XII-The Hanged Man(▽) (♆)
The Hanged Man by G A Rosenberg
For my beloved
I hang down sacrificing
myself to myself
Feeling my heart open
feeling my wounds bleed
My soul spilling out
of view and precious need
to reveal what’s inside
That spark of truth
that separates bifurcates
my age from my youth
I lied to myself
so easily when young
living my parents’ lives
the songs my culture sung
Now in reflection
I see myself true
must reach inside
and pull myself through
In view of my future
I dissolve my past
until I am finished
I struggle held fast
Now I am living
my own inner truth
I no longer need
the protections of youth
— Gary A Rosenberg
Reviewing my life
from a new perspective
wondering how i came to be here
hanging around but tied in place
unable to move
yet my mind dances
as I see new possibilities
now that I’ve met my true love’s heart
struggling with the ties from my past
unable to move
Revealing my self
and letting my self know
becoming the person I never knew
dissolving my being yet i find myself
unable to move
Letting my self go
to brand new places
I now am moving towards that star
I’ve feed myself through loves depths. Now
I’m able to move
The Hanged Man is one of the most powerful images in the Major Arcana. In Norse mythology, Odin hung upside down from the world tree for nine days and nights in order to achieve wisdom and received the runes as a reward. In Christian lore, Peter insisted on being crucified upside down because he didn’t feel he was worthy of dying the same way as Jesus. The Hanged Man implies sacrifice of the self to become something more. In many religions there is the idea of the sacrificed deity that brings about the redemption of his followers.
What does sacrifice mean? It means giving up something to achieve something more. In this case we give up something of ourselves to reach some kind of understanding.
If the Lovers represented the first meeting of the opposites in a relationship, then the Hanged Man represents the knowledge that in the relationship we must be willing to sacrifice who we are to join with our beloved and become something more. The ‘I’ must give way to the ‘We’. If the Lovers represents leaving home and building a life outside of the society we grew up in, the Hanged Man takes it to a deeper level where we must examine our internal values and determine which of them come from cultural conditioning and which are truly part of ourselves. In order to become who we truly are and who we are meant to be, we must be willing to sacrifice who we were. The self reflected in the water symbolizes the image of who we could be if our external self and life truly reflected the internal. Thus in many ways it is the realization of a need to change which leads to the path of enlightenment.
Astrological Correspondent-Water(▽) Planet Neptune (♆)-The Hanged Man like The Fool and Judgement (or Aeon) cards have a double astrological attribute, a planetary one and an elemental one. One of the reasons for this is that in the hebrew alphabet (used on the tree of life) the letters are split into three groups. These are the three Mother letters (Aleph, Mem, and Shin which represent the elements Air, Water and Fire), Seven Double letters (Beth, Gimel, Dalet, Koph, Peh, Resh and Tau which represent the seven known planets Moon, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, the Sun and Earth) and twelve Simple letters which represent the 12 signs of the zodiac. It all works rather nicely. However since these assignations were made three more planets were discovered in our solar system Uranus (who’s astrological nature fits well with Air), Neptune (a planet with a decidedly Watery nature and influence) and Pluto (a fiery influence). Some readers, deck designers and students of the tarot have connected the three planets with the three elemental cards. Since there is such a close fit and examination of any correlation can bring insight I include both possible influences in this writing.
Neptune’s influence is dreamy and illusory and governs among other things, insight and awareness that comes from a state of heightened or altered consciousness. This can be double-edged resulting in transformative experiences but also in its more negative form can lead to addiction and hitting the well too many times with little to show for it. Neptune influences our spirituality and beliefs and our intuition. Its important to develop the discernment to know the difference between when our intuition and heightened states reveal truth and when it reveals a message that is personal to our own development. Neptune also influences psychic receptivity and visions.
Water is the elementary influence over the signs, Cancer, Scorpio, and Pisces. Water has an emotional, sensitive influence with hidden depths and currents. It can be dreamy and moody, compassionate or brooding, empathetic or self-indulgent all in its cycle. It flows into everything around it and can be boiled by fire (or extinguish it), damned by earth (or interdependently nurturing towards it) and dispersed or interwoven by air.
Runic Correspondent-Eihwaz (“Yew”) –
Eihwaz is the rune of sacrifice and the connection between the material and spiritual worlds. It offers enlightenment and insight and the knowledge of ‘dying before dying’. The resin from the yew is poisonous and its vapours tho toxic can cause a hallucinatory state. Eihwaz also represents the World Tree that Odin hung himself upside down on to receive the wisdom of the runes. It is a rune of initiation, protection or confusion. The Yew tree is flexible and it bends but does not break. Other runes associated with the Hanged Man are Tiwaz and Isa
Path on the Tree of Life-Path 23-Mem-Mem means water or seas. It is the path of the water redeemer (esp in the Aeon of Osiris) and the sustainer on the water. It is the path of surrender and is called in the Sefer Yetzirah the sustaining consciousness. It is the path that connects the sephiroth of Geburah (“severity”) with Hod (“Splendour”). It is spoken of often in terms of enlightenment and indeed it takes the discipline of Geburah to take us beyond the intellectual understanding of Hod and bring the kindling of Wisdom. It also takes a willingness to surrender who and what we are for who and what we may become.
The Hanged Man in a reading may indicate someone who is very independent with a unique take on the world. It may refer to someone who is breaking free of old conventional ways of being and becoming themselves. The Hanged Man can also mean that there is a delay and hold up in plans and the querent may need to reflect on whether what they are hoping for is really true to themselves or not. It may also indicate a transformative relationship for the querent where they will have to surrender a bit of how they see themselves in order to make the relationship work. This does not mean becoming someone who they are not but more a realization of how by bending they may become something more than they had known. The Hanged Man may also mean that the querent has to sacrifice something in order to get another thing that they want. In all of these cases there is a vulnerability but also an opportunity for growth if one is willing to stretch and bend. The card can also represent delayed rather than instant gratification or a surrendering of momentary pleasure for joy.
