Year of the Hanged Man - Deborah Oak
This piece was written in late January of the 2023. Since that time there were the time of blossoms, but also there was snow and hail and now heavy rains. We are in interesting times.
It’s the new moon with the sun just entering Aquarius. The storms have passed for now and the plum buds on the trees that grace my city are busy getting ready to burst before the next new moon. If things go as usual.
But usual is becoming unusual.
For thirteen years I’ve been part of putting on a tarot retreat called The Fool’s Journey, a journey thru the major arcana of the tarot, which are numbered and go in order. And every year the card somehow matches up perfectly with the time. Strength and the Hermit were the cards for the first 2 years of the pandemic. Last year we focused on Justice, just days before the Supreme Court struck a blow to abortion rights. The year Trump was elected was our Emperor year. Some years, some cards are difficult.
This year is the Hanged Man, like the others, a card with varied and complex meaning. One meaning is seeing things from another perspective. I thought this was a good year to step back and not facilitate but merely participate. Somehow I believed the card wouldn’t work me as hard as in past years. I was wrong.
It is not an easy card. But as my friend Nancy said recently; “I’m thinking that the Hanged Man is the ultimate witches card in the deck. The Magician is all very well for male dominated modes of magic but it is in looking at the world from an utterly different perspective without denying other perspectives that makes a witch.”
I think there is truth in this. This is a time where new perspectives are becoming imperative. At the moment, we are hanging out with growing awareness that we are stuck with COVID, climate change and the ongoing threat to democracy. Witches in history and mythology are those who you go to when you are stuck and need help that can’t come from other sources. So there is challenge in coming together to work with the Hanged Man. What help, what wisdom do we have to give? How can we exercise and increase our ability to work between the worlds to find strength and tools for a changing world? If magic is changing consciousness at will, this is a perfect time to put our shoulder to the wheel of changing consciousness, adapting consciousness, and honing it.
This is a moment in time we all are stuck. Every person on the planet. Figuring out how to adapt and be resilient is everyone’s work.
During the past storm my brother-in-law’s decision to put a zip line across their washed out bridge ended up with videos and photos of my 65 year old sister hanging from a wire to cross their creek going viral. The BBC covered it! They thought outside the box and took risks. That zip line is still getting supplies to neighbors and my sister is getting out her deliveries for her Etsy store, aptly named Wolf at the Door Creations. They beautifully put the Hanged Man into motion in service of their community.
This is a time that demands we learn to live with wolves and fascists at the door, with creeks rising, with forests burning, with the thermostat going higher and lower than we’ve experienced and all of that with a steady onslaught of new variants of a tricky nasty virus.
Sometimes it can feel paralyzing. Like we are hanging upside down, powerless to get our feet back on the ground. But we have our consciousness, our perception, our awareness. The Magician’s tools are very nice, but yep, there’s times we must rely solely on our wits. And I do believe Nancy is right that this is what makes a Witch.
It’s cold and clear outside. My favorite time of the year approaches when the blossoms explode and the sidewalks get covered with petal snow. It’s the year of the Hanged Man. I’m hoping things go as usual but I’m learning that for all I know those sidewalks could have actual snow on them in a few weeks. I’ll adapt. I’m learning to hang. And I am not alone.