Welcome to the 2021 A to Z Blogging Challenge! My theme this year is Tarot Tales. I am making a selection of folktales, legends, and other traditional stories that correspond to tarot cards. Storytelling and tarot go well together. Do other stories come to mind? Let me know in the comments!
The card: The Hanged Man
Meanings: The Hanged Man symbolizes putting things on hold, surrendering to inactivity, letting go, taking your time. It is a voluntary sacrifice to see new points of view, reevaluate our perspectives, giving up trying to control things around us. The Hanged Man is not bound or trapped; he is reflecting, waiting, regrouping, and going with the flow.
Selection process: The Hanged Man is often related to Odin or Jesus Christ, as mythical figures who voluntary hung from a tree (cross) and suffered a sacrifice in order to gain wisdom / salvation. Once again, I wanted to dig deeper. I wanted to find a story that deals with patience, voluntary release, and new perspectives.
The story: Lei-lehua (Hoamakeikekula)
Origin: Hawaii
After lots of wandering and sorrow (because of which she earns the name Hoamakeikekula, Companion in Suffering in the Glade), Lei-lehua finally gives up the futile search, climbs a tree, wraps herself in ie-ie vines, and waits for something to happen. Eventually she is found by a king's servant who takes her down, and introduces her to his lord - who turns out to be Pu'u-o-nale, the man from her dream.
Runner-ups: I was also considering the tale of the Wooden Sword because it talks about not trying to control the future, and finding a way to move forward whatever happens. (It's a great anti-anxiety folktale, I collected some of those here.)
Have you ever had a dream that came true? Or a dream you just could not shake?
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This would be a hard one for me. I love trying to control all the variables although I also love the idea of stepping back and getting another perspective. I wonder if there is a half-hanged man card? Weekends In Maine
ReplyDeleteOh, I know very little about Tarot, but I have always thought the Hanged Man means death. Hmm, I like much better your definition, and the tale too!
ReplyDeleteQuilting Patchwork & Appliqué
Wonderful story of letting go of control. Falling in love with a dream -- loved it.
ReplyDeleteWouldn't have ever seen the 'Hanged Man' in this light. Thank you.
That's what we need to do! Climb a tree and just wait for something to happen! I've been doing things wrong all along!
ReplyDeleteI have a favorite book where a young girl (12 I think) keeps getting the hanged man. She is told over and over it isn't a bad thing, but she won't believe it. She says something about it not looking good for him, hanging there upside down. Until reading that book I would have thought he was a negative card. Interesting he's associated with Jesus and Odin. Then that leads my mind into American Gods, the book of course!
I just thought it was a kid's game! Not so much dreams I couldn't shake, but some nightmares!
ReplyDeletehttps://iainkellywriting.com/2021/04/09/the-state-trilogy-a-z-guide-h/
I think the hanged man is the card that represents the last year for most of us - life being on hold.
ReplyDeleteThat seems like my card. I often surrender to inactivity, not as much a sacrifice for anyone's sake but rather going with the flow and seeing what happens.
ReplyDeleteTaking my time and listening to other points of view are two ongoing works in progress for me. I like the symbols of the Hangman's Card. Also, I am always eager to learn many legends of Hawaii and you are introducing me to more today. Aloha.
ReplyDeletehttps://gail-baugniet.blogspot.com
H is for Hawaiian hibiscus
I used to have this reoccurring nightmare from the time I was in high school on through out college and grad school. I called it my "very haunted house" dream.
ReplyDeleteIn the dream there was this large manor house full of ghosts. The worse ones were in the attic and in the sub-basement. In the attic was the body of the old woman haunting the manor. She was hidden in a trunk. In my dream she had gotten into the trunk to hid from something, but the top closed and locked, trapping her inside.
She died in that trunk and her ghost haunted the whole house.
Well this went on for years.
One night I had the dream/nightmare, but now I went to attic like I always did and it was all cleared out. My wife was standing in the middle with broom. I asked her what she had done and she said in her normal manner of fact tone "I cleaned it."
I never had that nightmare again.
I have since turned the whole thing into a book I put out a while back.
--
Tim Brannan, The Other Side: 2021: The A to Z of Monsters
This is fascinating, because the "house haunted by someone who hid in a trunk and the id locked on them" is actually a recurring folklore trope too.
DeleteLove this topic. I just ordered a replacement set of cards so this comes in handy. I'm not skilled at readings or anything, I just enjoy the stories. Thanks for visiting and good luck in the rest of the challenge. Stephanie
ReplyDeleteIf all my dreams made me hang from trees, I'd never get anything done!
ReplyDeleteRonel visiting for the A-Z Challenge with an A-Z of Faerie: Half-Mortals in Folklore