View Full Version : Legs on the World & Hanged Man
On another thread in Using Tarot Cards-the World & the Hanged Man, Thirteen had a reply & I just wanted to post this because I missed this & it may benefit someone else someday. Thanks Thirteen!
Look at the legs on the World card & the Hanged Man card & compare.
Was I the only one who missed this? lol
No, you were not the only one to miss this. I missed it too. ;)
Interesting that their legs are in the exact same position and crossing...
C
I missed it as well. But does it have any significance? Interesting!
Agathe
paradoxx
03-03-2004, 21:52
Its the astrological glyphs of jupiter(Hanged man) and saturn(world), the only problem is that the hanged man is usually pisces, unless waite switches some of the common designations.
Imagemaker
03-03-2004, 22:12
I don't know if it has any meaning at all, but I was thinking that in an inverted position, the bent leg would be pulled down by gravity--thus "giving in" (Hanged Man).
When standing or dancing (World), the bent leg needs force to be up, against gravity--intent or energy is exerted to lift it.
Does this make sense, and does it matter? In tarot, I think every little detail can be interpreted to mean something and in these 2 cards, the bent leg "travels" to its position differently.
Especially in RWS, which is why I like this deck. I have others, maybe prettier ones, but I can't count on that imagery to have so much meaning. It's easy to believe that these cards are related and that the leg positions do indeed mean something!
WalesWoman
21-03-2004, 09:45
I finally found this in Rachel Pollack's Seventy Eight Degrees of Wisdom... the legs of both the world and hermit create the shape of 4. Four symbolizes the earth with its four directions and the unconscious. So the hanged man would mean that he has turned the world on it's head by reversing his sense of values and the figure of the World is made up of shapes that create the Tree of Life (which I have so far avoided), but the top shape is superconsciousness, the middle, consciousness and the bottom, unconsciousness. The world has unified the levels of consciousness into one state, one entity rather than fragments.
RW: If his legs form and cross and his arms, folded behind him together with his head form a triangle with the point downward..then we have + over upside down triangle
Not into alchemy...but think this is the inverted symbol of sulphur.
Any alchemists out there?
Can't get full triangle drawn...Acc to one reference ( Eden Gray's Complete Guide to the Taro) this is the sign of the accomplishment of the Great Work...the overcoming of personality and the transmutation of the lower passions into pure gold...ultimately the HM must stand on his own feet and surmount the cross thus reversing figure with triangle on top , point up and cross underneath:
^
+
The World is card #21 reversal number of Hanged Man Card #12
About the World, Eden Gray says: The legs of the dancer
form a cross, as do those of the Hanged Man, but the triangle he represented was under the cross, signifying that he was still bound by earthly things. Here, a triangle is formed pointing upward from the dancer's hands to the top of her head. Thus the triangle of the Spirit now surmounts the cross of the material
(upright triangle over cross)
Manley Hall in The Secret Teachings of All Ages...indicates that the figure forms the inversted symbol of sulphur and according to Levi, signifies the accomplishment of the magnus opus or great work
one more interpretation....I'm sure some of our AT experts in this area can add more to this....
terri
Waite copied this from the Tarot of Marseille.
Originally posted by Diana
Waite copied this from the Tarot of Marseille.
Thanks, Diana! terri
TemperanceAngel
21-03-2004, 17:16
Saying Waite copied it from Marseilles, doesn't answer the question.
Who and where did the Marseilles steal it from? The Marseilles deck isn't the first and certainly didn't invent the Tarot or symbolism.
I do like reading about the legs becoming triangles, and just to do with alchemy. We need a mathematician on here to chat about triangles!
XTAX
Originally posted by TemperanceAngel
Saying Waite copied it from Marseilles, doesn't answer the question.
XTAX
It does.
Because the Marseille Emperor has his legs in the same position. They form the letter 4. (Emperor is a four). Four is the symbol (amongst others) in the Tarot of materiality. The Emperor is, amongst other things, representative of materiality.
In order to let go, which is one of the tasks of the Hanged Man, he has to abandon his attachments to materiality.
I hesitated to post it, because this is the RWS study group.
So many symbols were copied (I didn't stay "steal", by the way TemperanceAngel, you must have misread me???) from the Marseille decks that it is difficult to understand the RWS sometimes if one doesn't go futher back in time.
As to your interesting question as to where the Marseille got its inspiration of their symbols, there is a whole forum dedicated to that. Some of the symbols refer to Greek and Roman mythology; some are alchemical; some are from iconography of the time; some are biblical; .... the list is endless.
TemperanceAngel
21-03-2004, 17:36
Now what you wrote then, did answer the question, thanks Diana.
Yes, I did misread you, apologies, it's that rushing before College, I shouldn't be on here knda thing :laugh:
XTAX
WalesWoman
24-03-2004, 23:27
Sorry about the post I did earlier, I meant to say Hanged Man and my fingers typed Hermit. Must have been having a Hanged Man kind of day and it was brain cells falling out, maybe that is why he has such a calm expression, going blank and having a Duh moment.
Thanks Ros for bringing my lack of attention to my attention. Now I'm going to check my shoes and make sure I haven't been walking around with TP trailing along for days.
Phoenix Rising
28-03-2004, 04:36
Funny I woke up this morning thinking about the hanged man, I don't have the RWS deck but I wanted to have a look at it's image, But my initial thoughts were of it representing the "Qabballah" Tree of Life. With the elbows out and the leg crossed it reminded me of the two triangles, or "Star of David" I've been expecting to see the Merkaba lately too for some reason.