The Images of the Tarot Oracle in Psychic Readings

The Hanged Man

The image of the Hanged Man describes, not the villain on the gallows, but the saint in sacrifice. Imagining it in your own mind, however, be careful to set aside all conventional notions connected with the idea of sacrifice. Paint no picture of the agonies of torture and death. Oh, no. Look more closely, and see on the face of the saint, the beatific and ecstatic smile of perfect faith. Or, picture Mother Teresa, who held the most pitifully suffering men and women in her arms during their last hours, but who yet always said that these moments of dying were suffused with an inexpressible radiance and beauty. In her loving arms, the wretched of the earth found comfort and love at last. The saint lives and dies, in all ways and in every condition, with an unquestioning acceptance of life. This is why the saint never knows fear or doubt. An unshakeable confidence in Divine Grace is the ground on which she walks. She follows with ease that luminous advice from the Sermon on the Mount: "Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: and yet I say unto you, that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these." How infrequently do preachers expound on this verse! Do they fear that the ranks of the unemployed might then swell to unmanageable proportions?

The reversal of the image of The Hanged Man is usually an indication in a Reading that someone is trying too hard. We drew this image in the case of a client who just couldn't manage to do herself justice in any kind of test-taking situation. She was entering into her third year of college, and maintained a C-average despite every effort to improve her standing with hard work and study. Indeed, her poor performance on tests seemed out of keeping with the exemplary work that she did on term-papers, which were usually complimented as highly original and well-written. Seeing the image of The Hanged Man in reverse, there was little that we could advise apart from suggesting that she make a conscious effort to relax. Now, there can be an paradoxical contradiction implied in the idea of making an effort to relax. But it is nevertheless true that, for some people, relaxation requires training and practice. Our client found that this was true in her case. She took a course in meditation specifically for this reason, and soon she was getting nothing but A's on her exams.