The Hanged Man
Major Arcana
Upright
The reflection of the Hermit's withdrawal, now involuntary and total. Lamed is the arm extended — reach, and what reaching costs. Papus reads Le Pendu as the term of sacrifice: a suspension undertaken or accepted, in which the ordinary relation between a person and the world is deliberately inverted. Nothing moves, and that is not the failure of the card but its content. Divinatory sense: sacrifice.
Reversed
Suspension with no object — waiting rebranded as sacrifice so that it need not be justified. Or the price paid loudly and repeatedly for something the querent never actually intended to give up. Reversed can also mean the rope cut early, and the whole cost incurred for nothing.
Correspondences
- Papus's number
- 12
- Hebrew letter
- Lamed (ל)
- Hieroglyph
- The arm — the arm extended
- Septenary
- Second septenary (8–14), the world of Man — fifth term, reflecting the Hermit: withdrawal that is no longer chosen
- Divinatory sense
- Sacrifice
In a Spread
At the commencement the matter begins with something given up. In opposition, a cost the querent has been refusing to pay, and which the situation will keep presenting. At equilibrium nothing will move until the sacrifice is made — reading this position as stability is the common mistake. As the result: the outcome is bought, and Papus does not pretend the price is symbolic.