HOMO ARCANUM:
A Posthuman Tarot
‘Homo Arcanum: A Posthuman Tarot’ is a sequence of twenty-two 140-character microfictions, originally posted between 19 and 25 April 2010 to celebrate the first anniversary of my Twitter account, trapphic. The stories form a self-consistent future history, inspired by the Major Arcana of the Tarot pack.
(The Tarot cards reproduced below are from the Rider-Waite deck, and don't particularly relate to the stories. However, you can click on any card for Wikipedia's information on that particular Major Arcana archetype.)
HOMO ARCANUM:
A Posthuman Tarot
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Chapter 0: Fool‘Welcome to my stream of consciousness – aka the Tom Fewell Channel. I didn’t read the small print when I signed up with HeadCast. Did you?’ |
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Chapter 1: Magician‘Genessence, phorm-morph, borganics, ReMes, augMentals – I make them happen.’ Once he’d have been a miracle worker. Now? A personal shopper. |
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Chapter 2: Oracle‘Next: LeLa to play Romeo/Juliet in one-person show! “My kids – my pouch,” says marsupial Wendi! And has Vix pupated again? I’m Jaq Boaz...’ |
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Chapter 3: EmpressMen offer themselves to her, unconditionally. She accepts. Her hormones become their will, their minds blank save for her chemical commands. |
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Chapter 4: Tsar‘The power to ban selected augmentations isn’t draconian, if it’s exercised prudently. It may be your biology, but it’s everyone’s society.’ |
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Chapter 5: PopeIt sits enthroned – a sexless, seraph-winged, eternally youthful unbroken soprano. God never forbade the Church from perfecting His work of creation. |
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Chapter 6: LoversErogenous zones blossom – branching like antlers, unfurling like origami. Your ancestors’ genitals are as obsolete as their flint axe-heads. |
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Chapter 7: Chariot‘Phaeton’s the first person to leave the solar system...’
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Chapter 8: JusticeThe penal colony is a flooded cave network. Prisoners are given the necessary adaptations. Justice is blind. Justice has scales – and gills. |
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Chapter 9: HermitHis brother in the Kuiper Belt reflects the solar system’s voices to him. Heard from beyond that threshold, humanity sounds isolated, alone. |
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Chapter 10: Wheel‘Lagrange Coliseum’s closing E Ring.’
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Chapter 11: Strength‘Sturdy, malleable, the hominid form is our birthright. Abandon it wholly and we cease to be human. Diversity is strength: chaos, weakness.’ |
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Chapter 12: TraitorA hominidist mob hangs the young chimerapunk from a tree, his tendrils and membranes flailing. The tree is horrified, but keeps her silence. |
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Chapter 13: Death‘It’s just another transition,’ thinks Phaeton. He activates his parents’ von Neumann protocols, and seeds a foreign star with his humanity. |
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Chapter 14: Temperance‘Much meddling is still permitted – yet even increasing strength and lifespan defies our human heritage. We Real Men resist such decadence.’ |
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Chapter 15: Devil‘Abhuman cells have markers in the junk DNA,’ says Dr Shaitan. ‘Proprietary logos, hallmarks, artists’ signatures. The virus targets these.’ |
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Chapter 16: TowerEarth has become at last a monument to uniformity, a construct of identical blocks. When the asteroid arrives, to adapt will be unthinkable. |
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Chapter 17: StarThey walk its worlds and swim its seas in myriad forms, flitting between them on solar wings. The name it had is lost: they call it Phaeton. |
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Chapter 18: MoonReflective, changeable – sometimes brilliant – her vision mirrors her father’s. She dreams of other systems, and of children yet to be born. |
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Chapter 19: Sun‘Here, light is universal. But, beyond our mundane photosphere, the darkness of God’s heavenly night extends.’
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Chapter 20: RevelationOur ancestors learnt to augment bodies and minds, but throughout our history the soul has been a constant, impossible to improve. Until now. |
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Chapter 21: WorldHumanity’s descendants fill the heavens. Our life is all there is, and we proliferate eternally. We are the universe. We will be still more. |
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www.infinitarian.com created and maintained by Philip Purser-Hallard.
trapphic icon extracted from Sapphire and Steel logo © and ™ Associated TeleVision 1979. No infringement is intended.
The artwork from the Rider-Waite Tarot deck is in the public domain.
All material © Philip Purser-Hallard 2010 except where otherwise noted, and not to be used without permission.