Hi friends!
I had a lovely time adventuring over my break - very much in the rambling fool spirit that Traci so lovingly wrote about here last week :)
For today's draw, I pulled The Hanged Man in my trusty old Rider Waite Smith deck, and as I settled down to peruse Traci's exploration of The Fool, I found myself considering the relationship between these two cards for the first time in probably years, maybe ever.
These seem like the same person! Both have a special relationship to space, gravity, and trust - hangin out, a moment of suspense. The Hanged Man is perhaps where we check in on the fool during her journey - she's a little rougher around the edges, a little simpler, kinda travel-worn, a little less grand (but with the same penchant for leggings and tunics, which I fully support as a fashion choice).
If these cards talk about different kinds of transitional space, I like balancing The Fool's externality against The Hanged Man's internality. In the image of The Fool, the world is fixed and still as our foolish hero loftily spins and skips and crashes through it. In The Hanged Man, there is an outer stillness seems to anchor all kinds of inner movement. The Fool is about diving in and learning about intuition and inspiration on the go, suspending judgement. The Hanged Man today talks to me about what it looks like to have a practice of trusting that flow of intuition and inspiration, and to seek dedication into its inner mysteries by inhabiting a different kind of suspension.
For me, today, these cards are all about the joy of traveling and being out of my element - and then the joy of coming home and being back in my element, while still being upside down from those travels. It's me, integrating all that I have learned and still aglow with the knowledge that the world is so much bigger than I can ever imagine, full of so much more than I could ever learn, and that it's not my job to control it but just to be in it and let my intuition and sense of connection guide me. It's taking a pause in this in-between space and not just jumping right back into routine, but valuing this space for the insight and perspective it brings. Even if that's just enjoying how jet lag makes me wake up and enjoy the very early mornings which, when back in my usual routine, I never seem able to wake up for. Small moments of upside-down suspension in my otherwise-familiar world.
Maybe sometimes The Hanged Man is what The Fool looks like at home?
What do you think?
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Kaeti is a therapist, teacher, and dreamer based in Long Beach, California. All of her work (and play!) is interested in dismantling intersections of oppression and breathing magic and radical healing into all the daily corners of her life, into all the spaces of community she helps weave.