Planet Waves

The Hanged Man, And Varuna

by Eric Francis Coppolino and illustrations by Emil Alzamora, January 26, 2007

New Year’s weekend, we were met with the ominous news, and vision, of Saddam Hussein being hanged, ostensibly for his crimes against humanity. The execution lacked any of the solemnity or protocol that you would expect anywhere else—but seemingly not in Iraq. I think we are all still haunted by the vision of the black scarf being placed around Saddam’s neck, and of his face as he was being taunted by his executioners, guards, and witnesses standing on the gallows in his last moments of life. In one gesture, a notorious former dictator was turned to a martyr.When I say ominous, I mean it in the true sense, as an omen. But the world has become so haunted with signs and omens that it’s difficult to see them for what they are. Consider that we don’t generally get to witness a public execution, much less a hanging. The only reason a hanging does not seem weird is because we’ve all seen so many of them from so many prior lifetimes. There is something fascinating about being able to witness intentional death so close up, and curiosity trumps the gruesome nature of what’s being done. But when you see one in the 21st century with the word “freedom” being flashed across the bottom of the screen, it’s a sign of things to come.

Speaking of trumps, if you read tarot cards, it was difficult to miss the archetype of The Hanged Man.

This is probably the most perplexing card in the deck. To many, the symbol is more disturbing than Death or The Tower because it seems too hard to figure out, and feels so uncomfortable. The (exoteric, surface, or ordinary) energetic state is being suspended: waiting, not knowing, and having no control over a situation.

It’s not often that you turn on the television and see a direct reference to the tarot, but we all saw this symbol again and again. It is not often that an archetype reveals itself so vividly, with such incredible emphasis and such an ominous feeling. And I kept seeing that image and wondering, Okay, what next?

The card is associated with Neptune, and so it’s one of those “spiritual states,” which is a nice way of saying a test of patience or endurance, and also indicating a sacrifice of some kind, and we are seeing plenty of that lately. It is interesting that the next policy being used by George W. Bush to escalate the war in Iraq uses precisely that word—sacrifice. The service men and women who are being sent there to be shot at are human sacrifices; the Iraqis who die and lose children on a daily basis are human sacrifices; Saddam was killed as a sacrifice, as if in effigy, for all that has gone wrong.

All the human life being lost in Iraq is a sacrifice to the profits of the oil and arms industries.