12. The Hanged Man
The Hanged Man from the Tarot de Marseille (Jodorowsky/Camoin version)
I began my Hanged Man reflections by meditating on the image from the Tarot de Marseille, wondering about his perspective. How might the landscape appear to him with his upside-down view?
I stepped into my garden that night, noticing bats flying low around my head. I’d not seen bats around for a while. I thought about them sleeping upside down, wherever their home might be (I suspect in an old abandoned wooden building a few doors up in the village….). Would I have noticed the bats if I hadn’t been working with this card? Would their appearance have synchronised with my garden time? Who knows….
The next day, I take a walk in the local forest, and I stumble upon the below photo – the very tree from the Marseille Hanged Man showing itself to me, its cut branches blood-red at the centre, as they are in so many Tarot de Marseille images. (Compare the trees in the Marseille card pictured to my photo…..)
I experiment with standing at many different sides of the tree to take in the different perspectives.
The Hanged Man’s tree in Temple, Scotland.
Yew Trees live on one side – surely 500 years old or more – and giant Seqouias reach to the sky on the other. Ancientness vs size. Native species (yew) vs introduced (sequoia). The forest feels so different on either side of the Hanged Man’s tree. (I would hang upside down from the tree too if I didn’t think I’d break my neck.)
The Hanged Man invites us to find different perspectives in Nature. And, as this blog is about Nature and Tarot, and in the spirit of his suspension, I offer you a handful of ecotherapy activities to try, all designed to get you shifting your perspective of Nature.
1. Walk with a hand mirror in a natural space. Walk mindfully, taking in what you see and how you feel as you move. Every now and then, look at the places you have passed via the hand mirror over your shoulder. How do things seem in reverse? How do you feel, and what do you notice now?*
2. Look for particular shapes or colours in Nature. For example, go for a pink walk, a blue walk, or a triangle walk, each time searching solely for what matches your criteria. Notice your perspective shifting away from your habitual patterns. Notice what reveals itself to you that you wouldn’t have otherwise noticed.*
3. Look for aspects of your favourite Hanged Man card reflected in your walk. For example, if there are trees or foliage in the card, look for outdoor sights that match them (just like I found the photo of the tree with the cut branches from the Marseille). Be playful, adopt his/her/their facial expressions, and see how that affects your experience of Nature.
4. Shift your attention deliberately as you move. For example, are you the kind of person who always looks to the ground as you walk, or always to the bigger picture? Challenge yourself. When you notice your patterns, shift and look the other way. If you tend to walk looking at the ground, look up every time you notice yourself doing it. Challenge your habits. See things with new eyes.
(*The exercises with the asterisks were inspired by the Ten Directions Ecotherapy Certificate course.)
That is all from myself and the Hanged Man. Thank you for being here – and please check out my Tarot Therapy Sessions if you’d like us to work together. You can also sign up for the Tarot Blog newsletter (different to my main newsletter) below to receive email updates on every new post.
Smiles from Scotland,
Stephen
