Back in the early eighties, I knew a person who had one of those contraptions for hanging upside down, presumably to encourage back stretching. I tried the implement a number of times, and now wished I had paid more attention to its impact on hearing.
A number of Yoga positions also invert one's bodily position. Without the pressure upon one's crown, both the (varieties of) handstands and forearm stands - which I can only do, unlike the easier headstand) with the balancing support of a wall (and haven't done for a while) effectively renders one in this reversed state.
Maybe it is not so much the ear as related to hearing the undulating waves in the air, but of the mystical and inspired hearing of that still small voice within, as one also (re-)
balances (also connected to this sense-organ) one's orientation to life.
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Reading through some astrological historically interesting materials at
cura.free.fr, and especially the
Kalendrier & Compost des Bergers, I was struck by one of its attached images, which seems to use a structure very much similar to the gallows of our Hanged Man to seemingly measure both North-South and declination of a rising (or, though more unlikely) setting star (though see below).
I reflected on this instrument a while before writing this post. It is such a wonderfully constructed tool. It would provide, quite easily, for when specific times of the year are reached astronomically.
Of course, the image attached has neither hanging man nor any obvious similarity to this card. Yet it struck me in ways symbolic: if this kind of 'gallows'
was utilised for working out, quite simply, when either months changed, or the equinoxes and solstices occurred, then some of our other reflections made above may also have been made by those who lived in times in which they may have constructed such implements...
If each of us is a Star, then the going down, to be interred in the Earth, as suggested by the card which follows, marks an important transition in our journey. The Inner Strength previously shown, and following the Old Hermit's Wheel of Fortune cascading turn, will need to also be drawn upon.
Attached in the depiction mentioned.