Buddha Tarot - XII. The Invalid - The Suffering Man (The Hanged Man)

Master_Margarita

The man depicted on this card is clearly suffering. Fever is graphically represented by flames coming off his head. Siddhartha (as he is at this stage of his life) ministers compassionately to a poor fellow covered with lesions (Kaposi's sarcoma immediately sprang to mind, although this is the wrong century for that). It's just not that pretty a card in this usually beautiful deck.

The image on this card, of course, comes from the young prince's second visit to the city. The man is dying a premature death, which Siddhartha found even more depressing than the sight of the old man on the previous visit.

In Buddhist art, the four sights that awakened Siddhartha on his quest are often depicted as a group. On this deck, they're spread out somewhat among the trumps because they do correspond quite neatly to several of them. Old age, from the first visit, and the monk, from the fourth visit, are combined on the Hermit counterpart card, and the corpse of the third visit is of course the Death card. The order of the trumps gets a little confusing because, in a totally sane and logical world :), the four sights would be grouped together in the deck; the card representing Siddhartha setting forth on his quest prompted by the four sights would come later in the deck. However, that crucial departure is card VIII, Karma or Justice, which precedes the Hermit, The Hanged Man, and Death. Oh, well. A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds.

Place's commentary describes Le Pendu in the Tarot de Marseilles and discusses the "Traitor" label in the Minchiate. He also says that, although modern decks typically interpret this card as representing a willing sacrifice (corresponding Gautama the ascetic), the original meaning of this card is simply suffering and loss (the sick man observed by Siddhartha the prince), although this wouldn't exclude the possibility that the suffering was willingly undertaken.

As Place says, "This card shows that ordinary life always contains dukkha."

:heart: M_M~