The Significator of the Body

[Plenum]

as you can see form these images, the Hanged Man is not someone getting hung to die as a punishment, rather it is someone who has chosen to hang themselves by the foot from a tree, in the quest for spiritual knowledge.

as such, the overtones of this card would be:

meditation, discipline, taming of physical desires, the adept

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let's see how these 'overtones' match what Ra might present about this card.

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The Hanged Man is card 12, and sits in the Great Chain of Body. To refamiliarise yourself, here is the sequence, with the before and after Cards highlighted in bold.

Balance, Wisdom, Wheel, Enchantress, Hanged Man, Death, Alchemy

The preceding card to the Hanged Man is the Enchantress; who can personify desires/illusions/glamor of the physical being. When this card has been understood (the Enchantress is the Experience of the Body, representing the many physical pleasures and pains, attractions and avoidances) then one can graduate into the seeking of the Hanged Man.

The Hanged Man is the Significator of the Body. I have no idea what this truly means, but Joseph might. He has today just written the 'Advanced Text' for this card. It can be found here http://www.bring4th.org/forums/showthread.php?tid=4247.

to continue with my temporary analysis, the Hanged Man is that personification that represents the Physical Being brought under the discipline and balance of the mind+spirit. The Body, at this point becomes a tool for learning. As Ra says:

61.6 It is well to know the body complex so that it is an ally, balanced and ready to be clearly used as a tool, for each bodily function may be used in higher and higher, if you will, complexes of energy with other-self. No matter what the behavior, the important balancing is the understanding of each interaction on this level with other-selves so that whether the balance may be love/wisdom or wisdom/love, the other-self is seen by the self in a balanced configuration and the self is thus freed for further work.

this, to me, is the very image of the adept making use of all resources at his disposal; both accessing the mind and spirit, but also able to use the 'body as a tool". Being able to hang yourself upside down from a tree (ie meditation) signifies that the body has been brought into alignment with the mind and spirit complexes, and that as an individualised entity, the mind/body/spirit is ready to function as one, thereby opening the doorway/possibility to the indigo ray, which is the true domain of the adept.

let us look at Ra's version of this Card:



there is very little difference from the preceding two images.


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that is about all I have to offer on this card.


Ra makes no direct reference to this Card, as he does to almost every other card.

my own linking of the Hanged Man to adeptship has only been a recent understanding, and is still to be developed fully. Oh, and yes, the metaphor of

Hanged Man = tuned instrument

came to me in a meditation this morning. An instrument that the Creator is ready to play:

54.16 Questioner: Let me make an analogy that I have just thought of. A seven-stringed musical instrument may be played by deflecting each string a full deflection and releasing it producing notes. instead of producing the notes this way the individual creative personality could deflect each string the proper amount in the proper sequence producing music. Is this correct?

Ra: I am Ra. This is correct. In the balanced individual the energies lie waiting for the hand of the Creator to pluck harmony.

[Aureus]

Very good Plenum! I appreciate your Tarot threads very much. It feels good to be assisted when trying to make sense of these mystical cards

I can relate to hanged man, I am in a position where I have the appropriate wisdom, yet my vessel doesn't feel tuned, at all. So more focus on the body!

[abstrktion]

This is my first rendering of the hanged man. The Hanged Man of today's society may feel defeated, a puppet to the powers that run the world, yet as this life is "sacrificed", he can find his spiritual grace. I think of this archetype as having two sides: the one before the realization that he is not really a creature of this world and the one after he realizes he is a transcendent being. On the one side, he is feeling defeated because he may not have the drive to power that would win him a top job, a Barbie wife, and the perfect 2.5 kids (and he may not actually want that anyways, but he feels like he should want it, leaving him with a good deal of internal dissonance). On the other side, he comes to understand that by releasing his ambitions, fears, outcome-driven behavior, he can still be IN the world, but not OF it. He might even work at the same job--but his outlook is different, and thereby, so is his entire life.

This card makes me think a great deal of the way people misunderstood the peace Jesus intended to bring. He wasn't there to free the Jews from Rome any more than the Confederation, the harvest, etc. are coming to take out the bad guys in power in our own time. The change is internal--and when there is enough internal change, external change will be the natural outgrowth, IMO.

[Shin'Ar]

Would you address the symbolism of the Tree, the crossed leg, and the dropping of the coins?

[abstrktion]

Would you address the symbolism of the Tree, the crossed leg, and the dropping of the coins?

Significators

The Significator is the fundamental nature of the category (Mind, Body, Spirit). It is “both actor and acted upon.” It is from the Significators that the concept of free will in the fullest sense was developed. The Significator developed into being both what it was, and what it was not, thereby becoming a “complex.”

Further, “the seed concept of the Significator being a complex introduces two things: firstly, the Creator against Creator in one sub-Logos in what you call dynamic tension; secondly, the concept of free will, once having been made fuller by its extension into the sub-Logoi known as mind/body/spirit complexes, creates and re-creates and continues to create as a function of its very nature.”

Hanging upside down may be thought to express this "dynamic tension" of two sides; it can also refer to the idea that the last shall be first and the first shall be last.

THE CROSSED LEGS - Effort and struggle
In effect, it is suggesting to us that we attempt to learn what we are capable of doing—allowing us to grow through trial and error; we use our will and refine our ability to use that will by processing the consequences (often painful) of our choices and actions. (See the underlined quote below)

Pg 177, book IV
"Then I am guess that the crossed legs of the entity in Card four have a meaning similar to the crux ansata. Is this correct?

"This is correct. The cross formed by the living limbs of the image signifies that which is the nature of the mind/body/spirit complexes in manifestation within your illusion. There is no experience which is not purchased by effort of some kind, no act of service-to-self or others which does not bear a price, to the entity manifesting, commensurate with its purity. All things in manifestation may be seen in one way or another to be offering themselves in order that transformations may take place upon the level appropriate to the action."

THE TREE - THE WORLD, THE PLACE WHERE SACRIFICE IS ACHIEVED, YGGDRASIL, THE TREE OF LIFE (Qabalah)-THE MANIFEST UNIVERSE

Like God and Christ, we will sacrifice the physical man to the God within, the self (incarnationary personality) to the Self (the eternal Individuality). This is represented in the traditional tarot by The Hanged Man, iconography which calls up the image of Odin hanging on Yggdrasil , causing himself physical suffering to bring about spiritual clarity and insight. Through this painful physical experience, Odin brought us writing, the runes. As each of us transcends, we also leave a gift of knowledge behind, for all are One and the achievements of one, touch us all. Nevertheless, ultimately, mastery of the world will result in our leaving it behind, a conquered territory.**

THE COINS - what we leave behind as a gift (see underlining above.)

**The problem, however, is that many try to leave the battleground before achieving a clear victory in terms of self-mastery. But this is another topic...

Anyways, these are my thoughts. What are yours Shin'Ar?

[dreamoftheiris]

I resonate with this interpretation. I think one of the important images in this card is the depiction of the fruit. In the preceding card, The Experience of the Body, the Enchantress walks on fertile land. On top of the image is the depiction of seeds - some germinating, others not.

The Experience of the Body is the adept using catalyst to plow fertile land and the seeds that are the result of this work germinate into fruit - depicted by the Significator of the Body.


Ra says, "To bear fruit is a protected activity". Thus, the Hangman depicting a tuned instrument definitely makes sense.

The "tuning" is the work in plowing the field, making it fertile so that the seeds generated from Experience can germinate into fruit.

Yeshua in the Gospel of Thomas says, “Grapes are not picked from thornbushes, nor figs from thistles for they do not give fruit. The good offer goodness from the secret of their heart. The perverse offer perversity from the secret of their heart. That which is expressed is what overflows from the heart.”

The expression of the heart is the fruit.

Underneath the hangman is the depiction of beautiful, ornate flowers. These are not your typical wildflowers. These appear to be more delicate flowers - requiring even more fertile soil than is depicted in the Experience of the Body.

The tuned instrument, then, is creating the most fertile soil for the living One to blossom.

[Eddie]

Thank you to abstrktion and dreamoftheiris; posts # 5 and 6 introduce considerable clarity to this discussion.

[Nau7ik]

I have been studying with the Builders of the Adytum and this is the version that we use. There are some important concepts hidden within the symbolism of this Key:

The Hanged Man hangs from a Hebrew Tau ת to represent true reality (Tau is assigned to final Tarot Key 21–The World / Universe). It is meant to convey the idea that the human personality is completely dependent upon the One Life. He is at rest, like a pendulum.
Again, this conveys the idea that even the least of our movements / actions is a result of cosmic forces.
We get the idea of self-surrender with the imagery here. Why do this? The illumination of the Hanged Man’s head gives us a clue. His white hair indicates his Primal identity: the Ancient of Days working through the man’s personality.

I haven’t colored my own Key 12 yet, so I can speak so much about the symbolism. This is what I do know and I don’t want to speak on what I am unsure of. What I said above is what I understand of the card now.

I have colored my own Key 0 and let me just say... it makes the world a difference when you color your own Tarot Keys. You bring them to life, so to speak.

One last thing I want to say is that it is indeed the “Significator of Body.” Ra’s explanation fits with the deeper explanation of the esoteric Keys. The Hanged Man is essentially the vehicle of personality for the One Life. There is a process leading up to the self-surrender pictured here explained in symbols by the previous Tarot Keys.

[Ohr Ein Sof]

I have been studying with the Builders of the Adytum and this is the version that we use. There are some important concepts hidden within the symbolism of this Key:

The Hanged Man hangs from a Hebrew Tau ת to represent true reality (Tau is assigned to final Tarot Key 21–The World / Universe). It is meant to convey the idea that the human personality is completely dependent upon the One Life. He is at rest, like a pendulum.
Again, this conveys the idea that even the least of our movements / actions is a result of cosmic forces.
We get the idea of self-surrender with the imagery here. Why do this? The illumination of the Hanged Man’s head gives us a clue. His white hair indicates his Primal identity: the Ancient of Days working through the man’s personality.

I haven’t colored my own Key 12 yet, so I can speak so much about the symbolism. This is what I do know and I don’t want to speak on what I am unsure of. What I said above is what I understand of the card now.

I have colored my own Key 0 and let me just say... it makes the world a difference when you color your own Tarot Keys. You bring them to life, so to speak.

One last thing I want to say is that it is indeed the “Significator of Body.” Ra’s explanation fits with the deeper explanation of the esoteric Keys. The Hanged Man is essentially the vehicle of personality for the One Life. There is a process leading up to the self-surrender pictured here explained in symbols by the previous Tarot Keys.

The Hebrew letter Mem; its element is water which is like Astral Light. It moves in much the same way. Notice the two crescent moons on The Hanged Man's shirt; this is a clue that subconscious faculties are at work here. Also, the "blue" shirt.

[Nau7ik]

The Hebrew letter Mem; its element is water which is like Astral Light. It moves in much the same way. Notice the two crescent moons on The Hanged Man's shirt; this is a clue that subconscious faculties are at work here. Also, the "blue" shirt.

Yes! That’s exactly what we are taught regarding the attribution of elemental water to this Key: the astral light is ‘like’ water. The Hanged Man is upside down, as if reflected in a mirror. The ten silver bottoms on the coat, “and by their material suggest that manifested life is a reflection of the One Life.

This is affirmed by the numbering of the Key, 12. One and Two. The powers of subconsciousness (2) working through the agency of self consciousness (1). You read the numbers from right to left in the Hebraic tradition.

Paul Foster Case received an explanation from one of his occult correspondences, which he included in his book The Tarot:

The correct geometrical figure concealed by the Hanged Man is a cross, surmounting a water triangle. It signifies the multiplication of the tetrad by the triad. This is the number 12. The door, Daleth, is the vehicle of the tetrad, for it is the Great Womb also; and the head of the Hanged Man reflected therein is the LVX, in manifestation as the Logos. He is Osiris, Sacrifice, and Yod-Heh-Shin-Vav-Heh, Yeheshua.

When one consciously realizes the truth that the manifested life, the human personality, is completely dependent upon the One Life, the only logical course of action is the total self-surrender pictured here by the Hanged Man. (Paul Foster Case.)

[dreamoftheiris]

Interestingly, I've heard the Holy Spirit feels "water-like" and emanations from those considered saintly or "enlightened" also have this quality.

[Learner]

Would you address the symbolism of the Tree, the crossed leg, and the dropping of the coins?

My comment is with regard to Ra's version of the tarot. Here's my interpretation.

The Tree: the two trunks of the tree and the pole across at the top forming a square, like the other similar squares in Ra's tarot, they indicate our 3D manifested world. 

The Crossed leg: as mentioned in 94.26, "The cross formed by the living limbs of the image signifies that which is the nature of mind/body/spirit complexes in manifestation within your illusion." Ra also called the form "t-square", which has similar symbolic meaning as the tree. 
In additional to the crossed leg, the hanged man being male indicates the Significator is consciously experienced in the 3D existence. 


The Dropped Coins: I thought those were seeds, not coins. However, in either case, they symbolize seeds being planted for potential fruitful outcome in the future. 


Additional observations: I always felt the hanged man being upside down is of a great significance. It indicates that in the Significator a complete different perspective is revealed. The two tree trunks having grape vines climbing on them and bearing fruit may indicate some type of protection, as Ra mentioned in 92.32, "To bear fruit is a protected activity." The hanged man looks to his left, possibly indicating the negative aspects is more easily recognized. However, from the viewer's perspective, the hanged man is actually looking to the right, possibly indicating what experienced by the hanged man as negative is in fact positive. 


It seems the Significator of the body is congruent with the teaching that what we perceive as pain and suffering are only teaching tools for us to learn and evolve.