Thalia Flashback

The following is a brief flashback that I had to cut from Collywobbles. Approximately a week before Thalia died, she treated Aletheia to dinner before heading out on the last con they would do together. 


     Aletheia sipped her wine. It went so well with the gnocchi, but she wondered if she ought to be drinking before a job.
     “Dear,” Thalia said. “You are such an amazingly good person, but the world you live in is just so very black and white. Don’t be afraid to let a little sin into your life once in awhile.”
     “I have sin in my life.” Aletheia lifted up the wine glass and pointed to it. “See?”
     Thalia took a sip of her own wine. “That your sin is my virtue only proves my point. You have so much compassion for the weak and helpless but if you never let yourself get out of control, you’ll never know how much our sins can confuse us, how hard it is to know what’s really happening in the moment.”
     “I don’t know. I get plenty confused.”
     “It’s all the thinking. The ivory tower is good for that, but, no, I mean a very different kind of confusion. It would just be so much easier if you went on spring break every now and again. It would help.”

Questions and Answers

Use this post for Questions you may have about The Collywobbles Chronicles. I'll answer any serious questions, as long as I can do so without giving spoilers to upcoming books. I'll answer short questions in the comment thread. Questions requiring longer answers will get dedicated blog posts. This can be anything from questions about a given character's background to details about their lives to story-specific questions. Some examples might include:

-What really happened the night Thalia came over to Edgar's apartment?
-Why did Thalia decide to start selling tarot readings?
-Did Edgar date anyone else in college besides Madeleine?
-What did Lilly do before coming to New Orleans?
-Why doesn't Aletheia have a car?
-Doesn't Aletheia get hot, selling tarot readings in the square in the summer?

These are just a few questions off the top of my head. I'll also be posting the occasional flashbacks, just little tidbits that don't appear in the book but may be of interest.

Elijah and Children of the Voice

Edgar's friend Elijah makes a couple of brief appearances in Collywobbles. His role is an important one, both on account of the information he imparts to Edgar about the occult nature of the killings and the information he gives about Aletheia. He picks up on something very important about her generally and through his astute (not to mention intuitive) reading of her, he is the first person to draw Edgar's attention to the fact that underneath her anger are buried strong feelings. 

Elijah is Edgar's only friend. In fact, his name is something of a nod to the Frank Black song. However, based on everything Elijah says to him, you get the idea that Edgar perhaps isn't all that great at staying in touch with him. That Edgar has so few friends despite being an extravert is owed to what Elijah accurately points out is Edgar's true addiction--love. Edgar's attention remains singularly focused on whoever he happens to be infatuated with at the moment and as a result, he isn't great at maintaining social relationships or keeping social obligations. 

The Children of the Voice is a small order that extends throughout the south and southwest, generally much smaller in number than the O.T.O. It was started by a group of people that had co-membership in both the O.T.O. and The Golden Dawn. Its ceremonies use a priestess, like in the Gnostic Mass, but her function is very different and it's the only real resemblance to Thelemic masses that you see in the invocation ceremonies. The ceremony incorporates standard Golden Dawn practices, such as the Qabalistic Cross, but the main thrust of the ceremony is the acting out of the ascent up the Tree of Life and the Golden Dawn's emphasis on communication with the guardian angel. Theirs is a thirteen degree system: an introductory "ascendant" degree and twelve degrees corresponding to the twelve houses in the horoscope. As it's matched up with the individual's chart, each initiation is, at least to some extent, unique to that person. It incorporates Thelemic notions of True Will and keeps a lot of O.T.O. practices, such as sex magick. 

Elijah is, at the time of Collywobbles, tenth degree and heads up the New Orleans temple.  The temple is actually a partially-converted old playhouse in the Marigny, just off of Elysian Fields. Edgar was really only active in the temple his first couple of years in New Orleans, and at the time Collywobbles takes place, his life has been taken over by selling tarot, dealing drugs and his romantic foibles. He's developed quite a reputation for himself as a lonely guy that will share drugs and so, at the time the book starts, his evenings tend to get filled up by activities which are really bad ideas (his broken turtle incense holder case in point). Still, Elijah encourages him to return, showing both patience and insight. He believes that Edgar has tremendous potential magickally, and he probably isn't wrong about this. We see through Edgar's unicursal hexagram keychain that, when he puts his mind to it, he can achieve impressive magickal feats. The man in the trench coat is unnerving to all who meet him but only Edgar immediately detects the taint. If only Edgar could obtain clarity of mind through self-control (of both his drug use and his emotions) he could realize the potential that Elijah sees in him. 

Aletheia's Chart

Aletheia's full name is Aletheia Nous O'Fallon, showing her mother's fondness for the Ancient Greeks, as well as her mother's interest in philosophy.

Aletheia is an Aries, so she has quite a bit of fire in her. Edgar could no doubt attest to this, given the coffee incident. Her Pisces ascendant causes her to present herself as sensitive and vulnerable, and she often flip-flops between her highly emotional presentation and her feisty Aries sun.

Her moon is in Virgo, which tends to give a critical undercurrent to the personality. In her case, it's more self-critical than critical of others. Virgo moon can also indicate a critical mother, and her own mother was indeed critical. Although Aletheia tells Thalia that her mother didn't expect much of her, a very different picture is painted in her memories. Her mother's criticality is indirect and, at times, dismissive. She was fond of assuming that Aletheia should be able to understand highly complex and abstract texts at a relatively young age, offering very little by way of guidance. Her mother's criticism of the education Aletheia receives in high school also has the implicit message that somehow Aletheia has erred by not having complete mastery of Heidegger by the time she's a teenager. That her mother was experienced as critical is shown by the negative self-image Aletheia has of her own mental processes, namely that she has "a broken brain." The inaccuracy of this self-perception is shown through her memory of Thalia, who thinks that Aletheia's only problem with thinking is that she does it far too much.

Another aspect of her moon is that of worry. Moon in Virgo people are often prone to worrying. This is shown in her character but, of course, Aletheia has a lot to worry about!

Aletheia's moon is in the seventh house, which has interesting repercussions, given the direction her love life goes in throughout Collywobbles.  A seventh house moon is often found among those that have mentally ill partners.

Lastly, her Venus in Aries in the first house lends itself to attracting suitors, and in some cases, men competing over her. Certainly, she isn't lacking for suitors. She dates two different men in the first year that she's in New Orleans. She has certain men hit on her even when it's wildly inappropriate to do so, and of course her greatest suitor--and the most determined one--is Edgar.