
“The Greater Arcana” A Retro Review
As soon as the Halloween décor gets removed, the Christmas decorations start springing up. This brings out my barely suppressed inner Ebeneezer Scrooge. To feed my silent “Bah, humbug” and yet embrace the inevitability of the holiday, I chose to read a horror short story set in the season. “The Greater Arcana” was written by Ron Weighell (1950-2020.) The author’s illustrious influences were M.R. James (1862-1936) and Arthur Machen (1863-1947.) Weighell’s 1992 tale well displays how much he respected the works of those masters of supernatural fiction. In it, there are stylistic and reverential elements that honor them. Indeed, the framing structure of “The Greater Arcana” is quite Jamesian: A group of academics get together for the holidays and discuss Christmas folklore. This leads into the British tradition of telling ghost stories as part of the seasonal celebrations. One of the professors shares a personal experience that is demonic rather than ghostly: “It happened this way. I had been invited to a Christmas gathering not unlike this one…”

He then goes on to describe carvings in the cloisters of a university college: “On three sides of the cloister, upon twenty-two tall pedestals overgrown with ivy and beset by ancient wistaria, stood an assortment of creatures that would have staggered the imagination of a Poe or Lovecraft. Those in human form were odd enough but the rest were so weird, so suggestive in incongruous complexity of an arcane and cryptic symbolism that they had become known as the Greater Arcana.” As daylight fades, the carvings are depicted as more sinister in aspect: “The glow of the setting sun lay trapped under rolling cloud cover, casting a faintly ruddy sheen on the snow of the garth, cradling the grotesque carvings in, as it were, a hollow of angry light.”

The narrator’s unease increases as Christmas day approaches. Auditory oddities occur during the singing of carols: “Carolling has always been one of the high spots of the season for me but on that occasion I felt troubled. During the Coventry carol I thought I could catch a low, discordant drone that distorted the tune, pulling it out of shape, as it were. The image came to my mind of a dark current dragging on weeds. Occasionally, it seemed, a single low-toned bell tolled funereally in the distance.” This nimble juxtaposition of a cheery occasion offset by a sense of menace highlights Weighell’s adroit ability to establish the aura of a character, as well as ambience.
The occult aspects of the tale lean into Machen territory. Machen astutely addressed the decadent seductiveness of probing into the unknown, surmising that such endeavors may serve as a focus for those who are otherwise lacking in discipline. Such intense intellectual curiosity invariably turns into compulsion. And afterthoughts are a weak defense against the uncanny.
While homage is paid to both Machen and James, Ron Weighell’s prose is all his own. It is evocative and engrossing. Reading “The Greater Arcana” was a perfect antidote to the protracted pre-Christmas folderol. Indulging in horror fiction during the phase provided a much-needed coping mechanism. Horror for the Holidays is something to rejoice.

