How watery is the Hanged Man?

Take a close look at the Golden Dawn’s Hanged Man. Do you see any evidence of water in the man suspended upside down? Do you see any connection between the profound life-giving precious substance that may one day be more expensive than oil, and the notion of sacrifice and suspension? I don’t, and yet when I see this card in a reading, it invariably suggests some idea of renunciation, of giving up.

In the Big Yellow Golden Dawn book, the unofficial description of the Hanged Man by G.H. Soror Q.L says

An elusive, because a profoundly significant symbol. It is sacrifice – the submergence of the higher in the lower in order to sublimate the lower. It is the descent of the Spirit into Matter, the incarnation of God in man, the submission of the bounds of matter that the material may be transcended and transmuted. The colours are deep blue, white and black intermingled but not merged, olive, green and greenish fawn.

The Christian connotations are striking, that of the Saviour Jesus, the Son of God coming down to save us all. Or it could be the Holy Spirit descending as dove. There is also the notion that Matter is Evil, a decidedly Gnostic view. For many, many, years I too had the view that Matter is evil, or certainly it had to be purified. This idea no longer holds sway. Indeed, my view is that the Earth, the embodiment of Matter, is as pure and as holy as Spirit, after a different way. It is a view that many tribal societies hold, and it is something that we have lost. If we take the view that Matter is holy, then we lose the entire concept of sacrifice.

In Islam, Jesus is recognised not as the Son of God, but as a Prophet with equal status to Moses, Abraham and the other Prophets. They also expect him to return as the Second Coming. As a religion that appeared in the desert of Arabia, water is a substance that is revered, most precious, and the symbol of Life itself. Judaism and Christianity were also born in the same area, and for Christians, one of the greatest miracles of Jesus was when he turned water into wine. Wine is a subject we will return to.

In the Tarot Trumps, Water does not achieve this exalted status. The Golden Dawn tells us that the Chariot is

… a symbol of the spirit of man controlling the lower principles, soul and body, and thus passing through the astral plane.

For Death

The sign of transmutation and disintegration. The skeleton alone survives the destructive power of time, may be regarded as the foundation upon which the structure is built. The type which persists through permutations of Time and Space, adaptable to the requirements of evolution and yet radically unchanged. It is the transmuting power of Nature working from below upwards, as the Hanged Man is the transmuting power of the spirit working from above downwards.

Clearly Death and the Hanged Man are seen as a syzygy of energies moving in a vertical direction. Things do not get much better when we look at the Moon card:

Here also is a river but it is the troubled waters of Night, wherein is to be described a crayfish, counterpart of the Scarabeus. From the water’s edge winds the dark path of toil, effort and possible failure. It is guarded by the threatening watch-dogs, seeking to intimidate the wayfarers, while in the distance the barren hills are surmounted by the frowning fortresses still further guarding the way to attainment. It is the path of blood and tears in which fear, weakness and fluctuation must be overcome.

By now sceptics would have unutterable proof of the superstitious nature of the Tarot. And in many respects I would have to agree with them. However, as a pragmatist, I find the Tarot to be a very effective tool. Reading through the descriptions of the other Major Arcana, water is present, and in a positive light, except for the Lovers (‘Perseus rescuing Andromeda from the Dragon of fear, and the waters of Stagnation.’). Witness the Star, ‘Thus bonds of Saturn are dissolved in the purified Waters of Baptism.” And in the Sun we see ‘Protected by an enclosing wall, standing by the Waters of repentance…’

I turned to Paul Huson’s Mystical Origins of the Tarot for help on the Hanged Man, but there is no mention of water; at least he treads carefully through a maze that is baffling. He ends up:

Plato himself in his Timaeus describes the embodied human soul enmeshed by worldliness as anatrope (upside down): “as you might imagine a person upside down, his head leaning upon the ground and his feet up against something in the air”.

The images of descent described in the Tarot cards above are cognate with this description, but this still does not resemble our understanding of aqua vitae. I subscribe to the view that the origins of the Tarot are to be found in the Islamic world, where the concepts of cleanliness and washing daily were looked upon with suspicion in the West. The watered gardens of the Alhambra in Spain are symbolic of the Garden of Eden with its four rivers running through it. Indeed, it is not until the end of the 19^th century in England that water began to be taken seriously as a potable resource. There are many periods in English history when only the peasantry would drink water, and then they would rather drink beer. In Victorian times, from which the Golden Dawn is immersed, the gentry would drink wine, and spirits, not water.

We like to think of the knowledge brought to light by the Golden Dawn as being eternal, timeless, yet it clearly is a product of the Victorian age. The debate on Darwin was raging, and the discovery of the fifth dimension of time was having a profound effect on consciousness. Dysentery and cholera were a major problem to public health until the creation of sewers and other public works began to turn the situation around. So here is the paradox. In Islam, water and hygiene were held in high esteem, while in the West, it if was not for alcohol (and to some extent tea), there would be nothing to drink.

The lost Lodge in New Zealand

As we all know, the Golden Dawn continued a tradition of placing the Tarot on the Tree of Life, so what do the descriptions above tell us? First of all, there is a mystery. A mystery ignored by many writers and experts on the Tarot and the Golden Dawn. G.H. Soror Q.L is the pseudonym of Ethel Felkin, motto “Quaero Lucem”. A woman! Not only that, but her husband Dr Robert Felkin was a member of the secret Sphere Group run by Florence Farr. Quick, grab Mary Greer’s excellent “Women of the Golden Dawn” to read about this remarkable woman and her insights into the Tarot… only to find… nothing. Come to think of it, Ethel Felkin’s descriptions are generally ignored. I mentioned earlier that the Big Yellow Golden Dawn book says the descriptions are ‘Unofficial’, but in the Llewellyn paperback version (mine is the 6^th edition), she has been promoted! Now her article is no longer unofficial; it is part of the canon of Golden Dawn writings, but you will only find her name in the Index at the back of the book. So why is she ignored and unknown? She emigrated to New Zealand, and

In the 1920’s, after her husband’s death, she took over the running of the Stella Matutina lodge, Smaragdum Thalasses, in New Zealand.

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Now we know why – politics. Even though the Golden Dawn is quintessentially English, much of what we read these days is through American authors, who ignore anything to do with the Lodge in New Zealand, moreover a Lodge that apparently has been in continuous existence since the 1920’s. My purpose here is not to sling mud onto anyone, nor to delve into the faction fighting and machinations between various Golden Dawn groups that continue today. I have a better idea. This is a great opportunity to open out a new area of research into the Tarot that has hitherto been overlooked. However, before I go into this, it is time to reflect on what I have demonstrated so far.

The water element in the Golden Dawn description of the Major Arcana does not match up with our perceptions and divinatory meanings. There is an anomaly in terms of the authorship of these descriptions. Now, we think of the GD attributions as the basis that underlies almost all mainstream Tarot decks as being mainly the association of each card to a letter of the Hebrew alphabet in sequence. This is a good place to start.

MYM as Water

The Hanged Man is related to the letter M or MYM, which means ‘water’. M has the value of 40, a number that has no gematria relationship to water. MYM as 90 on the other hand does have water as one of the meanings. Unfortunately, this is not true. When M is the final letter it has the value of 600, which means that the true number of MYM is 650, and this number is the word Nitre, which is even less watery. The letter associated with 90 is TzDY, or ‘fish hook’ which does at least have a watery connection. In biblical terms, 40 is remembered primarily as the number of days spent by Noah in the Ark before the dove appears with an olive branch. In Islam people remember the deceased after 40 days. There is a powerful Sufi technique of spiritual retreat that takes 40 days, and is known as ‘chilla’.

We also have the relationship of the Paths on the Tree of Life, and this is where it gets interesting. All the Sephiroth are as holy as each other, so how can we square that notion with the description of water going from something dirty ‘stagnation’ to becoming pure? Everything on the Tree of Life is pure and holy, and clearly we have not descended into some Hell, however fanciful. Just to make the point, the paths do not start contaminated from a sephira, and end up pure on the next sephira.

What is going on with the Golden Dawn descriptions if they do not entirely represent the paths on the Tree or the letters? The answer is simple; they are the descriptions experienced by Ethel Felkin or other aspirants undergoing initiation into the Golden Dawn system. Clearly there is a Christian bias in Felkin’s writings, a concept continued by A.E. Waite whose later writings are distinctly Christian. In the Golden Dawn system great emphasis is laid on the ‘lightning strike’ following the paths from Malkuth to Kether, but Felkin is describing the aspirant arising from the grave. There are parallels to the practice of chilla which usually happens either in a graveyard or a hole in the ground. While the Lightning Path is abstract, we have the opportunity to explore the personal experience of spiritual transformation provided by Ethel Felkin. Of course, all four elements partake of this experience, and they are within the individual, not separate on the Tree.

Apart from rising from the grave, one of the other great miracles by Jesus Christ is turning water into wine. The Hebrew word for wine is YYN, which has the value of 70, the letter O, which means an eye. The transformative powers seem to be maintained in the gematria but there is a catch. Just like the letter M, when N is at the end of a word, its value is not 50, but 700 – nothing is as it seems. The illusory and transformative nature of the numbers for the Hanged Man demonstrates that nothing stands still. YYN as 720 is significant, as it brings in the notion of the 72 quinances of astrology and the Goetia. Certainly alcohol, properly used, has a place in spiritual work.

A very early meaning of the Hanged Man is The Traitor, which some suggest relates to Judas Iscariot. The man suspended by one ankle from a tree is a powerful image, and here I believe is where the treachery begins. The passivity of the suspension, loss and sacrifice happen when the Tree of Life is externalised, Out There, out of our reach, as we pathwork in our imagination. We are disempowered, hanging like a Christmas tree bauble, serving no purpose except to decorate a dying tree brought indoors. The sacrifice and loss equates nicely with the Christian waiting for the Second Coming of Jesus when the graves will open and people return to paradise.

For Ethel Felkin and for other members of her Lodge in New Zealand the experience was not a distant and hopeful reality – they rose from their own grave and transformed themselves. Remember too, that Felkin’s notes on the Tarot were written before she travelled to New Zealand, and Israel Regardie seems to have held her in high esteem, so her views can not be dismissed easily. Done properly, the work of initiation within the Golden Dawn firmly plants the powers of the Tarot within the body, the aura, or soul of the aspirant. Initiation brings us face to face with the transforming power of the Tarot within us. We are not suspended or waiting, hanging from a branch. There is no need for a Tree. We can rise from the dead today. Knowledge is within, not on a Tree. I would go further, and suggest that we do not need the Tree at all, nor do we need to invoke a higher power.

LAM, Spirit of Water

There is a very powerful entity named LAM, who is associated with the letter M and the Hanged Man. First described by Aleister Crowley, he is associated with transformation. Aleister Crowley incorporated LAM’s name in the Liber 231 name for the Hanged Man as Malkunofat. We can parse Malkunofat to create Malkut, which is the 10^th Sephiroth, this leaves nofa. Nofa is of course not a word in any dictionary, but its gematria value in Hebrew is 127. In Liber 777 we are told that this is the number of MVTBO, ‘material’, a word that does not appear in my Hebrew Old Testament dictionary. However, in the context, ‘material’ does seem appropriate, particularly when we break down the word into its component parts. MVT is a root that has the following connotations – to waver, totter, quake, to cause to fall, a carrying pole or yoke – all of which can reasonably applied to the Hanged Man in some form. This leaves us with BO, which is not a Hebrew word, but if we reverse the letters we have OB, which means a dark cloud or thicket, and a projecting step in architecture. More importantly, the number of OB is 72, the Secret Number of Atziluth, the highest spiritual level associated with Kether, the Crown, and the number of the Goetic Spirits associated with the Minor Arcana.

Nofa can be broken down into two words, NO and FA. AF or AV is the Hebrew word for ‘either, or, perhaps’, while ON is the name of a God. ON as 120 also has the connotations of ‘Master, foundation or basis, strengthening, prophetic sayings or decrees, prop’. Now we can easily see what is going on. We move from the material world of Malkuth to the spiritual levels of Atziluth, and between these levels we experience the uncertainties which make us totter under the yoke of burden, and we fear falling down. We have a choice – we can either be a Master, or we can remain weak.

There is no Hebrew word for LAM, but several permutations are interesting. The root AML means to fade or languish, to droop, to be sorrowful, and to mourn. ALM on the other hand is ‘to be dumb, mute, to bind, silence’. How do we ascend? Conventional wisdom is that a Word of God is necessary, but here the clear message is that it is through Silence that we ascend to the Heights. The gematria of LAM, 71 reinforces themes that we have already seen: the metal lead, the plumb line (something hanging vertically), a vision, and a dove (Noah and the 40 days). What is remarkable about these recurring themes is that nowhere does water make an appearance. As we know, when M is the final letter it’s value is 600, so the true gematria is 631, the number of ‘Concealed Mystery’.

In Crowley’s commentary to the Voice of the Silence by Mme Blavatsky, he placed his portrait of LAM on the frontispiece. In Outside the Circles of Time, Kenneth Grant describes his experience of meditating on LAM:

Gaze at the portrait until drowsiness supervenes. The gaze will naturally rest upon the eyes; these will appear to enlarge and will suck in the consciousness until there arises a sensation of being with the entity’s head. Two ways are now open; either upward or downward (my emphasis). If downward the descent will be accompanied by a sensation of rushing air that may attain gale force.

Water by its nature finds its own place at the lowest point. Water lies flat, but when it overflows then it can fall vertically. The nature of the Hanged Man is to remain stationary until the equilibrium is broken, and then it can move in a vertical direction, either upwards or downwards. Movement is better than being stationary.

There is a verse from the Koran, where LAM appears three times;

Qul hū Allāhu ahad Allāhu al-ṣamad lam yalid wa-lam yulad wa-lam yakun lahu kufūwan aḥad [Complete Qur’an 112]

Say: God the one, God the eternal, He did not beget and was not begotten. And there is none like unto Him.

The al-Ikhlâs – The Purity verse is one of earliest parts of the Koran, and it was received by the Prophet Mohammed from the archangel Gabriel. The Ikhlas is an integral part of the Islamic and Sufi prayers, and it is often repeated seven times. In Arabic the word lam means ‘not’ or negation.

The Book of Thoth returns to the concept of Water not as sacrifice and loss, with appropriate biblical imagery. Crowley sees the waters of the Hanged Man as representing the amniotic fluid from which life appears. A child is begotten through the waters, and he relates this to Noah and the Ark.

The legend of Noah, the Ark and the Flood, is no more than a hieratic presentation of the facts of life. It is then to Water that the Adepts have always looked for the continuation (in some sense or other) and to the prolongation and perhaps renovation of life.

The Hanged Man, Book of Thoth

In many respects Crowley parallels Felkin’s ideas on the Tarot as Transformation; once we complete the ascension, we do not die – we are transformed and reborn. We have found our own true Self.