You are the Hanged Man
Self-sacrifice, Sacrifice, Devotion, Bound.
With the Hanged man there is often a sense of fatalism, waiting for something to happen. Or a fear of
loss from a situation, rather than gain.
The Hanged Man is perhaps the most fascinating card in the deck. It reflects the story of Odin who offered himself as a sacrifice in order to gain knowledge. Hanging from the world tree, wounded by a spear, given no bread or mead, he hung for nine days. On the last day, he saw on the ground runes that had fallen from the tree, understood their meaning, and, coming down, scooped them up for his own. All knowledge is to be found in these runes.
The Hanged Man, in similar fashion, is a card about suspension, not life or death. It signifies selflessness, sacrifice and prophecy. You make yourself vulnerable and in doing so, gain illumination. You see the world differently, with almost mystical insights.
What Tarot Card are You?
Take the Test to Find Out.
For those who don’t already know this, the tarot deck was originally conceived in northern Italy in the 15th century for the playing of card games and nothing more. The fortune telling practices are an abuse of this artifact based on nothing more than hoaxes concerning its supposed Egyptian origins and spurious Kabbalah connections.
What the new age and metaphysical publishing industries have been telling most of the world regarding the use of tarot cards in connection with fortune telling and the occult is in fact a misrepresentation of the genuine tarot tradition of continental Europe.
There is indeed a more intelligent use for tarot cards than for superstitious excercises. The true tarot tradition is in no way connected to psychics, astrology, “pop psychology” or other such mumbo jumbo.
The genuine tarot is actually a classic European trick taking card game quite often mis-marketed to many parts of the world as some occultic or new age device.
It is in France, where this tarot card game is currently most popular. It has also gained a foothold recently in French speaking parts of Canada. There is also a similar game played in Austria and surrounding regions most often under the name of “Tarock”
The players of tarot card games, nowadays, use a more modern deck with double-ended court cards and conventional playing card suits of hearts, spades, clubs and diamonds and the trump cards sport arbitrary scenes of 19th century Europe.
Not only do these games excercise one’s thinking and memory skills, they are quite wholesome and suitable for all family members.
I invite the reader to further investigate the more authentic tarot tradition by doing a Google search on “jeu de tarot” or “tarock”
Although many of the pages encountered may be in the French and German languages, a number of players have recently started to translate their works into English so we may all enjoy a more enlightened century of game playing.