First post of the new year! Today's date reduces to the number 8, and in Crowley's Naples Arrangement, the number 8 represents the deliberate response to the approach of degeneration in order to lengthen the time that balance has power. LOL when is that not appropriate?! Perhaps my two cards today will address that concept.
The True Black Hanged Man is an interesting card. The image shows a man with legs suspended in the air and his face and shoulders resting in a field of mature golden grasses or grains. He is slowly disintegrating, with liquid gold dripping from his lips and nourishing the ground below him. A cloud of butterflies surround his feet. Behind his feet is a hologram, a schematic view of the city of Teotihuacan, an Aztec city considered to be the birthplace of the 5th sun. The keywords for this card are surrender, faith, sacrifice, and perspective.
The Ace of Wands image shows a golden peacock quill surrounded by a ribbon of parchment inscribed with golden writings. The keywords for this card are creativity, good news, courage, and initiation.
The Hanged Man is an interesting card because instead of prompting some kind of action, it asks the opposite of action from us. The Hanged Man is one archetype of stillness, but unlike Temperance, which tells of a pause achieved through balance, the pause of The Hanged Man is achieved through surrender or sacrifice. The Aztec myth that describes the process of birthing an incarnation of the sun involves a god willingly sacrificing their own life, with that sacrifice achieved by the god stepping into a sacred bonfire. That is a monumental sacrifice of one's own life for the good of all. However, The Hanged Man does not always refer to that kind of life-changing event. In some traditional images of this card, the tree or cross from which The Hanged Man is hanged is alive and growing, hinting at some kind of rebirth. Indeed, the True Black Hanged Man nourishes the field of grasses or grain with his own essence. And while sacrifice can be either willing or enforced, the look on the face of The Hanged Man is traditionally serene. Arthur presents all of this in the LWB by describing this card as ". . . a symbol of surrender, but not of principle or will." Thus we should remember there are lines that even The Hanged Man will not cross.
The Ace of Wands presents the possibility of courageous risk-taking that could attract new opportunities for creativity. Any Ace is exciting to see because of the potential it brings, but the Ace of Wands brings possibilities that fit well with the first day of the new year.
Initially, I read these two cards as a message to pause for a bit and step away from responsibilities and people, so I can allow some new idea or passion to spark into its initial flame. I saw these two cards as supporting each other, with The Hanged Man creating the quiet that allows the spark of a new idea to begin to glow and gain strength.
Applying Elemental Dignities to these two cards changes the message somewhat. The Hanged Man corresponds with the element of Water, and that makes sense. Water is about feelings, emotions, intuition, flow and fluidity, and connections. It can be still and reflective or turbulent and destructive, and it is flexible enough to exist in three states: solid, liquid and gas. The Ace of Wands corresponds with the element of Fire, which is about passion, creativity, growth, motivation, spirituality, and both humor and anger. Water pairs its destructive traits with stillness and reflection; Fire pairs its destructive traits with regeneration and new growth. There we have one dignity between these two cards: the concept of destruction and how it is affected by these two elements.
So, we have a Major Arcana card and an Ace. As we have already discussed, both Majors and Aces are not always affected by any surrounding elements. Still, we can think a bit about how these two elements relate to each other, and the main takeaway is that they are unfriendly. Water is cold that binds, and wet that adapts. Fire is heat that separates, and dry that shapes. There is no interaction or connection here, which is why these two elements are considered unfriendly. If they were not Majors or Aces, I would say that they would weaken each other. Since they are a Major and an Ace, I will see these two cards as as not connected with regard to their elemental correspondences, or affected by them in any easily discernible way.
That means I have to make a decision: will surrendering allow those sparks of new ideas to emerge and illuminate? Or will the light of the spark of those new ideas distract me, and prevent the complete surrender of thought and action and will that brings the true initiation offered by The Hanged Man?
Two possibilities. In the end, it is my choice that will be the catalyst that activates only one result.
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