We cannot go back, except in time on a blog, perhaps back to a time like 2007 when I had more time for ruminations on such things as symbols, the impact of the abstract on consciousness. And I miss it. But that’s the ego talking, which I am long-practiced at suppressing.

If only ultimate reality would see that a little more often and come poking like the north wind at the window.

Thanks for your comment!

The Hanged Man’s journey is always about letting go of the ego and tapping into a power much greater than himself. In a Tarot reading, The Hanged Man tarot card meanings usually inform us that we can not go back to earlier states of consciousness, such as those from youth or early adulthood. At the same time, we can not yield to our darker shadow selves, the impulsive drives of our unconscious. Our goal is to free ourselves from both the desire for the safety of our past and from the demands of our unconscious, a difficult duality we all face.

Lucky You!

Hey check out my own tarot card meanings and let me know what you think.

Best,

Carolyn

Approaching ultimate reality………mmm.

All this from some dumb quiz. Cosmic inspiration, self-sacrifice, hanging from the tree, runes. All knowledge contained in one symbolic system. Those dumb quizzes are amusing, at least when they lead to (even brief) discussions about, y’know, Stuff.

But back on the pick-and-choose, I think that actually gets to the heart of the “real” function of a lot of astrology, a non-darker side. For me the Chinese zodiac is what I’m more a fan of, but I’m sure it has to do with having cool Chinese zodiac signs. I doubt that rabbit and pig people are as enthusiastic about it. These systems interest me, somewhat integrated with the magic discussion going on on the odfellow list at the moment, for their potential both good and ill. I’m in the process of constructing an alternate Chinese zodiac and a society that follows it as religiously as some of the Chinese culture does and did, arranging marriages on its basis, creating destinies based on it… which is very dystopian to me in a weird kind of way.

I’m like you, Erin, in that I enjoy the symbols for themselves. I have read too much Saussure and Lacan not to be picking up that chain of signification wherever it pulls me and following it down into the murk.

Like I said above, I’m not really one to put any great weight in the online Tarot identity quiz anyway. I am myself, and if I happen to feel inclined to surround myself with symbols, it’s only to pick and choose motivations from them as I see fit. Self-sacrifice in the name of knowledge. That resonates with me, so I’ll take it.

Yes, I did bring up the astrological stuff here because of its connection with the Tarot. I don’t meant to dis astrology. Shakespeare thought it was great, so who am I to judge? I’m just saying there’s other wierd abstractions by which to approach ultimate reality that I enjoy more and for some reason am more interested in. A lot of it for me is a matter of aesthetic, not really having anything to do with the nuts and bolts of how the system works. For example, the Mayan astrologers…well, it seems like their whole cosmology, and some of the actual structure of their myths, was designed to fit onto the changes that take place in the sky over the course of a night, or over a month or a year or 20 years. Maybe a similar correllation exists in the western astrological symbols and I just don’t know about it.

I am apparently the Wheel of Fortune. I go back and forth with the tarot. I think it’s interesting just because I like symbols, but the symbology of it seems to be way the heck all over the map, representing some major concepts but not all, and there seems to be a slant even within the collective symbols in the tarot, a feeling like the whole points in one direction of interpretation rather than there being a sense of balance and all things represented. And then you have things further muddied, rather than clarified, with the presence of the minor arcana, which just adds more onto the pile like an increasing succession of Catholic saints.

Three concepts from standard esoteric philosophy that you might be interested in, given the thrust of your post:

The Hanged Man is also associated with the element Water, which in esoteric philosophy has been described as an ocean into which each conscious being has an inlet. It’s not simply the concept of a mass mind, but think instead of the Universal substance. Sort of like the Force. Or a reflection of Some Thing. Maybe God, if God could be the thing and the reflection at the same time–I’ll leave that to you to decide. Odin would have been tapping into that Universal Water when he hung from the tree.

Tarot can indeed be a monumental metaphor. Some decks are just fun and pretty to look at. Some are designed to be specifically charged with information, and are quite deeply layered with archetypal shorthand, the study of which could last a lifetime or more. Most decks fall somewhere in between.

Exoteric astrology is as you say. Esoteric astrology, however, is a different matter–it’s intimately connected with Tarot, actually, as part of a language through which humans can discuss energetic realities, so it’s kind of amusing (to me) that you dissed astrology in this post.

Here’s a sort of koan: Nothing is as it seems, and everything is exactly as it seems.

I feel like I comment too much to your journal, considering I don’t actually know you, but you rather annoyingly keep posting about things I enjoy talking about. So there it is.