31 January 19: The Hanged Man & Six of Coins reversed & The High Priestess, reversed.

Oversharing. Or undersharing. We are not in a very giving mood, for whatever reason, but it may be a good one. Reason, not mood.

We have 2 Major Arcana today escorting down the center aisle the reversed 6 of Coins or Pentacles aka the 6 of Earth representing all that is physical, material and tangible. Our money, bodies, and earthly efforts and endeavors.. On the card, a well-groomed gentleman, scales in hand, weighs out and dispenses coins to a pair of beggars. Charity given and received is  one of the meanings of this card, but since the suit also rules our bodies, and with the Hanged Man and High Priestess on either side in the past and future positions being related in a an esoteric sort of way, for entertainment purposes only I will entertain the idea of checking out what this may mean were it to be related to health, which should be entertaining. We’ve given quite enough of ourselves, it seems, and may need to hold back a little.

Or a lot.

In the past position, the Hanged Man has basically decided to let the Universe work itself out, which is, sometimes, the only thing we can do. For whatever reason, a period of withdrawal and detachment was the only option. ‘Hanging by a thread’ is the phrase that comes to mind today seeing this man, hanging by his one foot, his legs crossed and forming the number ‘4’ reversed, which suggests to me a certain instability. This card, ruled by the wavy water-God Neptune can talk about drugs, alcohol and all things hallucinogenic – now a ‘hangup’ of the past – if, of course, we’re vigilant. The 6 of Coins  sometimes suggests someone dispensing medication, and reversed, this could be weaning off meds or even being given the wrong kind. Inaction was the only ‘action’ we could take at the time. Giving in and giving it up.

The High Priestess, keeper of secrets (Virgo & the Moon) in the future position is reversed. Representing our ever-present intuition, we may not listen when we should and hear ourselves saying ‘I knew I shouldn’t have trusted that so and so’ later. I hate to say it, but she could be a bad shrink, counselor or advisor – trust your own self.

However, you were, perhaps, in the past in no shape to discern who around you was trustworthy or not. Someone certainly isn’t or wasn’t who they claimed to be,  doesn’t have your best interest at heart, and never did. Your gut tells you this but you just don’t want to know. Ok, fine, says the High Priestess. Use me or lose me. As long as you keep your money in your pocket. By the way, she also rules all women’s things, and would like you to get your hormones and thyroid checked out.

The 6 of Coins reversed could very well mean someone does have their hand in your pocket, or strongly advises you to take your own damn hand out of your pocket before you give all your money away to ‘hangers on’ – possibly one specific person with a whole lot of water in their chart and or a whole lot of ‘hangups’.

The balance here to be achieved is between not giving enough of ourselves and giving too much. Your spidey-sense may be off for a bit: best to not believe every ‘charity case’ that comes along. There is an overall sense of dishonesty around these cards. Ruled by the moon, and we have a full moon in Virgo coming up I do believe, the moonlight is lovely but the harsh light of day may prove someone you trusted -shock and horror – turned out to be someone you shouldn’t have.

You knew it, too.

If you feel it, don’t ignore it.

13 November 18: The Hanged Man & Five of Swords

Someone’s screwing with you. So what. In the grand scheme of things is this really any  big deal, or is it just what it is, or who it is? What can they really do to you anyway? Just keep ‘an eye’ on them.

Th Hanged Man is of the Major Arcana, and is not about a noose and gallows but a human voluntarily hanging gracefully from one foot with one leg bent in a Yoga-like pose (Sirsasana, believed to stimulate the brain) with both hands clasped behind his back. He usually hangs from a lovely, shady tree, but on the Morgan-Greer card he has built his own rig from a couple of telephone-pole like trimmed trees (we see that portal, the #11 again) with a pole laid across from which he dangles, so he has created this position for himself. He is in meditation, going within, as did the Norse God Odin, the God of wisdom, poetry, war, death, divination, and magic. Sacrificing an eye, because he has 2 and what the hell why not, he got it, but only after spending 9 days and nights upside down twisting in the wind. When he came down, he’d been gifted with arcane knowledge and the Nordic system of divination, the Runes, and the answers he’d sacrificed so much for. If anybody needed Runes it would  certainly be someone with as much potential for conflict of interest as the great, one-eyed, multi-tasking Odin, Thor’s Dad.

This is a card of seeing things from another angle. Hmmm.

The bitchy, petty, nasty 5 of Swords (Libra/Gemini/Aquarius), being a 5, will never be happy unless he or she is in some sort of conflict with someone and they usually are. We see 3 humans on a beach having just finished a fight. 2 humans have tossed down their swords and are walking off into the sunset as one snickering, sly figure in a dark hoodie watches them retreat and gloats over his having ‘won’. We don’t see his face, only his rather sinister smile. He’s behind the scenes, lurking in the shadows. His hands are full with his own 3 swords, he can’t even hold those that have been surrendered and lie on the beach. Why, then, is he doing this? This is a card of defeat, he hasn’t ‘won’ anything. The dropped swords form a cross…keep this vampire away, already.

This strange pair can be read a couple of ways: someone needs to take the high road because someone else wants to fight or won’t leave you alone and it’s annoying and ‘hangs you up’ but whatever, it’s only a 5. You’re all chill hanging in your tree with your mind on other things.

As Odin sacrificed an eye, life is all about sacrifices. We make them every day. We need to give something up in order to get something else. Often sacrifice is the first step to compromise, but someone needs to let someone or something go that maybe seemed  to make sense at the time, but from this new angle, doesn’t.

On the other hand, time spent ‘upside down’ or in a ‘stuck’ or ‘hamstrung’ state – possibly due to another’s manipulations –  requires us to look at the world from a different angle and from a different point of view. Neptune, the ruler of this card, brings profound dreams, visions and inspiration – but also foggy lenses. Not everyone is out to get you or screw with you, not everyone is a stalker, not everyone is even looking up at your tree, you know? They can’t touch you up there. But when you come down oh, you learned so much from this, did you not?

As Odin sacrificed an eye, life is all about sacrifices. We make them every day. We make sacrifices for love, art, causes close to our hearts. We need to give something up in order to get something else. Sacrifice is the first step leading to compromise, and something needs to be let go, something that seemed to make sense at the time and probably and possibly for a very long time but from this new angle, doesn’t.

Enlightenment.

Bless your ‘enemies’.

I just got a newsflash about the election results in Georgia here in the US:

Contested results, so we’re all ‘hung up’ while we get another set of eyes – another POV – and a recount. This is that, too.

 

 

 

 

 

 

9 October 18: The Hanged Man

Hamstrung. This is one of the weirdest cards to me, Number 12 of the Major Arcana, The Hanged Man. A human hangs upside down from a tree by a bit of rope tied to one ankle. There is a lot of mythology in the tree alone, linking heaven to the Underworld, but on the Morgan-Greer image it is not a tree but a scaffolding made from two dead trees with a pole stretched between them from which he hangs gracefully. He may have even built the structure himself. His face is serene, and he holds his hands clasped behind his back, one knee bent forming a triangle shape with his legs. Aerial yoga. He’s simply looking at the world from another point of view. Yogis assume the Sarasana pose – standing on your head – when they want to see the world from a different point of view  and stimulate the brain.

From above, he looks right side up. This is a card of surrender, no doubt, to a higher power which could be God or the Universe or the weather, but it’s as if the rope were a puppet string controlled by an unseen hand from above and we’re not in control right now. This card is unique in that when the card is right side up our human is upside down, meaning that’s exactly where he’s supposed to be at this juncture. To everyone else it looks pretty strange but this ‘suspension’ is necessary right now.

Neptune, the Patron Saint of the Hanged Man, loves all things foggy and weird and wobbly and wavy and misty and mystic, like the gray wall of fog we see behind the hanging man. Neptune also loves art and music, and this dedicated and passionate (the red pants give him away) artist is sacrificing all for his art. When he finally does come back down he will have created (1+2=3, the number of Creation) something divinely inspired, as did the Norse God Odin, who after having hung himself upside down for nine nights in the World Tree, the one that grew up from the center of the flat Earth, was granted the wisdom to create the Runes.

This is basically being ‘hamstrung’ for some reason, sometimes even literally. An accident victim in traction who came out of his coma declaring he’d had a revelation and was never the same, it changed his life. That’s obviously an extreme example, but the epiphany is the same. The Mexican artist Frida Kahlo, an invalid for much of her life, affixed a mirror to the canopy of her sickbed and created her beautiful and complicated self-portraits, considered some of the world’s greatest works of art.

This is delay, but a productive one in some way. Worth the wait, worth the ‘hangup.’ Be patient. This isn’t the time to move, that’s all. You may be having to wait on something or someone else before you can do much of anything anyway.

Or, a psychologist is giving you another perspective on your own ‘hangups’.

Which is Major.