Card 12

The Hanged Man

Brief Description

The Hanged Man seeks to possess both beauty and truth, but this desire reflects a fundamental misunderstanding. Through personal transformation and inner change, he eventually discovers that beauty and truth cannot be owned or controlled. Instead of trying to possess these qualities externally, one must embody and become them from within. This card represents the spiritual lesson that true enlightenment comes through surrendering the ego's need to control and instead allowing oneself to be transformed by higher principles.

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The Desire for Possession

The Hanged Man wants to own both beauty and truth, seeking to possess these divine qualities as external objects or achievements.

The Necessity of Inner Transformation

Only after undergoing personal change and inner transformation does he begin to understand the true nature of beauty and truth.

The Revelation of Non-Possession

Through his transformation, he discovers that beauty and truth cannot be owned, controlled, or possessed like material objects.

Becoming Rather Than Having

The ultimate realization is that instead of trying to have beauty and truth, you must become them - embodying these qualities as part of your very being.

Visual Description

A nude greenish-tinted man stands with arms outstretched, head tilted back and eyes closed, framed by two twisted tree trunks. Above him, a smaller figure hangs upside down by one foot from a horizontal branch, holding a book and a conical object while pale butterflies flutter nearby. A bird perches on the left branch and long, ribbon-like vines drape down through the scene. The sky is a warm orange gradient and the card border contains multilingual titles and the Roman numeral XII at the top.

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✍️ Deck author(s): Cristina Benintende

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