The Hanged Man (Re: Puzzle from GoF - tarot)

[iris_ft]

No: HPFGUIDX 73020


- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Wanda Sherratt" 
<wsherratt3338 at r...> wrote:
> I've been thinking about the very beginning of GoF, the story 
about 
> the deaths of the Riddles 50 years ago.  There are some things in 
> that chapter that leave me with the strange feeling that I'm being 
> given a clue, but just haven't quite heard it yet.  One that 
strikes 
> me right away is the name of the pub in the village: The Hanged 
> Man.  Now, this just doesn't sound like it's there accidentally.
 
[...]

 This name has a "meaning" sound, like so many 
> of Rowling's names.  And then I remembered that The Hanged Man is 
a 
> tarot card.  I know there are some tarot readers out there; can 
> anyone give a description of what this card means, and how it 
might 
> relate to the story?  I did a Yahoo search for it, and came up 
with 
> this:  "the Hanged Man is perhaps the most fascinating card in the 
> deck. It reflects the story of Odin who offered himself as a 
> sacrifice in order to gain knowledge. Hanging from the world tree, 
> wounded by a spear, given no bread or mead, he hung for nine days. 
> On the last day, he saw on the ground runes that had fallen from 
the 
> tree, understood their meaning, and, coming down, scooped them up 
> for his own. All knowledge is to be found in these runes. 
> 
> The Hanged Man, in similar fashion, is a card about suspension, 
not 
> life or death. This is a time of trial or meditation, 
selflessness, 
> sacrifice, prophecy. The Querent stops resisting; instead he makes 
> himself vulnerable, sacrifices his position or opposition, and in 
> doing so, gains illumination. Answers that eluded him come clear, 
> solutions to problems are found. He sees the world differently, 
has 
> almost mystical insights. This card can also imply a time when 
> everything just stands still, a time of rest and reflection before 
> moving on. Things will continue on in a moment, but for now, they 
> float, timeless."
> 
> This is quite interesting, but I'd like to hear from someone who 
> knows about Tarot, and could maybe give us a more insightful 
> interpretation.  On the surface, it seems to tie in with the idea 
of 
> someone sacrificing himself, as we've been discussing with respect 
> to Harry.  Could this be a hint of what is going to come, and how 
> does the incident in Little Hangleton connect with the idea of 
> sacrifice?
> 
> Wanda

Now me:

Last year in November, I posted something called "the seven 
ordeals", it might help you understand how JKR's writing works: the 
first chapter of a book always contains the main topics of the 
entire story.
The incident in Little Hangleton connects with the idea of sacrifice 
because this is one of the mains topics of GoF. You can find it 
especially in the Third Task and the graveyard scenes. Look at what 
you wrote above, an compare with what happens during the encounter 
between Harry and Voldemort.

You wrote:
> The Hanged Man, in similar fashion, is a card about suspension, 
not 
> life or death. This is a time of trial or meditation, 
selflessness, 
> sacrifice, prophecy. 

I say:

That's exactly the description of what happens during the duel, when 
he two wands produce a dome of light, cutting Harry and Voldemort 
from the crowd of Death Eaters. There's a kind of abolition of time, 
space, of the border between life and death, god and evil; It's like 
an "outworld" where everything can happen.
The duel scene can be taken in a religious way; it means exactly the 
same as medieval Ordeals.

Then you wrote:  
 The Querent stops resisting; instead he makes 
> himself vulnerable, sacrifices his position or opposition, and in 
> doing so, gains illumination. Answers that eluded him come clear, 
> solutions to problems are found.

To which I reply:

That's what happens in the maze, when Harry and Cedric are close to 
the tournament cup. They both sacrifice their own pride, accepting 
to share victory. Cedric will also sacrifice his life, not willingly.
It will lead Harry to another sacrifice, the sacrifice of his blood. 
Of course, it isn't either a willing sacrifice, but nobody can deny 
that the gravestone to which Harry is tied is not an altar. 
Voldemort's altar.
Because of the sacrifice of Harry's blood, there will be the duel, 
then the dome of light, the Priori Incantatem phenomenon, and this 
will be a kind of illumination. Of course, it will be hard to bear. 
But illumination is not necessarily a pleasant process.

Another remark: what you wrote also depicts Ron's behaviour on the 
Chessboard, in the very first book. The fourth ordeal on the way to 
the Stone is a metaphor of GoF. "You've got to make some 
sacrifices ", Ron says.

Finally, you wrote:

This card can also imply a time when 
> everything just stands still, a time of rest and reflection before 
> moving on. Things will continue on in a moment, but for now, they 
> float, timeless."

And I say:

Same comments as before; however, I'd like to add that Harry himself 
happens to be a Hanged Man during the third task. He steps into a 
fog, and is turned upside down. This situation prefigures what's 
going to happen to him. If you read the Dictionary of Symbols, you 
will find hat the Hanged Man also represent a passive 
initiation. "Passive" means at the same time that the initiated 
person has to undergo ordeals, and to suffer. Exactly like Harry 
does in the graveyard. It doesn't mean, however, that the initiated 
person is like an "object"without consciousness. On the very 
contrary, it's the beginning of illumination, the beginning of a new 
knowledge, of a new point of view. When Harry is floating upside 
down in the fog, he wonders how to get out of this obstacle. He 
forces himself to THINK in order to recover power over himself. 
That's a nice metaphor of consciousness, don't you think so?

Apparently, the Hanged Man is a victim, a looser. Some may say that 
if he's here, it's his fault (and we can't deny that, in a certain 
way, it's Harry's fault if Voldemort is back, if Harry has to duel 
with him, if he has to suffer: he gave him his blood, not willingly, 
but he did). It would be definitely negative without consciousness. 
That's the key of the Hanged Man symbol: learning through hard 
ordeals. Thanks to his consciousness, the Hanged Man can turn a 
negative situation (to be hanged upside down) into a positive 
situation (standing and facing, exactly as Harry does when he 
accepts to duel with Voldemort).  He's actually just starting to 
gain experience, wisdom. He's becoming stronger


I think I have to take back my tarot cards, and look if they could 
tell us the whole story of the Boy Who Lived
 It would be funny if 
it was true. But of course, I'm not specialised in tarots, I don't 
read them to know what the future will be (Tu ne quaesieris, scire 
nefas, quem mihi, quem tibi finem di dederunt, Leuconoe, nec 
babylonios temptaris numeros. Ut melius erit pati
) And I know that 
tarot cards are always polysemic, just the way they are in Italo 
Calvino's "Castello dei destini incrociati": the crossed destinies 
castle. Just like Hogwarts.

Amicalement


Iris