The Hanged Man. Sounds awful, but look closely …
he looks like he’s practicing extreme yoga. His face is calm in spite of the fact that he’s hanging by one foot from a tree … his hands are folded in Añjali Mudrā (namaste) … there’s a blue sky filled with puffy white clouds, birds wheeling overhead … all’s right with the world. Right?
Except not, of course. Our world has turned upside down.
Back in October, when I was contemplating the Texas Tarot project, I took out a book from the library and decided to try a little bibliomancy. I randomly opened the book to The Hanged Man; my first tarot card “draw.” At the time, we had just gotten a contract on the Hill Country house, but couldn’t start packing because of the inspection period when the buyers could still back out. We were, truly, hanging.
“This tarot thing could work,” I thought. And then plotted out the 22 creatures that could inhabit the Major Arcana of my dreams.
Fast forward to today. We are, truly, hanging once again.
The tarot books have so very much to say that it’s hard to keep it brief, but I’ll try …
- 78 Degrees: this card hints at great truths … where everyone else is frenzied, you will know peace … be who you are, even if others think you have everything backwards …
- Kitchen Table Tarot: let go of all perceived control of your life and let the lessons be absorbed … Sit. Down. Stop. Moving. You don’t have to decide everything in your life right this second …
- The Creative Tarot: it is a time to reflect and accumulate information … a time of waiting … something has to shake us out of our complacency; something that makes us question and seek a new answer …
And just in case it’s not perfectly clear, Angeles Arrien adds “The Hanged Man ultimately teaches us that there are always many more options, solutions, and perspectives to consider than those in which we are currently invested.”
Deep breath. Okay.
It was still dark out as I started to pick out covers, so no pictures, but I did snap a quick shot of a possible layout …
Nope. I kept cutting and shuffling images, framing the orb spider from here, after deciding to change the title label to “Hanging” because that spider is a she, not a he … and really, we’re all hanging right now. Then aligned trees and clouds and a sun, which, at the very last moment, got turned upside down …
For now, I’m hanging on to this …
“May all be safe … may all be healthy … may all be happy … may all be at peace …”
I'm Going to Texas (version 2.0) 
The lower left image, the radiating lines of color starting with the red center orbing out to green, even though there is a bit of green close to the warmer colors- our lives right now are moving from the intensity of acknowledging that life as we know it for the foreseeable future is in flux but then, hopefully, in time some semblance of balance, or calm, of growth, will come into focus. Your card of Hannging simply gives me strength…
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How you drew out the word “hannging” … how our lives are on hold …
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And I should add that I intentionally spelled the word hanging with two n’s because it seems to fit where many of us are at present…hanging in there, and hanging on and so I decided that I needed to emphasize this action!- sort of like that old cartoon that shows a cat, nails extended, scratching down the wall as she hangs on !
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Hoping we can all “hannnnng in there”
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Ha. Those old cat posters! There are many circles on your card, which gives hope that we may circle around to a spot that feels a lot better than this one.
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The original spider post was titled “Spin cycle” … sorta how I’m feeling. I like your positive take!
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whoa that’s good. at a certain point in my life I couldn’t get away from this card. Felt somewhat clarified in mind, personally, from your observation about this card’s personification of our collective experience.
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We are all in this together … just watched an excellent TED Talk recorded four days ago about Covid-19 … I learned a lot … most of all that we have to change how we live in this world, on so many levels … it’s time to stop hanging around and act
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It’s a Christ card too. Literally, the man hanging on the rood. Sacrifice. I love what you’re doing with all of these. How you established a practice and the practice upholds the creativity. That alone is inspiring. It is a perfect card for self quarantine and school and business closures, isn’t it?
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The co-incidence of cards and life has been a bit eerie …
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But that’s how the Tarot works.
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Didn’t mean that to sound snarky (if it did). Over the years, the timing of the appearance of cards perpetually amazed me. Yours lately have been nothing short of profound.
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I didn’t take it that way at all … it was the perfect comment … and thank you
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