The World

A young man is in need of initiation in a society where such things no longer exist. Arkin Fisher is haunted by visions that are so overwhelming they make it increasingly impossible for him to act normally and manage his life. His reality breaks down, and he ends up in a psychiatric ward. He is offered the possibility to enter a drug-free "spiritual healing programme", but only if he stakes his brain in a bet with the ambitious psychiatrist, Dr Memphis, who needs an uncontaminated schizophrenic brain for his research. Arkin's healing entails projection to a reality whose physical laws are governed by the logic of myth. Each region of this world appears as the inside of a Tarot card. Arkin makes his way through the Major Arcana, up the Tree of Life, in his quest for the Tarot card of completion - The World - where everyday reality and magic fuse to become the Gold of the Alchemists. To have a chance to reach this goal, however, he must work on himself and his relationship with his spirit guides, gods, devils and other mythical creatures. The World takes the reader on an intense ride through the Tarot cards seen as locations in consciousness. It explores the relationship between consciousness and mythology on the one hand and, on the other, happiness and success in the normal world.