firemaiden said:
Saturn's glyph eh? So, does that affect how one might interpret this card in a reading? I'm a bit of an atrologophobe... help me out here, what does knowing this do for me?
XII The Hanged Man
The number 12 is sometimes called the number of fruition
or the manifested universe. 12 is said to be the sign of
complete expression. Many great religions are allegorical
expressions of the universal Sun myth, seen in the 12
months of the year, etc.
In card 12 the initiate must hang upside down until they
accomplish the great work of Inner Regeneration. Unable to
"stand in the center" and dominate the zodiac, we instead
see a figure hanging by one foot. In the Tarot "completion"
is achieved by the time we get to the dancing figure in the
final card, XXI The World. Seen literally there as having
moved from 1-2 to 2-1.
Divinatory meaning: In spiritual matters: wisdom,
prophetic power. A pause in one's life, suspended
decisions. Self-surrender leads to the transformation
of the personality. Material temptation is conquered.
Theme: Sacrifice, initiation, and complete devotion.
A side note: Renaissance knights who got out of line
were sometimes hung up by one foot to cool them off,
a punishment called bafflement. The name for this
card in Italian is, L'Appeso, and in French, Le Pendu,
which translate not as "the hanged man" but as Hung.
* * *
Here we see the image of a seeker, completely devoted
in his quest for knowledge and truth. He is willingly submitting
to and undergoing an experience of physical surrender in order
to gain spiritual enlightenment. The inner joy he feels shines
forth, and his release from his ordeal is clearly in sight ~ in fact
he may no longer notice his peculiar condition at all.
But, you may also have to actively do some things yourself,
in order for other things to passively come about, like trying
different feelings in different ways until they all kind of fit
together. No one else can do this but you, and in fact you
began long ago to find your way on your own personal journey
of selfhood and identity.
But remember that The Hanged Man has never been alone,
from where he first began to his anticipated destination he has
known that his spiritual quest is connected to something universal,
and that this is only one stage on his progress toward something
that his trust reveals he already knows in his heart.