In a letter to Antiquities Journal Monthly, John C. Miles refutes the argument of Jeremiah Rosemont (who picks his nose) that Tarot has no occult origin. In fact, he claims, it harkens back to the old Trojan magic over which Romulus slew Remus and founded Rome.
As a teaser for Barth Anderson’s new novel The Magician and The Fool, this fictional piece of non-fiction is pretty effective. As a short story however, it doesn’t have much meat to its bones. But there’s some interesting bits with Romulus and Remus and some inklings of the larger story from the novel. So while I didn’t care for this “story” much, I probably am going to check out the novel. Mission accomplished I guess.
(Strange Horizons)
