Customer Reviews

Sign of the Labrys

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This story takes place in the future after a decimating plague has reduced humanity to living in caverns. The main character ends up working with some Wiccans who are being hunted by the FBY. The pacing is a bit slow, but the story is well-written and will appeal to anyone who finds enjoyment in the old Weird Tales pulp.

Margaret St. Clair was one of the first openly female Science Fiction authors to be accepted by the (literal) old boys' network of the genre. Sure, there were Andre Norton and Leigh Bracket, and a little later D.C. Fontana, but their pen names were designed to disguise their gender. Margaret St. Clair defied the establishment, and the odds, and was in her lifetime a successful writer of more-that-usually-thoughtful potboilers. She was also a practicing occultist, greatly influenced by the works of Margaret Murray, Charles Leland and of course Sir James Fraser. She was not a Wiccan until several years after the publication of the book brought her to the attention of such Witchy notables as Raymond Buckland and Ed Fitch.

"Sign of the Labrys" is probably the best-written of all St. Clair's books; from the moment I read its intriguing first line, "There was a fungus that they ate, that grew in the clefts of the caves," I was hooked. Its style is approached only by her even more mysterious but somewhat confusing "Dancers of Noyo." It takes place some years after a world-wide (as far as anyone knows -- communications no longer work) plague of mutagenic yeasts has killed or radically altered all life. Dogs are extinct. Trees are extinct, but what used to be broccoli has taken their place. And most humans have died of one or another of the virus strains still floating around. The few humans in the U.S. are living in an enormous underground city excavated out of Carlsbad Caverns. It was designed to hold the entire population short-term through a nuclear attack (this is Cold-War Sci-Fi,) so the accommodations and provisions will last the survivors a couple of lifetimes. The few jobs still being bothered with are the Federal Bureau of Yeasts -- the closest thing they have to a government, and it's creepy -- and burying the dead. Enter our hero, Sam Sewell, a bulldozer operator for the burial crews, who discovers over the course of a psychedelic, intiatory journey to the underworld that he has 'witch blood;' that is, he's the reincarnation of a former Witch and is now being brought willy-nilly back into the Craft. Along the way, he and his new associates discover the secrets of the caves, the reason for the oppressive rise of the FBY, and the astonishing answer to where the deadly yeasts came from.

I recommend "Sign of the Labrys" not only to Witches and other occultists, but to anyone interested in a look at a transition time in American popular culture -- big changes were happening both in Science Fiction and in our spiritual awareness. As the jacket blurb breathlessly noted "Women [were] writing Science Fiction!" Alternative religion, as it's now called, suddenly ceased, in the mid 1960's, to be the province of turbaned gurus and hennaed old ladies. Margaret St. Clair was one of the precious few who gave us hints where to look. And entertained us mightily along the way.

Sign of the Labrys seems to be the one Margret St Clair novel people remember. Although the cover art has little to do with the book itself (big surprise there), the blurb on the back proudly proclaims: "Women are writing science fiction!" And we are told that it is "Fresh! Imaginative! Inventive!" Just like a loaf of wonder bread. I do hope she got some mileage out of this book, first published in 1963. At least some fame would compensate for the covers.
Written from the point of its protagonist, Sam Sewell, Labrys can best be described as a science fantasy idea novel. Although the hero uses science to further his ends, he also delves into the realm of fantasy, and he does it for idealistic reasons. It's also one of the first novels which treats Wicca as a bonafide religion. In some ways, this book is a statement of faith.
It's a post-apocalyptic book which takes place 10 years after 90% of humanity have been wiped out from scientifically created yeasts. Most of the survivors of the plague are living in underground bunkers built for the nuclear war which never came. The survivors are scaveging off the land- most of the trees having been destroyed-and burying the dead.
The novel begins with Sam recieving a visit from FBY agent Clifford Ames. It's never mentioned what FBY stands for, although Federal Bureau of Yeasts might be a good guess. The FBY is the only thing which passes for a government, since most of the plague survivors can't stand being in close proximity to one another. The FBY man is searching for a woman named Despoina (Greek: "Mistress") and he thinks Sewell may have been in contact with her. The FBY suspects her to be a "sower", which is to say a lunatic who deliberately spreads deadly microorganisms.
Although Sewell just wants to be left alone to live his life on E level in the underground bunker, he soon finds out that other people are interested in him. Someone leaves a mystical ring in his posession, he sees the sign of the labrys ( a double-headed fighting ax) on the cave walls, and mysterious figures whisper "Blessed be" in the darkness. Ames returns, dies in a struggle with Sewell, forcing Sewell to venture into the lower levels in search of truth.
On his way down he encounters a mycologist named Kyra who is doing research in what remains of the government labs in her sector. Through the use of mirror gazing and narcotics, she is able to help him look into his soul. Sewell has visions of another life where he danced around the fire and was chased by animals She's also able to get Sewell into the next level, G.
G level turns out to be where all the self-appointed important people reside. They had fled underground in anticipation of nuclear war. After a casual encounter with a woman on this level results in her death, he begins to suspect he may be carrying a deadly yeast infection. By now he's developed the ability to see inside people. A very intelligent dog is able to show him the way to the final level, H.
At level H, Sewell meets Despoina, in all her pagan majesty. He's initiated into the Kraft, just as the FBY attacks. Sewell manages to make it back up to Kyra at the F level, where they plan on making contact with Despoina, but the FBY attacks once again, this time with super cool carbon dioxide gas, intent on freezing everything out of existence. Sewell and Kyra manage to escape the feds through the use of extra-sensory powers. Their goal is to regroup with Despoina's Krafters and strike back at the FBY.
One of the interesting things about the novel is the use of a labrys as a symbol for Wicca. Today, most Wiccian initiates use the pentagram. Once upon a time, the ankh was in vogue, but the five-pointed star seems to have won out. In Greece today, the labrys is used as a symbol of paganism. In North America, it's usually seen as a lesbian symbol (the amazons were supposed to have fought with a labrys). I suspect that St. Clair, having a background in Greek and Roman studies, wanted to associate the Wiccan religion with ancient Greece as much as possible.
Labrys suffers from some of the loose ends which I've started noticing in St. Clair's other writings. At a crucial point in the plot of the book, we find out the pre-plague civilization had developed matter transmitters. OK...if they could send a physical object anywhere, what protection would an underground bomb shelter furnish? Did the matter transmitters become standard just before the plague? And what's with the secret clan of the Wiccans? Where did they come from?
Once again, St. Clair wrote a good novel, just not the great one I'd hoped to find with this book.