10-05-2020, 12:38 PM
(This post was last modified: 10-05-2020, 12:42 PM by RenegadeHealer.
Edit Reason: formatting
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That moment when I finally "put my finger on" where I've seen certain symbolism / imagery before. Granted my perspective has been skewed by all these pics of torture racks, but the angle of the arm over the log recalls the Hanged Man, and the position of his leg:
The Hanged Man is the twelfth card of the Major Arcana in the traditional tarot deck.
![[Image: RWS_Tarot_12_Hanged_Man.jpg]](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/2/2b/RWS_Tarot_12_Hanged_Man.jpg)
As with any of these interpretations of the VMs image — or all symbology really — context is the only real delineator between distinct parallels showing an intention and familiarity with a tradition, and coincidental similarities between things that weren't created with the same intention at all. And context in Voynichland is like money in a slum — it's what everybody's after, but there's just not much of it, so when a bit of it turns up, it gets fought over.
The Hanged Man is the twelfth card of the Major Arcana in the traditional tarot deck.
A.E. Waite, The Pictoral Key to the Tarot wrote:The gallows from which he is suspended forms a Tau cross — while the figure—from the position of the legs—forms a fylfot cross. There is a nimbus about the head of the seeming martyr. It should be noted that the tree of sacrifice is living wood, with leaves thereon; that the face expresses deep entrancement, not suffering; that the figure, as a whole, suggests life in suspension, but life and not death. [...] It has been called falsely a card of martyrdom, a card of prudence, a card of the Great Work, a card of duty [...] I will say very simply on my own part that it expresses the relation, in one of its aspects, between the Divine and the Universe.
12. THE HANGED MAN.--Wisdom circumspection, discernment, trials, sacrifice, intuition, divination, prophecy. Reversed: Selfishness, the crowd, body politic.
As with any of these interpretations of the VMs image — or all symbology really — context is the only real delineator between distinct parallels showing an intention and familiarity with a tradition, and coincidental similarities between things that weren't created with the same intention at all. And context in Voynichland is like money in a slum — it's what everybody's after, but there's just not much of it, so when a bit of it turns up, it gets fought over.