Tarot Horticulture & Le Pendu

Why do the saplings on IIX Le Pendu grow from mounds?
Is this a feature one might find around tree roots in a
vineyard, where workers have walked around the roots
for countless years, or similarly, if alongside a pathway,
might this have caused the earth to be raised up like so?

Trees in nature grow from the earth on a level, but has
there been some activity that has caused these mounds?

trees and many plants

Fulgour,
This topic of tarot and horticulture is very interesting, as I am up to my hips in greenery during this spring gardening season.... If you can just give me some latitude (I'm a Cancer. We Cancerians proceed directly towards the goal and everybody else thinks we're moving sideways.).... Day after day of news in the USA about a women who is in a "vegetative state" and many people referring to humans as being in the condition of a vegetable.... This is so upsetting to me. It is not only derogatory to refer to a human as a vegetable -- it also offends my many friends in the plant kingdom. Vegetables are -- or can be -- vibrant and bursting with energy. Just touching them and being near their vitallity can give me a boost..... Where else but AT can I make this complaint and be heard? Okay, back to the plants and their symbols. I will reflect on your question of mounds whilst in the garden and look at my deck this evening....We surely have many avid gardeners in AT.

Ok then, good there Pocono, that's nice of you.
Yes we have the growing season here don't we?
You take care and mind the weather for awhile,
we've got some nice good ideas too, to do now.

Please sir, which deck?

Sorry, but is this a Marseilles question, as you titled it "Le Pendu"?

Thanks

Cerulean

Cerulean said:

Sorry, but is this a Marseilles question, as you titled it "Le Pendu"?

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Tarot-Bat provides a nice cross-selection:
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An important question, Fulgour, couched in important unstated questions.

For example, are the verticals actually living (though clipped or lopped) trees, or are they inserted into the ground as large posts?

Certainly the latter would also account for the 'mounds' obviously apparent generally in Marseille style decks.

Of course, it may be that the 'material reason' is no more than the woodcarver maximising the image within the constraints of the frame. Symbolically, however, this is not sufficient.

In the thread on XII - Le Pendu (in the Marseille section), mention is also made that as a consequence Le Pendu's head is placed, effectively, within the Earth. Could it also be, then, that the 'mounds' are apparent due to a hollow dug between vertical scaffold?

I have personally preferred to usually see the trunks as precisely that: living trunks - that also then show the distinct difference and opposition between plant and human form. Our 'roots' are within our heads, connected to the spiritual realm, and 'free' of the Earth. A plant's is firmly planted within the Earth's bosom (of course, there is much more inversion between the two than simply this, as some of Olive Whicher work explains).

By placing the human being in this un-natural state, a closer connection with the plant realm is made apparent - yet, to what purpose?

Symbolically, and for me at least, as pointing towards initiation.

You have entered, in the northern hemisphere, spring. We have entered autumn, and pruning of trunks is quite apt - and reminds me I'll have to cut a trailor load in the next week or so!!!

My question is, are these live trees? Its not that I don’t like the idea, but I think Le Pendu is hanging from a manmade structure, using tree branches that were cut and cleaned, and then set in holes on the floor, fixed with the help of small earth mounds.

Oh, I hadn’t seen jmd’s reply, so I repeated his initial question.

I also think we should pay attention to the fact that the earth mounds have some pictorial resemblance to tree canopies, thus making the tree look upside down… just like the man.

Hang on a minute!

Its TWO Grassy Knolls!! How predictive is that!!!? Seriously tho, I think the mounds arise from the packing of the posts instead of using strainers. I don't think there would be two trees growing quite like that, awaiting a cross bar. If the trees were living, that sort of pruning would kill them. His head is very close to the ground so I can sort of see jmd's earth connection. I see that Fulgour, you think they are "growing" as well.Why not a branch with noose as depicted in Westerns or a gibbet as in England- it looks a bit like a meat rack to me, still common for hanging carcases, like rabbits,sheep and pigs, with the trench beneath to stop wild animals getting the meat. This is getting gross!! How about Odins Void? ~Rosanne

jmd said:

For example, are the verticals actually living (though clipped or lopped) trees, or are they inserted into the ground as large posts?

Click to expand...

My intuition says these are living trees, rooted in the earth,
and freshly, if somewhat roughly, pruned (hacked) to bare
the sturdy trunks for the improvised cross-beam assembly.

This way, using a newly fashioned device, the "punishment"
is done as a solo event, unrelated to public gallows/gibbets,
done so to obscure any disgrace factor ~ for all participants.

We are being shown that this is a sudden occurrence and yet
not done for humiliation or common mockery. This has dignity.
But as with all Tarot images, subtleties often query a rationale.