12:   The Hanged Man

BACK Scan through the Tarot cards NEXT

BOTA (Builders of the Adytum)

Universal Waite

1.   Sacrifice, or 2.   Transition; being "suspended between two worlds." 3.   A shift of perspective; considering other people's viewpoints as well as your own.

COMMENTS:

The man's face doesn't show pain, only a calm, trancelike state.

An alternate meaning for this card is Suspended Mind, which the Hindus call "Samadhi."   It is an exalted mental state in which one attains the Divine Consciousness of Pure Being.

One writer notices that The Hanged Man appears to be "a pendulum at rest."   This card may stand for a time when everything "just stands still," a time of rest and reflection before moving on (similar to the Four of Swords).

One is reminded of the legend of Odin who hung on a tree for nine days.   He lost an eye, but gained inner wisdom.   Because the Hanged Man is upside down, he sees everything differently.

The glow around his head is called a nimbus.

In some early Tarot decks, this card was "The Traitor."   In Italy in the 1300's, the prescribed punishment for treason was to be hanged upside down (though not necessarily by one foot).

In the "Ancient Italian Tarot" (published by Lo Scarabeo), this card is L'Appeso   -   "The Hanging."

In the BOTA version of this card (shown above), the frame on which the man hangs is drawn so that it resembles the Hebrew letter ח ("kheth"), which is the eighth letter of the Hebrew alphabet.   Nobody knows the significance of this.   The Hebrew letter in the bottom right corner is מ ("mem"), which is the 13th letter of the Hebrew alphabet.

Eliphas Levi assigned Hebrew letters to the trump cards in his 1856 book Transcendental Magic.   The Fool is aleph, the Magician is beith, etc.   -   22 trump cards and 22 letters in the Hebrew alphabet.

Here's what Arthur Edward Waite says about this card (in The Pictorial Key to the Tarot): The gallows from which he is suspended forms a Tau cross, while the figure--from the position of the legs--forms a fylfot cross. There is a nimbus about the head of the seeming martyr. It should be noted (1) that the tree of sacrifice is living wood, with leaves thereon; (2) that the face expresses deep entrancement, not suffering; (3) that the figure, as a whole, suggests life in suspension, but life and not death. It is a card of profound significance, but all the significance is veiled. One of his editors suggests that Eliphas Levi did not know the meaning, which is unquestionable nor did the editor himself. It has been called falsely a card of martyrdom, a card a of prudence, a card of the Great Work, a card of duty; but we may exhaust all published interpretations and find only vanity. I will say very simply on my own part that it expresses the relation, in one of its aspects, between the Divine and the Universe. He who can understand that the story of his higher nature is imbedded in this symbolism will receive intimations concerning a great awakening that is possible, and will know that after the sacred Mystery of Death there is a glorious Mystery of Resurrection.