ZenMusic said:
Yet the card in itself is essentially a glyph of Water; Mem is one of the three great Mother Letters, and its value is 40, the might of Tetragrammaton fully developed by Malkuth, the symbol of the Universe under the Demiourgos. ... Water is peculiarly the Mother Letter... It is then to Water that the Adepts have always looked for the continuation .. prolongation and perhaps renovation of life.
Yes, the Eternal Return. We come from water (the womb) and we go back to Water (death). I'm pretty sure Mem is associated with the Empress who would also suggest some kind of rebirth or flowering. Crowley's Hanged Man hangs from an Ankh, another symbol of the Empress. (For if the cross is placed below the World we have the Ankh.) Yet sacrifice we make for life is death so we cannot escape the ultimate sacrifice after all.
The number (10+2=12=1+2) Three of the Empress also corresponds to the Sefer Yetzirah in which the cosmos was formed from three elements that were formed from three letters. The three letters are not only the three "mothers" from which the other letters of the alphabet are formed, but they are also symbolical figures for the three primordial elements, the substances which underlie all existence.(Air/Fire/Water)
It's interesting that this coincides with post modern deconstructivism which talks of the feminine of Woman, the unsaid or in this case, the usurped. Her son, the Sun God, attempts to usurp the womb, he is rejuvenated, born again and, even though Christianity and other patriarchal based religions, incorporated the Great Mother (The Virgin for example) here she rises again - from the Sea. That which is logical or rational is male, that which is illogical or irrational is female and to destroy the male one must turn to the female who is indefinable. In his Confessions, Crowley says:
"Logic is responsible for most of the absurd and abominable deeds which have disgraced history."
Wasn't Crowleys' number 666 and if so, I'm wondering if this card also represents him and his constant struggle against those who abused him as a child. The first glimpse of the toll this must have taken on him is aptly described as he tortures and kills a cat in order to prove the 'fact' that it has nine lives. He saw his schooling by the Brethren as the ultimate in insanity and it's interesting that his volte face began with the resurrection:
"I asked one of the masters one day how it was that Jesus was three days and three nights in the grave, although crucified on Friday and risen again on Sunday morning. He could not explain and said that it had never been explained...In fact, I could hardly conceive of the existence of people who might doubt it. I simply went over to Satan's side; and to this hour I cannot tell why."
Crowley began to drink and smoke (which his father abhorred) and to experiment in the ultimate 'sin' - sex. Crowley always saw himself as an outsider which is another association with the Hanged Man. And by nailing the Hanged Man to the Cross or the Ego - he cannot escape his lower consciousness. Crowley determined to fight fire with fire:
"Men and women will never behave worthily as long as current morality interferes with the legitimate satisfaction of physiological needs. Nature always avenges herself on those who insult her. The individual is not to blame for the crime and insanity which are the explosions consequent on the clogging of the safety valve. The fault lies with the engineer. At the present moment, society is blowing up in larger or smaller spots all over the world, because it has failed to develop a system by which all its members can be adequately nourished without conflict and the waste products eliminated without discomfort."
This again corresponds with the teachings of the Sefer Yetzirah which concludes that there is no heaven or hell, there is no good or evil for everything exists relatively to everything else - there are no absolutes. Nature favours the virtuous and is hostile to the wicked and is so because of our moral freedom.
Mem also corresponds to speech:
"The words a man speaks are deep waters, a flowing stream, a fountain of wisdom." Proverbs
The Thoth Hanged Man uses the closed form of Mem or the mysteries of god. The mysteries of god are closed off to reason - if we take reason to represent the dominance of Christianity and all that is 'rational' or ruled by the Sun God - then it is to Woman that we return.