The Tarot of Eli, LLC: The Erotic Tarot- Key 12-Punishment & The Thoth Tarot-ATU 12-The Hanged Man

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The Erotic Tarot-Key 12-Punishment shows a different twist on self-sacrifice, that the traditional "Hanged Man". Spanking, as punishment, is as old as history. It is often shown as sexual erotica and is even shown in the Karma Sutra. These feelings are occurring in the context of sex and as such are sexual feelings. Please don’t ask me why they occur because the explanation has been debated by no less an authority than Jung and Freud. This type of sexual feeling seems to predate even written history, and once writing did occur it has been the subject of texts and passages in every following century. Sexual behavior is considered acceptable if it does not do any actual harm to the individuals involved.

Since being a "hanged man" in sexual erotica has a different meaning than the medieval act of baffling and self-sacrifice, Milo Manara had to use his artistic wits to produce a reasonable card, that showed sacrifice, ordeal, punishment, pain, and a contrasting form of opinion.

Manara assigned Neptune to this card which would change the meaning. Here things are more about being Nebulous, impressionistic and inspiration.

The Medieval punishment of Baffling was used to punish thieves and the curious image of Severity, and its implications are vastly different from the previous paths that connect the Personality and the Higher Self; Severity, because this is the Path of Mem (Meaning-Water) that connects Hod (Splendor) and Geburah (Severity) on the Pillar of Severity.

The Hebrew word-MEM, (Water) is a one of the three Maternals, and implies a Baptism in Maternal Waters, as the other two: The Path of Shin (Art) is a baptism in Fire, and The Path of Aleph-The Fool, is a baptism in Air. Of all these three Baptisms, the Baptism in Water (Consciousness) is the central and pivotal experience of the entire Qabalistic Tree of Life.

Consciousness is the Alchemical First Principle, also called the Thinking Principle and is referred to the physical image of Water because it is like water in wave motion, and fluid flow. The lowest expression of the First Principle is first found, by the upward traveling initiate, as the Astral Fluid that is drawn down the Path of the Universe into Yesod, the Foundation Sephiroth. This Thinking Principle, the Astral Fluid, is found as the Stable Intelligence, by virtue of consistency, in all Sephiroth and Paths as it underlies everything that is.

Pointing downward, the Soul is drowned in the Maternal Waters where upon, perceiving itself as a Soul, as an intrinsic and inseparable part of the One Consciousness. Carl Jung, who coined the phrase. Universal Collective Unconscious, describe this Water of Mem as a "...boundless expanse full of unprecedented uncertainty, with apparently no inside and no outside, no above and no below, no here and no there, no mine and no thine, no good and no bad". To him the First Principle of the Alchemists was also described as Water, as he states, "It is the world of water, where all life floats in suspension: where the realm of the sympathetic system, the soul of everything living begins; where I am individually this and that; where I experience the other in myself and the other-than-myself experiences me.....the collective conscious is anything but an encapsulated personal system; it is sheer objectivity, as wide as the world and open to all the world."

I would highly recommend that the initiate reads the works of Carl Jung, on the Collective Unconscious. Thus, gaining a modern understanding of ancient wisdom. To put it another way, in the state of consciousness we are "always the subject that has an object", a reality that is totally turned around in the Collective Unconscious where we are "the object of every subject", as stated by Carl Jung. In other words, our subjective Self, I AM becoming objective Self, Me, when immersed in the Maternal Waters on the Path of Mem. THE HANGED MAN, where the invisible becomes visible.

The initiate knows that we must move constantly upward on the Paths of the Tree of Life, for only through the hindsight gained by going to a higher Sephiroth, can we experience an understanding of the qualities of the lower Sephiroth, The Path of Mem, leads to Geburah (Severity) which is directly above Tiphareth (Beauty); Geburah is the Fiery or Active part of the Higher Self and is shown as Red in color; the color of Mars. This further illustrates the point that Geburah is the fiery energy on the Pillar of Water below Binah. In the Thoth Tarot card of the HANGED MAN, the Womb of Binah is where the hanging figure's foot is held.; from the oval of the Egyptian Ankh, which is the cross like symbol (also called the Tau cross) of both Divine Androgyny and Infinity.

To the one who has traveled the Paths to this point, it is to be noted that the Path of Mem, the HANGED MAN, must be approached very differently than the lower paths. Here, the meditating personality becomes the object of one's own meditation. The individual becomes the "other" which was previously the object of pursuit; the "other" now becomes the initiate. Thus, it can be said that the personality meditates in pursuit of the Higher Self, who then becomes or envelopes the Personality of the pursuer creating a Higher Sensual/manifested self, often stated as having "Magick Abilities".

The Path of Mem, THE HANGED MAN- Key 12, has a reverse figure on the card that represents the Higher Self imposing a complete reversal of perspective which is a suspension of individual consciousness. Much like the reflected image in the mirror, looking at the real non-reflected image that is the object of reflection.

This is however, a willing suspension, done by an initiate's conscious effort, a type of sacrifice or baptism, where the perspective of "I Am" is cleansed of the illusions of the material world, i.e. the ME

Because of this sacrificing of one’s individual perspectives to the Greater Self perspective of all, the Thoth Deck HANGED MAN is shown in a suspected state of crucifixion that images the myth of the Dying God. (Dionysus. Osiris, Odin, Christ etc.), Some of my more observant students have asked why the Hanged Man is crucified on the Left Hand Path or one side of the Tree of Life as it would seem logical to have him spanning the Tree.

The reasoning behind this one-sided nonfiction, is because this is an intellectual experience, as shown by the legs positioned into the upside-down number 4 which is suspended above the Triangle (3) implied by the positioning of the arms. Four is the number of the Emperor Key-4 of the Thoth Tarot and represents the rational qualities of the Mind while 3 is the number of the Empress, the imaginative qualities of the mind (also seen in the number 12, 1+2=3). Thus, positioning the rational qualities of the mind over the desire principle.

This suspension and or crucifixion in space, is what happens when the spinning WHEEL OF FORTUNE, the tenth key and the opposite Path of Caph (the Path between Netzach and Chesed) is willfully arrested by the initiate. The HANGED MAN is repose, while the WHEEL OF FORTUNE is activity both of which form a balance that is known as the activity and passivity of the ONE THING. Thus, one of the primary qualities of the HANGED MAN is that it is a Path of eternal probabilities and/or eternal unresolved possibilities. Therefore, the HANGED MAN is openness without end while THE WHEEL OF FORTUNE, is the exact opposite, as it encloses in eternal motion., i.e. making a limited thought pattern and/or Form. When Mem (Water-consciousness) is closed, it becomes the Ankh (a form of the Tau cross) The Ankh represents Mem reversed.

In Crowley's card of the HANGED MAN, illustrated by Lady Frieda Harris, the figure emphasizes the cross-triangle, and is suspended from the Ankh, being attached to this form of the Tau Cross, by a coiled serpent that symbolizes “the creator and destroyer who operates all change". There is also a lower coiled serpent that represents the effect of the Work of God: As Crowley states in his book of Thoth: "Through his work a Child is begotten, as shown by the Serpent stirring in the Darkness of the Abyss below him."

As I have stated before, this is the card that shows the reversal of perspective, where the individual identity, reflected in the light of consciousness (reflecting side of the Mirror of Self), becomes the Universal Identity (The Dark or non-reflective side of the Mirror of Self) that is manifested as the Universal collective Unconscious the maker of All Things. Successful scrying of this card will reverse perspective, so that the mediator becomes the object of one's own meditation. Which could be stated as, where the Soul is observing the body, rather than the body seeking its soul.

When THE HANGED MAN /PUNISHMENT-key 12, is thrown during a reading,

• The querent will be or is, experiencing moments of enforced sacrifice, even punishment.
•  Loss that is not voluntary and general suffering.
• This is the Principle of Surrender to break old patterns.
• A time when one must accept reversals.
• Sacrifice and devotion.
• Overcoming the ego.
• Changing one's ways.
• The redemption of absorbency.
• New view of the world.

If ill defined:

• At a Standstill. 
• Resistance.
• Self-Sacrifice.

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