Pendu/Danse tarot card

February 22, 2010
In his book on tarot cards, The Path, Whitley Strieber writes:
In many of the older Tarot decks, the Hanged Man is printed in an ambiguous manner. If you look at him as a Hanged Man, then the number is upside down. This is not true of the [Jodorowsky-Camoin Tarot de Marseille] deck we are using, but it doesn’t matter, the effect of turning the card upside down is the same.The Hanged Man becomes the Dancer, and the secret knowledge contained in this card lies in understanding the way the positive Dancer and the negative Hanged Man may come together in a greater, harmonious whole.
The idea of Hanged Man as Dancer inspired this twist on the Rider-Waite-Smith Hanged Man card. Depending on which way is up, the title reads either Pendu or Danse (French for “hanged man” and “dance,” respectively).

Except for the title and the inverted number, this is just the original (public-domain) Rider-Waite-Smith card. Maybe later I’ll try my hand at redoing the whole card.