The Tarot in Nova

 

I’m extremely interested in the Tarot cards and their significance in Nova.  Obviously there is a great deal of mysticism (and skepticism) surrounding the Tarot, but they seem to be of a higher importance in the universe presented in the text.  They transcend the realm of divination to the realm of cultural cohesion, pleasure, and advisor.  In the hands of Tyÿ, the cards are a powerful tool.  In the hands of Sebastian or the twins, the cards are a simple (or perhaps not-so-simple) game, a sport.  And yet for Mouse, they are something to apprehend, to doubt, to shun.

To be able to look at the mystical side of tarot cards, we must first look at their origin, which was as a playing deck of cards around the fifteenth century.  They were used to play games like tarot, tarock, and tarocchi.  The Tarot deck held four suits, with pip cards from one to ten and four face cards in each.  It seems most likely that the game played within Nova is tarocchi, which is a trick-taking game.  The play of a "hand" in these games focuses on a series of rounds, called tricks, which are each evaluated to decide a winner or "taker" of that trick.  A variation of the trick game is the trick-and-draw game, which requires players to fill out their hands after every round.

It wasn’t until the eighteenth century that the cards were being repurposed by mystics and occultists.  The cards are used to provide insight into the past, present, and future.  Many Tarot readers believe that the cards tap into an outside spiritual force, while others think the cards allow them access to a collective subconscious.  Others still believe that Tarot allows them access to their own creative subconscious.  The meanings of each card were taken from Jean-Baptiste Alliette, better known as the cartomancer Etteilla, and while there are multiple forms of the Tarot deck available, mentioned specifically in Nova are the Major and Minor Arcanas.

With this in mind, we can acknowledge that the meanings for each card were made up long ago.  And While Lorq trusts the cards and wants his fortune read from them, perhaps this is why Mouse is so angry when his captain turns to Tyÿ for a reading.  Mouse knows the Tarot is a made-up human construct.  They hold no true value in the real world, and anyone who turns to them is a fool.  The Tarot didn’t help his people.  Why should it help anyone else’s?

1.       Does the gameplay displayed in the text beg for an examination of the past, in the cards’ origins or otherwise?

2.       Each Tarot card has both a story and a meaning.  For the Sun card, the story follows the Fool as he walks in a valley with a small, curious, wondrous child.  When the Fool asks him who he is, the child replies, “I’m you! The new you!”  How might this apply to Mouse?  To Lorq?  The Sun card represents inner light, but is it possible that for Nova it represents transformation as well?