The Hanged Man

This morning I pulled "The Hanged Man" card from my Tarot deck. The image shows a man hanging upside down on a tree of sorts …

One leg is tied to the top of the tree.

The other leg is free.

His hands (I think) are tied behind his back.

AND.

Most importantly, there's a yellow glow around his head (symbolizing enlightenment or an awakening of sorts) with a peaceful expression on his face.

I read somewhere that at one time in history the punishment for being a traitor was to be hanged upside down like the guy in the picture.

Hm.

And so that makes me wonder - who did he betray? What did he betray?

A person?

An ideal?

A doctrine?

The answer may be given by taking a closer look at the card because if we flip the card upside down we see that his legs (the one strapped to the top of the cross and the one dangling free) make the shape of the number FOUR, which is the number that represents the WORLD and the elements of it …

Earth.

Wind.

Fire.

Water.

And so perhaps this guy betrayed the ways of the world, the world that told him …

How to live.

How to believe.

How to think.

… Maybe he was fed up with everyone telling him what to do and how to do it and what to believe and how to think, and so maybe he went out (away from his tribe) to do things his way. 

Yeah.

Maybe he went out into his own wilderness of sorts and maybe when he did, maybe that's what got him strapped upside down to the pole - maybe people didn't like him thinking for himself.

OR.

Maybe him being upside down on the pole is reflective of how the people in his life think that he's living his life backwards and upside down and all sorts of crazy - "You used to be like us", they say, "you used to think like us, act like us, and believe like us. But now? Now you live your life backwards, you're flipping your whole world upside down … and we don't approve."

Whatever the case may be, his upside-down-ness has brought glowing enlightenment to his heart and his mind.

He's glowing.

He's realizing things he hadn't before.

He's seeing things differently.

He's growing.

He's changing.

He's evolving.

Yes - whether people strapped him to that tree out of anger or the image of him upside down on the tree is just a reflection of his reality … whatever the case may be, he's waking up.

I wanted to tell you today that there's a high cost to waking up and just because you find yourself abandoned by your tribe and hanging upside down from a tree in the middle of the desert - that doesn't mean you've taken a wrong turn or that you've done anything wrong.

No, friend.

Instead, it means that you're right where you need to be, right where you're supposed to be and awakening or enlightenment is near.

Don't give up.

Don't give in.

Don't turn back.

… You got this.

Much love,

Glenn Siepert