For You to See Life - 4u2c.life

The Hanged Man ~ symbolic meanings painted in the card.

The card of the Hanged Man portrays a mature man with brown hair and beard. Although he is shackled in a tortuous position, nearly naked, to the bare face of a cliff, still he wears a serene expression on his face. Behind him looms a dark landscape of craggy rocks, while a setting sun casts a bloody glow across his body and illumines his head. Above him, an eagle approaches.

The setting sun suggests the waning of the bright light of consciousness and will. Prometheus’ posture implies that the head - the rational mind - no longer controls. Like the setting sun, this image symbolizes the descent of the spirit into the darkness of the unconscious.

The liver, which in the myth was attacked by Zeus’ eagle, was associated with spirit and hope. Thus Prometheus’ torment is an image of the loss of faith, which in mystical teaching is called the ‘dark night of the soul’, where one can only wait without a confident vision of how it will all end.

Major Arcana ~ The Hanged Man

Here we meet Prometheus, the Titan who defied the law of Zeus and stole the fire of the gods to give to man, knowing full well that he would suffer for his deed. The name Prometheus means ‘foresight’, and the Titan possessed the gift of prophecy. He was also said in myth to have created man out of earth and the water of his own tears, while Athene breathed life into the creation. Thus Prometheus had a deep sympathy for the lot of humankind, for he had made them.

But Zeus asserted his divine supremacy over men by with holding fire from them. This meant that there could be no progress or illumination, for without fire man was condemned to live like the beasts, eating raw meat and hiding in caves. Prometheus took some of the holy fire from Hephaistos’ forge, hid it in a hollow fennel stalk, and carried it to earth.

Outraged by the theft, Zeus resolved to annihilate mankind by flood to destroy the offenders, for not only was his pnde injured, but ^th fire man might attempt to become godlike. But Prometheus warned his son Deucalion, who built an ark and went on board with his wife, Pyrrha. The flood lasted for nine days and nights, but on the tenth day the deluge ceased and Deucalion offered up sacrifice to Zeus. The king of the gods, touched by his piety, agreed to his request to renew the human race.

But Prometheus did not get off so lightly. As he had foreseen, Zeus seized and bound him with indestructible chains to a high cliff in the Caucasus mountains. An eagle flew down each day to devour Prometheus’ liver; each night the liver was renewed and the torture continued. After thirty years, Zeus permitted his rescue by the hero Heracles, who slew the eagle and broke the prisoner’s chains. Prometheus was made immortal, while grateful mankind, honouring their benefactor, raised altars to him and for the first time wore rings, in commemoration of his bondage.

On an inner level, Prometheus, the Hanged Man, is an image of voluntary sacrifice for a greater good. This sacrifice can be of an external thing or an inner attitude, but it is made with willingness and a full acceptance of the suffering that might be required. In the card of the Wheel of Fortune, the Fool encountered those sudden blows of fate which inaugurate far-reaching changes in life. But we, like the Fool, can respond to such changes in many ways. Some people cannot adapt, and cling to the past which they have lost. Others become bitter and blame life, or God, or society, or another person. The image of Prometheus is a symbol of that part of us which has the foresight necessary to understand that such changes might be needed for the unfoldment of an inner design which is not yet clear. Thus, the Titan represents an attitude of willing submission to that mysterious centre whose workings lie behind the turnings of the Wheel.

Prometheus, the Hanged Man, implies an acceptance of waiting in darkness. He is in suspension, tortured by anxiety and the fear that his sacrifice might in the end come to nothing; yet he wears a peaceful expression. And his suspension ends at last, altering both him and his relationship with the gods, for he is given immortality. In many ways, Prometheus is an image of the relinquishing of control so that a new and greater sense of life can emerge. Because Prometheus has made man, it could be said that he is man - a kind of visionary spirit within us which sees greater possibilities and is willing to abandon all that we have previously held sacred so that this greater consciousness might be obtained.

As a result, Prometheus is at first made terribly vulnerable, for if we are prepared to make such a sacrifice on trust then we open ourselves to life, and life can hurt us. But this price of giving up our defenses and making the journey into loneliness and self-doubt seems to be necessary for any real sense of what supports us when we cannot support ourselves. It is what religions mean by true faith, and it can only be gained through risking ourselves in life. The card of the Hanged Man is a natural outgrowth of the turning of the Wheel of Fortune, for it implies a willingness to trust in that Other which knows better than the ego what might be right and necessary for one’s development.

On a divinatory level, Prometheus, the Hanged Man, augurs the need for a voluntary sacrifice for the purpose of acquiring something of greater value. This might be the sacrifice of an external thing which has previously provided security, in the hope that some potential can be given room to develop. Or it can be the sacrifice of a cherished attitude, such as intellectual superiority, or unforgiving hatred, or a stubborn pursuit of some unobtainable fantasy. Thus the Fool responds to the challenge of the turning of the Wheel with a willingness to put his trust in the unseen workings of the unconscious, and waits - often with fear and anxiety - in the hope of a new and better life.

I will explain in my readings what each card means, this is a general interpritation taken from the Mythic Tarot Deck

Information Source: Mythic Tarot Deck
[published in 1986 by Juliet Sharman-Burke and Liz Greene and Illustrated by Tricia Newell (not the New Mythic Tarot)]