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Grant Morrison’s and Dave McKean’s Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth remains one of DC’s most popular stories ever. The dark storyline, murky artwork, and unique take on Batman have drawn thousands of readers to the graphic novel. What keeps people returning to the story is the symbolism, hidden meanings, and depth the story offers, rewarding rereads with new details previously missed.

One of the running themes throughout Arkham Asylum is tarot cards, a set of cards used in fortune telling. Grant Morrison, as part of their general interest in magic, is a fan of tarot card reading and you will often see the cards appear in their books. More specifically, Morrison has a fascination with infamous occultist Aleister Crowley, who appears in Arkham Asylum, and it is Crowley’s Book of Thoth tarot deck which has formed the basis of definitions and understanding for this article.

The Tower

The Tower is one of the key symbols repeated throughout Arkham Asylum, being one of the first ones we see, and sets the foundation for the entire story. The Tower tarot card represents the destruction of something, an idea or sense of self for example, something that may have been resolutely held. The destruction of which can be traumatic, but can leave the individual with a new perspective or leave them stronger for having gone through it.

Batman had to run the gauntlet of facing his rogues gallery at the asylum and he becomes stronger for having done so. At the same time he declares them ‘all free’ destroying Batman’s deeply held idea that Arkham is where they belong.

The Tower is the last symbol used in the story as Harvey Dent knocks down the tower of tarot cards. As part of his therapy, he had been given a deck of tarot cards to help remove his black and white viewpoint of the world. Instead of freeing him, it left him paralysed with indecision. Knocking over the tower, he destroys its control over him, and in turn he seizes back control by taking the coin once again.

The Moon

One of the other more common tarot symbols we see used in the series is that of The Moon. The Moon is used to represent exploring our inner most self, our desires and fantasies, but also our deepest fears – our nightmares.

Batman walks through a door with an inscription in Greek above it. It translates as ‘discover thyself‘. Above the Greek temple of Apollo in Delphi were the words ‘know thyself‘. Apollo being the God of the Sun, among others things, and The Sun card in tarot is associated with self confidence. The inscription, ‘know thyself‘, therefore makes perfect sense at Apollo’s temple, for confidence generally comes from knowing oneself.

Morrison reverses this by having a phrase for the moon, instead of the sun, at the entrance. ‘Discover thyself‘ works perfectly if you include the aforementioned tarot definition of exploring our desires and fears. What this then suggests is that perhaps Arkham is a temple itself – a temple of the moon.

There are plenty of other moon references throughout the story. Some of these references are more easier to spot, like Two-Face staring at the moon thinking it looks like a scarred dollar coin. Others are much less obvious, such as Amadeus Arkham’s mother shown with two dogs flanking her, linking her to Hectate.

Hectate was a Greek goddess who was associated with the moon and was typically shown in classical art with dogs. Interestingly, Mother Arkham was shown eating beetles at one point. Beetles are a symbol of rebirth as they are shown on The Moon tarot card bringing in the dawn; the birth of a new day. Having her eat beetles would suggest she was bringing in an eternal night, from which Batman would never wake.

For a really obscure moon reference look no further than where Amadeus Arkham feels a pressure in the back of his head. Slightly odd, and something you could skip over quickly, but Qoph is the Hebrew name for The Moon card and can mean the back of the head, due to the shape of the letter.

The Hanged Man

We first come across the imagery of The Hanged Man when Batman enters Arkham, with a man in an acrobatic pose hanging underneath an ankh, framed by the outstretched arms of a welcoming Joker. The Hanged Man card represents self sacrifice and a possibility of a turning point – the time between two states. Batman is at a crossroads, he could turn back and leave Arkham, or continue this gauntlet.

Later in the book, Batman fights the monstrous Killer Croc. The fight does not go well to begin with and Killer Croc throws Batman through a window. The Caped Crusader is left clinging to a ledge, suspended in air – a hanging man. The two states here are Batman accepting his fate and falling to his death, or finding his inner strength, lifting himself up to face his enemy.

The Fool

Joker, the leader of chaos going on in Arkham, is represented by his own tarot card; The Fool. On the phone to Batman at the start of the story, Joker pretends to murder a woman, Pearl. On arrival to the asylum, Joker reveals to Batman that this was a joke and shouts “April Fool”.

“Let the Feast of Fools begin!”

Joker

The image on The Fool card depicts the figure in green. This Green Man is the arrival of Spring, a time where people become the fool, giddy with the arrival of easier times. This is the ‘April Fool’ and, in tarot, is the first card, as opposed to The Universe, which is the last. Incidentally, The Universe card is also shown in the scene where we see the Hanged Man with Joker.

The Fool card also appears when we are introduced to Aleister Crowley. The card can be attributed to leaders and saviours, all of who, at least according to Crowley himself, are a bit mad to be so inspiring.

There are nods to other cards in the story, such as the Lovers. Leave a comment if you spotted any more.

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