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The Emperor, 9 of Swords and Uranus Dreamspy by Jacqueline Lichtenberg, St. Martins Press 1989, BenBella Books Spring 2004 One of my favorite kinds of story centers on the hero stuck in a plight or pickle not of their own choosing, who has to gain power of some sort which he/she is not suited to wield, in order to get out of the plight — without behaving like the villain, i.e., abusing power. I just had occasion to re-read my own novel Dreamspy, the companion to my October release, Those of My Blood, because it is being scheduled for spring 2004 (www.simegen.com/writers/luren/). I had the bizarre experience of reading a surprisingly different book than I thought I had written — and I enjoyed it, too. It was like reading a book written by someone else. The hero, a telepath named Kyllikki, at the nadir of her life, wishes desperately not to be like her cousin, who abuses power. Presented with a sudden (Uranus) turn of events, Kyllikki seizes power (the power of a science so advanced it really is magick) and commits unthinkable and unpardonable crimes. And in the end, someone who has reason to know tells her she is not like her cousin at all — she has sacrificed herself to save the galaxy, not rule it. The kind of self-doubts Kyllikki suffers throughout Dreamspy are represented by the 9 of Swords of the Tarot — the kind of nightmares that jerk you awake gasping. The proper use of Power is represented by The Emperor card. Stories are "exciting" (Uranus) when filled with fast-paced twists, where right becomes wrong and wrong becomes right and you never know what'll happen next. Remember our discussion over the last few months about prejudice being the targeting mechanism for power? The Emperor card represents that level of the unconscious mind where experiences of being nurtured are stored. These become the "scripts" spoken of in many self-help books — the internal dialog you repeat inside your mind that conditions how you respond in an "emergency" (when Uranus transits present the unforeseen). The 9 of Swords is the experience triggered when the subconscious scripts of The Emperor are at odds with the conscious choices and actions of the moment. For example, the young child spills some milk, parental figure shouts in a towering rage, "Clumsy idiot!" and the surprised (Uranus) Child, who has no idea how the milk got spilled, learns to fear the unexpected and loses confidence in foresight. Uranus provides the electric-shock power that scorches these lessons into The Emperor level of consciousness. Later, when involved in a plan (reaching for the milk anticipating its taste, reaching for an adult goal like a better job anticipating a better salary), fear of some unexpected shock jolts the mind down from the astral plane (9s in the Tarot represent the Astral Plane — imagination and dream), frightened by a sudden lack of self-confidence, by a fear of pain or failure. So the adult wakes gasping, unable to remember the dream, and spends the night worrying without knowing why. Lately, I've been driving around town with a CD of the Broadway sound track of The King And I starring Theodore Bikel playing, thinking about the song that advises one to whistle when afraid. Pain, fear of pain, and protection from pain (a protection that implies that pain is beyond your ability to endure so you need protection) are usually the main contents of our "Emperor" level of consciousness. Pain-avoidance often becomes the primary motivation of our adult lives, even when we don't know that's why we do what we do. Pain-avoidance is the "personal gain" the White Magician must eschew. But how? Recently we"ve been discussing what happens when someone who has not been raised to be King must wield power. Remember, that the Royal upbringing often includes the "whipping boy" — the buffer that prevents the Royal from learning to expect pain as a result of an improper action. The objective is to produce an adult who wields power without fear of pain — who can bet the Kingdom on their tactical skills and win any staring match without flinching — whose adult motive is not pain-avoidance. The "whipping boy" also teaches compassion and responsibility. The power-wielder is not always the one who suffers from his/her mistakes. Mistakes are more costly when someone you know and love suffers instead. This month, I"d like to bring you 3 novels about heroes not raised to wield power who acquire it accidentally or on purpose, and wield it with various motives. The Curse of Chalion by Lois McMaster Bujold is the story of a man who was raised as a minor Noble, born to wield Power. He loses that station, rises swiftly in the Army, is captured and tortured as a galley slave, escapes and returns to where he first learned about Power Wielding as a Page in a Great House. Now he"s in a 9 of Swords nightmare. Through a series of sudden twists, he rises swiftly to the highest royal court, protecting a Royal Charge. As the back cover blurb says, success at protecting will "mark the loyal, damaged servant as a tool of the miraculous ... and trap him, flesh and soul, in a maze of demonic paradox, damnation and death." Bujold is a superb writer and has written another perfectly crafted novel, well within the strictest genre requirements for a fantasy — yet refreshingly different in the relationship driven plotting. Study Bujold"s novel in conjunction with Mary Taffs sequel to her novel Magic (reviewed here November, 2002), aptly titled More Than Magick, and you"ll learn something truly startling about yourself. More than Magick is a crystal clear explanation of how Initiation opens the channels between The Emperor level of consciousness and the everyday waking mind so that one can reprogram prejudices — once they are discovered and admitted. For that reason, the book might seem somewhat naïve to those who don"t understand the initiatory process of growth. But this book is far from naïve. The plotting is simple so that the complex inner workings of spiritual growth can show through. I would put Magick and More Than Magick in the same category that, in my mind, holds Suzette Haden Elgin"s novels and nonfiction — treated in this column in January, 1996. Elgin uses the novel to provide a deep grasp of the principles of language as the Power Users... major tool. And Taffs has used the novel form to give a broad description of prejudice as the targeting mechanism for Power. Strangers by Melissa McCann likewise approaches the problem of prejudice. It is clear to see why this novel is an e-book and Bujold's novel is a Mass Market paperback. Strangers is the story of a scientist, a healer who prefers research, who has been enslaved. Her right to do independent research has been taken away. Heroically, she persists anyway, and discovers a medical doom sweeping toward galactic civilization — a plague thought eradicated a hundred years ago that has been lying dormant in the reproductive organs of humans. By a series of highly improbable (well readers of this magazine will know what to make of those "coincidences" but general readers might not) circumstances she gathers about herself just the right talented people (some not human) to get her discovery into the right hands, to create and distribute a cure, in the nick of time. However, each person she connects with is not chosen as a means to her goal — she simply sees people in need and helps — even if it jeopardizes her chances of finding and distributing a cure. She heals the wounded — even animals. She gives of herself, her fortune, and her emotions. She overcomes fear and prejudice to reach out and touch lives — and never sees herself as righteous. She suffers through the 9 of Swords just as we all do, but doesn't dwell on her personal angst because she's very involved in everyone else's problems. As a direct result, karmic and poetic justice prevails. Strangers mixes genre elements and the plot is part "action" and part "romance" and to some readers may seem overly simplistic, overly adolescent wish-fulfillment fantasy with the substance of a truly adult novel. But this book could not be improved by rewriting. The only problem is that the big publishers wouldn't know who to market it to, but Awe-Struck does — you and me. For me, it was a couldn't-put-it-down read and I was sorry when it was over. I couldn't find it on Amazon, but you can get it at To send books for review in this column to: Jacqueline Lichtenberg, email jl@simegen.com for instructions. Next Article |
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