ATDTDA 724-746 [Hanged Man]

[robinlandseadel at comcast.net]

          Glenn:
          The scene: It looks like Pynchon could have taken days
          on this description, packing it with things for us to
          unpack. There is the salient merchants hanging upside
          down from their masts, the tarot's hanged man again.
          It seems like "Judgement" would be the approprate card
          for the mural's topic, but that is a different card.

          http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hanged_Man

Some of the meanings of the Hanged Man derive from some of the 
Norse legends we have already witnessed, onboard the Etienne-Louis 
Malus, by depicting the myth/legend of Odin:

        Odin and his brothers, Vili and Ve, are attributed
        with slaying Ymir, the Ancient Giant, to form 
        Midgard. From Ymir's flesh, the brothers made 
        the earth, and from his shattered bones and 
        teeth they made the rocks and stones. From 
        Ymir's blood, they made the rivers and lakes. 
        Ymir's skull was made into the sky, secured at 
        four points by four dwarfs named East, West, 
        North, and South. And from Ymir's brains, they 
        shaped the clouds and Ymir's eye-brows 
        became a barrier between Jotunheim (giant's 
        home) and Midgard, the place where men now 
        dwell. Odin and his brothers are also attributed 
        with making humans. . . .

        . . . .In the Rúnatal, a section of the Hávamál, 
        Odin is attributed with discovering runes. He was 
        hung from the tree called Yggdrasill while pierced 
        by his own javelin. He hung for nine days and nights, 
        in order to learn the wisdom that would give him 
        power in the nine worlds. Nine is a significant 
        number in Norse magical practice (there were, for 
        example, nine realms of existence), thereby learning 
        nine (later eighteen) magical songs and eighteen 
        magical runes.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Odin

http://tinyurl.com/23qurj


        A number of "readers and advisors" have told me that the 
        "Veiled Meaning" of Atu XII is of Odin. Odin recieves a very 
        kabbalistic sort of knowledge while seeming to be in a state 
        of martyrdom. Odin slips from the knot that ties him to "the 
        tree of Life", Yggdrasil, but while suspended from that tree 
        receives knowledge of the runes, the first Norse language 
        in written form.

http://www.theosociety.org/pasadena/odin/odin-2.htm

another "Tree of Life":

http://tinyurl.com/27egzj

Consider, as well. the Odin/Hanging Man conflation. Here is an excerpt from the 
Edda:
 
           I trow I hung on that windy Tree
           nine whole days and nights
           stabbed with a spear, offered to Odin
           myself to mine own self given
           high on that Tree of which none hath heard
           from what roots it rises to heaven.

           None refreshed me ever with food or drink
           I peered right down in the deep
           crying aloud I lifted the Runes
           then back I fell from thence.

           Nine mighty songs I learned from the great
           son of Bale-thorn, Bestla's sire
           I drank a measure of the wondrous Mead
           with the Soulstirrer's drops I was showered.

           Ere long I bare fruit, and throve full well
           I grew and waxed in wisdom
           word following word, I found me words
           deed following deed, I wrought deeds.

           Hidden Runes shalt thou seek and interpreted signs
           many symbols of might and power
           by the great Singer painted, by the high Powers fashioned
           graved by the Utterer of gods.

           For gods graved Odin, for elves graved Dan
           Dvalin the Dallier for dwarfs
           All-wise for Jötuns, and I, of myself
           graved some for the sons of men.
           
           Dost know how to write, dost know how to read
           dost know how to paint, dost know how to prove
           dost know how to ask, dost know how to offer
           dost know how to send, dost know how to spend?

           Better ask for too little than offer too much
           like the gift should be the boon
           better not to send than to overspend...
           Thus Odin graved ere the world began
           Then he rose from the deep, and came again.
           
http://www.denelder.com/tarot/tarot057.html

           I'd say the Lew Baslight/Hanged Man configuration 
           applies here. I recall a conversation with a friend in the 
           O.T.O. just the other day, where she told me how, within 
           the O.T.O., spiritual advancement or revelation would 
           come as "explosions", that "Explosion' was the term of 
           choice for such illuminations. Note as well that, ultimately, 
           it's the "Psychical Dectective" who avenges Webb.What 
           we have going on in the myth of Odin is Gnosis. Note that 
           DMT naturally creeps up in level in your body as one 
           wanders closer to death. Long term fasting, sickness 
           brought on by infection and a host of other meditations on
           mortality often brings on visionary experience, as intense 
           if not, in fact more intense that a full blown acid trip:

http://www.rickstrassman.com/

And this is the great "I know".
http://tinyurl.com/25rgdc