The Hanged Man, Il traditore (VS)

• hanged man, upside down, sacrifice
• martyr, redemption. judas → sacrifice
• cardinal sin, dispair
• VS → hanged man isn't showing suffering, unemotional, calm
• triumph of hope over despair VS
• later cards → material trappings, regrets of deceit in return for riches
• embodiment of human sacrifice
• RW → shift of emphasis from sacrifice/redemption to enlightenment
• ES → redemption of judas iscariot, divine sophia

• Mandragora officinarum, mandrake, poisonous, hallucinogenic (atropine, scopolamine, hyoscyamine), blindness, myth of small screaming man being pulled out of the ground (extraction required 2 men and a dog), believed to grow in the semen and urine ejaculated by a hanged man. Mandrake_(plant)
• tree orchids, hanging from trees (alt. hanging mosses and lichens)

• cabbage green
• purple
• brown

• an initiation into selfless sacrifice in order to help others

The hanged man is a tiny epiphyte, a vegetal homonculus with its roots in the air and its crown hanging upside-down. Its many fine roots grow clumped into two leg-like appendages, with some of the rootlets gripping onto a pole (the preferable poles for the hanged man are the electricity poles, street lamps or traffic lights). As the rootlets are quite fragile, the plant captures threads and strings that are carried by the wind and get tangled around the pole. It grows around the threads that grip tightly onto the pole and hangs off them. The many muscular roots make most of the plant. They look cramped and twisted at the top, relaxing more towards the the belly of the homonculus. Around the chest area, the roots begin thickening and greening, spreading outwards in two directions, spreading two multilayered green arms and stretching them outwards and downwards. In between the two arms the rootlets turn into a long beard of pale-green hair, tangled in a way that it resembles a peaceful face. It then spreads out radially as a vegetal aura surrounding the face. At the end of each strand of hair there is a small golden bead or coin, that drops of with the slightest movement of the air, covering the ground in sparkling yellow dust.

note: work in progress for PARN. not general reference

major arcana