Totem Animals |
The Hanged Man is "the sign of a violent death ... As a symbol of religious devotion, or for the expiation of sin, it was anciently the custom to offer a sacrifice ... Its higher import was the implication of the sacrifice of the animal part of one's nature upon the altar of devotion to cosmic welfare."
"... the hero is pictured here ... suspended between the twin poles of all existence: birth and death. We have all felt the loneliness and helplessness of our suspension over this eternal abyss ... Isolation or trial by endurance plays an important part in all initiation rites [from which one] emerges indeed as one reborn. "In our modern culture we have almost no such specific initiation rites so that young [people] have difficulty in making the transition [to adulthood] ... An initiation of this sort can occur at various times in life, usually whenever we have reached the end of a certain phase or stage of existence and life demands a transition to new ways."
"From water do all forms have their
beginning, "All this is held in the primal WATER, "Absorb thyself in this Great Sea
of the Waters of Life.
When we examine this card turned, so that the figure is right side up, we find that he exhibits a peace and repose we all may desire to attain. The upside down quality in the card can be disturbing, but it is only appearance. The truth lies deeper within us, and we can cultivate the peace to be found in knowing that we emanate from One Source and that we can surely return to it through a harmonious life.
Sources Zain, C. C., The Sacred Tarot. Los Angeles, The Church of Light, 1936. Nichols, Sallie, Jung and Tarot: An Archetypal Journey. York Beach, Maine, Samuel Weiser, 1980. Case, Paul Foster, The Book of Tokens: 22 Meditations on the Ageless Wisdom. Los Angeles, Builder of the Adytum, 1968. Rider-Waite Tarot Deck, known also as the Rider Tarot and the Waite Tarot (Copyright 1971 by U.S. Games Systems, Inc.)
|