The Hanged Man of The Tarot

What is the Hanged Man of Tarot?

The Hanged Man is key 12 of the Tarot.  1 + 2 = 3 so we are reminded to look back at key 3 or The Empress for deeper understanding of the key.  The Empress is the door and the is creating life in her womb utilizing creative imagination.  All of life comes from the womb and the womb is filled with water which is truly the seed of life.  The hanged Man’s Hebrew letter is Mem and it means “water” or “seas”.

Before the dawn of civilized man, man could only look at his reflection in water where he would see his image in reverse.  The Hanged Man means “Reversal” and it is the reversal of your mind.  You have been conditioned from infancy with familial, cultural and religious beliefs.  Each and every one, from an occult view, is pure foolishness.  For the wisdom of this world is foolishness in God’s sight. As it is written: “He catches the wise in their craftiness”. ~ Corinthians 3:19. This means the world is not as you see it to be and most humans incarnate on this earth are chasing the wrong dreams. Turn it upside down. Believe nothing.

We are conditioned to believe if we work hard and apply ourselves we will be rewarded materially and we will be happy.  How many more people need to tell you the fallacy not only in the belief, but in the capacity for that to happen in today’s world?  We are culturally conditioned to believe we are unique and special and those traits bring us fame and fortune.  The exact opposite is true as the dark, infuriated by your light, rises up to put out your light.  The framework of you mind is incorrect.  In fact, it is so incorrect, you can’t fathom it.  The truth is you are doing nothing.  The divine is working through you and you aren’t even making the choices you believe yourself to be making.  You are suffering because of the conditioning of your mind, however, that refuses and just simply can’t see what is truth.  The gallows he hangs from are the Hebrew letter “Tav” which means “truth.” Truth is the crown and the robe is clearly the quivering energy of the divine Life Force energy running from bottom to top (LOL…top to bottom).  Remember your Kundalini?

The archetype of the Hanged Man enlivens after the sword of Justice has cleaved most of the choices you thought were yours in your life.  With nothing left, but to focus on just one thing, you become master, expert and teacher.  The Hanged Man enjoys his reality in a state of blissful awareness and benefits from the divine pouring through him, his will not his own, but that of the divine.  In yoga we call this Samadhi.

You might think of the Hanged Man as a cocoon state of your spiritual evolution.  As mystics and yogis, we love to speak of the primordial ooze to which the caterpillar returns to be birthed after a mystical experience of oneness as a gorgeous butterfly.  That’s the next key, Death.  The Hanged man has you turn away from the world.  A good practice is to decide everything is absolutely meaningless.  To watch your thoughts, words and deeds and to actively say to yourself “This is meaningless.  Life is meaningless.”  When I teach this principle to classes they always have the same reaction as when I ask them to make a practice of praying for more uncertainty than the day before.  I won’t tell you what happens if you do this for a few weeks.  It’s magic….just like praying for uncertainty.

Examining key 12 you see a man hanging upside down from the gallows.  His legs are in the shape of an upside down cross.  His arms in the shape of the water triangle or the old fashioned way of writing the letter Daleth (door) that appears on the empress card.  Not only does his coat have a cross (right side up), but also the symbol for Venus (if you imagine you can see the full circle of his color) upside down.  Venus is The Empress as well.  St. Peter was crucified upside down around AD 68.  He was one of the 12 Apostles of Christ.   He chose to be because he thought himself not worthy of being crucified in the same manner as Jesus.  St Peter was a carpenter and a foundation builder.

St Peter was a rough and tough guy.  You can go down the rabbit hole of his name translations, but it boils down to the meaning being “stone.”  The Hanged Man and this particular teaching might give you the impression you are to sit idly by when problems arise and let the Divine (the World) deal with it.  You might think you are not to take a stand or make a fuss.  That’s not it.  What you are to do is see obstacles placed before you as divine.  Much is learned from suffering and evil. Evil sits alongside good under the crown of God.  You wouldn’t know good or be propelled to create good if you did not know bad.  You might contemplate how you have grown and become more intimate with the Divine because of your suffering.   This would be a “reversal” of the way most people think.  Most people just whine, complain and feel sorry for themselves turning into huge victims of fate and never learning any lessons.  You might also consider saying to yourself “Everything I think is wrong, what else could I think?”

St. Peter taught you can’t buy your way into heaven nor would good deeds get you there.  Getting into heaven is simply an act of Grace.  Contemplate that as you color your key.  

The “Tav” from which he hangs is made of wood and if you look closely you will see there were 12 branches on the tree that have been lobbed off.  12 is the number of the zodiac or signs .  This indicates he has transcended his karmic blueprint or astrology and the forces of the cosmos are no longer working upon him.  I have a friend who reads palms and after 28 intensive days in India doing Kundalini I noticed a line on my palm had literally broke and re routed itself while I was away.  I only noticed because I was also learning about the planetary placement and energies in the hands and why we do the mudras we do or I doubt I would have noticed.  After returning to America I asked my friend what was happening and she laughed and said “Oh…you changed your destiny.”  It was about one year or so my astrological chart was unreadable.  I had transcended something using the practices of Kundalini.   And THAT is why we do them.

Make a commitment to no longer go along with what you think is reality.  If you are doing the work of activating the powers of the archetypes you have fully come to embody the “powers” of the tarot.  (Remember, the Hanged Man is a “means by which” and that means is STILLNESS).  The powers are from the Magician, the High Priestess, The Empress, The Emperor, The Heirophant, The Lovers and The Chariot.  (As above so below, Memory, Creativity, Constitution, Intuition, Discernment, Receptivity).  Intend to no longer be what you are and intend to be the exact opposite of what you are.  (Some of the best advice I’ve ever received).

It’s interesting the Hanged Man has his head in the ground.  Notice the hair is white like that of the Hermit and the Emperor.  The Hebrew letter Mem meaning water is one of three mother letters of the Hebrew 22 letter alphabet.  The other letters are Aleph and Shin.  Aleph is air, Mem is water, and Shin is fire.  When you mix them all together you get Earth.  The Hanged Man is aware of all this and understands he is dependent on Mother Earth.  He loves the earth and is happy, trusting, and comfortable with his head buried in it.  Don’t we make fun of people and say “they must have their head buried in the sand?”  Maybe it is we who say that who don’t understand.  That is “reversal.”  Is that person only seeing what they want and are we aggravated they can’t see what we want…what we think is obvious.  Maybe we are wrong.

Notice the Hanged Man has his hands behind his back.  He doesn’t need them if the Divine is doing everything and he is aware and happy about that.

Notice the 10 buttons on the coat of the Hanged Man.  Those are the 10 Sephiroth of the Tree of Life.

Notice the coat of blue with the crescent moons.  That is the Hight Priestess.

Notice the red legs and the shape of the legs.  That is The Emperor and the symbol of Sulphur turned upside down meaning rajastic energy (change making energy) is not at play.).

Notice a cross has 4 points and a triangle has 3 points.  3 * 4 = 12 (zodiac again).  Completion of a manifestation cycle.

Notice the head is lit up with light.  Long story short, think of Jesus.

That’s probably enough for now.  Be Still and KNOW.   : )

Look for future offerings of Pamela’s Master Tarot Class announced on Facebook.  This 22 week immersive experience will have you understanding the symbology of the majors and cultivate an ability to read Tarot.