The Hanged One

and after?

emerging from fire and flood
not with wings, risen from ashes,
but immersed in suspended time–
inside out upside down

to reverse is not to return

to surrender is not to admit defeat

to be still is not to remain forever bound

Sarah at dVerse has given us the word ash for our quadrille this week. The story she told of Odin hanging from the World Tree to gain wisdom made me think of The Hanged Man card from the tarot. I’ve seen it referred to as The Hanged One in several places, and I like that name better.

Continuing my series of tarot inspired collages using Egyptian figures, I put this together quickly, using a funerary figure and the doorway the dead are said to walk through. I usually spend days doing them, so I’m sure it will end up being revised since I’m not quite satisfied with it.

32 thoughts on “The Hanged One”

  2. Oh, I really like this! I love how it begins with that question, and then goes on to say that all of these things are not final. It’s more of the in-between we’ve both been focused on.
    I do find the art creepy. I feel like he’s watching me.

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    2. Thanks Merril. I think this card is meant to cause discomfort, like The Tower, or Death, or any of the Swords suit. But at the same time, as you said–in between. Our world seems to be hovering there.

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  3. A very evocative image; the hanged man is always fascinating to me, and the quadrille here works its threads of meaning and symbolism into a fabric that is fine as silk but strong as steel.Those last three lines are stunning.

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  10. The image of suspension in your poem is eerie. Teamed up with your pic and proces notes, a chilling post.
    Thanks for dropping by to read mine

    Much💜love

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  11. That’s a very cool collage. When I saw what you call a doorway, I saw a coffin. Still a portal of sorts. I saw the top part of the tree as the part above ground and the lower section as the roots. The pharoah’s head is pointing to the molten core of the planet, or is there something more to the glowing orb? The rest tells me that this is just part of the big picture. I love the symbolism in this one.

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    1. Thanks Jade. That’s a spiral galaxy cut from one of my space books. Everything the Egyptians did in their art was symbolic. The book I cut this from had a little bit about their complex ideas of death and the soul–if I ever get the time, I’m interested to explore it more.

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  13. Oh I love the artwork and how you start with the question.

    Sidenote… when I read Inside out, upside down I thought of Diana Ross:

    Upside down
    Boy, you turn me inside out
    And ’round and ’round
    Upside down
    Boy, you turn me inside out
    And ’round and ’round

    Far from the hanged man though

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