Today's Draw: The Hanged Man from the Awareness Arcana by Beth Seilonen. How well do you deal with silence and peace? Are you someone who always has to have noise on in the background? Or do you look for pockets of silence and nothingness in your day?
The Hanged Man is all about suspension and acceptance of it. It signifies a time of surrender to the flow. No thought or action is needed. It is a time of no thought, no action. Just acceptance. The rune symbols that Beth Seilonen has drawn on his chest are those for protection, discipline, suspension, transition and peace. The runes she's chosen to scatter around him—those that are not part of him—are those for creation, movement, joy, hardship, gift. His green color represents retreat into the heart center and healing. So the Hanged Man represents a very neutral, protected, reparative state. It's the opposite of multitasking. It's just Zen. Just being.
We tend to think that if we're not doing, we're not living. We're not playing our role. Not contributing. Not carrying our weight. But somewhere in the midst of any change I've ever experienced, there's always been a time of stasis. A time of non-change. A readjustment period. But because we're so used to go-go-go, this can often make us feel uncomfortable. So we look for things to do. Or we look for dramas. Not consciously perhaps, but we court things to occupy the silent spots.
A month or two ago it seemed like I had all sorts of exciting things happening in my life. Now it's just kind of deadly dull. And I'm feeling a tad "down" because the noise has abated and I'm not producing. But the Hanged Man comes to us to tell us it's just a time for gestation. And feeling and appreciating that peace is as valuable a part of life as running around like a chicken with its head cut off. In fact, it's more like sitting around like a chicken with an egg to keep warm. It may look like nothing is happening, but the egg is developing and that's a very precious and necessary stage of life.
To answer my questions from above, it's usually deadly quiet in my house. Unless I have the TV on. I rarely listen to music. Not even in the car. I prefer silence. And if there's neighborhood noise—construction or road work or something—I wear ear plugs. That's how much I like silence. I like having thoughts issue from the void. I do watch a lot of TV at night, though. But like right now as I finish this entry, it's not on. And later tonight before bed I will meditate in silence for 10-15 minutes just to settle myself and draw a line between wake time and sleep time. So I make sure I get a little of that kind of thing every day, but the longer periods of day-long and week-long ebbs do get me concerned. Like most people, I guess, I feel like something's always gotta be going on...I've always gotta be thinking of the next new thing. And this card is my cue to just embrace the silence and go with it.
While we're here, though, I thought I'd give a quick plug for meditation. I used to be someone whose mind raced all the time and I couldn't get to sleep at night because my head wouldn't shut up. But meditation changed all that for me. Not right away, because a person with a racing mind has a hard time meditating. But through practice over time. I started meditating in college, so I have a lot of practice. If you try and stick to it, even if you're not "good" at it, it will pay off. :)
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