Cyclone by Chris Mallon and The Strange Stage

“The cyclone had set the house down very gently, for a cyclone, in the midst of a country of marvellous beauty.”

Long before the road of yellow brick had been laid, or the Emerald City had risen at the end of it, L. Frank Baum had become interested in mysteries of a different sort.

He read much concerning spiritualism, mysticism and those strange matters which are commonly called the occult. In the year 1892 he became a member of the Theosophical Society, whose followers believed that many ancient truths had been forgotten, or hidden from the world.

Eight years afterward he wrote The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.

It was intended to be a fairy tale for children, and perhaps it was nothing more.

Yet curious things are sometimes hidden in the simplest stories.

Those who have examined the tale closely believe that it contains another journey besides that of the little girl whose adventures it relates. It is a very old journey, known to those who have studied the mysteries of the tarot.

Long after Baum had written the story, the pictures drawn by W. W. Denslow were taken from the pages of the book and placed upon cards. Their resemblance to certain older pictures became difficult to overlook. Indeed, they appeared so much at home upon the cards that one might almost suppose they had been intended for such a purpose.

For over a hundred years the world has regarded The Wonderful Wizard of Oz as one of the most beloved stories ever written, but it may also be something quite different.

Perhaps it has kept a secret all along.

STRANGE STAGE PROUDLY PRESENTS CYCLONE

To borrow the words of a good friend, this one has been a labour of love.

Before any of the magic described below could exist, another kind of magic had to happen first.

The book was digitally restored from my own original copy of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. This proved far more difficult than I had imagined. The original text had to be removed, page by page, while illustrations were repaired, rebuilt and returned to their proper places. That might not sound too unreasonable until you discover that the book contains an illustration on almost every page.

With the help of Haresign Press, the correct materials were sourced to reproduce the book as faithfully as possible. The cloth used for the cover was selected to match the original as closely as we could manage, following a frankly ridiculous amount of research into early copies, materials, colours and construction.

I began this task in September 2024.

A year later, the restoration and layout were finally complete.

Only then could I begin adding the other kind of magic.

THE WONDERFUL TAROT OF OZ

W. W. Denslow’s original illustrations have been transformed into a complete Major Arcana tarot deck.

The cards may be used as a fully functional tarot deck in their own right, but when brought together with the book, something far more unusual begins to happen.

Cyclone allows you to give a complete tarot reading, exploring the sitter’s past, present and future before answering a question they have never spoken aloud.

The book adds remarkable depth to the reading, while also helping those new to tarot become familiar with the meanings of the Major Arcana simply through use.

In fact, the sitter could use the book to give themselves a reading without you even being present.

Experienced readers will discover an entirely new way to work with the cards, whilst for beginners, Oz has already laid the road before them.

A BOOK THAT READS THE CARDS

I set myself one particularly unnecessary challenge while creating Cyclone.

The book had to remain completely readable.

You can pick it up, begin at the first page and read the entire story through to the end. There are no strange charts hidden within it, no suspicious lists of words and no pages that suddenly stop resembling The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.

Why I decided to make life quite so difficult for myself, I am still not entirely sure.

Every secret had to be built naturally into the story, and the book still had to look and behave like an ordinary early edition.

At least, ordinary until you understand what it can do.

I present the book as an early edition of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Precisely when it was printed is a question I prefer to leave unanswered.

You can speak of Baum’s interest in spiritualism, mysticism and the occult. You can explain that he joined the Theosophical Society eight years before writing Oz, and suggest that perhaps something more than a children’s story found its way into the pages.

Then you introduce the illustrations.

Placed beside the images of the Major Arcana, their resemblance becomes increasingly difficult to dismiss.

Perhaps it is coincidence.

Then again, Cyclone is largely concerned with coincidences that begin to feel like something else.

THE BOOK ANSWERS THEIR QUESTION

Throughout the reading, the sitter holds a question silently in their mind.

They never need to write it down or tell you what it concerns.

Using the tarot cards they have selected, the sitter creates a page and a line within the book. Waiting there is an answer connected to the question they have never spoken aloud.

The process feels open and personal because they make every important decision. When the answer is found, they read it for themselves.

The answer is already hidden inside the story.

They simply find the road that leads to it.

THE MAN BEHIND THE CURTAIN

Cyclone is not limited to the tarot reading.

The sitter may open the book to any text spread. They can choose either page, select a line and focus upon a word.

You are able to reveal the word they are thinking of.

More importantly, you can begin giving them a reading based upon that word before you reveal it.

The word becomes another step along their journey. You can explore its meaning, connect it to the sitter’s life and then, when the moment feels right, name the word itself.

This can be presented as mind reading, as an extension of the tarot reading, or as a completely separate demonstration using nothing but the book.

The sitter creates their own journey through Oz. You merely follow them down the yellow brick road.

WHAT YOU RECEIVE

Cyclone includes a specially prepared edition of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, the corresponding Major Arcana tarot deck, a large custom bookmark, a printed user’s manual and a numbered certificate of authenticity.

The manual explains the complete reading system, the tarot deck, the secrets hidden within the book, several different ways to present each phase and a collection of additional ideas.

THE PERFORMER’S EDITION

Limited to 130 sets

The Performer’s Edition contains the same secrets, the same complete reading system and the same fully readable story, presented in pristine condition.

This is the coffee table edition.

It can be left naturally in a living room, study or performance space, waiting for somebody to notice it and ask the inevitable question.

It is also the edition intended for regular use. The book can travel with you, sit inside a case or remain ready upon a shelf, waiting for a performance opportunity.

The Performer’s tarot deck is produced upon a more modern stock and is classic tarot size, making the cards comfortable to shuffle, carry and use throughout an evening of readings. The deck is housed inside a custom printed tuck box.