Having trouble with the Hanged Man

[ravenest]

I see this card, also, as a symbol for initiation. I used to see it more as a symbol of incarnation but lately, (due to what I am reading) this aspect is standing out more.

I was wondering where on earth the image came from originally? Obviously, throughout the past, a literal hanged man would be a fairly common image and one would think it relates to ideas of punishment or retribution. But here he is not hanging by his neck but by the foot upside down.

The connection I ended up getting was the hanging of meat or an animal carcass , that is a whole different set of associations. Why to we hang meat? Mostly to cure or age it, to make it better. In a way it is like cooking the meat, meat hung properly is purified and preserved for consumption later. It is usually hung upside down or by the heel.

This is a world wide process used to emulate initiation, Partrick Harpur talks about it in his book 'The Philosopher's Secret Fire - A History of the Imagination' in a chapter titled 'Why We Cook Children'. He lists several examples from native American through to African and European, from infants to adults and explains how it is a process of the first set of initiations; from mothers passing the new born above the flames of a fire, young boys being buried (with their head above the surface) - the earth is seen as a 'slow oven' ... steaming in sweat lodges and many other examples cited. Harpur explains how 'cooking' makes one civilised, turns one away from a raw natural state into a cultural person that can take their place within the tribe / cultural society . (The second and higher series of initiations turn the cultural person into a 'super natural person - shaman, witch doctor etc.)

So I thought I would see if this idea of initiation gels with your ideas:

This is such a beautiful, yet elusive, card. Just when you think you get it, it turns topsy-turvy and unbalances you.

Ha! Yep initiation is like that except the end result (when you have changed or realised) is greater balance.

Still, this is the card I have worked the most on, and I guess I needed it. Chapter 7 of Magick really helped a lot, as did a few other sources. Of all the cards I have studied until now, this one is the one that challenged me most personally.

That goes with initiation

Anyway, enough about me. The idea of sacrifice is, according to the BoT, a bad one, and with good reason. There is no sacrifice, no self-degradation, only change and continuous growth.

Yep.

In the old Aeon, that of Osiris, the sperm was seen to die when entering the egg, thus creating the cycle of life. However, as we know now, that is a preposterous theory as, if the sperm were to die, there would be nothing. The Fire of the present Aeon destroys separations, allowing, finally, for the "annihilation of the self in the Beloved," but only through the ecstatic union of opposites, the "right opposition implied in marriage." Although the sperm, after union, no longer exists in it previous form, rather than being dead, it is even more alive because it has achieved union.

In a way, if we see the sperm as the candidate and the egg the process.

Now, the story of Noah is also mentioned, and is all about water, death and redemption. However, in it hides meaning I had not seen before, and Noah's very name tells his story. Nun of death, putrefaction, fish, a very watery letter. Chet, the vessel of life, the Ark. This is also a metaphor for childbirth and perhaps even of the evolution of Man from the ocean.

Symbolic 'death', ocean = unconscious, the ark, which played a central part in my first initiations ...AND floated in a dark ocean which the candidate would literally (in symbolic ritual drama) would arise from later ... being further evolved ... this is very interesting but difficult to explain here.

Now, the reason I bring Noah up, is the "reason" why the HM connects Geburah and Hod. Hod is the emanation of intellect,

here I would add it is also the realm of magical sciences and technologies and realisations ( e.g. as in the 6 of swords)

also of manifestation and the waking world, in essence, Eve, where we are made flesh.

I don't get this bit ... it doesn't seem to fit.

Geburah takes the divine will and restricts it, pressing it into an envelope of flesh.

In the initiation context Geburah takes the 'divine will' and connects it to Hod - the magical sciences and processes to help this connection.

Now, this could be interpreted as a form of suffering, but as we said before about ecstatic union, and as the card itself amply illustrates, what we have is the Will entering the flesh (reminiscent of Jesus, obviously) as an act of Love and that, is what perpetuates the cycle. This card also illustrates man's inherent deity not as a flawed piece of meat, but as product, culmination and all-important child of the divine union with what is essentially itself.

IMO another way of describing initiation. Also you use the 'not as a flawed piece of meat' analogy

Well, got a little too mystical there, hope you see my point.

Words from the initiator to the candidate over drinks after the ceremony