 The Story/Lyrical Symbolism:
Rick James’ fall from fame has been well-documented; there is even a VH-1 special on his rise to stardom, followed by the obligatory rock star drug excesses that led to his losing his wealth, and then his
freedom. He was charged with assault with a deadly weapon, aggravated mayhem, torture, false imprisonment by force, forced oral copulation, sale or transportation of a controlled substance, and
terroristic threats, but was only found guilty of assault, imprisonment, and furnishing cocaine.
But this card is not really about Rick James, except, perhaps, peripherally. In 1978, James was at the office of his recording label, Motown, and heard a young girl’s voice singing with intensity and great
range. He sought out the source of that voice, and was shocked to find a less-than-five-foot, young, white girl, Teena Marie, vocalizing. Both felt an immediate spiritual connection to the other, and James
produced and wrote most of the songs for her first album, Wild and Peaceful.
This first album by Teena Marie is significant for several reasons. James’ song, "Deja Vu (I’ve Been Here
Before)," written specifically to express Marie’s memories of past lives, addresses her Utopian idealism which always encompasses racial harmony:
"I used to be a queen in an island by the sea
Rainbow-colored people, happy as can be
There never was a problem, there never was a care..."
Her desire to complete this life cycle by living purely is lyricized thus: "If hate is on your mind, and you
can’t give love the time/if anger is your friend/when you die you come back again." She ends the song with an ad-libbed prayer, "Thank God, I’m not coming back no more." Her dualities are rooted in the
same ground ("I’m rich and I’m poor, I’m young and I’m old"). These themes are woven into the fabric of her musical oeuvre and embody, for me, the archetype of the Hanged One.
Teena Marie’s role in the world of music also has underlying meaning. She is the only white musician
viewed primarily as a Rhythm and Blues artist, then a pop artist*. She is very happy to "enter through the
black door" when her music crosses over onto the pop charts; she is proud to be identified with Black
music. Marie chooses to align herself with the oppressed, not the oppressor. In one poem, she writes, "I
have been persecuted and labeled just like you." A further irony: when Motown began producing records,
they avoided putting their African-American artists on album covers so as to avoid offending record
buyers in the South. "Wild and Peaceful" was released without a picture of Teena Marie in order to hide
her White skin. This act reflects the opposite side of the same prejudiced coin. But identity obliteration is also a facet of The Hanged One, whose boundaries are frequently blurred.
One attribute of the Hanged One is idealism, which is borne out by the vision of a world that, to
paraphrase Martin Luther King, Jr., judges a person by the content of their character and not the color of
their skin. "Aah, but you label Campbell’s soup cans, not people," she writes in a poem on her second
album, Lady T. On that album, she sings, "It would be bliss if we were color-free" and wishes "to be
touched and loved by too, too many colors." On another album, Robbery, she sings about the trials of
interracial romance in "Ask Your Momma" ("We think we’re the perfect blend/But they can’t see beyond the
skin").
Marie’s idealism is not limited to racial issues; in her tribute to John Lennon, "Revolution," she
sings, "Somebody blew away the sixties...peace/We need a moral Constitution/’Cause any old revolution
won’t do." On Emerald City, she creates a songcycle that fuses her past lives with a fantasy world, a
magical kingdom where there are "no stereotypes and prejudices this time...where everything you wanted
to be you have already been." Idealism brings pain when brutal reality can no longer be ignored. In "The Red Zone":
"War is all around us
Fighting everywhere
Poverty, destruction
Do they really even care
Brothers fighting brothers
Cause their color’s blue ...**
Sometimes I feel like I don’t want to sing at all"
Since singing is Marie’s lifebreath, you can imagine the despair that last line reflects.
Spirituality and religion are also associated with The Hanged One. It is no coincidence that traditional
versions of this card show someone hanging from a tree, reminiscent of images of Christ on the cross. Teena Marie shows her gratitude to the Creator in her music, liner notes, and poetry. The poem on Lady
T includes the humble lines, "You and I are no more or less than each other--small fragments of the
Master’s imagination." In "Opus III (Does Anybody Care)" (the title alone could be a motto for the Hanged
One), Marie sings:
"It’s not enough to say you care
You’ve got to spread the word
Have you heard
Jesus, he was just a man
The Bible tells us so
He gave more than just his hands
And he never said no..."
On Starchild she writes, "No one’s new or innovative except the creator who puts all thoughts and
blessings in our hearts and cerebrums in the first place."
Spiritual merging is another aspect of this archetype. "Grant that I may save at least one soul, even if not
mine," she writes in the liner notes to Lady T, adding,
I have felt the pains of striving to be free, no
irons or screws to crush my thumbs--’tis the ignorant thoughts of man that have bonded me." Spiritual
agony as ecstatic redemption is reiterated on Starchild: "I have known there is purpose in pain as well as
joy/For the fine lines on my face reminds me of the people who put them there." Teena Marie puts herself
in categoric company on the liner notes on Robbery when she writes,
"Like Billie Holiday to the blues
Or Joan of Arc to sainthood
Destiny was never my choice
I am only an instrument
Like saxophone--needle--conversation...”
But Lady T allows us all to join this company of saints--in the liner notes of Starchild, she writes, "The
point is that her {the Poetess} thoughts could have been mine/or yours/or anybody’s."
Long before rap music vaunted the art of sampling, Teena Marie frequently fused both her own catalogue
and other artists’ lyrics into her own songs. In part, this was an homage to beloved and respected artists,
but this is also an act of surrendering and merging--becoming a part of something larger, something
greater, valuing the collective unconscious over the individual self.
Martyrdom is another piece of the puzzle of The Hanged One. How’s this for a co-dependent identity tag:
"Lady Tee--imperfect, happy me/Loved and hated and I can’t please everyone/aah, but I try." These
words appear on the liner notes from Lady T On Naked to the World, Marie asks, "Is it possible that
vulnerability can not lay forever in the cut/where old wounds bleed and scars never heal" She claims she
has lived with a child’s heart, and says, "I drown in still waters when Donny sings to me/I know Heaven
rocks." This speaks of an ecstatic pain that pleases as it hurts.
The image on this card is taken from a
combination of two songs: "Casanova Brown" and "Out on a Limb"; both illustrate the sweet agony that
occurs when one sacrifices oneself to and for love.
Rick James was not just a mentor to Teena Marie--and she chronicles their romantic relationship in both
songs. Denial is not just the name of a river in Egypt. Marie embraces the concept when she sings:
"He’s had more girls than Howard Hughes had money
And you may think it funny
When I say he loves me only
But who are you to say what he does when I’m not around
Just because I fell in love with Casanova Brown."
As for her part in the relationship, "I love to the bone marrow/even when I am asleep." In "Out on a Limb,"
she accepts her fate with faith:
"“I try hard to resist that familiar smile
That melts me just like wax
But what’s the use, I’m yours
And that means forever
There’s no turning back."
She acknowledges her Hanged One status when she sings, "You got me spinning around/What have you
done to me/Suspended animation, I’m lost inside of you/I feel so insecure and yet I’ve never felt so
sure/What am I going to do?/I’m out on a limb/I’m giving in again."
The psychic element of this card is underlined by Teena Marie’s self-identification, "My name is Clara
Voiance" on "Casanova Brown" and the title of "Out on a Limb," which is taken from Shirley MacLaine’s
autobiography of her past lives and astral travel--both of which are also components of this card.
"My songs are a reflection of my life as an English major and my life in the streets," Marie has said. The
mystic, the saint, the martyr, and the co-dependent are one side of the Hanged One. The desire to merge
with something larger takes on less obvious forms. Rick James’ drug addiction was his prison long before
he was incarcerated. The crimes of which he was convicted, imprisonment, assault, and furnishing
cocaine, all stemmed from his drug abuse. He no longer had a habit; the habit had him. Those who seek
to fuse with something greater can become addicted to the narcotic of choice: drugs, alcohol, sex, money,
and food are all items that can be used to cure or kill. Marie accepts the karmic cost total immersion
brings, "There are equal parts of joy and pain in every note I sing...The scale balances out somehow/If not
in my life then perhaps in yours."
On Irons in the Fire, Marie refers to herself as a Piscean Holocaust--the water of emotions can be serene
or it can boil and bubble. Neptune rules Pisces--and is traditionally associated with The Hanged One.
Teena Marie’s songs of love and passion almost always involve complete surrender, where lines of self
are blurred with mutual morphing. On the liner notes to Naked to the World, she asks,
"If I gave you my essence
Keeping nothing for myself
If I loved you so much
That I would even forgive you
When you wouldn’t allow me
To keep a sand of my own time
Would that be enough love"
To Teena Marie, love is an act where you lose yourself and gain--or lose--the world.
***
Artistic Symbolism:
This card shows a languorous woman being choked by a telephone cord--she is willingly sacrificing her
life to her connection with an unseen person, or music, shown as chords emerging from the telephone
receiver. Either way, she is being strangled, and offering her throat to that strangulation. Her filmy and
delicate dress connotes femininity and fragility, along with veiled mystery. She holds a red rose in her
hand and wears a heart-shaped earring, symbols of the perfect love for which she is willing to die. On her
wall is a poster that resembles Rick James; the image is all she has of the man she loves. Her position is
one of compliant surrender; she gives herself up to the joy and pain of her passions.
Interpretation:
When you get this card in a reading, you are faced with acknowledging a sacrifice you are deliberately
making for something you perceive as greater than yourself. You are denying ego for a "greater good."
You refuse to accept others’ reality, preferring to offer yourself up to what you see as a higher authority.
You may feel literally "hung up" about something. It may be wise to sacrifice for a cause, but before you
surrender yourself, consider your actions with clarity and self-knowledge. Knowing what is worth
sacrificing for is a key to individual growth; sacrificing for something that isn’t real is an act of literal self-
denial. You may be traversing that river in Egypt (De Nile), ignoring reality for an illusion of love or
peace or righteousness. This card is begging you to look under the mental rug and see what is seeping out
underneath. Teena Marie is one of the rare female artists who writes and produces her own records and
has since 1980--you can be an independent pioneer in one area of your life, taking advantage of Neptune’s
gifts of creativity and mystical magic--yet fall prey to the downside of Neptunian merging and lose your
self and your identity in other arenas.
Your Personal Hanged One:
Write down your definitions of religion and spirituality. Are they the same? What are the differences?
What stops you from being spiritually balanced? What books, movies, songs, myths, etc., illustrate
mysticism, spirituality, and surrender to you? Are you sacrificing your own ego/self/identity to another
person or a cause? Does it make you happy? Do you have an addiction that you want to remove from
your life? Write an affirmation that asserts your health, be it mental, spiritual, or physical, depending on
your addiction, and say it daily, until the words you write are true. Don’t give up--and give in only when
by doing so, you are giving to your self.
***
Footnotes:
* Hall and Oates, Madonna, Lisa Stansfield, George Michael and others have charted in R&B, but are slotted in catalogues, etc., as pop artists.
** Refers to gang warfare, where gangs are identified by the “colors” they wear.
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