The Priestess 0f the Perfect Zer0 is so flawless, she transcends actuality. She has an abiding faith in herself and every0ne wh0 l00ks up0n her, believing that it won’t matter wh0 she really is, 0r which side she is 0n, whether she is rich 0r she is p00r, g00d 0r evil, real 0r n0t. It is 0f n0 matter, as is she.
Wherever she g0es, there she is n0t. Wherever she g0es, she leaves n0thing behind.
GRAB THE VOID. YOU DON’T KNOW WHAT YOU ARE MISSING
Priestess of the Perfect Zero HeLI0pTx Cards
No one can definitively say when the Priestess of the Perfect Zero cards first appeared. There is evidence dating them back to prehistory, before the emergence of human society, which could explain why they would eventually become adopted as the currency of an international cabal of anarchists, used in their secret black markets. It was a very anarchistic way to represent wealth without the necessity of social conventions; very romantic, in a way, full of nostalgia for simpler times, and yet Gothic in its assault on Classicism and Classism. Perhaps this currency of anarchists gave rise to all divination and playing cards, and why they took root and spread all over the world. The anarchists (or nihilists, as some preferred to be called because it was against their nature to be part of any organized movement) represented something (or nothing) that was eternally present, ancient and enduring, a universal component of any form of government, and an integral part of any social hierarchy, because once governing principles begin to establish themselves, they invite negation. The names “anarchists” and “nihilists” are inadequate in any event to describe all the varieties of disorganizing philosophies in conflict with their own nature, so what we are left with is a nameless entity that couldn’t even properly be called an entity. A non-entity.
The cards served the simultaneous function of paper money and gaming instruments. Early paper money was fraught with danger. It was too easy to counterfeit, and too easy to carry off or misplace, so, to mitigate these risks, the Priestess of the Perfect Zero Arcana had no value at all, and had no effect on the games that were being played, and no effect on the world outside of the game. There was a message implied by the game, though, that money doesn’t matter. The message came across clearly without being stated. There was a consequence to the game that wasn’t supposed to have consequences. The cards started bearing inscriptions, turning the game into a scheme for transmitting information, a scheme to promote schemes that could lead to profit or loss. It became a custom to erase the inscriptions after they were made.
The Priestess Cards were wild cards. Being nothing on their own, they could be anything, and ended up being associated with everything. Art, medicine, science, politics– you name it. It was impossible to deny their influence. Like an undiscovered (though strongly suspected) secret cabal, or an unproved conspiracy theory, they seemed ubiquitous, because they weren’t.
They depict an almost pornographic vision of bodily well-being, a form of physical perfection that doesn’t really exist, though everyone yearns for it. Something to reach for, something the cards would inspire, if they were any to be had for love or money.
L0ve her f0r her mind, 0r ju$t the idea 0f her mind, f0r her geniu$ wa$ that $he labelled her$elf a geniu$, while daring u$ t0 di$c0ver what $he i$ a geniu$ 0f. The thrill 0f it i$ finding 0ut $he i$ a geniu$ 0f at creating and de$tr0ying c0ntradicti0n$. C0ntrary t0 p0pular belief, it i$n’t en0ugh t0 $imply think y0u exi$t. With0ut 0b$ervati0n, what y0u think i$ exi$tence i$ n0thing but a b00k that lie$ never 0pened and never read, heavy with dead wait. In her ca$e, the 0nly way $he actually manife$ted wa$ in a franchi$e that pr0duced b00k$, m0vie$, game$, and 0ther a$$0ciated merchandi$e, but 0nly adverti$ement$ f0r them. It was a demonstration of the way great civilizations can be destroyed by all pervasive influences no one ever notices because they are everywhere, in everything, but at the same time are nowhere and in nothing.
Being without messages, or a reason to be, the cards withered away like Marx’s state. Even after they were gone, they didn’t lose their identity, since Nothing lasts forever. The emptiness that remained behaved like fragments of a previously organized system that still retained a code to access the whole, i.e., the hole is a code to decipher (in the sense of un-cipher, or anti-zero) itself. This endowed the cards with the property of being self-contained universes.
The absent healing cards of the Priestess of the Perfect Zero came to represent the universal panacea of placebos. I please. But also, Eye please.
The aspirations of Anarchy are related to health and healing in the way they oppose hierarchies and favor self rule. By not opposing the body’s nature, or the nature of things outside the body, the self invites nature to erase it. That’s the nature of Nature– to unmake whatever it makes. The cards also contain embedded messages that Nothing will heal you, and nowhere is a place to begin.
