Last week we noted that the woman who gently tames the lion in the arcana of (11) Strength is a personification of Intelligence and works with masculine energy, which Oswald Wirth refers to as the “Dorian programme” of masculine initiation which is revealed through the first eleven cards of the Upper Arcana. With the twelfth arcana, that of the (12) Hanged Man, the situation is reversed, for now we see a young man passively hanging upside down in the first stage of feminine, or Ionian, initiation:
From now on the personality gives up the exaltation of its natural energies, far from behaving as if at the centre of autonomous action, it is effaced in order to undergo in a docile fashion, outside influences. The Magus has faith in himself, in his intelligence and in his willpower; he feels that he is sovereign and aspires to the conquest of his kingdom. The Mystic, on the other hand, is convinced that he is nothing but an empty shell, powerless in itself. His passive renunciation puts him at the service of whatever acts upon him.
Oswald Wirth, The Tarot of the Magicians, p. 109
The Collect
Almighty and everlasting God, who art always more ready to hear than we to pray, and art wont to give more than either we desire, or deserve; Pour down upon us the abundance of thy mercy; forgiving us those things whereof our conscience is afraid, and giving us those good things which we are not worthy to ask, but through the merits and mediation of Jesus Christ, thy Son, our Lord. Amen.
Book of Common Prayer
Old Testament Reading
Be still and know that I am God.
Psalm 46: 10
New Testament Reading
Our sufficiency is of God. Who also hath made us able ministers of the New Testament; not of the letter, but of the Spirit: for the letter killeth, but the Spirit giveth life.
2 Corinthians 3: 5-6
Liturgical Affirmation
Ego sum lux mundi;
qui perdiderit animam suam propter me
inveniat eam.
I am the light of the world; whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.
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