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The Hanged Man

“Röhrig Cards” deck · card #12

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"The path of salvation leads neither to the right nor to the left; it leads to your own heart, and only there is God, and only there is peace."
Hermann Hesse

The path of the Tarot leading up to card number eleven (Justice) is described as the active, virile, Dorian, or dry path. It represents the first active steps that initiates must take on their way to perfection.

Complete and absolute surrender occurs in card number twelve (the Hanged Man), and thus begins the second half of the Tarot's path. This part of the journey is described as the passive, feminine, Ionian, mystical, or moist part.

Here, the Magician, or the first card, becomes the mystic. Having passed through Justice, he is filled with the desire to become part of the divine truth. He has abandoned his search, because he understands that the search itself was the main obstacle preventing him from finding truth. He has turned inward, to such a degree that he has also turned around, been turned upside down. He surrenders to himself with absolute love for his Creator, on Whom alone he depends and wishes to depend.

From this act of surrender arises the certainty that the Creator will not abandon him, and at the same time he understands his own task. His mission is to love and encourage everyone he meets, so that they too might one day be ready to personally experience the sensations of the Hanged Man.

Card number twelve is also described as the card of Christ. It is the card of "Thy will be done," and of the complete renunciation of one's own will.

When we look at this card in the Tarot of the Aquarian Age, we see a naked young man hanging by his left leg. His right leg is free, and together with the left leg the two limbs form a cross. Both his arms are bound behind his back. His head hangs down, and his hair almost touches the water — from which, perhaps, he arose. Water in this context symbolizes the subconscious. The Hanged Man has arisen from the subconscious. He is not yet permitted to look fully into the realm of higher consciousness, but he has already touched this plane with one foot. Although his bound arms suggest that he avoids all physical activity, his mental, clairvoyant, telepathic and spiritual powers are fully activated. The sign of the cross that his legs form means that the material world no longer holds any power over him. He has stopped dreaming of "having" and begun to live the dream of "being." The Magician, at the beginning of the Tarot's path, wants to use his powers to rule; the Hanged Man, who has developed along the path of knowledge, wishes only to serve.

The young man's nakedness symbolizes his denial, his renunciation of everything superficial and material. He wants to return to his source in the very same complete nakedness in which he was brought into the world.

The young man's face shows no trace of pain or sorrow, but instead expresses a deep understanding and acceptance of his harsh trial. The sacrifice made for the sake of love, shown here, rewards him with the gift of divine love.

The astrological symbol of the card is the trident, the emblem of Neptune, the Roman god of water known to the Greeks as Poseidon. Water is the element of this card, confirmed by the Hebrew letter MEM (water) as the primal substance, the bearer of all life and the mother of the subconscious.

TIWAZ (the pole star) is the rune of this card. TIWAZ embodies the exceptional power of unattached transcendental wisdom at the center of all things.

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