XII - Le Pendu

[Mimers]

Lee, what a stunning observation! I was thinking while reading your post how I also read an observation that the chakras upsidedown represented the color spectrom of the rainbow. Making me consider that to really have that connection to the Divine, we must disconnect and go against the flow.

The same holds true with the tree of life. Upside down, Kether is on top towards the heavens and Malkuth is at the bottom towards earth. It says to me that in order to face our trials in life, we really have to remove ourselves from the mainstream to connect with the Divine/God, in order to truely get rid of our limitations.

Thanks Lee! It was nice to see you here. I too love the colors on the Camoin.

take care,
Mimi

 

[Yatima]

jmd, please tell me more about the relation you think exist between masony and /0/ and XII and when it came in into interpretation; is there any historical document relating these symbolisms?

 

[Yatima]

sulphur

jmd, you said:
"His golden hair certainly seems Sun-like, especially with its rayonning in many versions - very alchemical: his overall shape as Sulphur (cross above a triangle), with the Sun below, virtually intered (the head in the valley/'abyss')."

Indeed, the upside down version of the cross with a triangle (sulphur) seems to equal the crossed legs with the hands behind the body; in this "inversion" it means, as I read, "the Great Work done, accomplishment of the mission, perfection": so the Hanged Man has done his work as Jesus on the cross: John 19:30. This includes even the idea of thirst (the tongue) John 19:29 and your relation to the St. Johns...

 

[jmd]

With regards to the two St Johns and the |0| image and its solstitial meaning, I do not know its historical first occurance, but it dates to at least the early 1800s.

Depending on the constitution, the image is prominant in the Lodge upon either the Master's pedestal or the 'altar' some Lodges incorporate. Some Lodges in some constitution, it must also be mentioned, do not have the image depicted, though reference to it is usually made at some stage of some of the rituals in the first three degrees.

Relating this card to the Hebrew letter Lamed, as many do and as well argued by Mark Filipas, also connects it further to this idea of a balancing (Libra) figure. In concept, and to add to the succinct comment I made earlier, the four cardinal points connect not just the solstices but also the equinoxes - to which Libra relates, as the (northern hemisphere) Autumnal equinox. The image of Lamed also looks pictorially similar to the figure of the Hanged Man.

The impending Death - the next card - fits well with this concept of the Winter Solstice, implying not only death, but its cyclic aspect. The mention of John 19:30, and Christ giving up the spirit, is certainly worth considering in the sequence of these cards.

 

[Diana]

Whether the following has any great significance or not, I will leave up to your good judgement.

But on some web-site somewhere (can't remember where) it was pointed out that this is the only card where one sees the hint of an ear.

No other ears in sight on any other card! (excepting the funny creatures on the Wheel of Fortune which one finds again in the Devil card.)

Now, when one is hanging up-side-down, what does that do to one's hearing? Anyone like to try?

 

[Macavity]

I've never understood how the artist got away with "Ears" on the Visconti-Sforza (wheel) character... Alive anyway? But they seem to persist...

On the hanged man, I was interested by Brian Williams' observation re. the conflict of "mortal sin" suicide versus "heroic" suicide (of St. Lucretia, apparently) from a perspective of Catholicism. This, he suggests, accounts for the scarcity of hanging images in art of the time, apart from Giotto's "Despair", Judas, known traitors... etc. AND the Tarot!

Personally I wonder more at the H-M being, not merely "grounded", but positively subterranean! I note some more modern decks allow water to flow down the trench(?), reinforcing the watery element? But, in the Marseille case, it seems more... bottomless (sic)? On a lighter note, I'm reminded of a line from a record of the 70's: "I can hear the grass grow..."

Stressing I haven't tried this...

Macavity

P.S. Sorry for some duplication in questions that have been answered.

 

[jmd]

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.
__________

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.

 

[Alex]

Re: Il Traditore

Funny that Campbell's essay on the subject matter (1979_ Tarot Revelations, co-authored with R. Roberts) says the same thing, almost literally. Yet he (Campbell) does not cite a souce. Earlier in the book (in the "Foreword") the author talks of an arrangement of the major cards in groups of four, somewhat similar to the arrangement proposed in the essay you have referred to (Tarot as Cosmograph" at www.tarothermit.com) .

Even though the Hanged Man has been the object of nearly endless bizzarre and esoteric interpretations, he is traditionally understood in Italy as a personification of treason. Michael Dummett, in "The Visconti-Sforza Tarot Cards," lists several pertinent examples of this: "The Pope ordered paintings of Muzio Attendola, Francesco Sforza's father, showing him hung upside down, with inscriptions naming him as a traitor, on all of the bridges and gates of Rome. The walls of the Bargello in Florence were frequently adorned with such paintings...Duke Lodovico Sforza ("il Moro") ordered one made of Bernardino da Corte, who had betrayed him to the French." (p. 124)
The meaning of this symbol has apparently persisted even into modern times. When Mussolini and his mistress, attempting to flee Rome (in 1945?), were captured by an Italian mob, they were hung upside down after being killed.)

From Campbell's forewords, I have understood that he himself came up with the arrangement mentioned in his chapter "Symbolism of the Marseilles Deck", after "three hours or so" gazing at the Marseilles, the Wait and the Great Italian decks.

I wonder how many similar ideas have been proposed over and over by various people, and I wonder how many of these are as "original" as they intend to be. I don't believe there's such a thing as opening a "can of worms" when it comes to systems of interpretation of the Tarot.

I'm still trying to understand Campbell's arrangement, but as far as I have gone, he regards the Hanged Man as a necessary "state of ego" for a person in a position of rulership and power "the card appears in our [theirs] arrangement above that of the figure of Justice; for the Emperor administeriing Justice cannot and must not be concerned with popular opinion, praise or disgrace: he must have died to public oppinion, to live under the sign only of Justice".

Needless to say, such view is not necessarily related to the historic meaning of the card, neither does the author mentioned above make the point to connect both_history and his arrangement of the cards in groups of four_ in a meaningfull way.

In his commentaries on tarot's structure, Tom Tadfor Little ("Tarot as Cosmograph," at www.tarothermit.com) places this card in a group with Death, the Devil, and the Tower, hypothesizing that the deck is an expression of neoplatonic, gnostic philosophy. Little argues effectively that the trumps can be arranged in four groups which provide the possible key to understanding the philosophical intentions of tarot's originators:

I'm still browsing and fast scanning through the book (op cit), but so far I have found it entertaining, even though I'm troubled by the apparent lack of credit given to previous authors, if there were credits to be given.

Alex.

 

[Le_Corsair]

Attached is the Dodal version of 1701. Notice on this version of the card how the additive Roman style is clearly used, so that even in the numbering, reversal is implied - and emphasised by the clear 'uprightness' of the card's title.

JMD, I just received the Piatnik Marseilles in the mail, and was struck by the numbering of Le Pendu. If the card is turned upright so that the title can be read, the number of the card shows as IIX, which is not really a Roman number at all, even in the subtractive style. (if it was, I suppose it would be 8.) The number shows as 12 only if the card is turned to a reversed position, as in the Dodal version you mentioned above. Why, though? Is this a joke of some sort on the part of the person who numbered the cards? Does it have any particular meaning?

(I'm sorry I don't have a scan of the card.)

It's a nice deck, by the way; the cards are oversized at 67mm x 120mm, cream colored instead of white; no maker's name on the 2 of deniers, it is on the 2 of cups instead (Ignaz Krebs, Fribourg, Brisgau). I have no idea how accurate the coloring and images are, they are very crude woodblocks.

Bob

p.s. more decks on the way - - a Grimaud, an Ancient Tarot of Bologna, and an Ancient Tarot of Liguria-Piedmont. I still haven't decided between the Camoin and the Hadar, though!

 

[jmd]

IIX is certainly not a standard way to write 'twelve' in Roman numerals, but is totally consistent with acceptable ways to write it in early additive-only style Roman.

In that deck and in a couple of other decks, it shows that there is 'one, and one, and ten'.

Still, it does seem somewhat of a strange way to depict it.

One of the fascinating aspects of having the numeral written on this 'strange' manner is that it seems to 'mirror' or inverse so much of the XXI World card.

I suggest rotating XII and placing it adjacent XXI for the connection to be really clear.

Both have one leg straight and the other bent (mirror images of each in many Marseilles decks). The curvature of the ellipse is straightened to the two posts. Arms are behind his back, but to her side. He looks to his left, whilst she to her right.

...and of course the numerals themselves: two 'I's followed by a 'X', as opposed to two 'X's followed by an 'I'.

Some will undoubtedly dismiss these reflections, but it is also noticeable that, apart for the Fool (which also 'mirrors' in other ways XIII), these are the only two cards which seem depicted in such clear reversed movement: the World as 'dancing', the Hanged Man fixed by his tethering, yet in the same - though reversed - stance.