Hanged man

The Hanged Man
color image
(1909 Tarot deck images courtesy )
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.

HANGED MAN (Mem)
In order to understand the Wisdom of our soul, it is necessary to penetrate into the depths of experience, to submerge ourselves in the waters of life. Our re-emergence from the depths, into the light, concludes our baptism by water.

Levi likens the hanged man to Prometheus, the Eternal Sufferer, further declaring that the upturned feet signify the spiritualization of the lower nature.

The card that substitutes for the Hanged Man in the Eteilla deck has left behind the Judeo-Christian idea of human guilt for the "fall of man" and its expiation in sacrifice. The replacement card is called Prudence, No.

(The four knight cards have been eliminated in the modern deck.) The Major, or Greater, Arcana consists of 22 cards, each bearing a title and a picture, such as the Hanged Man, the Wheel of Fortune, Judgment, and the Moon, ...

The appearances of the Slain God have taken on various aspects throughout the ages. His images can be seen in the Jack-in-the-Green, the Hooded Man, the Hanged Man of the Tarot, the Lord of Vegetation, the Harvest, ...

The Majors retain most of the traditional names, with The Punishment replacing The Hanged Man and The Mirror replacing The Wheel of Fortune.

That is also the place where we will discover that Parsifal is really the Fisher King. We will find our true inner self at the place of our heart's desire; but only after we are judged and have the experience of the Hanged Man.

See also: Symbol, Tarot, World, Death, Sun