The Transcendental: The Church Project

Jars of Clay

March 19, 2024

Where there is difficulty, struggle, or chaos, there is an opportunity to see things from a different perspective and grow.

The tarot's Hanged Man is the card for seeing things from a different perspective and is an important icon or figure in achieving spiritual growth. It is followed by the Death card, which is for ending cycles and an entry to rebirth or a new beginning. But that's how attaining growth is depicted - from suspension to death. With the suspension providing time and space for the person to experience a shift in current perspective. When the Hanged Man appears reversed, then the man's basically just standing there and therefore, it is interpreted as 'no change' or a refusal to see things from a different perspective or what we call 'intolerance' . Reversed, it is also interpreted as egotism, but then intolerance really comes from egotism - not what others would say having firm beliefs or sense of right and wrong. It is when the intolerance is released that you get that firmness.

Why is the Hanged Man followed by the Death card? What dies and why does it have to die?

What dies is the old belief or perspective. Its death is also the end of the difficulty, struggle or chaos by gaining clarity or seeing the nature of the problem and at the same time, the solution.

From previous writings, I already talked a little about what the ego does, and it's to block the view and limit people's perspective - and that's how it creates suffering or struggles in man. When the perspective is limited, valuable information or knowledge is hidden from the man and this prevents him from seeing the solution. Think of the hidden knowledge to be a piece of the puzzle or the map. I won't say it is the most vital or important part of the puzzle, but that it is as valuable as every other piece. When people's perspective is limited by a belief, when they have difficulties and problems, the approach will be defined or will be designed the same way - limited. The limiting belief is then not replaced but carried over and is to persist in creating problems for the person. And in its persistence is created a pattern of the same struggle or difficulty manifesting in different ways. But patterns are created when no cycle breaking happens.

People say that growth is a painful, laborious process, and it is but they miss the opportunity to shift their perspective and that's why they don't talk about the pain of intolerance being what's painful and not the hardship or difficulty that they're trying hard to get out of and the process in which they're 'escaping' the difficulty. When the ego gets bruised or gets a blow, that's painful but when you are experiencing intolerance, it is more painful when you start seeing things from a different perspective. It is painful, people almost immediately return to their positions. It's kind of like students of martial arts or some kind of physical training that involves standing on one foot. The state of being intolerant is like being wobbly and then losing footing or balance - and so they just revert to the position they are comfortable with.

Suspension is like training but not just for the physical but the mind and the spirit also. And people who train, they will tell you it's the technique. But how is the technique even formed? The technique is formed when the person sees how balance or how a thing works. Technique comes from knowledge. But before knowledge, you will feel like it's a test. Like it's a riddle.

Now, people don't like the concept of hardships and difficulties being a test administered by God. The good news is that it is not. Difficulty arises when there's something that the person doesn't understand, doesn't know how to navigate. When people ask for techniques, they're asking for knowledge or assistance or guidance with navigation.

When you start training and you experience difficulty, that's because you have yet to gain knowledge that will then form the techniques. In suspension, people don't gain the knowledge because there will be discomfort seeing or experiencing things from that position and they're like: I can't do this. And that is a few minutes in suspension or into the training. Your most painful learnings will come from the people you can't listen to for a minute and because of the discomfort of seeing things from a different view.