lambasting having the same meaning. Also just as the stretched out arm enables the hand to accomplish, so the ox-goad compels the ox to exert his strength to the utmost to accomplish his task. THE TWELFTH TAROT CARD The Hanged Man. The twelfth card of the Tarot is called The Hanged Man. On it is a picture of a gibbet composed of two uprights and a crosspiece. The two uprights are growing trees from each of which 6 branches have been cut. These 6 lopped-off branches on either side have the same symbology as the 12 signs of the zodiac. From the crosspiece a man is hanging by his left foot. His hands are tied behind his back and under each armpit is a bag of money. His eyes are open and his hair floats downward in the wind. His back and the fold of his arms form the base of a reversed triangle of which his head forms the point. His right leg is crossed behind his left, forming a cross. The symbol thus formed () is the sign of personality, while in alchemy it is the sign of the accomplishment of the Great Work. The Great Work of man is to overcome personality and transmute his lower passions into pure gold and become the ruler of his destiny, yet at the twelfth step we find him reversed, altho ultimately he must stand upon his feet and surmount the cross, thus 4. Here we see the idea of the pushing force of the One Life carried into higher metaphysics, this card expressing the idea of punishment that the Great Law may accomplish its fullness. For man must hang upside down with his feet where his head should be until he accomplishes the Great Work of regeneration within himself, and he can never stand in its midst and rule and dominate the zodiac while he hangs by one foot, weighted down by bags of money under his arms, which should be free to stretch out in blessing over man kind and to accomplish through the strength of his hands. His head pointing downward and the money bags under his arms symbolize that man has used his highest powers (head) on earth to turn all things into money or physical gold which when thus gained only weighs him down and makes his accomplishment in the higher realms more difficult. "I am the Lord (Law) and I will redeem you with a stretched out arm."1 Again, "Remember that thou wast a servant in the land of Egypt, and that the Lord thy God brought thee out thence, through a mighty hand and a stretched out arm." It is only the power of the One Life controlled by the determined will, symbolized by the mighty hand and stretched out arm, that can bring man out of the land of bondage (Egypt), make him stand upright upon his feet (understanding) and enable him to rule his stars. Therefore this twelfth card carries with it the idea of the revealed Law as Karma. It shows that only as man feels the "fury poured out" and learns the lessons from the suffering entailed by permitting sex desire to rule during the elevation of the personality, can he accomplish his Great Work of transmutation. Like The Greeks relate number 12 to the myth of Prometheus who stole the sacred fire from the Sun, again the zodiac which receives and transmits the Sun force (sacred fire). Prometheus, man today is indeed chained to the rock of physical existence where the vulture (sex-desire) feeds upon his liver (seat of passional desires) which grows again continually as soon as consumed. This condition will continue until he has gained the wisdom of the zodiac and has balanced the force of desire and transmuted it into spiritual love. This myth therefore has the same meaning as the twelfth card. The Hanged Man here pictured is expiating the theft of the fruit of the Tree of Life (divine creative fire), a gift indeed to man, yet one because of which he has been chained 1 Exodus, VI, 6. to the rock of personality with the vultures of desire ever eating at his vitals. Yet some day like Prometheus-the meaning of the name being Forethinker-man will learn his lesson and realize that fire is a gift of the gods to be used to transmute the dross of passion into the gold of spiritual love, for only so can he become the Master of the Vultures. They can never destroy him, for what they gnaw today will be restored to-morrow, and with every pang of suffering wisdom and understanding will increase until the Great Work of man's redemption shall be accomplished. Without fire base metals can never become gold, and without desire, determined will and strength of character, the base, inverted passions of man can never be transmuted into spiritual gold. According to a vulgar interpretation this card is said to represent Judas, who went out and hanged himself after betraying the Christ, with the 30 pieces of silver under his arms. But when we understand that that whole story is a symbolical allegory we will see that this card is Judas indeed, but not as an historical personage. Judas represents a certain phase of humanity, and as the card shows, he hangs by one foot, or by a partial understanding; for man's betrayal of the Christ within is brought about often more completely by half truths and half understandings than by deliberate treachery or by utter ignorance. This Tarot card also agrees with the symbology of the myth of Edipus who was given by his father into the hands of herdsmen with orders for him to be destroyed. The herdsmen were moved with pity, yet not daring to disobey they tied the child by one foot to an overhanging branch of a tree. Edipus represents the personality which the Father seeks not to destroy but to send forth into conditions far from his real home that he may be succored and nourished by nature. While the treatment seems cruel, yet through it Edipus learned to stand erect and become a valiant defender of the community, and later he was able to answer the Riddle of the Sphinx, which was a symbol that he had passed his Initiation. Later he became a king and was married to the king's daughter; i. e., his love and intuition (feminine) were joined to wisdom (masculine). However, some accounts depict a more dire result, namely, that he married the queen who was his own mother, thus bringing upon him madness. This is the other side of the story, for the personality must either conquer and have love and wisdom wedded, or else defile the great Divine Mother, which means to use his acquired power for evil purposes. CHAPTER XI. The Twelve Labors of Hercules. "Take an instance: the legends-for they are all In the Hymns of Orpheus, in the Scholiast of Hesiod, also in Porphyry, the 12 labors of Hercules are connected with the 12 signs of the zodiac, Hercules being considered as a symbol of the Sun in its passage through these 12 signs. Other sources have variously considered him as a hero or as a god. Dr. Fox, in The Mythology of all Races,1 describes him thus: "Herakles is a bewildering compound of god and hero. While he may properly be called the most heroic of the Grecian gods, he cannot with equal propriety be termed the most divine of heroes." We agree with the first named authorities that the myth of Hercules represents the Sun in its passage through the 12 signs of the zodiac, but we go a little deeper. We shall endeavor to show herein that the myth also symbolizes the steps of Initiation through which every man must pass ere he becomes a "Sun Initiate." The labors are those which each must perform in his zodiac or cycle of evolution, namely, the transmuting of the lower or 1 Vol. I, 75. |