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XII "The Hanged Man" THOTH TAROT CARD: ANALYSIS AND READING.

 


Major Arcana card XII of the Thoth Tarot, "The Hanged Man", is indeed one of the most striking of the Major Arcana cards and one of the most charismatic cards of all the known Tarot collections.  As one would expect, the meaning of the card in "The Book of  The Thoth", which was published in 1944, three years before Crowley passed away in 1947, is cryptic and moderately, compared to the other Thoth "Major Arcana" cards, ambiguous in its overall meaning of the The Hanged Man.  And in my analysis of Crowley's Thoth Tarot, with his abundance of Hermeticism, Astrology  Egyptian mysticism, Gnostic Christianity, Esoteric Islam and Judaism, and a lesser degree, science.  The Hanged Man has all these influences inserted into its meaning, as a traditional rework of the Rider-Waite card.

And what a rework Crowley's "The Hanged Man" is, as the card itself is one of my personal favorites, as it revels in codemination, rejection and predicament as way of being reborn, but not redeemed.  However, there are key differences between the traditional Rider–Waite tarot deck and Crowley's Thoth or Thelema inspired Hanged Man.  Rider–Waite has the man with his hands, presumably tied behind his back, with his left legged tucked behind his suspended right leg and ankle tied to the gallows, which is a living tree.  With a halo around his head.  So, the card is seen as a positive reading, within its various interpretations, is not of the forsaken.  Crowley, who was obviously impressed with the original Hanged Man card, took the imagery further.  In its similarity, he has the male figure poised in a triangular configuration, with his left leg suspended by the ankle, balanced with an Ankh, and a coiled snake wrapped around the foot. The right leg is tilted Ninety degrees folded over the left leg.  The arms outstretched, like his right angled leg, have been crucified to three green orbs, representing Venus.  Below, sits a pool of darkness which lies another snake, this time in waiting at the man suspended.

The Hebrew letter "Mem", bottom left, and the alchemy symbol, an inverted pyramid, bottom right, both represent waters.  The card overall exemplifies water as being an abyss, from the light above, to the void below.  Reminding me of the Asian/Middle Eastern proverb, "He who is drowned is not troubled by the rain."  Yet, The Hanged Man appears suspended between both the Light and Dark.  Or is he slowly descending into the darkness?    Has he already fallen?  In reiterating John Milton's Lucifer as the antihero from "Paradise Lost" (1667), in accepting his predicament, as it is "Better to reign in hell, than serve in heaven",  to which Crowley hints when explaining the cards meaning from "The Book of The Thoth", by saying, "Pity not the fallen! I never knew them. I am not for them. I console not: I hate the consoled and the consoler".  Also note, that in Crowley's crypticness, is his sexual rite "The Sleep of Shiloam", which he decrees, that the The Hanged Man is positioned in a ritualized sexual manner, thus the card, according to Crowley, also represents The Sleep of Shiloam.  To summarize the explanation named by Crowley as a sexual rite (possibly influenced by Tantric Buddhism and Hinduism), and if you have been fortunate enough to be able to conjure this technique, from your own intuition (without it being named).  All the power.  It is to deny oneself orgasm, whilst bringing up arousal - and then keeping oneself in a state of arousal (which is a power of the feminine, to prolong stimulation), eventually falling asleep.  This could last hours or even days.  You'll have visionary dreams.  For all intended purposes with the same technique, with a partner, is the possibility of also having an out-of-body experience, whilst in sexual intercourse without orgasm.

The explanation of the Two Serpents, of above, wrapped around the left foot, meaning Creation and Destruction, and below being the abyss of Death and Rebirth.  Both powerful in their symbolism, which keeps the card balanced.  Also, noting that the card was credited to being "The Dying God", which may allude to the appeal of the Occultist, that God or Gods are not immortal.  And within mythology, it also aligns that a God and a mortal can be reborn after dying.  But, I suspect that Crowley could be trying to find the essence of that mythical power, the omnipotent has over man.  In which both may perish.  Which essentially could be correct.  When humanity dies, our God will die with us.  The Dying God subtitle for The Hanged Man, could also instil the defiance aspect of the card and its acceptance of one's circumstance. 

Reading:

I am neither fallen or condemned.  And redemption is not what I seek, as it would be a debt owed.  And who would I owe that debt too?  To choose the position of the inverted pyramid is of the sacred, what points down into the void is also renewed by it, from Light to Dark and into Dark to Light.  The coiled serpent around the left foot shall be no curse nor burden, but a reminder of the cycle of Creation and Destruction.  And so be the serpent who lies waiting in the abyss, it is of Death and Rebirth.  And even if I have been crucified to the three orbs, representing Venus, to be seen only in the morning and evening.  I am the inbetweener of worlds.  I have resigned to no suffering.  No torment.  For let it be known; He who is drowned is not troubled by the rain.  That the concealed truth of god is a closed "Mem", then I shall request that it open, by visions of the divine, the practice to withhold the climax of bliss, is the lucidity of the feminine.

Summary:  

Acceptance, defiance, renewal, coiled serpent symbolizing the cycle of Creation and Destruction, waiting serpent in the abyss representing Death and Rebirth, crucifixion to Venusian orbs, the inbetweener of worlds, resignation, no suffering, seek the divine through the opening of the concealed 'Mem,' practice, withholding the climax, lucidity of the feminine.

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(A.Glass 2024)
 

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