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Description

(2015), graphite pencils on paper, 5.5"x10.5" backed with digital frame.

The Hanged Man belongs to the Major Arcana that are often seen as difficult in a spread, and like so many of the other cards it has a shadow side as well as a light side. Often the Hanged Man is seen as someone who has become so entrapped by his own ideas and deeds that he cannot move any more. The best he can do is to let go, accept that he's stuck and wait for the situation to resolve itself on its own. For people who like control that's truly a problematic card to pull.

I really didn't want to depart too much from the traditional iconography of the card though I decided to make the pose of the central figure more natural and voluntary. Instead of being tied to the tree with a rope around one foot as most classic decks show him (or even nailed down, like Crowley's does), I wanted him to kind of "hang out" with his legs hooked over a tree branch. Crowley has the Hanged Man nude to emphasize his sense of helplessness and exposure, hence the bare-chested look for mine. Since the card is associated with the element of water I put a forest pond behind him, and the configuration of his slightly splayed thighs against the branch gives the elementary symbol of water, a triangle with the tip pointing downwards. I also liked the look with the crossed arms, because this is an introspective card. We need to go into ourselves as we face a crisis and need to change our view in order to get ourselves unstuck.

In a spread the Hanged Man means that we are presented with a challenge. We cannot go on as we were used to, because we've lost traction and become mired in our world view and decisions to the point that we don't see a way forward any more. We'll be kept hanging until we can see things from a different perspective, so we need to dig deep and use our sense of helplessness to make some profound decisions about who we are, what we stand for and how we got into this situation. We have to be patient and may even look passive or like a victim to outsiders, but the transformation will start from within and when we finally get down from our tree we'll be wiser and better equipped to move on with our lives. If you drew the card to help you with a decision the lesson it teaches is not to force things, to move forward on sheer will, but to wait and let the answers come to you, even let the universe decide for you once in a while. The more you want something, the more you have to work on letting it go in order to make it happen. And while you're at it, just enjoy how the world looks topsy-turvy once in a while. The more accepting of the situation you are, the more patient and the less self-pitying, the better the experience will be. I think my young man is enjoying himself at least a little bit, and that's the what you can take away from the card, too.

Description

(2015), graphite pencils on paper, 5.5"x10.5" backed with digital frame.

The Hanged Man belongs to the Major Arcana that are often seen as difficult in a spread, and like so many of the other cards it has a shadow side as well as a light side. Often the Hanged Man is seen as someone who has become so entrapped by his own ideas and deeds that he cannot move any more. The best he can do is to let go, accept that he's stuck and wait for the situation to resolve itself on its own. For people who like control that's truly a problematic card to pull.

I really didn't want to depart too much from the traditional iconography of the card though I decided to make the pose of the central figure more natural and voluntary. Instead of being tied to the tree with a rope around one foot as most classic decks show him (or even nailed down, like Crowley's does), I wanted him to kind of "hang out" with his legs hooked over a tree branch. Crowley has the Hanged Man nude to emphasize his sense of helplessness and exposure, hence the bare-chested look for mine. Since the card is associated with the element of water I put a forest pond behind him, and the configuration of his slightly splayed thighs against the branch gives the elementary symbol of water, a triangle with the tip pointing downwards. I also liked the look with the crossed arms, because this is an introspective card. We need to go into ourselves as we face a crisis and need to change our view in order to get ourselves unstuck.

In a spread the Hanged Man means that we are presented with a challenge. We cannot go on as we were used to, because we've lost traction and become mired in our world view and decisions to the point that we don't see a way forward any more. We'll be kept hanging until we can see things from a different perspective, so we need to dig deep and use our sense of helplessness to make some profound decisions about who we are, what we stand for and how we got into this situation. We have to be patient and may even look passive or like a victim to outsiders, but the transformation will start from within and when we finally get down from our tree we'll be wiser and better equipped to move on with our lives. If you drew the card to help you with a decision the lesson it teaches is not to force things, to move forward on sheer will, but to wait and let the answers come to you, even let the universe decide for you once in a while. The more you want something, the more you have to work on letting it go in order to make it happen. And while you're at it, just enjoy how the world looks topsy-turvy once in a while. The more accepting of the situation you are, the more patient and the less self-pitying, the better the experience will be. I think my young man is enjoying himself at least a little bit, and that's the what you can take away from the card, too.