Hung up

Minchiate Fiorentine:

Card XII

The Traitor or, as we later will get to know it: The Hanged Man

In the 15^th and 16^th century, Traitors were hanged upside down onto a Tree.

For a time, so they could be hazed by the passers by?

Pelted with stones, manure and rotten eggs, peed at and taunted….

Or sometimes they were to hang there until death – or the wrath of the public finished them. Often they were decked out with symbolic objects that told of the traitorous act committed. Here the Minchi- Traitor is holding up 2 bags: One yellow – probably coins. One blue, maybe a stand -in for truth? Or is that purely my personal interpretation of the color blue?

I had to deal with a traitor quite recently: The pagan community here is quite small and everyone knows everyone else – and often also their problems and vices. Sadly there is also at least one person, who on more than one occasion, has used this knowledge and – instead of keeping it to herself, could not resist to become the bearer of a juicy gossip story. 😦

I forgive her. She is lonely,at home, does not work, has limited contact, but a huuuuge circle of acquaintances. To “talk” and also to tattle tale puts her into the center of attention, into the limelight – for the shortest of moments. An addictive process for some people..

But this eventually hurts someone… and then again…..

Breaking trust, because whoever gossssips about others will also gosssssip about you…..

I had to make a decision: Simply stay away from that person.

This incidentally is in good keeping with the fundamental ethics of the Haudenosaunee Longhouse, of which I am a member: Do ignore and stay away from idle talk.

What this card is talking to me about today:

All the “gold of the moment” is not worth loosing the trust of a friend.