“...we were as if drained of all future, suspended in a journey that had not ended nor was to end.” Italo Calvino.

A monk in a tower is staring at cards laid out on a table. A table aligned to the stars. He is living in a fantasy. He is probably the richest man in the world but this only brings concerns. He intends to remain the richest man in the world. Obsessively he lays out the cards again and again, reading the stories. Some he understands instantly and he makes notes of actions that will bring resolutions to his advantage; other stories puzzle him, they relate to a world in which he has little interest. This is the Castle of Crossed Destinies. Each pattern is noted in a book. 

In his 1969 novel, Italo Calvino, experimented with story telling through the use of images first and words second. Lougher inspired by this approach seeks to create a story woven through 78 images (the number of cards in a tarot deck). In the spirit of Monopoly, the game of capitalism for all the family, this is the Cardiff edition. 

The tour: Cardiff Bus of Crossed Destinies was initially prompted by paintings in the collection of the National Museum Wales; predominantly those bought by the Davies sisters, Gwendoline and Margaret. As the cards have been reshuffled some have been substituted and others palmed. This blog will follow the patterns of cards laid out in the book reputedly used by the 3rd Marquess of Bute.

This blog has been created to publish material used on a guided bus tour of Cardiff for Cardiff Contemporary / Caerdydd Gyfoes

I had been approached by an acquaintance of mine, a gentleman of the name Doxman. He sometimes styles himself Dr Doxman. I am doubtful of this qualification, although I am often mistaken. Doxman knowing of my interest in the 3rd Marquess of Bute and his involvement with the esoteric had contacted me in great excitement having found a book he claimed to have once been in the possession of John Patrick Crichton-Stuart. The notebook in which Bute had noted every tarot reading made in Cardiff Castle, usually in the smoking rooms in the Clock Tower.

Doxman claimed the writing in the book had been erased magically. This had created a problem but not one that was insurmountable. Doxman had recently become enamoured of a colleague in science. As a sign of his affection he had bought her a distinctive ring in the design of a six petalled star. He believed this woman would be able to help him find an electro-static detection device. He was correct.

With the use of this equipment he has claimed he was able to recover the card readings emailing me the information for interpretation.

The monk was in thrall to the Middle-Ages. He felt his was a time when few people knew their place. The Middle-Ages were a time in which, he felt, he would have known his. A time when his tastes, his religion, would have been the norm and his status unquestioned.

The monk was seeing something frightening on the horizon. He had a sense that a plague was coming. An epidemic of murder. Had he, through his magical operations, opened a door that had let it through? When he turned over a single tarot card, the psychic equivalent to licking his finger and holding it up to check the wind direction, he was seeing signs of death and war at every turn: The Tower, The Hanged Man, The Devil, Death, The Moon. His family would not be untouched by the coming calamity.

in 1898 he decided to sell, for £159,000, the land the council wanted to build a civic centre . Perhaps he thought this might heal what was to come, acting as a counter-balance to whatever malign forces he had released into the twentieth century. Instead of growing calendulas and peas, his land would become a garden of culture and peace. Perhaps the monk was looking for a legacy. Whatever the case, he was certain his family would no longer control Cardiff in the twentieth century. At his insistence the existing layout of avenues was kept and at the centre of the development Alexandria Gardens was created, which is now a garden of remembrance. 

Cathays Gardens

Cathays Gardens provides accommodation for Cardiff Civic Centre, said by Nikolaus Pevsner to be the 'finest in the British Isles'. It's centre piece is Alexandra Gardens. This with the monument to the South African War at the bottom of Edward Vll Avenue is a testament to the the desire of the British Government to wage war and sell arms and the willingness of Welsh people to die for them. This contrasts with the Temple of Peace designed by Sir Percy Thomas, he was awarded a gold medal from the Royal Institute of British Architects for his troubles. The Temple of Peace and Health was commissioned by David Davies, brother to Gwendolne and Margaret who donated many paintings to the National Museum Wales. 1st Baron Davies had fought in the First World War and had dedicated himself to promoting world peace as a result of his experiences: he was a supporter of the League of Nations and his ideas had an impact on the writing of the UN Charter. The Temple of Peace was bombed in 1968 in protest at the approaching investiture of Prince Charles as Prince of Wales. Presumably it was easier to place a bomb there than the Welsh Office buildings opposite. Perhaps this was a riposte to the question posed at the Eisteddfod "A oes Heddwch?" (Is there peace?").

Amongst the other buildings are The Glamorgan Building, built in 1911 as the home of Glamorgan County Council. This was before the population was such that the county was divided up into a number of city states and rustic constituencies. It was designed by Vincent Harris and Thomas Moodie. The statues at the front depict navigation and mining. It houses the School of City and Regional Planning and the School of Social Sciences. There are several other Cardiff University buildings here. In lonely opposition stands University of Wales Registry, apparently this looks like the library in Hove. Bute Building was also designed by Sir Percy Thomas and Ivor Jones. It is home to the Welsh School of Architecture, School of Journalism, Media and Cultural Studies. Percy Thomas was born to a shipping family from Narbeth. He, Percy Thomas, jumped ship from his job as a shipping clerk to board the vessel architecture after having his head read by a phrenologist. National Museum Wales was opened in 1927. In front of it are the Gorsedd Gardens apparently the most used park in Cardiff. City Hall  was planned as a town hall but was City Hall by the the time it was built. The Crown Courts are nearby.

The monk lays out the cards. The first card is the six of cups. It suggests a meeting, perhaps a formal meeting and the making of an alliance. The second card is the four of wands and instantly he understands that this is a railway board. In 1836 the Taff Railway Board was formed to deliver coal and iron to Cardiff docks from Merthyr and all stops in between. The third card, the seven of swords, suggests another alliance; a brotherhood, an union. The monk is sensing trouble; rising working class consciousness. The monk is unsurprised by what he sees then, the ace of coins. The workers always want more money. At first the monk thinks that the next card, Judgement, is the union calling the workers out, but these are not mineworkers, their defenceless nakedness suggests something else, the company evicting the trouble makers and their families. The following card, The Wheel of Fortune, shows the workers gain ascendency; like monkeys they are all over the engines preventing them from moving and they have the upper hand. But the wheel will turn again. The monk is sure of this. The company will gain reparation for this outrage. That the decision goes against the union seems to be borne out. The Moon shows dogs howling, shut out from the city and the true company of men, they ululate in the stink and decay that surrounds them. The next card worries him. The queen of swords is carrying a red sword, she is looking towards these dogs with sympathy, she is going to avenge their wrongs.

Marseilles pack

The Taff Vale Railway Company

In 1900 the Amalgamated Association of Railway Servants went on strike in defence of John Ewington. The company had punished him by transferring Ewington to a different station after his repeated requests for a raise. The company sacked the striking workers, evicted them from their homes and employed scab labour. The union, however, forced the company to negotiate through a campaign of sabotage. In revenge the company sued the union for damages. The company won the first case, lost at appeal but finally got their way through the House of Lords - the final court of appeal - deciding in their favour. Amongst the vested interests in this railway company were members of parliament, members of the House of Lords, judges, magistrates etc. It was not until 1918 that the majority of working men over the age of 21 were able to vote and 1928 before women had voting equality with men in Britain.

The disgust at this decision in the Taff Vale case among working people lead to a massive rise in the number of trade unionists affiliated to the Labour Representation Committee. Membership more than doubled from 350,000 members in 1901 to 850,00 in 1903. This lead to the formation of the Labour Party and in 1906 the passing of the Trade Disputes Act which overrode the ruling in the Taff Vale case: now no course of action could be brought against a trade union for economic loss, if a strike was "in contemplation of a trade dispute."