History of Ideas - the Hanged Man
 

So my question is - What is the history of meanings and analogies that have been associated with the Tarot image of the Hanged Man? How have these ideas evolved over time? For instance, what is the first mention of a possible relationship to the Odin myth?

Mary

a first start
 

I'll try to keep adding to this list as people post specific dates & references.

14th to 15th c. - According to Evelyn S. Welch's _Art in Renaissance Italy_: immagini infamanti 'shifted from illustrating financial shame to illustrating political shame.'

15th c. - On the Cary-Yale Visconti card Hope stands on a figure who has a rope around his neck and the words Juda Traditor on his garment. "The virtue of Hope has overcome the traitor Judas, who represents disloyalty and hypocrisy." Kaplan LWB.

1450-1480? - Sermones de Ludo Cum Aliis (Steele manuscript): "12. Lo impichato" (not in my dictionary - see 1587 below).

1521 - Sigismondo Fanti of Ferrara, Triumpha di fortuna: Picture of a man hanging upside down by one foot: “If you are inhuman, or traitor to Lords or relatives, in fact or in word, if you are without any respect, without reason, I see you end your hours in the air.” [Chart shows: Saturn/S Node opposition Mars/N Node and Grand Fire Trine of Mars/N Node trine Jupiter trine Sun/Moon. I interpret this roughly as great danger and loss due to overwhelming pride and daring.]

1527 - Caos del Triperuno by "Merlini Cocai" (aka Teofilo Folengo)
But you cannot kill hearts, you only Suspend (12) them.

1540 - Giulio Bertoni in Tarocchi Appropriati: "Il Traditore - Lucia Forna. - Don't trust her, unless you have an hostage."

1543 - Andrea Alciato in "[Parergon] Juris libri VII posteriores" - names the card "Cross" [crucifix?].

1565 - Francesco Piscina in "Discorso sopra l'ordine delle figure dei tarocchi" (Monte Regal (modern Mondovì, G. Berti), pp. 17-18:
"...there follows this old man the Impiccato, who arrived at this point for having scorned good counsel, and whom the Inventor has placed there to represent a sad, false, vicious, bothersome, and quickly finished man (since good Counsel depends on virtue), to show in fact a man lacking in any virtue, that without counsel, in desperation, has hanged himself; to demonstrate and illustrate the worst end that comes to those who despise prudent counsel, and, by consequence of virtue, which sort of person deservedly dies in every sort of contempt, bereft entirely of his reputation, and his name as if he were never born; and because of this follows Death, who expunges from all their memory..." trans. Ross Caldwell.

c. 1570 Anonimo: Discorso perch? Fosse trovato il gioco et particolamente quello del tarocco, dove si dichiara a pieno il significato di tutte le figure di esso gioco [Venezia?], ms. 1072, vol. XII. F.: Bologna: Biblioteca Universitaria: "Then after these follow the Hunchback, the Traitor, Death, and the Devil. By the hunchback, who is none other than time, it is shown that all these are vain and transitory, thus it is the sum of folly to love them and desire them so intensely that nothing else is considered, since in a short time old age is reached, with all of the miseries accompanying it, and then one begins to know the deceptions of the assassin world, placed before the eyes by the traitor, but having acted on the hardest neck (most stubbornly?), and bad habit , he finds it difficult to be able to hold back at all from nefarious errors, comes upon unforeseen death, in the horror of which, the devil, that is to say the cause of all this, brings him away terrified and desperate. And this is the miserable end of human action, I say, of those who are so immersed in vain and lascivious delights which the world promises, and can give, following madness for a guide, and having no regard to his end, or of God, from whom only are born and depend the greatest goods, and perfect and everlasting happiness." trans. Ross Caldwell & Dr. Arcanus.

1587 - Thomaso Garzoni, names it l'Impiccato (The Hung/Hanged Man). [Note: Impicciato (adj from the verb) means embroiled or perplexed. Impiccio = perplexity; trouble.]

1750 - Pratesi's Cartomancer (interpretations on 35 Bolognese tarocchi cards): The Traitor, betrayal.

1781 - 8th volume of Le Monde primitif by Court de Gébelin - the Hanged Man [being suspended] is replaced by "Prudence."
"No. 12. Prudence is numbered among of the four cardinal virtues: the Egyptians did not allow themselves in this painting to forget human life? Nevertheless one does not find her in this deck. One sees in its place, under the no. 12 between Force and Temperance, a man hanging from his feet, but what is it that is hung? It is the work of an unhappy, presumptuous card-maker who did not understand the beauty of the symbol contained in this tableau. He has taken it upon himself to correct it and thereby disfigured it entirely.
"Prudence cannot be represented in a manner sensible to the eyes[able to be perceived] as an upright man, who having placed one foot before the other and holds himself suspended examining the place where he could surely set/place himself. [He watches where he is going.]
"The title of this card was therefore 'the man suspended by his foot', pede suspenso: the card-maker did not know what it means, to be a man hung by his feet.
"So one asks why a hanged man in this deck? One does not lack an answer, it is the just punishment of the inventor of the deck, for having represented the Papess.
"But placed between Force, Temperance and Justice, who would not see that it is Prudence who would want to and would have to be represented in ancient times?" [my translation]

1781 - The essay by M. C. de M*** (le Comte de Mellet) in Le Monde Primitif: "Twelve, the mishaps which attack human life, represented by a man hung by his foot; this can also mean that to avoid them, he must in this world go with prudence: suspended by the foot."

1789 - Publication of the first Etteilla deck in which 12 is La Prudence (Prudence/The Masses - equated by Papus with the Hanged Man) and 18 is Traître (Traitor - equated by Papus with the Hermit).

1855 - Eliphas Lévi, Rituel de la haute magie ("Transcendental Magic"), Vol. 1, Ch 12: "It represents a man with his hands bound behind him, having two bags of money attached to the armpits, and suspended by one foot from a gibbet formed by the trunks of two trees, each with the stumps of six topped branches, and by a crosspiece, thus completing the figure of the Hebrew Tau. The legs of the victim are crossed, while his head and elbows form a triangle. Now, the triangle surmounted by a cross signifies in alchemy the end and perfection of the Great Work, a meaning which is identical with that of the letter Tau, the last of the sacred alphabet. This Hanged Man is, consequently, the adept, bound by his engagements and spiritualized, that is, having his feet turned towards heaven. He is also the antique Prometheus, expiating by everlasting torture the penalty of his glorious theft. Vulgarly, he is the traitor Judas, and his punishment is a menace to betrayers of the Great Arcanum. Finally, for Kabalistic Jews, the Hanged Man, who corresponds to their twelfth dogma, that of the promised Messiah, is a protestation against the Saviour acknowledged by Christians, and they seem to say unto Him still: How canst Thou save others, since Thou couldnst not save Thyself?"

c. 1865 - written on Edmond Billaudot's hand-drawn deck (Madame Lenormand claimed him as a student). Published as Belline Tarot.
"The Hanged Man or Sacrifice: Self-denial, prudence, patience, public example, lack of concern. Devote yourself to others: this is the Divine Law, but do not expect anything but ingratitude from most men. Hold your soul always ready to give account to the Eternal, because an unforeseen and violent death is setting its traps on your path. But if the World makes an attempt on your life, do not die without pardoning your enemies, for he who does not pardon, is thrown into Eternity armed with a dagger. He gets lost in the solitude and horror of himself." trans. Ross Caldwell. (Seems an attempt to merge several Tarot traditions, esp. de Gebelin, Lévi & Christian.)

1870 - Histoire de la Magie by Paul Christian (J-P. Pitois). The Law revealed - in the divine world. The teaching of duty - in the intellectual world. The Sacrifice - in the physical world.

1889 - Papus, Tarot of the Bohemians: "This Hanged Man serves as an example to the presumptuous, and his position indicates discipline, the absolute submission which the human owes to the Divine." "Trials. Sacrifice."

c. 1890s - Golden Dawn Adeptus Minor Ritual in reference to the Hanged Man: “Except ye be born of Water and the Spirit, ye cannot enter the Kingdom of Heaven. . . . If ye be crucified with Christ, ye shall also reign with Him. . . . It is written, that he who humbleth himself shall be exalted. . . . And the Light shineth in Darkness, and the darkness comprehendeth it not. . . . Out of the darkness, let the light arise. . . . Buried with that Light in a mystical death, rising again in a mystical resurrection, cleansed and purified. . . . Poverty, torture and death have ye passed through. They have been but the purification of the Gold.”
6=5 Ritual by Mathers: “The 12th Key of the Tarot, “Hanged Man” but also more properly called the “Drowned Giant” and its position is horizontal rather than perpendicular. In this position, the lower side of the Key represents the Bed of the waters and the upper side the Keel of the Ark of Noah, floating above the Drowned figure. Or, in Egyptian Symbolism, the Baris or Sacred Barque of Isis; whilst the Figure is one of the Bound and Drowned followers of the Evil Forces; through yet again, in another sense, it may represent the Body of the Slain Osiris in the Pastos, sent down the Nile to the sea: whilst above is the Keel of the Baris or Barque of Isis in which she travelled to seek him.” –Mathers

1902 - Le Serpent de la Genêse--Livre II; La Clef de la Magie Noire. Par Stanislas de Guaita. 8vo, Paris, 1902. "the Hanged Man is magical bondage."

1906/26 - Le Tarot: Signification et Interprétation du Tarot Italien by J.-G. Bourgeat (4th revised edition of his 1906 work): "Expiation, sacrifice, martyrdom."
"At the same time as being the symbol of accomplishment of the Great Work, this hieroglyph shows the castigation which waits for the revealing of the secrets of the shrine."

1909 - Manuel Synthétique & Pratique du Tarot by Eudes Picard: "A man hung by a foot and whose hands are linked in back. The body makes a triangle, the top at the bottom, and its legs a cross above the triangle. The gibbet has the form of a Hebrew Tau. The two trees which support it have each six cut branches." [Taken directly from Eliphas Lévi.]

1922 - "The Wasteland" by T.S. Eliot refers to the Hanged Man as Odin: "I am not familiar with the exact constitution of the Tarot pack of cards, from which I have obviously departed to suit my own convenience. The Hanged Man, a member of the traditional pack, fits my purpose in two ways: because he is associated in my mind with the Hanged God of Frazer...."

1923 - Harriette & F. Homer Curtiss, _The Key of Destiny_. Cross over triangle = "the sign of personality, while in alchemy it is the accomplishment of the Great Work." This is Prometheus, who stole sacred fire from the Sun. "Like Prometheus, man today is chained to the rock of physical existence." "This card is said to represent Judas, who went out and hanged himself after betraying the Christ . . . he hangs by one foot, or partial understanding." It is Oedipus: "they tied the child by one foot to an overhanging branch of a tree." They relate it also to the 12 Labors of Hercules: "the steps of Initiation through which every man must pass ere he becomes a "Sun Initiate."

1927 - Oswald Wirth, The Tarot of the Magicians: "The alchemic sign of the Accomplishment of the Great Work, the inverse of the ideogram of Sulphur. . . . The Hanged Man is inactive and powerless where his body is concerned, for his soul is freed. . . . The Hanged Man is bound, not as an instinctive or blind believer, but as a wise man who has discerned the vanity of individual ambitions and has understood the wealth of the heroic sacrifice which aspires towards total oblivion of self. . . . The mythological hero who is most clearly related . . . seems to be Perseus . . . a personification of active thought.

"The soul freed from the enclosing body. Mysticism. Priest. The man entering into contact with God. Collaboration with the Great Work. The individual freeing himself from instinctive selfishness to rise in the divine. Redeeming sacrifice. Moral perfection. Self denial. Complete forgetfulness of self. Devotion. Absolute disinterestedness. Voluntary sacrifice. . . . Unworkable plans. Liberal but sterile desires. Unrequited love."

1928 - The General Book of the Tarot by A. E. Thierens. Intro by Waite where he says this is Adam Kadmon: “The human figure of the symbol is suspended head downward and as such it is comparable to the Microprosopus or God of Reflections in the so-called Great Symbol of the Double Triangle of Solomon, prefixed by Lévi to his Dogme et Rituel de la Haute Magie. It follows that the true symbol belonging to Trump Major No. XII, though it is by no means that of Lévi, is not a Hanged Man at all.”
Thierens writes, “It is the sign . . . in which the outer world loses its importance or even reality, and the consciousness is opened to inner truth. This is the reversing of consciousness, which makes things change their significance.”

1928 - Manly Palmer Hall, The Secret Teachings of All Ages. He quotes Lévi, mentions Judas. "The picture ... depicts polarity temporarily triumphant over the spiritual principle of equilibrium. To attain the heights of philosophy, therefore, man must reverse (or invert) the order of his life. In the pseudo-Egyptian Tarot the hanged man is suspended between two palm trees and signifies the Sun God who dies perennially for this world."

1949 - Paul Marteau Le Tarot de Marseille, pp53 - 55:
"... The number 12 implies a renunciation so that a re-commencement, if there is one, is not encumbered by the work of the previous cycle"... "The 22 major sheets [Lames] of Tarot are, in effect, formed from two cycles: 12 + 10." ... "This card [lame] signifies a stop or suspension [ie, pause] in the evolutionary work of Man. The representation of this suspension by a reversed man indicates that what is on high is as that which is low [ie, 'that which is above is like that which is below'], and that all acts of man on the material plane ['plan' implies, in the context, both 'plane' and 'plan' or 'blueprint'] are reflected in the spiritual one." ... "In summary, [...] 'Le Pendu' represents Man inversing his action in order to orient it towards the spiritual with a feeling of awaiting and of abnegation". (rather quick translation that may need improvement - Jean-Michel David)

1954 - Gertrude Moakley "The Waite-Smith 'Tarot,' A Footnote to The Waste Land", Bulletin of the New York Public Library: "It is possible that the "one-eyed" theme, which occurs again in The Cocktail Party, is also connected with the Hanged Man. Odin, who paid the price of an eye to obtain all wisdom, is one of the Hanged Gods of Frazer. His remaining eye is the Sun, another of the Trumps, and perhaps it is suggested by the nimbus of the Hanged Man."

1971 - Paul Huson, _The Devil's Picturebook_: "Whether the Fool is being slain as a benefactor whose royal blood is demanded to sacrifically regenerate the fertility of the crops or whether, like Odin, he is offering himself to himself in the pursuit of occult wisdom is all one. The idea of exchanging the mundane for the spiritual is the central one." p. 204.

1975 - Richard Cavendish, _The Tarot_: "The Hanged Man has been connected with both Odin and Christ as examples of a god being sacrificed to himself to recover something hidden or lost." He also refers to Attis.
-----------

See pictorial evidence at:
[url]http://www.tarotforum.net/showthread.php?t=93338[/url]

Bob O'Neill's Hanged Man Iconology
[url]http://www.tarot.com/about-tarot/li...neill/hangedman[/url] :
"Seeing the Hangedman image as representing punishment (secular or religious) does not consider the full complexity of the symbolism. The contrast between upright and inverted figures was not simply associated with punishment since both upright and inverted figures appear in Figures 9 and 12. In many accounts, sinners in hell will be turned upside down (Gorevich 1988). But in Late Medieval imagery and drama, the viewer knew that a significant transition had occurred when everything reversed – it was a kind of dramatic device to alert the viewer that they were now seeing action in the afterlife (Palmer 1992).

"The most important account of this inversion occurs at the end of Dante’s Inferno. Dante and his guide Virgil have descended into the depths of hell in an upright position. But at the bottom of hell, Dante is turned upside down and begins the ascension through Purgatory to Paradisio. To Dante, the inversion experience was a turning of values upside down – a conversion experience required for further progress. Thus, the later occultists interpretation of the Hangedman as a reversal of values and a pivotal experience was quite familiar to the 15th and 16th century card-player through Dante’s account." end O'Neill quote

Andrea Vitali's Hanged Man essay
[url]http://trionfi.com/0/i/v/v12.html[/url]

John Opsopaus Hanged Man essay
[url]http://www.cs.utk.edu/~mclennan/BA/PT/M12.html[/url] :
"The Hanged Traitor represents the unavoidable torments of overturning an old order and of a voluntary sacrifice for the sake of spiritual rebirth. Such a transformation cannot be carried out rationally; rather, the seeker must commit himself to fate, and have faith that Fortune will dissolve the old order and give birth to a new one. Therefore, he is "dependent" on his left leg, representing the unconscious, and makes no use of his right, representing conscious action.

"Stripped of his dignity, the seeker hangs head down, which symbolizes the debasement of his rationality. He is waiting, in suspension, on tenterhooks, dangling over the abyss, poised between heaven and hell. The tree, representing the central axis of existence, would provide everything he needs or wants, but he cannot reach it. Though he is tortured every day (as shown by the open wound), he patiently awaits a redeemer, for he knows that if he tries to save himself, he will plummet into the abyss.

"Thus the Hanged Traitor represents suspension and depression as prerequisites to spiritual rebirth." End Opsopaus quote

In my admittedly flimsy library of modern interpretations of the cards, the earliest direct association of the Hanged Man with Odin is in Edred Thorsson (Stephen Flowers) "Futhark: A Handbook of Rune Magic" (Weiser, 1984), p. 147, in his Appendix D table of Runic-Tarot correspondences (Rune 13, eihwaz).

He doesn't elaborate in his text, but I think the association must be older than that.

Ross

Odin
 

Richard Cavendish talks about the Odin analogy (as well as that of Attis) in his excellent 1975 picturebook _The Tarot_: "The Hanged Man has been connected with both Odin and Christ as examples of a god being sacrificed to himself to recover something hidden or lost." He references James Frazer's _Golden Bough_ a lot. I'll keep looking for earlier references.

Eudes Picard
 

My well-loved Eudes Picard summaries French ideas up to his time:

"A man hung by a foot and whose hands are linked in back. The body makes a triangle, the top at the bottom, and its legs a cross above the triangle. The gibbet has the form of a Hebrew Tau. The two trees which support it have each six cut branches. Astrological correspondence: Uranus. Numbers: 30. Letter: lamed (P.P.) Commentators: Example, education, public lesson. (El. L.) The Law revealed - in the divine world. The Education of duty - in the intellectual world. The Sacrifice - in the physical world. (Chr.) test, sacrifice. (PAP.) The man who dies for the idea. (Falc.) Expiation, sacrifice, martyrdom. (J.B.) General sense: The Sacrifice."

Abbreviations used by Picard:
P.P. - Pierre Piobb. Formulaire de Haute Magie.
El. L. - Eliphas Lévi. Dogme et Rituel de la Haute Magie.
Chr. - P. Christian. Histoire de la Magie.
Pap. - Papus. Le Tarot divinatoire.
Falc - R. Falconnier. Les 22 Lames hermétiques du Tarot divinatoire.
J.B. - J.-G. Bourgeat. Le Tarot.

The idea of voluntary sacrifice must then come from Levi. The association with Odin has to rely on when translations of the Poetic Edda came out (vv. 138-139 - "I know that I hung by the windy tree..."). AFAIK, they are all in the 20th century.

I don't know when the first French translation was made (or even if there is one).

Ross

Hi, Mary,

[QUOTE=Teheuti]Richard Cavendish talks about the Odin analogy (as well as that of Attis) in his excellent 1975 picturebook _The Tarot_: "The Hanged Man has been connected with both Odin and Christ as examples of a god being sacrificed to himself to recover something hidden or lost." He references James Frazer's _Golden Bough_ a lot. I'll keep looking for earlier references.[/QUOTE]
T.S. Eliot appears to have made the connection, obliquely, in The Wasteland (1922). He comments:

[QUOTE]I am not familiar with the exact constitution of the Tarot pack of cards, from which I have obviously departed to suit my own convenience. The Hanged Man, a member of the traditional pack, fits my purpose in two ways: because he is associated in my mind with the Hanged God of Frazer....[/QUOTE]
Referencing the Hanged Gods of Frazer implies Odin, (among many other things).

[QUOTE]In the holy grove at Upsala men and animals were sacrificed by being hanged upon the sacred trees. The human victims dedicated to Odin were regularly put to death by hanging or by a combination of hanging and stabbing, the man being strung up to a tree or a gallows and then wounded with a spear. Hence Odin was called the Lord of the Gallows or the God of the Hanged, and he is represented sitting under a gallows tree. Indeed he is said to have been sacrificed to himself in the ordinary way, as we learn from the weird verses of the Havamal, in which the god describes how he acquired his divine power by learning the magic runes.[/QUOTE]
So, Frazer was familiar with the Havamal.... Then there is Moakley's article in the Bulletin of the New York Public Library, "The Waite-Smith 'Tarot,' A Footnote to The Waste Land", 1954. It's difficult to get info on it from Google Books (snippet view) but she mentions the connection directly.

[QUOTE]The star in his lantern recalls the enlightenment of those "who have the Self as a lamp,"2 and may further account for the connection with the Hanged Man.

It is possible that the "one-eyed" theme, which occurs again in The Cocktail Party, is also connected with the Hanged Man. Odin, who paid the price of an eye to obtain all wisdom, is one of the Hanged Gods of Frazer. His remaining eye is the Sun, another of the Trumps, and perhaps it is suggested by the nimbus of the Hanged Man.

A further bit of evidence is provided by the blank card which Madame Sosostris finds on her table:

"[And here is the one-eyed merchant,] and this card,
Which is blank, is something he carries on his back,
Which I am forbidden to see. [I do not find
The Hanged Man.][/QUOTE]
I don't know if any of that might be helpful, but it suggests a couple directions to look.

Best regards,
Michael

Hi Mary- great idea this thread!
I am not sure if you mean direct Tarot associations?
The earliest I have is from 'The General book of Tarot' by Thierens 1930 where he talks about The Hanged Man as Pisces and it's reversed meaning as [i]Golem[/i] I am presuming from the Jewish Tales of Golem, not Gothic ones. I think he may have mistakenly meant the 'Gibbor' (modern equivalent is Spiderman)
I can't recall the quotes but Saint Teresa of Avila (1550) speaks of upside down suspension as solitude.

There is a very early Victorian Catholic essay against the use of Tarot/cards- that I am trying to find for you- because in it, it calls the Hanged Man 'Despair' and to lose Hope and act upon that is a mortal sin for a Catholic.

~Rosanne

The only thing I can add to this conversation is the observation that the Vikings were everywhere a couple of centuries before the first known tarot cards were made. They were in Byzantium, they were in France and they were in Italy.

That doesn't mean that the Odin myth was well know in any of those places, but it also means that it was possible that it was known.

It doesn't mean that the concept of sacrifice for this card was one of the accepted ones until quite recently, but it also means that it was possible that it was one thread among the possible meanings.

[QUOTE=Rosanne]There is a very early Victorian Catholic essay against the use of Tarot/cards- that I am trying to find for you- because in it, it calls the Hanged Man 'Despair' and to lose Hope and act upon that is a mortal sin for a Catholic.

~Rosanne[/QUOTE]

That's really interesting to me.

It reminds me of exploring the Giotto Vices and Virtues when I first posted here several years ago.

Giotto paired Hope with Dispair.

Giotto Hope:
[url]http://www.christusrex.org/www1/giotto/SV-spes.jpg[/url]

Giotto Dispair:
[url]http://www.christusrex.org/www1/giotto/SV-desperatio.jpg[/url]

This got interesting to me when looking at the Cary-Yale Visconti deck, and examining Hope:
[img]http://www.tarot.org.il/Cary%20Yale/Hope.jpg[/img]

I was struck by how the virtues seem to be trampling vices; and how Hope was trampling a figure with a noose around his neck.

It got EXTRA interesting when I read what Kaplan says in the book accompanying the deck:
[quote=Kaplan in the LWB]"At one time the words Juda Traditor were visible on his garment . The virtue of Hope has overcome the traitor Judas, who represents disloyalty and hypocrisy."[/quote]

and also under the Hanged Man entry he notes:
[quote=Kaplan in the LWB]""Parravicino, in Burlington Magazine (1903) claimed to have seen the legend Juda Traditor on the purple garment of the figure at the bottom of the Hope Card in the Cary-Yale deck. However, the inscription on the Hope card is now illegible. From his observation, Parravicion concluded that the Hope card probably 'corresponds with the twelfth tarot of the man hanged.' "[/quote]

Is this maybe a reference you were thinking of?

So perhaps there is some history of the Hanged Man representing Despair?

Certainly interesting as well considering "the other discussion" with the connection of Judas and of Jewish hangings.

Hi Robert- The Catholic essay was from somewhere like 1870c. I cannot yet find the reference or the essay- I used it in an argument when I first used Tarot in the 1970's in that Tarot can ease despair and give Hope. It would have been put out by a reputable Catholic organisation- so would not have been fringe stuff. I am dogged- I will find it. Despair was considered very bad and anti God from very early on in Catholic Theology.It is interesting that the figure said Judas Iscariot once- because his sin was [u]not[/u] Treason- but the despair that made him commit suicide. So that is why I have never considered Judas as a candidate for the Hanged Man..... but now I think again :D

Has anyone heard of the Berserkers? Or Landsknecht Northern foot soldiers that fought in European wars as Mercenaries from the early 1400's to the late 1600's? They were commonly called Odin's Men. Absolute nutters in the field of war. In France they were called Wolfmen I think. It bought to mind that the punishment of Hanging reversed was used on the condotierri, elite Italian soldiers as well as the German elite soldiers - the Berserkers. Maybe there is something in there as to them having been known as Odin's Men.
~Rosanne

[QUOTE=Rosanne]There is a very early Victorian Catholic essay against the use of Tarot/cards- that I am trying to find for you- because in it, it calls the Hanged Man 'Despair' and to lose Hope and act upon that is a mortal sin for a Catholic.[/QUOTE]
You are probably referring to the Catholic Encyclopedia article on Despair (Desperatio) - which is also the theme depicted by Giotto (see le pendu post) as opposed to Hope (Spes). However, this article does not mention the Hanged Man Tarot card. It says: "Despair, ethically regarded, is the voluntary and complete abandonment of all hope of saving one's soul and of having the means required for that end. It is not a passive state of mind: on the contrary it involves a positive act of the will by which a person deliberately gives over any expectation of ever reaching eternal life. . . . Its power for working harm in the human soul is fundamentally far greater than other sins inasmuch as it cuts off the way of escape and those who fall under its spell are frequently, as a matter of fact, found to surrender themselves unreservedly to all sorts of sinful indulgence."

Giotto's Desperatio (also translated as "desperation" or "hopelessness") is thought to be a depiction of suicide by hanging.

In other works it says that a prime example of desperatio is Judas who hanged himself because his sin was too great for penance.

For Dante, the major difference between hell and purgatory was that the sinners in hell had no hope - as stated at the entrance: "Abandon hope, all you who enter here."

From Aquinas, _Summa Theologica_, Book 2: Question 20: Despair.
From Summa Theologica, Question 20: Despair.
“A gloss on Proverbs 24:10, "If thou lose hope being weary in the day of distress, thy strength shall be diminished," says: "Nothing is more hateful than despair, for the man that has it loses his constancy both in the every day toils of this life, and, what is worse, in the battle of faith." And Isidore says (De Sum. Bono ii, 14): "To commit a crime is to kill the soul, but to despair is to fall into hell."

All this is very interesting and could be related to Hanged Man themes, however I don't know of anyone who has titled this card Despair, Desperatio, Desperation or Hopelessness, nor spoken of suicide. Rather, 19th century themes emphasize expiation, sacrifice, martyrdom, 20th century ones - divine sacrifice (for knowledge), and earlier ones: the traitor.

Le pendu: I find it interesting that the Giotto Despair theme was not developed, as far as I know - except for brief analogies to Judas.

Mary

[QUOTE=Rosanne]
The earliest I have is from 'The General book of Tarot' by Thierens 1930 where he talks about The Hanged Man as Pisces and it's reversed meaning as [i]Golem[/i] I am presuming from the Jewish Tales of Golem, not Gothic ones. I think he may have mistakenly meant the 'Gibbor' (modern equivalent is Spiderman)[/quote]
I think he meant Golem as the Hanged Man reversed would have been "raised".

[quote]I can't recall the quotes but Saint Teresa of Avila (1550) speaks of upside down suspension as solitude.[/quote]
Without something connecting this to the Tarot Hanged Man, I don't see it as relevant to the historical development of the significance of this card. We would need some direct indication that someone had adapted this idea from St.T. to the card.

Mary

Thanks Mary- but the essay was about Tarot and Dice and divination-(not gambling) it mentions for example the casting of lots for the clothes of Jesus etc- and specifically how using Tarot etc can lead to loss of Faith through despair. A very mainstream Catholic argument. ~Rosanne

[QUOTE=Rosanne]Thanks Mary- but the essay was about Tarot and Dice and divination-(not gambling) it mentions for example the casting of lots for the clothes of Jesus etc- and specifically how using Tarot etc can lead to loss of Faith through despair. A very mainstream Catholic argument. ~Rosanne[/QUOTE]
I hope you can find it!!!

Dante - Purgatorio
 

As there is no direct reference to the Hanged Man I'm not putting this in the list but it is interesting:

Dante in Canto VI (lines 118-123) of Purgatorio says:

"You who were crucified on earth for us,
are Your just eyes turned [reversed] to another place,
or, in Your abyss of contemplation
are You preparing some mysterious good,
beyond our comprehension?"

[QUOTE=Rosanne]I am not sure if you mean direct Tarot associations?[/QUOTE]
Yes - direct references; unless a very good case can be made for a Tarot commentator having been directly influenced by a specific non-Tarot source.

Piscina's take on the Impiccato, from "Discorso sopra l'ordine delle figure dei tarocchi" (Monte Regal (modern Mondovì), 1565, pp. 17-18; excuse my hasty, undoubtedly bad translation) -

"...there follows this old man the Impiccato, who arrived at this point for having scorned good counsel, and whom the Inventor has placed there to represent a sad, false, vicious, bothersome, and quickly finished man (since good Counsel depends on virtue), to show in fact a man lacking in any virtue, that without counsel, in desperation, has hanged himself; to demonstrate and illustrate the worst end that comes to those who despise prudent counsel, and, by consequence of virtue, which sort of person deservedly dies in every sort of contempt, bereft entirely of his reputation, and his name as if he were never born; and because of this follows Death, who expunges from all their memory..."

[i]... questo vecchio segue l’Impiccato giunto à questo punto per haver sprezzato il buon conseglio, il qual l’Inventor hà posto per rappresentare un’huomo tristo, falso, vitioso, pestifero, e brevemente concludendo (poi che il buon Conseglio dipende dalle virtù) per un’huomo privo a fatto d’ogni virtù che senza consiglio come disperato s’è impicato, per dimonstrar & avisar il pessimo fine che fanno i speratori de i prudenti consegli, e per consequenza delle virtù, la qual sorte di gente per essere meritevolmente da ogniuno odiata morendo’perde dal tutto la soa fama, e nome come se giamai non fosse nata, e per ciò segu la Morte che spenge del tutto lor memoria...[/i]

Giordano Berti, in his introduction, thinks that Piscina has forced this interpretation, since there is no reason to think that Piscina was looking at a card with a man hanging by the neck (citing the known 16th century titles of the card). Nevertheless, it is interesting to tie this in with what has been said earlier in this thread about, Judas, desperation and suicide.

Ross

[QUOTE=Ross G Caldwell]Piscina's take on the Impiccato, from "Discorso sopra l'ordine delle figure dei tarocchi" [/quote]
Ross - what a great addition. I'm surprised at how much material we've gathered - and we've barely touched on modern significances.

[QUOTE=Teheuti]

1450-1480? - Sermones de Ludo Cum Aliis (Steele manuscript): "12. Lo impichato" (not in my dictionary - see 1587 below).

1587 - Thomaso Garzoni, names it l'Impiccato (The Hung/Hanged Man). [Note: Impicciato (adj from the verb) means embroiled or perplexed. Impiccio = perplexity; trouble.]

[/QUOTE]

So assuming Lo impichato is another archaic spelling then L'impiccato, Pendu, the hung/hanged man is the oldest extent name of the card.

The French Pendu appears to be a standard literal translation of impiccato, for example:

~ esser impiccato, suspendi, etre pendu.
(Piedmontese, Milanese, French dictionary).

Or as among the charges brought against Giordano Bruno, as accounted by Christian Bartholmèss, that "Christ is not God, but was a magician who deceived men, and for this reason he was justly hung (impiccato), and not crucified and that the prophets and apostles were corrupt men and magicians who were hanged for the most part."

[i]"que Christ n'est pas Dieu, mais a été un magicien illustre; qu'il a trompé les hommes, que pour cette raison il a été justement pendu (impiccato), et non crucifié; que les prophètes et les apôtres ont été des hommes corrompus, des magiciens, et furent pendus pour la plupart."[/i]

[i]Christum non esse Deum, sed fuisse magum insignem et hominibus illusisse, ac propterea merito suspensum (Italice impiccato), non crucifixum esse; prophetas et apostolos fuisse homines nequam, magos, et plerosque suspensos.[/i]

Kwaw

Jordano Bruno de Christian Bartholmèss (1846) p.337

Available from google books here:
[url]http://books.google.fr/books?id=fChIAAAAMAAJ&pg=PP11&as_brr=1&ie=ISO-8859-1&source=gbs_selected_pages&cad=0_2[/url] Title Page

[url]http://books.google.fr/books?id=fChIAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA337&dq=&as_brr=1&ie=ISO-8859-1[/url] p.337

It seems that a major turning point was deGebelin's belief that this card should be a virtue and not a vice. It seems to be supported by the serene face on the Visconti-Sforza card, so that the figure appears to transcend the actual circumstances (even though this serenity was ignored in the first several centuries).

Mary

Here's Bob O'Neill's account of the iconography from:

[url]http://www.tarot.com/about-tarot/library/boneill/hangedman[/url]

"Seeing the Hangedman image as representing punishment (secular or religious) does not consider the full complexity of the symbolism. The contrast between upright and inverted figures was not simply associated with punishment since both upright and inverted figures appear in Figures 9 and 12. In many accounts, sinners in hell will be turned upside down (Gorevich 1988). But in Late Medieval imagery and drama, the viewer knew that a significant transition had occurred when everything reversed – it was a kind of dramatic device to alert the viewer that they were now seeing action in the afterlife (Palmer 1992).

"The most important account of this inversion occurs at the end of Dante’s Inferno. Dante and his guide Virgil have descended into the depths of hell in an upright position. But at the bottom of hell, Dante is turned upside down and begins the ascension through Purgatory to Paradisio. To Dante, the inversion experience was a turning of values upside down – a conversion experience required for further progress. Thus, the later occultists interpretation of the Hangedman as a reversal of values and a pivotal experience was quite familiar to the 15th and 16th century card-player through Dante’s account."

It's obvious from the written accounts prior to 1781 that people tended to assume the most obvious explanation: punishment for treachery, and the desperation of the despised (lack of all hope). It seems to depict the "worst possible end" of which one is worthy. Still, even if 99.99% of people saw the card this way, O'Neill's comment indicates that other interpretations were possible. Could that have anything to do with why 15th century tarot artists always depicted a serene and youthful face (in contrast to the face on the lower figure in the Hope/Despair card)?

Hi Mary- I was just going to quote your Bob O'Neill's chapter from the other thread to ask something. Thanks for putting it here.
In the O'neill chapter he talks about all the different aspects that may have been thought about. My question is (and always has been for the History forum)
[b]"What is Historical and what is not?"[/b]
For example I mentioned Saint Teresa of Avila and her mystical experiences that were very popular and well known in the 1500's. (This is just an example of what I am asking) It seems to me that her views and writings could well have been the stream of ideas that influenced later or so called 'occult' explanations of the card itself. So if that was the case, then it would seem to me that the 'occult' view has the same historical basis as for example, the shame paintings as a possibility. I for example, when looking at the Visconti card we call the Hanged Man- I see the type of thinking that is the same as now. This is some sort of mystical experience that would make one think of Odin. Or the mystical union that Teresa the Saint wrote about- illustrated by hanging upside down in her words and depicted by the Visconti card.
Now somehow one view is acceptable in the History forum and another is not.
I find it hard to make the distinction- as it is ideas that formed the actions that we now call History. We can trot out dry facts and figures and call it History (and of course it is) but somehow the life of what makes History is lost.
This is why I love your title 'History of ideas' it does not seem to have the same rigidity- that I am always diverting from when talking about Tarot History.
Can you say what you think is Historical and what is not?
Many thanks
~Rosanne

[QUOTE=Rosanne]My question is (and always has been for the History forum) [b]"What is Historical and what is not?"[/b] For example I mentioned Saint Teresa of Avila and her mystical experiences . . . [/quote]
Rosanne - Actually, you're right. They should be considered, and I apologize for negating your idea.

Now the task is to show direct connections to a 16th century or later tarot commentator. Obviously St. Teresa was too late to have influenced the creator of the Tarot. Dante, for instance, was so well known that, primarily because of him, the dialect he used became the dominant "Italian" language and phrases from the Commedia became common expressions.

As I see it, in the history section you need a plausible story that includes facts that support your theory directly. So, can you show how St. Teresa's writing directly influenced one or more of the tarot commentators on the Hanged Man? Do her writings explain a definitive shift in meanings for the card? Do any statements about the Hanged Man appear as a direct (or near direct) quote from St.T? For instance, we can see clearly that Sir James Frazer's Golden Bough did so, since he is mentioned directly in Tarot texts.

The history of ideas can include lies, made up stuff, and wild speculations if they influenced a trend or further ideas on the subject.

In terms of a more general history of ideas you could certainly show where St. T's ideas fell in the broad spectrum of ideas about "upside down suspension as solitude" but I don't even know where this specific theme intersects with given meanings of the Hanged Man card since solitude is usually reserved for the Hermit or later High Priestess.

Mary

BTW, I'm not at all adverse to anyone arguing that the V-S Hanged Man does not look serene or to anything else I've said. I regularly say things that are not justifiable. I need to be called to account or be asked to support what I've said.

Mary

The "history of ideas" includes, I would suggest, [i]acts[/i] that were common enough in one's surroundings - including (given the hanged man topic) the usage of such for either minor offence (when left hanging from a small tree branch with torso partially on the ground) to acts of torture (which were in former times deemed essential for an admission of guilt to be considered acceptable), religiously motivated executions (such as the all too frequent Jewish hangings), and executions by exposure outside town limits.

As such, some of the important omissions in Teheuti's earlier post include the various dates of imagery shown by mjhurst and others.

With regards to St Teresa, I would personally hope that it is entirely apt and acceptable to have in a [i]discussion[/i] forum not only completed inquiries, but suggestions and reflections of the nature: "St Teresa of Avilla talks of mystical experiences in a manner that calls to mind the hanged man - what possible or plausible connection may this have had on the early development of this figure within tarot? Were her views sufficiently known at the time?"

For myself at any rate, such intrusions become seeds of discovery that may lead us into deadends or into avenues that have nought to do with tarot... or, inexplicably (and then transformed to obvious) into finds that shows intrinsic links that (for example in this instance) may even have permitted an understanding of the figure in former times that we currently assume far fetched.

I perhaps should add that I personally do [i]not[/i] consider St Teresa's mystical experiential descriptions as influential on either tarot development nor on its early understanding of the imagery - reversed hangings being just too common... it [i]does[/i], however, suggest that given the prevalence of torture, hangings, and the like, 'mystical' or transcended states may similarly have been far more common than we may perhaps credit, and that though the hanged man may at face value be reflective of an abominable atrocity, may also call to mind of those of the period (who survived such) remembrances of transcended (or mystical) states when caused to suffer in extreme conditions.

This is where, for example, considerations of St Teresa (and others) broaden understanding of both the period, but also both the mind-state common enough, and the likely lived scenarios of myriad individuals.

[QUOTE=jmd]As such, some of the important omissions in Teheuti's earlier post include the various dates of imagery shown by mjhurst and others.[/QUOTE]
I'll add a link to that thread. Some of this is included in the various essays cited at the end of the summary post.

1949 - Paul Marteau [i]Le Tarot de Marseille[/i], pp53 - 55 (rather quick translation that may need improvement)[indent]"... The number 12 implies a renunciation so that a re-commencement, if there is one, is not encumbered by the work of the previous cycle"... "The 22 major sheets [Lames] of Tarot are, in effect, formed from two cycles: 12 + 10." ... "This card [lame] signifies a stop or suspension [ie, pause] in the evolutionary work of Man. The representation of this suspension by a reversed man indicates that what is on high is as that which is low [ie, 'that which is above is like that which is below'], and that all acts of man on the material plane ['plan' implies, in the context, both 'plane' and 'plan' or 'blueprint'] are reflected in the spiritual one." ... "In summary, [...] 'Le Pendu' represents Man inversing his action in order to orient it towards the spiritual with a feeling of awaiting and of abnegation".[/indent]

Ahh Thank you! I was using Saint T. as an example, I did not think you negated the idea Mary- it was a wild card anyway. Mystical writings were very common, for those that could afford them- but not so wide spread as Dante and the like.
This just illustrated what I was clumsy in articulating. jmd gave a very good answer as well - thank you. The secular history of the Italians (for want of a better term for those people of the time), is a lot more prevalent than I realised. I have just finished reading about Cosimo Di Medici in one of Dale Kent's books of the Renaissance- and he talks about the [u]thousands[/u] of notebooks that are in the Florence museums- that cover an amazing variety of subjects and how passionate they were about what we would call now 'scrapbooking'. He specifically mentions the vast amounts of notebooks written in the 1400's by people in prison to while away the time and as he suspects- so that the families do not lose their History when the prisoner died. Some describe what will happen to themselves in drawings and words (mostly in good hand, which indicates education.)
Others are very personal- like Lorenzo Medici's notebook and drawings of Dante's Divine Comedy or a housewife giving family history or stories illustrated like Aesop's Fables etc. Dale Kent suggests for Historical fact, these notebooks are a valuable resource that is ignored by research and is far more telling than Civil record. For example much of what is known about the parades and the songs that went with each float comes from these notebooks.
Now to the Hanged Man.
One notebook by a wine merchant written in and illustrated (not shown in the book) over some 30 years is all about the ceremonies surrounding the hanging of effigies of known men for crimes of fraud. It seems like they had a day for this- like here in New Zealand in small towns we have 'Thursday Court day' when the locals go before the judge for whatever charge- and all of us know that if we drive by the Court on Thursday we will see hanging around outside ( :D ) who is up on charges. This wine merchant was just such a nosey parker; possibly for his business- who not to sell wine to.
Unfortunately the name of the codex or notebook is not written by the example- shame on Dale Kent! So it seems these hangings, in this case were for crimes when they did not have the prisoner or that he was not going to be actually hung- but shamed as if hung. That might explain the calmness on the face of the Visconti Hanged Man.
~Rosanne

Rosanne I just want to say that the breadth of your interests and the creativity of the connections you make I find astounding and wonderful.

Thank you Debra- I love the window into the past that Tarot gives me- for game playing was everyman's pastime in those days- and so it seems was scrapbooking. Well it would be if you think about it- printing was not swamping the market- but up and running. These notebooks were handed on to your children- much like talking sticks are here- and were also apparently passed amongst friends to be added to (and sometimes corrected). Another thing that is interesting to History ideas- is that when printed material became readily available- you could get printed pictures for your notebook- which makes me wonder about things like the Cary-Yale sheet- maybe they were not for cards at all- but for the scrapbooks. The few examples of pages from these show someone's pilgrimage and the look on the face of the figure arriving at the church is like all travelers- worn out. One mapamundi was copied so much that it lost all recognition as a map by some who could not draw for peanuts- oh and they called these little treasures [i]quadernucchi[/i] which I guess means what we call a sketchbook today-sort of notebook in a nutshell lol.
I am going to try and see some at the Uffizi when I get there.

[QUOTE=Ross G Caldwell]In my admittedly flimsy library of modern interpretations of the cards, the earliest direct association of the Hanged Man with Odin is in Edred Thorsson (Stephen Flowers) "Futhark: A Handbook of Rune Magic" (Weiser, 1984), p. 147, in his Appendix D table of Runic-Tarot correspondences (Rune 13, eihwaz).

He doesn't elaborate in his text, but I think the association must be older than that.
Ross[/QUOTE]

One of Stephen Flower's resources is Sigurd Agrell:
Die pergamenische Zauberscheibe und das Tarochspiel. Lund: The University of Lund, (Sweden), 1936. Reportedly, Agrell draws upon the works of the earlier Swede, Johannes Bureus.
“Bureus equates Odin on the Yggdrasil with Jesus on the Cross”.
Bureus was an associate and correspondant of Abraham von Franckenberg, adapting the ideas of Postel and John Dee, he created a runic cross said to resemble an inverted monas hieroglyphica.
Whether or not this has any bearing on Agrell's understanding of Tarot's Hanged Man I have not discovered. It seems (from Google booking) Agrell associated the Hanged Man with the rune perthro and the goddess Hecate. Anyone know more about Agrell's thoughts on the subject?

-John

added curiosity:
Scandinavian Runes in a Latin Magical Treatise
http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0038-7134(198304)58%3A2%3C419%3ASRIALM%3E2.0.CO%3B2-W

[QUOTE=John Meador]One of Stephen Flower's resources is Sigurd Agrell:
Die pergamenische Zauberscheibe und das Tarochspiel. Lund: The University of Lund, (Sweden), 1936. . . . Anyone know more about Agrell's thoughts on the subject? [/quote]
Wow - thank you, John, for this reference. Luckily Flower's gives a three page summary of Agrell's theories in _Hermetic Magic: The Postmodern Magical Papyrus of Abaris_, pp. 122-124. You can find the text on google book search by searching on Agrell+Tarot.

Hi Mary,
"Scandinavian Runes in a Latin Magical Treatise " Speculum 58 (1983), pp. 419-429. says this is a Italian Ms of s. xiv "containing a Latin Version of an Arabic hermetic treatise. The a. has succeeded in restoring the proper order of the folios int he ms. Inserted into the treatise is a digression which provides instructions for casting spells using runes. The a. edits this passage and his collaborator discusses the runes. The Italian responsible for Sloane 3854 shows a remarkable knowledge of Scandinavian runes and their names." (J.C. Scriptorium 40 (1986) B 451.)
[url]http://64.233.167.104/search?q=cache:q5TnF_Mu2GAJ:homepage.usask.ca/~frk302/MSS/sbh.htm+Scandinavian+Runes+in+a+Latin+Magical+Treatise&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=3&gl=us[/url]

"This particular manuscript also uses Scandinavian runes as a cryptic alphabet to write the names of the planets"
[url]http://books.google.com/books?id=GzitzV4fSWgC&pg=PA64&lpg=PA64&dq=astral+burnett+runes&source=web&ots=MkcmFrzDwt&sig=82mDdAAt7CSPyyo3DLuppsitg84[/url]

your'e welcome.

here's some links to Agrell:

[url]http://books.google.com/books?id=aivppFdzZwcC&pg=PA233&lpg=PA233&dq=sigurd+agrell+tarot&source=web&ots=TH93YrMVnK&sig=CuBdwIjgfxiqyksyJdJFU-HZOS8[/url]
[url]http://books.google.com/books?id=aivppFdzZwcC&pg=PA58&lpg=PA58&dq=sigurd+agrell+pennick&source=web&ots=TH93YrMUnR&sig=_kCySqTGRIkdI5MHA_hg06eoiik#PPA60,M1[/url]
[url]http://books.google.com/books?id=rvGTcg-30pEC&pg=PA122&lpg=PA122&dq=sigurd+agrell+tarot&source=web&ots=YikV-70Woh&sig=kolBQgaI9Ubmowg2AJP1GMu9wkA#PPA74,M1[/url]
"Agrell, however, goes further and also the associated symbols on the Pergamon disc, Egyptian hieroglyphs, etc. each with a Tarot card or a rune"
[url]http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=de&u=http://www.paganforum.de/tarot/8837-tarotrunen.html&sa=X&oi=translate&resnum=4&ct=result&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dsigurd%2Bagrell%2Btarot%26start%3D60%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN[/url]


I still can't find Agrell's concept of the Hanged Man somewhere online.

-John

[QUOTE=Rosanne]Thank you Debra- I love the window into the past that Tarot gives me- for game playing was everyman's pastime in those days- and so it seems was scrapbooking. Well it would be if you think about it- printing was not swamping the market- but up and running. These notebooks were handed on to your children- much like talking sticks are here- and were also apparently passed amongst friends to be added to (and sometimes corrected). Another thing that is interesting to History ideas- is that when printed material became readily available- you could get printed pictures for your notebook- which makes me wonder about things like the Cary-Yale sheet- maybe they were not for cards at all- but for the scrapbooks. The few examples of pages from these show someone's pilgrimage and the look on the face of the figure arriving at the church is like all travelers- worn out. One mapamundi was copied so much that it lost all recognition as a map by some who could not draw for peanuts- oh and they called these little treasures [i]quadernucchi[/i] which I guess means what we call a sketchbook today-sort of notebook in a nutshell lol.
I am going to try and see some at the Uffizi when I get there.[/QUOTE]

Your enthusiasm is making me want to create a scrapbook of my own, maybe a notebook based on all of the Marseille-sih decks I have collected, and all that I have learned from them....or about them so far (which is not a ton of info, but it is steadily growing) :D

I also agree with Debra, whole heartedly.

Oh Prudence I am sure your descendants will love something so personal. I have a large one that I did years ago when I only had 5 decks to my name, and I embellished it with drawings and quotes and insights. I had the five decks xeroxed and cut them up and pasted them in. My Kids love to look through it- even though they are adults now.
I keep repeating like a mantra 'history is not boring'- how often do you sit with friends and say "Do you remember when......." It just has to become vernacular, and then it comes alive. That is why it was so popular and still is- the creativity (no TV!) and the nostalgia for things past. It is why we have photo albums today. The scrapbooks were like one Givanni Rucellai said was like a salad or zibaldoni ' a salad of many herbs' they were personal selections from the common cultural array of many things. Who would not like to read them? I would love to have a look. ~Rosanne

The Traitor in the "Anonymous Discourse", c. 1570
 

Here is how the anonymous Italian author of a discourse on the meaning of the trump sequence interpreted the Traitor (in the company of the Hunchback/Time, Death, and the Devil) around 1570.

"Then after these follow the Hunchback, the Traitor, Death, and the Devil. By the hunchback, who is none other than time, it is shown that all these are vain and transitory, thus it is the sum of folly to love them and desire them so intensely that nothing else is considered, since in a short time old age is reached, with all of the miseries accompanying it, and then one begins to know the deceptions of the assassin world, placed before the eyes by the traitor, but having acted on the hardest neck (most stubbornly?), and living sadly, and with difficulty, not being able to hold back at all from nefarious errors, comes upon unforeseen death, in the horror of which, terrified and desperate, he brings upon himself the devil, that is to say the cause of everything (that happened). And this is the miserable end I say, of those who are so immersed in vain and lascivious delights which the world promises, and can give, following madness for a guide, and having no regard to his end, or of God, from whom only are born and depend the greatest goods, and perfect and everlasting happiness."

I am far from sure of parts of this translation, but the general meaning must be clear. Below is the text I have and my transcription. Anybody (especially you Italians) who wants to tackle it, please correct me -

Bologna, Biblioteca Universitaria, ms. 1072, vol. XII F, folio 111r
[img]http://www.rosscaldwell.com/images/images/anonimogobbo2.jpg[/img]

Or doppo questi segue il Gobbo,
il Traditore, la morte, et
il diavolo. Per il gobbo, che
altro non è, che il tempo, ci
si dimostra, che tutte
queste sono vane, e tran-
sitorie, e percio somma
pazzia è adamarle, e de-
siderarle, tanto intensa-
mente, che ad altro n-
pensi, poiche in poco d(i ?)
ora si giunge la (vecczia ?)

folio 111v
[img]http://www.rosscaldwell.com/images/images/anonimogobbo3.jpg[/img]

ia da tutte le mise-
rie accompagnata, et
allora si cominciano à
conoscere l'inganni dell-
assassino mondo, postici
avanti gli occhi per il tradi
tore, mà avendoci fatto
sopra durissimo collo, et
abito tristo, è malagevo-
le à potersene ritirare,
senza punto allontanar-
si da gli (nefasti ?) errori, so-
praviene all’improvi-
so la morte, nell’orrore
della quale sbigottia
e disperati, il diavolo,
che di tutto (cioè ?) stato
cagione, se lo portavia.
E questo è il miserabil
Fine delle azioni uma

folio 112r
[img]http://www.rosscaldwell.com/images/images/anonimogobbo4.jpg[/img]

ne, di coloro dico, che im-
mersito talmente, nellè
vane, e lascive delizie
che promette, e può dare
il mondo, seguendo per gui-
da la pazzia non han-
no mai risguardo al suo
fine, et à Dio, da cui solo
nasce, e dipende il sommo
bene, e felicità perfet-
ta, e permanent(o).

Ross

Ross - you've done it again! What a wonderful offering. It does show the tendency again to view the card sequence in the most obvious, literal way. It also shows that some variation on the word desperation (disperati) is almost always mentioned with the Hanged Man. Dante and other Catholic writers made much of Despair as opposing Hope - leading, at worst, to suicide (a moral sin with no possibility of penance), and guaranteeing Hell instead of Purgatory - the worst result of Death.

In the Marseilles ordering Death is followed by Temperance and the Devil, which are like an after-death fork in the road. One road leads to possibly salvation - Purgatory and/or Heaven (Purgatory is only a temporary stop on the path to Heaven), and the other leads straight to the Devil with no hope to ever escape.

Mary

[QUOTE=Teheuti]In the Marseilles ordering Death is followed by Temperance and the Devil, which are like an after-death fork in the road. One road leads to possibly salvation - Purgatory and/or Heaven (Purgatory is only a temporary stop on the path to Heaven), and the other leads straight to the Devil with no hope to ever escape.[/QUOTE]

Ya know... that bothers me. I guess I'm not a huge fan of the TdM ordering, it just feels strange to me. I like the virtues grouped together, not split up like this. To me, the flow would be much smoother if it did go Wheel (or Hermit), Hanged Man, Death, Devil, Tower. The virtues seem unnatural in the TdM order, (well, to lil' ole me at least).

Hi Mary,

[QUOTE=Teheuti] It also shows that some variation on the word desperation (disperati) is almost always mentioned with the Hanged Man. Dante and other Catholic writers made much of Despair as opposing Hope - leading, at worst, to suicide (a moral sin with no possibility of penance), and guaranteeing Hell instead of Purgatory - the worst result of Death.
[/QUOTE]

Yes, it seems that to the early moralizers "Treason=Desperation". Here the Anonymous knows that the card is a Traitor, so he must be hung by one foot like normal, but still, like Piscina, considers the meaning desperation. Suicide is a difficult literal interpretation of the Anonymous, and certainly of the image, but the theme of desperation bridges the gap for these moralities.

I don't know the layout of the Scrovegni Chapel in Padua where Giotto's frescoes showing "Hope" and "Desperation" are (the latter showing a suicide by hanging), but it might show such a direct connection. Especially in light of Robert's remarks on another thread about Cicognara's claim that "Judas Traditor" was on the noosed figure below Hope in the Cary-Yale deck.

[QUOTE]
In the Marseilles ordering Death is followed by Temperance and the Devil, which are like an after-death fork in the road. One road leads to possibly salvation - Purgatory and/or Heaven (Purgatory is only a temporary stop on the path to Heaven), and the other leads straight to the Devil with no hope to ever escape.

Mary[/QUOTE]

I had theory about "forks in the road" here too - that the plan of the trumps was a two dimensional scheme hammered into a one dimensional hierarchy. The Devil and the Tower are one fork, and the rest are the other. In one dimension, you have to have a simple ladder from low to high.

I'm with Robert in general, in seeing the A sequence as the preferred for interpreting the "original" meaning of the trump sequence. But the changes, from any perspective, show that people looked at the standard images in different ways.

Ross

Hi Mary,

I don't know if you have looked at this already, there are some interesting writings on The Hanged Man at this website.
[url]http://www.sacred-texts.com/tarot/index.htm[/url]

[QUOTE=Ross G Caldwell]
I don't know the layout of the Scrovegni Chapel in Padua where Giotto's frescoes showing "Hope" and "Desperation" are (the latter showing a suicide by hanging), but it might show such a direct connection. Especially in light of Robert's remarks on another thread about Cicognara's claim that "Judas Traditor" was on the noosed figure below Hope in the Cary-Yale deck.[/quote]

The Fresco is developed on three walls, forming a sort of triptych. The middle fresco(North wall) displays under a dogmatic form the ideal of democracy. The Virtues which direct the State are seated on a platform; this is the tribunal or the legislative assembly.
On the other two walls are similarly developed the effects of good or evil social hygiene. After the theory follows the application. The left wall East- Evil Government is almost ruined. The west wall the length of the painting is divided into two halves, one of which shows the city and the other the countryside. This shows a happy society under good Government. The Hanged Man is held up as a depiction outside the City wall in the Countryside by an angel (I cannot read the inscription) as if to show that you need to get rid of Crime/Treason/? for a happy society. The Inscription would explain it. It is interesting that the cold damp sinister side of the fresco is where Bad or Evil government was placed.
[url]http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/535/1381/1600/lor3.jpg[/url]

[quote]I had theory about "forks in the road" here too - that the plan of the trumps was a two dimensional scheme hammered into a one dimensional hierarchy. The Devil and the Tower are one fork, and the rest are the other. In one dimension, you have to have a simple ladder from low to high. [/quote]
It would certainly explain the lack of the Devil and the Tower in the Visconti- that are called 'missing or lost' That fork was never contemplated.

~Rosanne

Moderator note
 

This is just a notice that a few of the latest posts have been joined to another thread about the general order of the trumps at -

[url]http://tarotforum.net/showthread.php?t=94417[/url]

"The Order and Meaning of the Trumps"

in order to keep this thread focused on the history of thought about the Hanged Man in particular.

Ross
Co-moderator, Tarot History & Iconography

[QUOTE=Willow Huntermoon]Hi Mary,

I don't know if you have looked at this already, there are some interesting writings on The Hanged Man at this website.
[url]http://www.sacred-texts.com/tarot/index.htm[/url][/QUOTE]
Yes, this is a good source for some of the classics. I have copies of them all, but haven't yet included them all in the history of ideas list. Waite is complex & hard to cover completely - I have several pages of notes on his material on the Hanged Man - though I did include a little from the Thierens book and from Papus.

If anyone wants to offer any short summaries of material, please do.

[QUOTE=Ross G Caldwell]I don't know the layout of the Scrovegni Chapel in Padua where Giotto's frescoes showing "Hope" and "Desperation" are[/QUOTE]

I couldn't find a better photo then this:
[url]http://www.htg.tartu.ee/~merill/ku2/Capella%20degli%20Scrovegni/giotto-view-facing-entrance.jpg[/url]

The virtues and vices are along the bottom border to the left and right. They wouldn't let us take photos inside when I was there.

Mary

I am enjoying reading this post, and the idea's behind it. Going right back to your original question my thoughts on the card historically speaking are as follows:

I think it is a Roman/ Christian based punishment that through time and "enlightenment" became a positive card.( as far as the cards go, yes Assyrians, Scythians, Thracians etc used it too...but tarotly speaking...), There are a few examples of Islamic punishments based on this, but I think they got it from the Christians as they used to hang cowardly knights upside down and beat them, Islamic people were sure to have seen this punishment… not quite the same thing as the hang man, but I am looking at a larger picture at this point.

I wonder if it is based on the reversed cross crucification, perhaps those few that survived had visions ( as unconsciousness on the reversed cross was very rapid, and generally so was death, it was considered being compassionate to crucify one upside down.) And there is St. Peter, asking to be hung upside down on a cross, since he felt unworthy to die like his Lord. These would lead to the more upbeat interpretations of the card: enlightenment, sacrifice, rather then the earlier idea of the card as traitor/ thief or punishment.

Then there is that Taoist thing of hanging upside down causing the essence of his sperm to flow into his brain…” there it is that the embryo of immortality is alchemically prepared.”( Eliade)

I believe northern Pagans used to hang and kill men in tree's as representations of the god Odin, Sir James G.Frazer talks about it in "The Golden Bough".

I think I am rambling ideas rather then helpful references and just generalizing, skipping all the symbolicness in the various versions of the card.

I am going to spend sometime going through all the links you all have suggested.

Duh! I am a stupido- I did not read Ross's post properly and then linked the wrong fresco. Brain in underdrive- intention in overdrive.
I can not scan in my book- but here goes
From the Altar to the entrance left and right sides
Left of Altar Vices..............Right is Virtues. The are directly opposite each other.
Foolishness....................Prudence
Inconstancy..................Fortitude
Wrath..........................Temperance
Injustice.......................Justice
Infidelity.......................Faith
Envy............................Charity
[b]Desperation[/b]..................[b]Hope[/b]
~Rosanne

Thanks Rosanne! It's not clear from any of my books.

[QUOTE=Rosanne]
From the Altar to the entrance left and right sides
Left of Altar Vices..............Right is Virtues. The are directly opposite each other.
Foolishness....................Prudence
Inconstancy..................Fortitude
Wrath..........................Temperance
Injustice.......................Justice
Infidelity.......................Faith
Envy............................Charity
[b]Desperation[/b]..................[b]Hope[/b]
~Rosanne[/QUOTE]

Here's a close up of DESPERATIO -

[img]http://www.rosscaldwell.com/images/images/giottodesperatiolow.jpg[/img]

(from Anne Mueller von der Haegen, [i]Giotto[/i] (Maitres de l'art italien series), Könemann, 1998, p. 52, fig. 56)

Note how the face and the demon have been defaced. I can't read the inscription very well, but it mentions Desperation and Satan.

Ross

Suicide comes to mind here.

Interesting that Hope and Desperation(or loss of Hope/Despair the Mortal Sin) are at the entrance as you come in.

[QUOTE=Rosanne]
From the Altar to the entrance left and right sides
Left of Altar Vices..............Right is Virtues. The are directly opposite each other.
Foolishness....................Prudence
Inconstancy..................Fortitude
Wrath..........................Temperance
Injustice.......................Justice
Infidelity.......................Faith
Envy............................Charity
[b]Desperation[/b]..................[b]Hope[/b]
[/QUOTE]

All of them are nicely presented on the Christus Rex site -
[url]http://www.christusrex.org/www1/giotto/virtues.html[/url]

Ross

Patience and Shuffle
 

"Then someone asked why a man hanged in this game?" wrote the Compte de Gebelin in his [i]Du Jeu Des Tarots[/i], "Moreover, another did not fail to reply, it is the fit punishment for the inventor of the game..."

While not the point that Gebelin was trying to make, it is an opinion that we may suspect of accurately reflecting that of the ordinary tavern player and gambler, assuming their interpretations to be more informed by the [i]diabolic liturgy [/i] of the preachers than of humanist pedagogues.

In his book [i] Fiel Desengaño contra la ociosidad y los juegos[/i] (1603) Luque Fajardo informs us:

[quote]
Respecting their inventor, who was supposed to be a certain countryman, there were three opinions; some said that he was a Frenchman, because the first Cards came from France into Spain; others that he was a Fleming, on account of the invention of the game of Cent, (los Cientos,) by the ladies of that province; and others that he was a native of Madrid, and that having there lost his all, he took his way toward Seville, with an intention of seeing that city: that at Orgaz, a place in the kingdom of Toledo, he learned and exercised the trade of a mason, where, in memory of his occupation and dexterity at it, he built a famous chimney: that he was afterward waiter at an inn in the Sierra Moreno, but some extraordinary accidents which befell him, obliged him to seek service in Peuaflor as a lamplighter, from whence he passed to Seville. After having become a sword cutler, he died there, being burnt for coining. This was the father and inventor of Cards, according to the Apocryphal memoirs of the gamblers, who often curse and renounce him.
Quoted by Singer in his [i]Researches into the History of Playing Cards[/i][/quote]

While Fajardo is not speaking of the tarot (unknown in Spain) it is not unfeasible I think that tarot players may not also see in the figure of the hanged man that of the inventor of the game executed for coining or similar crime; in whom moralists no doubt would be quick to preach a prefigurement of the gamblers own end, who driven to destitution and with their morals perverted are led to crime and an eventual bad end. Further to the identity of “this monstrous pilgrim with his bag of disputes”, whose poison spreads through the Christian lands like a pernicious weed that provides neither shade nor shelter and never sacrifices its fruit, Fajardo notes (speaking of the standard Spanish deck of the period) this ‘book of the devil’ has 48 loose leafs, the same as the number of years Mahomet is said to have lived. In identifying the inventor with Saracens, the moralist is not so much making an objective historical observation as seeking to draw upon the anti-semitism fostered in his audience as a further means to demonise his object. The trope of a spreading poison linked with anti-Semitism was also used of course to link the Jews with the spread of the plague, (a connection also with Oedipus who brought plague upon his City).

Fajardo also spends a chapter with mainly social examples on the trope of the world turned upside down, a common medieval trope revived in the Spanish baroque period with often the concept of the world turned upside down linked to the vice of greed.

Kwaw

[quote]

Interpretation by google:

This man is a cleric. A Sevillan cleric. His name is Francisco de Fajardo Luque and he published in Madrid, in 1603, a book called ‘Disappointed faithful against idleness and games’. This book he intends as "very useful for confessors and penitents, justices and all those charged with ridding the Christian Republic of vagabonds, players and cheats. A moral address that uses a the humanist artifice of the dialogue between Florino, a player and cheat who has repented and Laureano, his childhood friend, who had the wisdom to never play.

Florino tells stories, his experiences and his aberrations, and Laureano draws the (strongly Christian) lesson. The book is extremely rich in details on the game, especially in terms of vocabulary, to the point that the good cleric is suspected of having been unable to have derived his information from the confessional alone.

“...He therefore devotes seven chapters to the symbolism of the cards and game, four symbolic signs, three in the symbolism of the figures. Due to time constraints, I shall stick to the signs, as I have done since the beginning of this expose. But I would like first to a point, on a term, a concept. Indeed, whether signs or figures, Luque Fajardo regarded these as icons of genuine hieroglyphs. The word [i]hiroglifico[/i] appears in the title of five out of seven chapters, and its use is common in the same text, usually with the adjective or the noun moral [i]moralidad.[/i] These hieroglyphes, which he defines as "silent figures who speak only by their appearance and represenatation", however, must be interpreted, and the author does not deprive us. Indeed, he carries a veritable interpretative debauchery of which I cannot but give a very pale idea.

“...Luque Fajardo, in fact, conceives of the hieroglyph like all men of his time. He perceives them as a mode of expression whose character is twofold. The first is the hieroglyph as both a mystery and a source of education, and the second aspect is the use of religion and morality as the mode of their exegesis. But the search for meaning is also lead by the words, not just on the pictures. Signs, says Luque Fajardo, are allegories and metaphors, but the very words which the designer has used are heavy with meaning.

“...That is why he began his lecture by examining symbolic of the word baraja... Luque Fajardo developed a metaphor from many classic Spanish authors of the sixteenth century, for example Sanchez de Badajoz that we have already met: the metaphor that equates Baraja was a book. A book disconnected, more accurately, a diabolical book, quite the opposite of a Bible. A book consisting of 48 pages, that is as many leaflets that Mohammed is supposed to have lived for years. A book therefore to be avoided. And more, from this number he presents interpretations to prove that the unfortunate fate of the players is reflected in this figure. It is a cipher, a code key that opens, alas! the door to the most absurd paraphrases.

“...Returning to the signs, pictograms. Florino begins by proposing the ‘plain-song interpretations’.... Laureano then provides counterpoint (the musical metaphors are in the text) with his own interpretation. Of the interpretations, the most common are twofold: the first is built on the schema of St. Bernardine of Siena, who is not, however, cited. The second establishes a correspondence between the suits and seasons. The St. Bernadino scheme is illustrated throughout a chapter, with an abundance of terrifying images. Thus, for example, the drink of the cups is compared to burning coals, a comparison drawn even more easily as the word also means copa 'brazier'. And this fire consumes heritages, destroys homes, threatening cities and the countryside. But cups are also used to gather the blood of the victims , injured and killed by swords, which give rise, in turn, to blasphemous evocations.

“...One chapter is devoted to the second interpretation,. The correspondence with the seasons is this: money / spring, cups / summer, swords / Fall, batons / winter. This interpretation, which says Florino is commonly received (but let us not forget the artifice of the dialogue), seems to be more original. Luque Fajardo still lists the suits according to the traditional order, which is explicit by their points, preferring here the inferior signs ... spoke of batons before speaking of swords.”

[url]http://books.google.fr/books?id=ZOaJMRwDFMsC&pg=PA435&dq=ISO-8859-1&sig=15lj-Kl8T2Mv52MUD8Wa02RSmpw#PPA435,M1[/url]

[/quote]

Hi Kwaw,

[QUOTE=kwaw]"Then someone asked why a man hanged in this game?" wrote the Compte de Gebelin in his [i]Du Jeu Des Tarots[/i], "Moreover, another did not fail to reply, it is the fit punishment for the inventor of the game..."

While not the point that Gebelin was trying to make, it is an opinion that we may suspect of accurately reflecting that of the ordinary tavern player and gambler, assuming their interpretations to be more informed by the [i]diabolic liturgy [/i] of the preachers than of humanist pedagogues.

[/QUOTE]

Not go off-topic in addressing the other very interesting book you describe, here is something about Court de Gébelin's bit of tarot folklore (the way it sounds is as if he is repeating the response to a question he asked of someone) that was discussed here a few years ago -

[QUOTE]"Then one wondered, why a hanged man in this game? and the opportunity was not missed to say, it is the just punishment for the Inventor of the Game, for having represented a Popess."

Interesting statement. De Gébelin reports it as if someone had told him this bit of "tarot lore" when he asked for an explanation of the Pendu.

I think this anecdote may reflect a historical incident, which happened in 1725 (within de Gébelin's lifetime), in Bologna. This is when the four "Papi", the four cards known in France as Papesse, Emperatrice, Empereur and Pape, were changed to "Mori" - Moors, moorish satraps.

"The replacement of the 'Papi' by 'Mori' came about in 1725 by the intervention of the Papal Legate, Cardinal Ruffo. At that time, Bologna, although very proud of its ancient liberties, fell within the Papal States, but, by an agreement of 1447, enjoyed considerable autonomy. In 1725 Canon Luigi Montieri of Bologna produced a geographical Tarocchino pack: the body of each trump card gave geographical information ... What annoyed the Legate, Cardinal Ruffo, was that on the Matto Bologna was described as having a "mixed government" (governo misto). Ruffo ordered Montieri's pack publicly burned; Montieri and everyone concerned with its production were arrested. However the Legate quickly came to realise that to proceed against them on this ground would arous deep resentment in the city. He therefore had the prisoners rapidly released, and, to save face, demanded instead that the four 'Papi' be replaced by four Moorish satraps, and the Angel by a Lady (Dama). The first change was accepted, though the second was ignored, and Montieri's pack was reissued with the Moors instead of 'Papi'; moreover, Moors were henceforth used in all Bolognese Tarot packs."

(Dummett and McLeod, "History of Games Played with the Tarot Pack" (Mellen Press, 2004) pp. 263-264)

The Papi, including the Papesse, could be construed to have offended the Legate, and the offenders were imprisoned over the issue, and the cards ordered burned - so de Gébelin's account could represent somebody else's version of the same story. It could have been "big news" among tarocchi players, and the story got around that the Popess had offended the Pope, and the maker was punished.[/QUOTE]

[url]http://tarotforum.net/showthread.php?t=51730[/url]
post 48

On the other hand, it could be that story/legend of the maker who was beheaded for the same reason (making a Popess) (in Prague?)

Ross

About the manuscript posted by Ross, I have very few corrections (in bold) to propose to his excellent translation:

"Then after these follow the Hunchback, the Traitor, Death, and the Devil. By the hunchback, who is none other than time, it is shown that all these are vain and transitory, thus it is the sum of folly to love them and desire them so intensely that nothing else is considered, since in a short time old age is reached, with all of the miseries accompanying it, and then one begins to know the deceptions of the assassin world, placed before the eyes by the traitor, but having acted on the hardest neck (most stubbornly?), and [b]bad habit , he finds it difficult to be able to hold back[/b] at all from nefarious errors, comes upon unforeseen death, in the horror of which, [b]the devil, that is to say the cause of all this, brings him away terrified and desperate. And this is the miserable end of human action,[/b] I say, of those who are so immersed in vain and lascivious delights which the world promises, and can give, following madness for a guide, and having no regard to his end, or of God, from whom only are born and depend the greatest goods, and perfect and everlasting happiness."

About the transcription of the manuscript, I think it reads: "il diavolo, che di tutto cio è stato cagione".

I am sorry, but I don't have time now to go into more depth about this, though I think it is of the greatest interest.
I thank Ross for pointing me to this thread via PM.

Marco

[QUOTE=DoctorArcanus]About the manuscript posted by Ross, I have very few corrections (in bold) to propose to his excellent translation:

"Then after these follow the Hunchback, the Traitor, Death, and the Devil. By the hunchback, who is none other than time, it is shown that all these are vain and transitory, thus it is the sum of folly to love them and desire them so intensely that nothing else is considered, since in a short time old age is reached, with all of the miseries accompanying it, and then one begins to know the deceptions of the assassin world, placed before the eyes by the traitor, but having acted on the hardest neck (most stubbornly?), and [b]bad habit , he finds it difficult to be able to hold back[/b] at all from nefarious errors, comes upon unforeseen death, in the horror of which, [b]the devil, that is to say the cause of all this, brings him away terrified and desperate. And this is the miserable end of human action,[/b] I say, of those who are so immersed in vain and lascivious delights which the world promises, and can give, following madness for a guide, and having no regard to his end, or of God, from whom only are born and depend the greatest goods, and perfect and everlasting happiness."

About the transcription of the manuscript, I think it reads: "il diavolo, che di tutto cio è stato cagione".

I am sorry, but I don't have time now to go into more depth about this, though I think it is of the greatest interest.
I thank Ross for pointing me to this thread via PM.

Marco[/QUOTE]

Thank you VERY much for those corrections Marco! I'm glad I asked you. I see where I misunderstood, as well as forgetting to translate "azioni umane".

Our author makes a series of secondary readings to narrate his story. Schematized, he has Hunchback-Time-Old Age-(implied wisdom of coming to know the) Assassin World-Traitor-Evildoer-Desperate Man-Death (is just death)-Devil (who takes evil man). After this begins what he considers the second part of the trumps - the part where the just soul, by the grace of God, escapes the Devil's clutches and raises his eyes to a vision of increasing celestial glory.

Well, there's more, but for other threads on other cards (usually they are in a group like this, and it is unhelpful to separate the figures since the context of the author's narrative of the trumps is lost).

Ross

[QUOTE=Ross G Caldwell]Hi Kwaw,



Not go off-topic in addressing the other very interesting book you describe, here is something about Court de Gébelin's bit of tarot folklore (the way it sounds is as if he is repeating the response to a question he asked of someone) that was discussed here a few years ago -

[/QUOTE]

Yes I remember it, and such explanation may well be true of Gebelin's variation of the tale.

I think the gamblers 'legend of a bad end' for the inventor of cards was a widepsread commonplace which occasions such as the 'papi incident' or 'prague beheading' may have fueled, and have added to its many variations, but are far too late to be accounted a cause; rather I suspect it was a widespread legend with regional and periodic variations that at root was probably related to a 'diabolic liturgy' mode of moralist's 'anti-gambling' mode of interpretation.

Kwaw

[QUOTE=Ross G Caldwell]The association with Odin has to rely on when translations of the Poetic Edda came out (vv. 138-139 - "I know that I hung by the windy tree..."). AFAIK, they are all in the 20th century.

I don't know when the first French translation was made (or even if there is one).
[/QUOTE]


Anglo saxons credited the invention of letters to Mercury, as for example in the 10th century Anglo-Saxon dialogue of Soloman and Saturn where we find the question: "Tell me who first invented letters?" To which the reply is "I tell thee, Mercurius the Giant." The Anglo-Saxons identified Mercury with Woden 'controller of the runes' (in one version of the dialogue Solomon uses the runic letters of the pater noster as a battle charm), and to Hermes Trismegistus.*

The 10th century anglo-saxons dialogue between Solomon and Saturnus is the earliest extent of many versions of the legend that can be found in many languages throughout Europe as a dialogue between Solomon and Marcolphus. Marcolphus, a name which according to Israel Abraham is the Hebrew for Mercury, is the trickster fool who always outwits the wise Solomon: [i]"Finally, in some versions of the legend, when Solomon realizes he has been hoodwinked, he orders Marcolf to be hanged. Inverting the notion of Solomon as wise, the king offers him this boon: Marcolf gets to pick the tree he’s to be hanged from. Surprisingly, though he searches high and low, “never more could Marcolf find a tree that he would choose to hang on.” [/i]

[url]http://www.csun.edu/~sk36711/WWW/engl630AL/reports/peluso.htm[/url]

[url]http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=926&letter=S[/url]


[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solomon_and_Saturn[/url]

[url]http://www.authorama.com/delight-10.html[/url]

[url]http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=LPHDn5ftmUsC&pg=PA310&lpg=PA310&dq=dialogue+saturn+soloman+kemble&source=web&ots=PLwxallG-_&sig=ZkEjaX4QIiL4S7sgr9Uiq1IEayU&hl=en#PPA304,M1[/url]

Kwaw

*Valerie Flint in [i]The Rise of Magic in Early Medieval Europe[/i] p.390 finds the association of Mercurius with Hermes Trismegistus made by Cross and Hill in [i]The prose of the Solomon and Saturn and Adrian and Ritheus [/i](1982 p.122-123) unconvincing, on the grounds of such an association being achronistic for the period. But the conflation of Mercury and Hermes Trismegistus can be found earlier, as in Isidore for example.

ps: The earliest translation of the havamal of which I am aware, in which the odin hanging lines occur, is the 1665 trilingual translation of Resenius, that included Edda, Havamal and Voluspa.

[QUOTE=kwaw](in one version of the dialogue Solomon uses the runic letters of the pater noster as a battle charm)[/QUOTE]


[quote]
All this power, Solomon tells Saturn, is accessible to the man who knows the
words of the Prayer. With this preface and this promise, Solomon turns to the Pater Noster as the performer of the “Nine Herbs Charm” turned to the natural world.

When the magician of the “Nine Herbs Charm” gathered herbs for his unbeatable, all-purpose remedy, he called their names out one by one. In naming his herbs, the “Nine Herbs” performer personifi ed them, and at the same time he asserted his control over the nine stalwart warriors who would defeat the nine poisons that threatened the physical health of human beings.

Solomon also asserts his power with his voice. Indeed, by uttering the names
of the letters of the prayer he brings them to life. The source of his power is a written Pater Noster, but what is particularly interesting about this is not the fact that it is a written text, nor that it is written in runes (though these runes, like the ones Woden saw on the ground when he suffered on the tree of the world, will be seen to have tremendous power), nor even that it is a prayer (the Pater Noster does not function as a prayer in this poem), but the way Solomon gives individual life to each of its runic and Roman letters. Wrenching each letter from its Pater Noster context, separating each signifi er from its normal alphabetic function, the great magician hypostasizes his units of power as he utters their names. One by one, the named letters become warriors ready to serve the will of Solomon.

ᛈ(P), the fi rst letter of the Prayer, is given animate life and overpowering strength and also strikes the devil.

ᛏ (T), as John P. Hermann points out (1976), acts in a way that finds a precise counterpart in Prudentius’ Psychomachia. The T rune stabs the tongue of the fi end, twists his throat, and breaks his jaw.

ᛖ (E), to whom Solomon attributes a wish always to stand firm against all
devils, also injures him. Solomon confers high rank, a capability to feel emotion, and a considerable degree of physical strength upon the next letter.

ᚱ (R), the prince of book-letters, angrily seeks the devil, seizes him by the hair, breaks his shanks on the rocks, and forces him to seek refuge in helines Roman N and O together, “twins of the church” (who seem in their “two-ness” to be at least distantly related to chervil and fennel, the “very mighty two” of “Nine Herbs”), attack the devil.

With ᛋ (S), both the Christian Sun/Son associations and the acts of Prudentius’ Sobrietas are called upon.

ᛋ , the prince of angels and staff of glory, grabs the fiend by his feet, breaks his jaw on the hard stones, and strews his teeth among the hordes that inhabit helines With this detail and its completion of the call to life of the letters that spell out PATERNOSTER (each letter is hypostasized just once), there is a temporary lull of violent action. The thane of Satan, very still, hides himself for a time in the shadows.

The action begins again when another “mighty two,”

ᛢ (Q) and U (U), which do go together in the Latin equivalents of English WH words, join forces. The two “bold folk-leaders,” equipped with “light spears, long shafts” (here variation comes into play, providing another kind of doubling), do not hold back their “blows, severe strokes.”

ᛁ (I), ᛚ (L), and the angry Á (C) follow, girded for war, and the poet
now takes the shape of a letter as his stimulus for descriptive characterization. The curved C carries bitter terror and forces the devil underground.

Two more letters, ᚠ(F) and ᛗ (M), set fire to the devil’s hair, again recalling Prudentius’ great allegory of spiritual battle, and finally ᛄ (G), sent by God as a comfort to men, follows after ᛞ (D), full of magic power, and the two join
with .“fire,” for which no runic symbol is given, perhaps because Á , the logograph for “torch” or “fi re,” has already been used. This sequence ends with the Roman letter H, which takes on the character of a warrior equipped by an angel, and with Solomon’s assertion of the letter-warrior’s power to throw the devil up to high heaven with his blows, strike him until his bones glitter, his veins bleed, and his fighting rage gushes forth.
[/quote]

End quote from [i]King Solomon’s Magic: The Power of a Written Text[/i] by Marie Nelson published in [i]Oral Tradition[/i] 5:1 (1990) p.20-36

NB: The complete article was at one time available without subscription to an online service but I cannot find an address for such at the moment, if anyone comes across a current link can they please share it.

Kwaw

Hi, Kwaw,

[QUOTE=kwaw]The complete article was at one time available without subscription to an online service but I cannot find an address for such at the moment, if anyone comes across a current link can they please share it.[/QUOTE]
[url]http://journal.oraltradition.org/files/articles/5i/3_nelson.pdf[/url]

mjh

[QUOTE=Teheuti;1377725]So my question is - What is the history of meanings and analogies that have been associated with the Tarot image of the Hanged Man? How have these ideas evolved over time? For instance, what is the first mention of a possible relationship to the Odin myth?

Mary[/QUOTE]
The Hanged Man is a portrayal of Jesus on the constellation Cygnus, the Northern Cross or Swan. The reason the Hanged Man is pictured upside down is because much of the year when Cygnus is above the horizon in the northern sky it is in an upside down position during the hours it is likely to be observed. The Hanged Man has been known as the card of the cross and many of the meanings associated with it are about the crucifixion. The similarities and analogies between the Hanged Man, Jesus, and resurrection are many. Orpheus was seen in the stars of the swan. Lohengrin, a knight of the Holy Grail and character in German Arthurian literature was seen in a boat pulled by swans. Zeus changed himself into a swan. The myths of Odin are connected with the swan as well. Odin's daughters, the Valkyries, were sometimes called Swan Maidens for they could turn themselves into swans and sometimes they returned to earth as swans to find streams to bathe in. Odin gave Brynhild a swan-feather dress to journey down into Midgard. - Lance C.