4 of Cups & The Hanged Man
4 of Cups & The Hanged Man
Analysis:
There are trees visible in each image (a big point we’ll come back to shortly).
Each figure has their arms and legs crossed (in slightly differently ways, but crossed none the less).
Speaking of crosses, the tree in The Hanged Man takes the shape of a T-cross. The number 4 (4 of Cups), also connects to the shape of the cross, as it has 4 points.
The number 4 also connects to The Hanged Man via its Hebrew letter association, Mem, which has a value of 40.
There is a sense of discomfort in each scene. How true that discomfort is, is another story, but the visual depiction could be interpreted as such. For example, the 4 of Cups looks disinterested or dissatisfied. The Hanged Man is hanging upside, which would probably be uncomfortable in most circumstances.
There is also what looks like a withdrawal happening in each card. The 4 of Cups has their arms closed and is refusing the offering of the cup. The Hanged Man is similarly closed off, and could be interpreted as having withdrawn from the world.
Divine elements are evident in each scene. In the 4 of Cups, we see a divine hand, similar to what we find in the Aces. In The Hanged Man, their head is illuminated with a glowing halo, symbolic of enlightenment.
Water is associated with each card. The 4 of Cups is associated with water via its element. Astrologically, it is connected to the first decan of Cancer. The Hanged Man is associated with Neptune and the Hebrew letter “mem”, which literally translates to “water”. Interestingly, even though both cards are associated with water, there is no visible water to be found in either.
Now the big connection...In many different religious traditions and mythologies from throughout the world, there is a recurring motif of enlightenment, revelation, death, surrender, or sacrifice occurring either beneath or in connection to a tree, which itself is another recurring theme symbolizing the world tree, or axis mundi — the central point around which the four directions, and thereby the entire world, revolves. We've included some well-known examples below:
Buddha under the Bodhi Tree
Siddartha Gautama was said to have attained to Buddhahood beneath the Bodhi tree after a period of trial and temptation at the hands of Mara and his daughters.
Adam and Eve and The Tree of Knowledge
The fall of Adam and Eve occurred as a result of their tasting the forbidden fruit from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil in the Garden of Eden.
Moses and the Burning Bush
An angel appeared to Moses "in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush," and when he turned to examine it, the voice of Yahweh revealed itself to him and instructed him to lead the children of Israel out of Egypt. (Some scholars suggest that this "burning bush" may have been an Acacia tree.)
The Crucifixion of Christ
Some scholars believe that Christ was crucified on a Tau cross, the primitive form of which is depicted on The Hanged Man, rather than the Latin cross, as is most often depicted today, and some scripture even suggests that he was actually hanged on a tree — "The God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom ye slew and hanged on a tree." (Acts 5:30, said by St. Peter and the other apostles, who witnessed the event.)
Orisis and the Acacia Tree
After being nailed into a coffin and set adrift by his evil brother Set, the corpse of Osiris was said to have washed ashore at Byblos, where an Acacia tree grew around it. The tree was eventually felled and used as a column to build the king's palace — until Isis disguised herself as a nursemaid to the royal family in order to retrieve her lost husband.
Attis Beneath the Pine Tree
Driven to a state of divine madness by the goddess Cybele for his infidelity, the Phrygian god Attis was said to have castrated himself beneath a pine or fir tree, whereupon he bled to death and, according to some, transformed into a tree himself.
Dionysus and the Mysteries of the Pine Tree
Dionysus, the Greek deity of the vine and divine ecstasy, carried the thyrsos staff, with a pinecone at its tip. If you can believe it after the last story, Dionysus, after himself being stricken with madness by the goddess Hera, eventually wandered into Phrygia, where he was cured by Cybele, who then taught him the Mysteries — presumably those involving Attis and the pine tree.
Daphne's Transformation into the Laurel Tree
In another story from the Greek tradition, the naiad Daphne, who was being chased through the woods by a lovestruck Apollo, prayed to her father, a nearby river god named Peneus, to take away her beauty, so he transformed her into the Laurel tree, whose leaves became a symbol of Apollo thereafter.
Odin's Sacrifice on Yggdrasil
In the Norse tradition, the all-father Odin sacrificed his eye, threw himself on his spear, and then hanged himself from Yggdrasil, the World Tree, for nine days and nights in order to attain knowledge of the runes
What do YOU see???
Possible Interpretation:
It's interesting to note that the "refusal of the call" motif, itself reminiscent of the 4 of Cups, also occurs in a few of these stories before the ultimate sacrifice symbolized by The Hanged Man, i.e. Moses, who asked Yahweh, "Who am I, that I should go unto Pharaoh, and that I should bring forth the children of Israel out of Egypt?" or Christ, who told his disciples, "The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak." We could even view the Buddha's renunciation of the temptations of Mara in this light. Note also that many of the above figures are often depicted with aureoles surrounding their heads as symbols of their attainment, much like we see on The Hanged Man.
So with all this in mind, could it be that we’re seeing something of a “before and after” playing out between these two cards? The 4 of Cups being akin to the moment we withdraw from the world, and The Hanged Man being the result of that withdrawal or sacrifice? We don't get from one state to another state without giving something up first. This is often the "death" that is referenced in mythology. Something must die in order for something new to be reborn. But remember, the word "sacrifice" comes from the Latin "sacrificium", which translates to, "to make sacred". In other words, it is not a true sacrifice unless what we give up is replaced with something of even more value.
And in more ordinary terms, perhaps this pair points us toward sensing the magic in the mundane - finding peace in stillness - making good with the now, regardless of what it brings or what it doesn’t. Expectation and grasping often gets in the way, and it's not until we simply give it all up, that we find the thing we were looking for all along - our true selves, in the present moment.
“The tree of life, the axis mundi is the central point, the pole around which all revolves. The central point of the world is the point where stillness and movement are together. Movement is time, but stillness is eternity.”