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Underground > Comic Books >

Invisibles Question About Tom

14:56 / 24.08.03

I just reread the Invisibles and this got me thinking...in Vol.2 #8 Papa Skat says Tom's full real name which is Frederick Harper Seaton....and later on in Vol.3 #9 Sir Miles tells his story of how he came into power and magic,,,,and he says "through Beryl I met the others.And that one, that monsterous man...SEATON"...now...what exactly happened to tom that night with the Hand of Glory...they keep mentioning that something horrible happened to him...and that he was never the same after that night...did tom turn to dark magic after that night? Let me know what you think?

Professor Silly

17:11 / 24.08.03

According to the book "Anarchy for the Masses" Tom was the robed man who initiated Miles into the Ordo Templi Orientis.

I didn't pick up on this during any of my previous readings of The Invisibles, and yet it doesn't seem too far-fetched.

Mind you, as an initiated member of the O.T.O. myself, I don't consider what they do "dark magic."

Maybe one could draw a parallel between Tom's stature as "the greatest magician to ever live" with Luke Skywalker, who brought balance to the force by combining the light and dark sides into a cohesive whole....

19:57 / 24.08.03

what exactly happened to tom that night with the Hand of Glory...they keep mentioning that something horrible happened to him...and that he was never the same after that night...did tom turn to dark magic after that night? Let me know what you think?

When the Hand of Glory triggered, Tom came into direct contact with the Outer Church (I keep wanting to say Black Lodge, too much Twin Peaks), and came back changed into the wise, yet questionably sane man from the rest of the series.

Like John a Dreams, I think once he was out of the game, Tom saw the role he was going to play, and took on the mannerisms he needed to put Jack and Sir Miles into place for the events of 3.2.

12:14 / 25.08.03

it's not Luke that brings balance to the force.
It's Anakin. But only in the 6th movie (Return of the Jedi)
Right was Yoda...

12:53 / 25.08.03

Mind you, as an initiated member of the O.T.O. myself, I don't consider what they do "dark magic."

The branch of the OTO that Seaton, Beryl, and Miles were involved with during the 1950s is a fairly direct fictionalised version of Kenneth Grant's New Isis lodge - whose line of transmission would therefore be the Typhonian OTO rather than the Caliphate. Morrison said on his website to check out Kenneth Grant's 'Outside the Circles of Time' for an insight into what Seaton, Beryl, Miles, etc... were up to in the 1950s.

To some degree, I think Mad Tom is a fictionalised version of Kenneth Grant, at least during this chapter of his life anyway. Freddie's experiences with the hand of glory during the 1920s were presumably what sent him a bit mad / gave him a direct vision of the Outer Church, leading him to develop an approach to the OTO system probably not too dissimilar to what you might find in Kenneth Grant's work, Nightside of Eden, etc... which are very much concerned with dark Outer Church type workings.