This week’s card is the Hanged Man, whose central focus is the bat. A truly unique creature, everything about the bat’s lifestyle offers a new perspective: sitting in suspension, hanging upside all day, and active at night.
To us, the bat is hanging upside down – but to the bat – it’s right-side up. His unique perspective allows him to look at all of reality from a different angle than we consider to be ‘normal’. Bats hang this way because their wings aren’t strong enough to go into flight from the ground. They hang from their feet and break into flight when they let go and plummet through the air.
The metaphor of finding flight only once we let go is the message here. Waiting until he is ready, the bat will only take flight when he’s ready. This week’s card is asking us to relinquish control. Trying to hold on to things in our lives, we spend so much energy – physical, emotional, and spiritual – on attempting to control things that are often beyond our rule. Perhaps it’s time for us to let go and connect with our power and abilities in unfathomable and potent ways. There’s also an idea here of finding comfort in discomfort and not trying to control our situation or “fix it” simply because it’s something we’re unaccustomed to.
The Hanged Man asks us to consider the infinite perspectives available to us – to challenge ourselves to see things from another angle. This will require that we let go of our ego’s desire to control things and sit in the muck of things, as uncomfortable as it may seem.
Until next week, xoxo
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