted by this idea—and by the fact that competitive Uta Karuta is still played today!

In the 17th century, another charming card deck became quite popular in Japan: Hanafuda, or “flower cards.” It’s composed of four suits, that . . .

bear no numbers or symbols, except for the flower pictures, to signify suit and rank. In most suits the first two cards show only a plain representation of the identifying flower and are worth one point. The suit’s third-ranking card adds a tanzaku, a picture of a sheet of paper for poetry writing, and is worth five points. The top card in each suit shows the flower, to which is added a picture of some animal, bird, evidence of mankind, or the Moon. These high cards are worth either 10 or 20 points. (Britannica)

Here again—an association between playing cards and poetry. Which of course puts me in mind of several EP posts about Tarot and poets. So . . .

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Today’s Flashback

While looking for something else related to Tarot and poetry, I came across a nice article on the site for a publication titled Arcana: The Tarot Poetry Anthology. Like so many Tarot blogs, this one is no longer active—but the content is still browsable, so thought I’d mention.

Now for the main event:

This is an impressive 59-slide PowerPoint deck produced by Sorensen and posted some years ago on SlidePlayer. You can see the whole presentation there—but to pique your interest, here’s a selection of slides. First, the introduction:

And here’s a representative sequence:

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That’s just part of the original post—I’ll share the rest another time.

A couple of EP announcements will be arriving in your Inbox this week. And til then, thanks for reading! C