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[0:13] The symbolism and meaning of the Tarot card, The Hanged Man.
Aloha and welcome to Your Heart magic and illuminating space where psychology spirituality and heart wisdom meet. Here's your host, Dr. BethAnne Kapansky. Wright, the clinical psychologist with a mystic mind.
Hello, hi everybody. This is Dr. BethAnne Kapansky Wright and welcome to Your Heart magic. Today we are continuing our archetypes of the Tarot series. And we are on card 12 The Hanged Man. So as we have been moving through the archetypes of the Tarot, I've actually really been enjoying this series. And I thought ahead a little bit the other day and thought, what will we do when we get to the end of the Major Arcana, that is to be determined, we're not quite there yet we have a few more cards to go.
But I really think that what has been fun about sharing the archetypes of the Tarot with everyone is having the opportunity to tap into these cards and an in depth way and look at how do they apply to our lives right now? How can we connect with these archetypes and these themes and these patterns of wisdom and patterns of different approaches for how to go about understanding our life? And how can we be inspired and learn from all of these cards. And what is interesting about the Tarot is that one of my favorite decks is actually called the good Tarot by Colette Baron read.
And one of the things that I really liked about that deck is it was the idea that there's no bad cards. And historically in the tarot, once you start getting to certain cards, like the Hanged Man, we will be coming up to death. Next, we've got the tower there are we have the devil, you know, there's these cards that they're very scary sounding. And some of the original decks had images that kind of depicted something that looked really scary, like a man hanging there.
One of my favorite decks actually has a cat and it's hanging by its foot upside down. It's kind of a fox cat dressed in sort of this old fashioned cord guard, and he's very much alive. It's more like he got his foot. And he's hanging for now. And he's kind of stuck kind of in this place of stillness trying to figure out where in the world do I go from here. And I think part of working with the archetypes of the Tarot is realizing that there's no bad archetypes.
And we sometimes have a lot of fear around different cards or different messages. Or we'll hear the word and be like, Oh, that can't be good. What does that mean? And yet the Hanged Man is, I think, a beautiful archetype of the Tarot deck. And it is really about forced stillness and wisdom, a time of circumspection and introspection, it can be about a meaningful sacrifice or sacrificing the immediate for something greater in the long term.
And it is a card that really speaks to this idea of times in life, where things are just not moving as fast as we would like, or they're not going the way that we want them to. And we are kind of in a holding pattern and kind of in a space of just needing to be and transition. And I actually grab the little booklet that goes with the good tarot deck today because I thought I would read the message from that book for the card. The Hanged Man, and the theme word from the good Tarot is surrender.
And the booklet says sacrifice and surrender are necessary at times like this. Nothing in life is free, nor does everything happen according to my timetable. When this card appears, I'm reminded that it delay is in my best interest, that until all the elements are in place.
[4:45] Embracing stillness and trusting the metamorphosis process.
I am meant to surrender to the greater will for the highest good of all. Time for me to let go of my attachment to how I thought things had to be. I am called to surrender and wait to see how things play out As I said earlier, I love this deck because there's no bad cards, they are all interpreted in a way that help us tap into different aspects that we will encounter on our journey. And some of us are perhaps better at surrendering and trusting in the unfolding process than others.
Some individuals have a lot of fire energy or inspired energy or action oriented energy. I think it is very much in keeping with a lot of the Zeitgeist and Western culture that we are like, I can make it happen, we can do this, you know, momentum, let's go make plans and like set goals and check things off the list. And that's a very movement oriented way of being it's a very empowering way of being that encourages us to look at our own capability, be our agency of change, to have a sense of personal choice, and being an agent of movement and inspiration in our life.
And this is important, it is a big aspect of living if we let everything unfold around us, and let everybody else do the movement. And we just kind of chill out and go with the flow all the time, we might be missing valuable lessons for our journey on learning to have a sense of self efficacy, have a sense of getting ourselves unstuck, tapping into the 1000s of choices and possibilities that we have every day.
So I am pro movement, I am pro empowerment, I am pro fire, energy, and all of those things. Having said that, there are times in life where no matter how much you are trying to move, something you are invited into stillness are forced into stillness depending on how you want to look at it. And that is the essence of the Hanged Man. That is the essence of times where we are in a winter season.
Winter is a great example. No matter how much people want spring to get there. Winter has its own process and well planned will thaw when the land will thaw it will wake up when Mother Nature is good and ready to wake up life and green buds and the birds and some of the summertime animals, they will come back when it is time to come back. And in the meantime, the land will look like it sleeping, the trees will stay bear, animals will stay in hibernation, some of the birds will stay south or wherever they've migrated to, the land isn't ready to wake up yet.
And so that's a beautiful seasonal example of what the Hanged Man is. There are times where no matter how much we consider ourselves and agents of change, and magic and empowerment and movement in our life, where we are really working our magician energy. And we are working our chariot energy, and all those gorgeous movement inspired cards in the deck that despite all of our efforts, it is still or we lose the battle and are like this is not at all how I wanted it to go. And we have to kind of reconcile ourselves to what just happened. And what do I do now and we have no more moves to make router moves. So that is the essence of the Hanged Man energy. And it is my observation that it is frustrating for us when we're in that, especially if we feel like we've been in that.
And we feel like it's time for things to shift and they still don't shift. I think about some of the things that happened during the pandemic and quarantines and COVID. And how much was shut down. There was a lot of hangman energy, a lot of radical acceptance, a lot of surrender that had to happen at that time. And some individuals probably did a little bit better with that than others. It's hard for us. It is hard to feel like we're waiting.
And I think it's very human for us to question ourselves and think should I be doing something? Did I miss the boat? Did I do something wrong? To have wisdom and discernment around the season in life and to ask the questions, wondering if there's something that somehow we are missing, or could be doing differently?
Did we cause things to be still but I usually find as a reasonable rule of thumb, that if you feel like you have done the things that you can take in the action steps that you can you are praying for support, movement assistance, help guidance, whatever it is, you are maybe trying to stay open to your next step you are calling it in and again asking for guidance on it, that when we are taking reasonable steps to try and instigate movement in our life, and nothing is showing up, most likely, we are in Hanged Man energy.
So let's talk a little bit today about a few ways that we can work with this energy when it shows up in our life, and ways that we can understand this energy when it shows up in our life. So the first thing is, is that oftentimes when hangman energy shows up in her life. And metamorphosis is something that is taking place at that time. One of the ways we can understand hang man energy is to know that there are important things that happen when we are in a space of seeming stillness.
And I think the caterpillar cocoon butterfly metaphor is a beautiful illustration of something that looks like a seeming end, but is truly just the beginning of some form of evolution, some form of personal transformation, some form of metamorphosis, and the Hanged Man piece is more of that cocoon energy. It is not the part where the butterfly gets its wings and is like, Oh, I've changed in the night. And I'm this butterfly now. The Hanged Man is the caterpillar who feels instinct to spin this cocoon and is like chilling out in the cocoon and really doesn't know what's going to come next.
[12:04] Finding inner peace during metamorphosis.
That is what metamorphosis is all about. And oftentimes when we are going through our own form of a metamorphosis, and we are in that nebulous space, that cocoon space, it's really hard on us, psychologically, it's really hard on us, our brain does not like ambiguity. And our nervous system often doesn't like uncertainty, which is why it's so important to find ways to work on finding inner peace, no matter how our circumstances are shaping up around us.
And that right there, I think is one of the main reasons that I am so like yes to heart was yes to our spiritual connection, yes to finding practices that work for us and support us. Because no matter where we're at in life, we can find things that we remain faithful to and make part of our daily routine, our spiritual routine, our energetic maintenance and hygiene or energetic routine. And when we do that, we are more likely to find grounding, to find peace, to teach our nervous system, how to come into a place of stillness, or acceptance inside of us, even if things around us are shifting and we don't know how they're going to end up.
When we are in metamorphosis. When we are in for stillness, there are gifts in that space. And one of the things I recommend if you are in a space like that right now, or you've recently come through on, it's just making a list and really thinking about what are the hidden gifts right now that might not be evident from the surface? What are the hidden gifts to not being able to move things along as quickly as I would like. Oftentimes Patience is a gift. And people might not think that patience is much of a gift, but it is absolutely something that allows us to move through life with more ease, when we can learn patience with the process. When we are able to learn how to take a deep breath and again be at peace in uncertainty, which is psychologically hard for us.
So patience is kind of the antidote to that. It's really the opposite of that freaking out and spinning out because of psychological uncertainty. Patience is the ability to take a deep breath and to say you know what? It's going to be okay. Patience is grounded. It is wise. Speaking of wise, wisdom is a huge hidden gift that comes from a space of stillness. We have to be still in order to receive if we are moving all the time.
We don't have a lot of extra space to harvest the lessons to harvest the soul growth that we have been working on in our lives and to take inventory and reflect on what have we learned? How have I grown in? Are there insights I can take from this? Can I integrate this and see a bigger picture and understand something new about myself or my relationship with the universe, or my relationship with the world or somebody in my life? Is there something that I can learn from this that helps me to be a wiser person, to not just have knowledge, but to be able to take that knowledge and apply it.
So I live with more peace and ease and discernment on my path. And so I live closer to the truth in my heart. Wisdom is something that you cannot learn it has to be earned. And in order to get the wisdom that our life experiences potentially afford us, we need space to reflect on it.
So if somebody isn't taking space, or doesn't have a really rich relationship with their inner world, or have the ability to introspect or have some sort of practice that at least create space, where they can have a little bit of reflection time, it's very hard for them to truly learn wisdom, oftentimes, what they will get is maybe a lot of head knowledge, or it might be somebody who's like really good at spouting off something that they read in a book or saw on the internet, or some experts said, but wisdom has to be experiential, it has to be something that we take from the lessons surround us and then experience it and apply it and make it part of who we are.
And hangman energy is a beautiful invitation and potential space for us to deepen our relationship with wisdom.
[17:03] Releasing attachment to outcome and trusting life's flow.
Something else that I think can come from hangman energy is inner strength. And when we talked about inner strength, the strength tarot card and really looked at the idea that the archetype of strength and the taro is internal, it's not so much external, it's not a matter of like I'm a strong person, because I am physically strong. It is really about internal strength. And so I think the Hanged Man card and the strength card segue beautifully together. Because part of how we gain that internal strength is from going through experiences, where we are not quite getting what we want, or we are not able to make things happen the way that we want them.
And we have to find a way to try to navigate that, and maintain our balance, maintain our heart connection, there's so much growth to be gained, and that it might not be the easiest growth. But it is where wisdom is found. And it is where we spiral deeper into our heart, into our soul and into our spiritual connection.
So another way that we can work with the energy of the Hanged Man archetype in our lives, is to play around with the idea of continually learning to release attachment to the outcome of how things are going to be. And we've talked quite a bit on your heart magic, about releasing expectation, letting go of the plan, learning how to surrender the outcome and trust life as it's unfolding around us. And this is a process and a lesson that I think we are continually learning. Because we can have a sense of mastery of this lesson and one area in our life where we really see the growth.
And we feel like we have done a beautiful job of learning to let go of how something has to be parents might have this experience and parenting with their children. This might be something that parents are continually learning as they raise children and watch them grow from young kiddos into young adults and become their own person. There is certainly a lot of I think invitation in that process for a parent to release their attachment to the expectation of perhaps who they thought a child would be or what they thought it was going to look like.
And instead come to appreciate the gifts of who this human is that they brought into this world and who this unique soul is. That is I think a lesson that is like likely ongoing for parents. And probably there are some unique teachings and experiences that come with that kind of lesson. We are invited into this lesson of releasing attachment to outcome anytime we set a goal, or take a leap of faith, or set out to do something. And we have a clearer vision in mind of how we want something to look or what we think that it should look like.
And then sometimes the reality of how it is is very different than what we envisioned in our mind. And there is a huge invitation there to let go of attachment and expectation. I've talked to quite a bit on the podcast about my experience of moving to kawaii, and especially the first couple of years, I had a big expectation of how I thought things would look coming to this island.
And much of that is not at all hopping spun out. And so for me, this has been a lesson of the last however many years, it's ongoing. And I also think on any given day, we can expect our day to look a certain way, or have an expectation that these sort of predictable factors are going to happen based on what we might put in our day, and what patterns we've created in our life.
And again, sometimes our vision of how it was going to go and what actually happens, Talent Match up at all. So I think there are many opportunities from something small and routine and daily, to bigger things in our life, where we are given the opportunity to think about how do I let go of how I think things should look. And when I work on letting go? Can I trust and a greater flow? Can I trust and whether we want to think of it is a higher plan, the greater process of life? Can I trust in some sort of greater process, according to our own belief and wisdom and understanding? And how can I learn to let go and be a part of it, instead of feeling like I always have to force it.
And one of the ways that we can tell the difference is if we feel we are always over efforting over striving, trying to force trying to super impose our sense of how something should be on what is actually happening. Usually life is knocking at our door. And if we are to open the door and say what what do you want, what are you here to teach me life would say I want to teach you that you don't always have to try so hard that you are here to learn to dance with me.
And as a dance partner with me, sometimes you're going to lead and sometimes I'm going to lead and sometimes we are going to inspire each other to ad lib and improv the steps and create a beautiful collaboration. And sometimes I am going to take into account things that are bigger than just you and take the lead on something because ultimately, I still know the direction that you need to go. And I know that if we do it my way, you're going to get there faster, or you're going to get there and avoid some pitfalls.
Or you're going to get there and step around some things that could potentially be toxic for you or not good for you on the path. And so can you trust me right now, because I have been doing this dance a lot longer than you have. And you are at lightful dance partner life says to us, I love dancing with you. But every now and then I need you to take a breath. And I need you to yield to me. And trust in my lead and trust in the rhythm that I'm setting. And pick up that rhythm and learn to work with it and then learn to make it your own life is inviting us to learn to move with its rhythm.
[24:24] The Hanged Man archetype and sacrifice in life.
And there are times where things will just be moving in the direction that we want them to go. And we feel like life is wind at our back, pushing us and everything is happening and unfolding and all the universal support is there for how we hope something would look and other times we will be taken into a different direction.
And part of that gift of stillness. The gift of the Hanged Man that we were talking about earlier, is learning that wisdom learning that discernment so we are able to come to a space inside of ourself when we're confused about the direction life is going? And do a little bit of self evaluation? Am I doing what I know to do? Am I as aligned as I know to be? Am I staying in a space of trying to follow my heart wisdom trying to stay in my spiritual connection?
And if the answer is yes to that, and life is still going in a different direction, that can help us better say, Okay, I feel like I'm doing all the right things. And yet things are still not going the way that I wanted them to. And I think right now, this is one of those times in life where I'm being asked to yield and to surrender and to sacrifice my personal agenda for something bigger than just me.
And that leads me to the last point that I wanted to talk about today with how do we work with the archetype of the Hanged Man energy and our life. And that is to understand that part of hangman energy is about sacrifice. Now, when I say the word sacrifice, oftentimes, that sounds like a really big word. Like it sounds like something where we are sacrificing something big, in order for something else to happen.
And there are times where we might have a sense of that, where we might feel like we let go of something or said no to something in order to something greater take place. But I think that sacrifice can also be really subtle. Sacrifice can happen anytime we step around how our ego might want to react and choose to take the high road with something. Sacrifice happens every time, we control an impulse of reacting, and take the time to synthesize and reflect on whatever it was that we're reacting to. And then thoughtfully think about how do I want to respond in a way that truly supports the integrity of all involved.
So sacrifice could be something as simple as tempering an urge to shoot our mouth off or to say something that is a real knee jerk reaction, or to curb an impulse of doing something that's just really about instant gratification, or, again, something very reactionary, and it could just be taking the time to, again, step around that impulse not get hooked by it, and choose a higher way, choose a more thoughtful response, choose a way that takes everybody into account.
Sacrifice does denote some form of a higher good, something that is more about a collective good. And so sometimes sacrifice might look like sacrificing our individual needs for like the good of a group, the good of the family, the good of a relationship, the long term health is something there are times that we might look at something and say this is what I really want right now. But I'm only taking myself into account.
So if I take into account all these other things around me, that allows me to choose to sacrifice that immediate need, and instead, choose the path that I think is for the highest good of all. When I read that blurb, from the good Tarot on the Hanged Man, there is a line in there that says When this card appears, I'm reminded that a delay is in my best interest, then until all the elements are in place, I meant to surrender to the greater will for the highest good of all. And I think that there is a aspect of our journey that we can have a beautiful vision for what our heart wants to bring into this world or something that would feel really meaningful for us.
[29:12] Personal growth, Tarot, and inner wisdom.
And there are times that the collective just isn't ready. We have talked on here before in past episodes that sometimes when you're trying to manifest, the timing is not there, because the people that you're meant to share your manifestation with are still in preparation. They're still being ready to receive whatever it is that you are meant to offer. When the time is right. There are many cycles happening all at the same time.
And so sometimes we yield our personal cycle of self to the greater collective cycle, and I drew a little line that had on one end, sacrificing from love and joy. And on the other end, I wrote the lines, martyrdom and guilt. So I do want to be careful to say that when we think about the idea of sacrifice, and choosing to sacrifice, it is a choice, we have choices, we can say, No, I want my way.
And we can try and make that happen. To who knows varying degrees of success, sometimes we can assert our will, and get exactly what we want. And there may or may not be consequences to that, it depends on what it is that we're doing. That's not bad. It's just different lessons, there's just something else to be learned from that if we are in that space. And there might be different wisdom or different consequences that come from that, if we are sacrificing from a place of martyrdom, where it's kind of like, you know, well, somebody has to be the bigger person. So I guess it will be me.
And there's this melodrama and little violins playing. And we feel sorry for ourselves and start to build this identity that somehow we are the sacrificial one, and everybody else around us just takes and they're selfish, but we're the ones who are taking the higher road, that's not really sacrifice that is coming from a place of loving choice.
That is something else, it is a sense of martyrdom, and over time and individual building that into their understanding of who they are in the world. And there are some lessons to unpack there. That's not really what we're talking about today. And that's not to say if we choose to sacrifice something, that we might not have a little bit of feeling sorry for ourselves, that's okay, that's human, that may or may not happen. But we don't have to stay there, we can say some part of me hates this choice.
And I really wish that I could just have my way right now. But that's not what's happening. And so this wiser part of me that's learned to develop discernment over time, knows that the long term gains of what I'm choosing now probably outweigh that immediate gratification. So I am choosing to work on getting behind my choice and being okay with this.
And I do this from a place of love, to the best of my ability, this is not about perfection, it's just about checking in with ourselves and making sure that our heart is in the right place, and that we stay in our integrity as best as we can. And if we are having some of those shadow feelings of guilt and martyrdom and victimhood come up, then that's okay, that's not bad.
But we do the work and we journal about them and sit with them and reflect on them and ask what do you have to teach me, and we understand whatever is happening with those four selves, and then we make a choice accordingly, maybe those feelings are telling us like, Hey, you are always the one sacrificing. So it is actually in your best interest right now to learn to assert yourself, that could be a lesson somebody has to learn.
Maybe those feelings are just indicating to the person that they need some serious self care time. And they need places in their life where they can be more self focused and self indulgent and make it about them. Maybe they need more me time. There's many things that can come from those shadow aspects of self.
So we don't have to stay away from them, avoid them or fear them. We just want to learn to work with them constructively. And if we find that we're building a platform on them, then we want to take some rest and do some unpacking so we understand where we're at. And if we're starting to get a chip on our shoulders that we could perhaps soften from a little bit of self work.
Alright, the Hanged Man. Like I said, it is a card initially that sounds a little bit like ah, you know, I mean, the Hanged Man, that's not a happy sounding card. But the lesson is profoundly beautiful. It is about surrender, stillness, wisdom that comes from the cocoon and from that winter time, space, and ultimately, all of that is helping us come deeper into our heart wisdom, our spiritual connection and work on continuing to be the wisest version of ourselves that we are able to be.
[34:38] Coming up on the Podcast.
Alright, that wraps up today's your heart magic episode, and next week we will be back with a new podcast. I don't know what the topic is yet. It will likely be something on well being psychology and personal transformation. I mapped out a A little bit of a monthly schedule for your heart magic throughout the rest of the year.
So, within any given month, we will be doing one week that we're doing an Energy Update for the month ahead, then we'll have a talk story Episode The next week and archetype of the Tarot the next week and the last week of the month will be something dedicated to something psychological and well being and that will be to be continued and determined. So stay tuned next week for whatever the surprise topic is.
And in the meantime, have an amazing week. Be well be love, be you and be magic.
You've been listening to your heart magic with Dr. BethAnne Kapansky Wright. Tune in next week for a new episode to support and empower your life