Tarot and Transcendence
On a recent business trip that took me through a number of Midwestern cities, my itinerary was peppered with off days and free afternoons that allowed me to avail myself of the tourist attractions in cities such as Indianapolis, Chicago, and the ever alluring Pittsburgh. It was while I was in Pennsylvania that I wound up visiting an art show at the Warhol museum. The show re-interpreted the tarot with a series of modern photographs, and without a doubt the most thought-provoking of the major arcana was the Hanged Man, which appeared in numerous trippy modern re-interpretations. The exhibit got me to ruminating on what is so captivating and controversial about the Hanged Man in particular. To analyze the symbolism of this card, I’ll turn to the definitive artwork of the Hanged Man (at least to my modern, Western eyes): The Rider-Waite version.
The Hanged Man is one of the most notoriously cryptic tarot cards in the history of the deck. The image of a man being hung by a rope evokes associations with strangulation, hatred, punishment, and death. The crucifix behind him recalls ancient forms of torture and murder, particular the passion of Jesus. The card has been interpreted as a symbol of sacrifice, martyrdom, or the Great Work.
Yet the man is actually in no mortal danger. He is hung simply by an ankle, and at no risk of suffocation. He hangs on a cross made from living wood, not on an execution device made from dead wood. His legs are crossed in a pose of seeming relaxation. A closer look at the young man’s face reveals that he is surprisingly calm, standing aloof from his situation. He is crowned with a halo, signifying the transcendence of his state of mind.
The Hanged Man relates to the divine, despite his seemingly-dire situation. He has the Stoic power to transcend the worries of his earthly predicament and connect with something greater. To the hanged man, his situation isn’t as dire as we tend to think. The card holds a mirror up to us. When we see a man hanging and read the title “The Hanged Man,” we immediately interpret him as dead or dying, and it connects us to our own fear of dying and our resistance towards death. But to the Hanged Man things are not as bad as they seem—sure, he is in a tight spot, but he is still alive, and he can even find a moment of bliss while he lives still. While our eyes focus on the crucifix or the noose, the hanged man’s eyes are unfocused, staring out into the unknown.
The Hanged Man can teach us how to look at the world with pure eyes. He is not caught in the habit of mind that we are, worrying about our situations. He is not anxious about his dubious situation, but instead he is choosing to transcend the world. When we are suffering the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune and our mind is consumed by worry is precisely when we need to find our inner peace and transcend this mad world.
So the Hanged Man doesn’t represent death or pain at all, but instead represents a way to transcend all that death and pain. He is a symbol of asceticism and renunciation, of freedom from attachment, and of Stoicism. Most of us could actually use a little more Hanged Man.
Thomas Stone is a contributing author at Belts and Bangles.
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All You Need To Know About Feng Shui
Feng Shui is the ancient Chinese art of designing the spaces in which people live and work. The ancient Chinese believed that the universe and everything contained within it is constructed from energy, or chi. The purpose of feng shui is to arrange spaces to conduct this energy in the most harmonious and prosperous way.
Small changes made to spaces using feng shui can result in big differences to fortunes. However, there are many important factors to learn in feng shui and in order to practise it properly they must all be properly understood. This will prevent mistakes being made which could potentially do more harm than good.
The first thing to understand about feng shui is that it is based on five elements. The natural elements of water, wood, fire, metal, and earth have to be used correctly with each other within a living or working space in order for the energy to be in harmony. When done correctly this can bring about good fortune in love, health, and financial matters.
The elements can be introduced into a space through a variety of means, for example installing a fish tank will be a good use of the water element. When it is impossible or impractical to introduce the elements themselves they can be represented by using certain colors. For example, the color red symbolizes the fire element, blue means water, green means wood, yellow means earth, and gray means metal.
Great care must be taken to ensure that the elements, or their representative colors, or placed in the correct positions within a workspace. In order to achieve this feng shui practitioners use a Bagua map. This is a complex tool incorporating eight diagrams relating to the ancient Chinese philosophy of Yin and Yang. By using this map along with a compass any space can be analyzed to plot the areas of positive energy, and to see which areas need to be adjusted. The Bagua is extremely important in feng shui, as when used correctly it can help to promote health, wealth, spirituality, creativity, and love.
The Bagua map will help to arrange rooms in the most advantageous way around a home, and also the furniture within those rooms. However, there are also certain basic steps which can be taken to ensure that the energy which flows around a home is always positive. For example, spaces must always remain tidy and uncluttered, as otherwise this can lead to cluttered thinking. Similarly, anything which is in a state of disrepair around the home should be fixed as soon as is possible to allow the positive energy to flow freely again.
These are just some of the many examples of the many ways in which feng shui can be incorporated into a location. Feng shui is a complicated philosophy with many rules to understand and implement. People should never stop trying to learn more about it in order to improve their living and working spaces, and therefore their lives in general. Feng shui has been practised for thousands of years, and continues to be extremely popular as a way of bringing about organization and prosperity.
Michael Schnippering is Chief Executive Officer of Feng Shui at Work. Feng Shui at Work is an international company that provides consultations worldwide. Follow them on Twitter: @fengshuiatwork
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