Kirlian Quest

  "Let's do it as you describe it," Brother Paul said. An object appeared in his hand, and he offered this to Herald.

  Herald glanced in perplexity. /What is this?/

  "Why, the Cluster Tarot deck, as I understand it. Did I misconstrue your intent?"

  Suddenly Herald caught on. /Oh, an archaic physical deck! We don't use those antiques anymore./ But as he spoke, he remembered that in special circumstances they were used. He had used stone picture cards to treat the Ast child, Smallbore of Metamorphic.

  "What, then, do you use?" Brother Paul inquired mildly, his deck disappearing from his hand.

  /We use the Cluster cube./ Herald lifted one tentacle, and a cube appeared in its coil. Abruptly he wondered whether the cubes of the Ancients could be related to this. No, that was too fantastic. Had the Ancients had Tarot, it would have been a completely alien Tarot, unrecognizable to today's minds. /One face per mode, discounting the bottom. For the actual reading, the Significator is set on the bottom, and the five others are—/

  Brother Paul raised one limb in a protest like a benediction. "Please, this modern technology is beyond my comfort. Will you not oblige an animated anachronism by using the old-style cards?"

  /Actually, this whole set is animation,/ Herald pointed out. /I can't even be sure I'm in my own body; it could be merely another animation. So we don't need to use a deck at all./

  Brother Paul produced the cards again. "Still, friend, humor me."

  Herald flashed acceptance. /You must shuffle for me, Brother. I am not facile with such artifacts./ Artifact... what would some culture three million years hence make of a Tarot cube? They might assume it was a form of food.

  "But you must shuffle, or it is not your reading. Your touch must arrange the cards for the dealing."

  /Since you are my animation, your shuffle is my shuffle./

  The Solarian showed his teeth. "You have a cynical alien mind, Slash! Are you sure you require therapy?"

  /I require my bride!/ Herald flashed with sudden pain.

  "It is possible to marry other than flesh and blood. Your bride could be a Holy Order. You could give your life utterly to God."

  /Shuffle, Man of God!/

  Brother Paul shrugged and shuffled, rifling the cards through his human hands and fingers with remarkable expertise. "Now... five piles?"

  /Yes. They signify DO, THINK, FEEL, HAVE, and BE./

  Brother Paul dealt them out, placing five cards in a row on the table that appeared magically before him, then layering five more on top of these, building up the piles. "I do not quarrel with your interpretations, but I find them somewhat abstract. Might the five piles equate, on a lowbrow level, to the more conventional WORK, TROUBLE, LOVE, MONEY, and—would that last be SPIRIT?"

  /AURA, really. They're allied. Take religion from spirit, and you have aura. But surely you know that, since you invented the Cluster deck, and these are mere aspects of the root-meanings of the suits./

  "I fear my perspective differs, and perhaps my motive." Brother Paul looked down at the completed piles. "I presume the next step is to locate your Significator?"

  /The King of Aura,/ Herald agreed. /Aura is the Suit of Artistry, and I am a heraldic artisan. But I am also the most intense aura of the contemporary scene, so I qualify on that basis too./

  "The most intense aura of all time, as I understand it," Brother Paul said.

  /I need no animation-figure to flatter what nature gave me!/ Herald flashed irritably. /And it isn't true. My bride, Psyche, was the most intense aura, at the time of her enhancement. And for all we know, you were higher than I, since you existed before Solarians measured aura. The historical analysts assigned you a figure of two hundred, but that could be conservative./

  "Or generous. In any event, to no point, since I am long gone. Were I searching for historical figures to whom to assign leading auras, I would certainly consider THE figure, the ultimate Healer of them all."

  /Who?/ Herald asked, curious. He had not realized that there was, or could conceivably be, any entity to whom the Patriarch looked up to.

  "Jesus Christ, the Son of God."

  For a moment Herald was at a loss. Then he located an obscure recollection. /Oh, you mean the prophet of an archaic Solarian religion. There is a footnote on him in the Temple background survey course, and I believe some of the Tarot symbols are related./

  Brother Paul smiled, shaking his head in apparent wonder. "Viewpoints certainly do differ! Were you aware that He often healed the sick and dying by the mere laying on of hands?"

  /I do that,/ Herald said. /It is the manner of Kirlian healing./

  "Could you raise the dead?"

  /No. But I doubt there would be much point, after the brain decayed. And I can't heal all the ill, for some ailments are purely physical. But if your Christ did these things, it only means he had a stronger aura than I do. There would not be any qualitative distinction./

  "No qualitative distinction!" the Solarian cried. But he calmed himself. "I think we had better get on with the business at hand. Here is the King of Aura, in Pile Two, Trouble."

  /Or Pile THINK, in my vernacular. That is an in omen for the reading; my problem is FEEL./

  "Perhaps the Tarot is telling you that the solution lies in your thinking rather than in your emotion."

  /It is all an infernal superstition,/ Herald grumbled. /Thinking will not bring Psyche back, and I do not care to forget her./

  "We can at least explore the possibilities."

  /If we must. The Significator face is at the bottom facet of the cube, and the Problem Definition on the top facet. How this adapts to a physical layout—/ He paused. /Without the cube, I am not certain how—/

  "Oh, we can adapt it," Brother Paul said. "I shall place the Significator card here, and cross it with Definition. We do deal the cards in order following the King of Aura, as they appear in the pile?"

  /I suppose so. It is so hard to translate. The Tarot cube normally forms the whole display./

  "It strikes me that you moderns have been spoiled by your technology. Tarot is not a thing to be assimilated from a platter. You must interact with it, your physical contact with the cards imbuing them with your personality. Only then can it work for you and give a true reading rather than a random collection of pictures." He studied the table and the cube that Herald had made appear. "We can lay down the remaining four cards in clockwise rotation, South, West, North, East, representing the four sides of your cube. The topology will be the same."

  /I don't comprehend how—/

  "Like this." And Brother Paul placed the cards, face down, a mock up. "You might perceive the pattern as a cross, or the four directions of the compass—" He broke off, glancing at Herald. "But those are forgotten concepts to you, aren't they?"

  /How could they be?/ Herald asked sullenly. /Any concept you express has to be drawn from my own mind./

  "Perhaps. But the unconscious is a tremendous wilderness. That is what the Tarot taps, that vast reservoir of knowledge and conjecture that lies within each person. Tarot is a tool to bring out truth that may otherwise be suppressed by the conscious mind because it may be unpleasant." He paused again, reflectively. "Most unpleasant," he murmured.

  Herald felt a chill that was reminiscent of what he had felt on hearing the prediction of Smallbore of Metamorphic. /What happened to you, there on the Animation Planet?/ Herald, like sapients of the past two millennia, was quite curious about the mystical experience that had led to the creation of the famous Cluster deck.

  But Brother Paul only smiled enigmatically. What answer could he give? For he was a mere animation of Herald's mind, and the ultimate secret of Tarot was not there.

  Herald looked at the layout, and suddenly he saw that it did indeed duplicate the faces of the cube. It was as though the four sides had been spread out and detached, with the nether face half buried under the Definition card. Yes, this was after all comprehensible!

  "Now I presume the four outer cards represent Past,
Present, Future, and Destiny," Brother Paul said. "This is like a simplified Celtic layout, or a modified elemental one."

  /Celtic? Elemental?/

  "The Celtic was a very popular ten-card spread in my day, widely used for fortune-telling. It could hardly have derived from the ancient Celts, since they had faded from the scene long before the Tarot deck was created in the fourteenth century, despite what certain enthusiasts liked to claim. Legends of the great antiquity of Tarot abounded, but they seemed to be without substance. By 'elemental' I mean the classic Solarian elements, FIRE, AIR, WATER, and EARTH, not true elements at all by the definitions of science, but serviceable evocative composites equating to your DO, THINK, FEEL, and HAVE. Though of course you use five, not four, elements. As did the ancients."

  /The Ancients!/

  "I suspect we are on different tracks. My point is that this spread of yours is oriented on sets of five—five piles, five display cards, five suits—and so this is a very basic mechanism, like a distillation of the less precise mechanisms in use in my time. Tarot has indeed evolved."

  Herald considered. He had thought of Tarot as a tool, not an aspect of the fundamental nature of things, but realized that he was in the presence of an entity who took it very seriously. It hardly seemed to matter that this was itself a Tarot animation; the personality and perspective of Brother Paul was making itself felt. In this framework, the Solarian was real, and had to be treated as real. /Let's go ahead with the reading,/ he flashed. /It may have something for me after all./

  Brother Paul dealt out the cards, placing the Definition across the Significator, and the others clockwise around the outside, starting from the bottom. Now the layout had images, and possessed potential meaning. He contemplated it. "The King of Aura is defined by the Three of Aura, labeled Perspective. My, the meanings have changed since my day! However, this card is so appropriate it cannot be coincidental."

  /Nothing about this spread is coincidental!/

  Brother Paul smiled agreement. "Nothing about the Universe is coincidental. It is only our ignorance that makes things seem so. If we but understood the ways of God—"

  /Do you seek to proselytize?/

  "Oh, in the interest of knowledge and harmony— But I comprehend your objection. You do not wish to be burdened with my archaic concepts of religion, and certainly I do not wish to so burden you. We shall proceed with the reading." He glanced down. "Here below is the representation of the Past a card labeled Vision." He paused. "Ah, the vanity of the flesh! This is the card I developed, that caters to my overweening love of literature, which is the vision of imagination. A Fair Field Full of Folk."

  /What?/ Herald flashed.

  "See for yourself." Brother Paul waved one arm, and the vision formed about them, emerging from a dreamlike background of chaos. "There is the sun high in the east-tern sky," he said, his right hand pointing up. Sure enough, the bright orb became manifest, yellowish in the manner of Sol as spied from Earth. Herald had a private vision of that yellow entering the genetic makeup of the creatures of that system, and emerging as the hue of the hair of Psyche. "Reaching toward it up on the hill, is the Tower of Truth." And the magnificent tower formed, like as the central column of Kastle Kade—what truth lay beneath that edifice, had he but known in time!—its highest turrets illuminated by a direct beam of light. "Beneath it in the deep valley, is the Dungeon of Wrong." Brother Paul's left hand pointed down toward it, that crevasse whose horrors were half concealed by deep shadow. "Euphemisms for Heaven and Hell, of course. And between these extremes, the Fair Field Full of Folk, or the living people of the world, going about their business of making money, oblivious to all else. Only a few even look up to glimpse the prospect of Truth, or down to gain some hint of the abyss toward which they drift." And the teeming field of Solarians coalesced. "That's the setting for The Vision of Piers Plowman, an epic poem dating from the time of the origin of Tarot, written in several versions between the yean 1362 and 1395 by William Langland of England."

  Herald studied the animation, impressed. /This is much the manner of the Cluster. The myriad species of the Spheres go about their pursuits heedless of the threat of extinction that looms so near./

  "Threat of extinction?"

  /The Amoeba. Without the science of the Ancients, we cannot hope to stand against it. The alien fleet will conquer the Cluster, and it shall be—hell./

  "So that was what brought you here! Concern for the peril to your society. This is the highest ethic."

  /No. I only want my Solarian bride back./ Herald flashed. Then he considered, shocked in another fashion. /Me—I am one of those self-centered sapients of the Field of Folk. I put my personal concern before the welfare of my Cluster!/

  "You have, indeed, been granted a vision," Brother Paul agreed.

  Herald spun his disks and writhed his sinuous torso thoughtfully. /My personal case is lost—but that of the Cluster is not. It behooves me to do whatever I can to salvage our civilization from the Amoeba./

  "And therein may lie also your personal salvation," Brother Paul murmured.

  /I doubt it. I think your Jesus Christ himself would have trouble restoring my Lady of Kade to life./

  "Yet He might do so, even now, were it part of God's design. I regret I do not know that design." Brother Paul looked at the layout again. "Here is the Present—the influences affecting your current situation. The Two of Aura, signifying..." He trailed off, staring at the card.

  /The Deuce of Aura signifies Aura,/ Herald flashed. /Two Atom ships, a magnetic formation, a minor space fleet./ The Tower and Valley receded, the Field of Folk dropping down to give the sky prominence, showing the fleet. /I am Aura, and so was my love, and so are the Ancients. All that I am is bound to Aura./

  The Solarian nodded his human head. "How well you comprehend. And here is the card of the Future, the Ten of Swords." Ten little blades rose out of the picture, flying up into the sky to join the Atom ships. "Signifying survival."

  /With science we can survive,/ Herald agreed. /Without it, we have no future./

  "And the final card, Destiny—this is the Ghost." And from the card swirled its image, expanding holographically to fill the scene: the vast mystery of deep space, the stars and the dust clouds, a pattern like that of primeval chaos.

  /The Great Unknown,/ Herald flashed. /The spread of Tarot has defined the problem very nicely, but it offers no solution./

  "What is that tentacular shape in the distance?" Brother Paul asked. He gestured, and a section of the animation expanded as though they were traveling at high multiples of the speed of light toward it.

  /Merely an extra-Galactic nebula,/ Herald said. /They are not uncommon, and they come in all configurations. There are specialists who study them, like my friend of Segment Weew—/ He froze, staring at the growing shape rushing toward them from the background of the Ghost animation. Its pseudopods reached forward three-dimensionally as though to grasp him personally. /The Amoeba!/

  "The Cluster threat?"

  /The enemy fleet, radiating out from its mattermission nucleus beyond Furnace, coming to destroy our civilization. That sent its ship to ray me down on Mars, and now comes for me again, even in my animations—Stop it!/

  Brother Paul put his hand over the card, and the looming image vanished. "Surely the reading need not end here, without solution," he protested. "Perhaps we have not posed the right question. Or we may need another reading. This one was from the pile of Thought, and it has certainly made us think; but if we—"

  /The spread can be augmented,/ Herald flashed. /That is what makes it versatile. Any aspect that is unclear can be subdefined by a satellite spread./

  "Oh, very nice! I did not realize this. Which card do you wish to subdefine?"

  /The Ghost, naturally. In the Amoeba lies our problem, and if we could only comprehend it, know its vulnerabilities..../ He let it trail away. /But that must be done last. Any satellites have to be launched in chronologic order. The background must be understood before the
solution comes./

  "Yes, that makes sense. I think I like this mode; it guides the querist well. The basic spread provides the essence; then it is refined as the needs of the querist dictate. For you, which card?"

  /The Past. Vision. Your Field of Folk is a pretty analogy, and it helps my perspective, but I am not sure we correctly read its import. Lay a definition card across it./

  Brother Paul crossed Vision with the next card from the pile. "Temperance," he said. And the full-bodied, bare-breasted Solarian female appeared before the starry background, pouring fluid from one cup to another. The pouring of the waters of life from one vessel to another—or the transfer of the soul after death to the spectral realms."

  /Or the Transfer of Aura from one body to another, in life,/ Herald added, intrigued by the quaint historical interpretations. /This is what enables contemporary Cluster civilization to exist. Without Transfer, inter-Spherical government would be impractical. Temperance was the emblem of the erstwhile Society of Hosts, before involuntary hosting was rendered passé./

  "Aura, again. This certainly figures strongly in your background."

  /Yes. Without the science and art of Aura, I would be nothing. The Tarot has defined me well. Vision crossed by Aura, Herald the Healer./

  "Yet I am not certain I fathom the full implication. Is it permissible to subdefine further?"

  /Certainly. This is normally done. Lay down three more cards, clockwise in relation to the main spread. These define Past, Present, and Future of the subconcept, completing the satellite. A satellite, of course, has no separate destiny; the whole is merely a definition of an aspect of the primary reading./

  Brother Paul nodded appreciatively and laid down the three cards. The King of Cups, King of Swords, and Queen of Aura," he announced. "But two of them depict alien creatures."

  /Yes, this is the Solarian edition, mainly humanoid,/ Herald flashed. /The suit face cards are the principal region of other-sapient representations. The Tarot editions of other Spheres often have Solarians in their suit cards, as a matter of complementary courtesy. But it is possible to find anything, in any deck—and all decks are valid aspects of the complete Cluster Tarot./