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    The Major Arcana
    The Major Arcana
    The Major Arcana
    Ebook117 pages1 hour

    The Major Arcana

    By Ilya Krivosheev

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    About this ebook

    The author's literary project “The Major Arcana” is collection of twenty-two stories, where the plots are played on the basis of tarot cards.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherIlya Krivosheev
    Release dateAug 30, 2019
    ISBN9780463325681
    The Major Arcana
    Author

    Ilya Krivosheev

    Young prose writer, pastry cook and traveler from Russia. Author of the books "Peter Hostel", "Byzantium", "The House We Live In", "The Major Arcana".

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      Book preview

      The Major Arcana - Ilya Krivosheev

      Ilya Krivosheev

      The Major Arcana

      Contents

      Preface from the author

      0. The Fool

      I. The Magician

      II. The High Priestess

      III. The Empress

      IV. The Emperor

      V. The Hierophant

      VI. The Lovers

      VII. The Chariot

      VIII. Strength

      IX. The Hermit

      X. Wheel of Fortune

      XI. Justice

      XII. The Hanged Man

      XIII. Death

      XIV. Temperance

      XV. The Devil

      XVI. The Tower

      XVII. The Star

      XVIII. The Moon

      XIX. The Sun

      XX. Judgement

      XXI. The World

      Application

      Preface from the author

      On the New Year's Eve of 2019, I wished myself to come up with another literary project. But at the same time, I honestly admitted to myself that I had a crisis of plots. What to do? I wondered. Where to draw inspiration? If before I was inspired by European trips, then how to be now?

      And then I decided to turn to the magic cards, to tarot cards. I thought about them not by chance. There is a character Myra in my last story The House We Live In; she was psychic and used tarot cards to learn about strange phenomena in the house of the main characters. And since I mentioned tarot in my story, I also looked at Wikipedia and found out what a deck of cards this. I was interested. Then I went to You Tube and reviewed many tarologists for a whole month.

      I came to the following conclusion. The most important thing in tarot is the soothsayer, not the cards; what matters how he interprets the cards. And this is already a creative work, a mind game that is suitable for a writer. Ingeniously! I thought, and proceeded to action.

      Especially for this purpose, I bought a tarot deck and laid out cards for my new literary project. I took the Major Arcana as a basis, laid them out straight. Then I put two or three Minor Arcana on Major Arcana. Each Major Arcana symbolizes the protagonist or the overall situation, and additional Minor Arcana gives a hint for action. As a result, I wrote 22 stories where tarot cards form the basis of the plots.

      Combinations turned out such:

      - The Fool - Seven of Wands - Two of Pentacles - Nine of Pentacles;

      - The Magician - Seven of Cups - Five of Cups;

      - The High Priestess - Nine of Wands - Two of Cups - Two of Swords;

      - The Empress - Three of Cups - Four of Wands;

      - The Emperor - Six of Wands - Knight of Pentacles - Queen of Pentacles;

      - The Hierophant - Six of Swords - Ten of Pentacles;

      - The Lovers - Six of Cups - Eight of Wands - Three of Wands;

      - The Chariot - Five of Swords - Eight of Cups;

      - Strength - Ten of Wands - Ace of Swords - Eight of Swords;

      - The Hermit - Ten of Cups - Ace of Wands;

      - Wheel of Fortune - Page of Wands - Six of Pentacles - Two of Wands;

      - Justice - King of Pentacles - Ace of Pentacles;

      - The Hanged Man - Four of Swords - King of Wands - Page of Pentacles;

      - Death - Three of Pentacles - Nine of Cups;

      - Temperance - Queen of Wands - Knight of Swords - Five of Wands;

      - The Devil - Knight of Wands - King of Swords;

      - The Tower - King of Cups - Ten of Swords - Four of Cups;

      - The Star - Three of Swords - Queen of Cups;

      - The Moon - Queen of Swords - Page of Swords - Page of Cups;

      - The Sun - Nine of Swords - Eight of Pentacles;

      - Judgement - Knight of Cups - Ace of Cups - Four of Pentacles;

      - The World - Five of Pentacles - Seven of Pentacles - Seven of Swords.

      For example, Seven of Wands, Two of Pentacles and Nine of Pentacles go to The Fool zero card of the Major Arcana. In this case, we are talking about a careless person, a funny guy, a pet of fate, who once must defend his interests, he shows some dexterity in the process and, as a result, he is very lucky, he comes out the winner. This is the plot. As a writer, I just have to write this story with characters and situations on paper.

      However, in the process of working on the interpretation of cards and writing stories, I encountered some difficulties. I have some experience in writing texts, so I know that the author must live through his text personally, otherwise the text does not make sense. Therefore, I argue that it is easier to write non-fiction, texts based on real events. Such text is easier to read and easier to reproduce. With fiction, it is harder, harder to invent a story, harder to see it if it does not have a reality. The author must pass his story through his heart for the story to be alive. And here I fall into a trap, friends. When I started writing my The Major Arcana, I realized that I was not ready to let all 22 stories pass through my heart, without exception. There are hard-to-read cards in the tarot deck, and there are still those that are better not to be taken to heart. Therefore, I immediately confess that in some stories there will be deliberate shortcomings. And I forgive myself for these shortcomings. Well, I do not pretend to highly artistic content, but to entertaining. Whether you forgive them to me, my exacting friends, it is not known to me.

      0. The Fool

      Stepa was a glorious fellow. His friends loved him for his cheerful disposition and spontaneity.

      Stepa lived with his father in a large spacious three-room apartment in the Academic district of Moscow. His mother died when he was five years old from heart failure.

      Stepa's father worked as a technologist on the production of chemical fertilizers at one research institute. This research institute developed special fertilizers for a prolific crop in agriculture, and subsidiary production produced these fertilizers for commercial sale. The work of Stepa’s father was of national importance, because employees signed a non-disclosure agreement on production information and consent to non-travel abroad.

      Since the work of his father was very serious, he disappeared

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