If you notice, #6 and #9 look a lot alike. You could say that one of those numbers, or both of those numbers are "upside-down"....of course, you'ld be wrong to say that because they're not upside-down. There is a big difference, a huge difference between taking a photograph, a "normal" photograph that is taken and that is seen right-side-up in the mind (the way most photos are taken and seen in the mind) and then flipping that photo over to appear upside-down.....on the other hand all of these photos were photographed by taking the photo upside-down in the mind, in other words, seeing it upside-down in the mind, seeing it upside-down, experiencing it upside-down in the mind, in the experience of the environment. These photos were taken upside-down to begin with. In my mind, in my relationship to the environment, they were taken actually physically upside-down mentally and holding the camera upside-down. They were all taken with a camera phone, which helps the process.
There's a huge difference between a photo that was turned upside down (flipped upside-down) and a photo that was taken upside-down to begin with, in the mind, in the experience to begin with. There is more than one way to see an environment, or to see/experience an atmosphere, or an environmental area, or a subject than simply one way, one straight up-and-down way. Seeing a subject straight up-and-down, the "normal" way we relate to something we photograph is only one way to view it, or experience it. We can also see it upside-down, like seeing #6 and #9. There is a huge difference between the Hanged Man (6) and The Hermit (9). It helps to have a knowledge of Tarot Cards, but only slightly.
The important point is, the photos in this collection were not flipped over upside-down. The photos in this collection were taken upside-down, photographed upside-down to start with, they were seen upside-down, they were experienced upside-down to start with before I took the photos with the camera. They were not turned upside-down. It has to do with the Number 6 and the Number 9 in the Tarot Card deck, using the Hanged Man (#6) and the Hermit (#9) and I could see a connection between 6 and 9 and how they looked like they were upside-down, but they're really not. Neither one of those numbers is upside-down, in the same way that these photos are not upside-down.
Don't take all this "occult" language too seriously. It's meant to help bring out the conversation re: upside-down photos, which, in my mind, are not correctly called "upside-down" photos. In the process of working on this, I found something I had written a few years ago concerning Tarot Cards and divination and so I posted it up here to bring clarity to my "upside-down" photos.
Background:
6 of Wands Jupiter in Leo. 9 of Wands Moon in Sag.
6 of Pentacles Moon exalted in Taurus. 9 of Pentacles Venus in Virgo.
6 of Swords Mercury in Aquarius. 9 of Swords Mars in Gemini.
6 of Cups Sun in Scorpio. 9 of Cups Jupiter rules Pisces.
The Hanged Man and the Hermit. This is a baptism unto death symbolized by water signs and cups: the trinity of illusion and delusion represented by Neptune and the twelfth house. The Hanged Man represents man's inititation into the lowest order of the Rosy Cross, and his transformation as the serpent and the Dying God become the Ascended master of his death, with divination and powers of transformation of life itself. Nine is the number of "Redeemed" man ascended. He is the same man as the Hanged Man, only now he is the Lord of the Earth signified by Virgo with all dominion and power. Mercury is exalted in Virgo and Virgo is the crust of earth over Hades. The photos are the same photos, one is not "upside-down", but rather like Six and Nine there is an energy of transformation that occurs.
The Lamp of the Hermit is the light of the King of Fire, the Secret Fire of the Father, which is the transformation of six into nine. This is where the idea of the upside-down photo starts to become a conversation, because it's not upside-down, but rather it's a visual transformation of spiritual energy; the photos represent this as a movement of energy; turning something upside-down is a movement of energy, a movement of magick.
Man (Number Six) hangs on the Rosy Cross in the Light of inferior darkness, and is baptized unto death, a symbolism. But the Hanged Man, as the hidden serpent, is raised from death to new life (Number Nine), emerging from his initiation to the occult wisdom of the prophet's secrets: The Hermit, or a conversation known as Number Nine.
The origin of the Number Nine is the turning point when death of the Hanged Man is transformed into the life of The Hermit (it helps to look at the Tarot Cards and see the images, the "photographs" of the cards themselves). This is the transformation of the past becoming complete and no longer in the future. The Tarot Card no longer is a future-oriented experience, but instead is a past-based experience after the time of baptism, which is The Hanged Man (Number Six). The image of returning life is the photograph of life returning, which is what I was trying to say with this collection. The initiation of man's spiritual energy is not forced, but is natural, arising spontaneously. This is the transformation of the past. The past is complete in which the future is a space of possibility.
The Hanged Man becoming The Hermit (symbolically) represents a transformation in six stages, or six days: on the seventh day the Hanged Man returns from death, symbolizing the descent of the light energy and man's decline into darkness. It is the symbolism of the return of the light of the Lamp of the Hermit as Number Nine, ascended in the seventh double hour after his baptism and death. The Hanged Man represents winter chi, symbolized by thunder which is still unmanifest, unconscious and hidden in the depths of illusion and delusion's trinity of water signs and cups. As this chi (energy) is stirred, the Hanged Man is redeemed as The Hermit. The photographs are not "flipped" over upside-down, but instead they are a conversation of redemption.
Six becoming Nine, or a photograph appearing upside-down is the natural and inevitable origin of that which "comes back" or "returns" in a cyclic motion of completion and communication. The appearance of a photo being upside-down is the returning or the coming back of the image. The Lamp (symbolizing the Sun, or positive and negative light of photography, contrast, brightness etc) returns with fertility and exhaltation upon the earth.
This transformation from Hanged Man to Hermit leads to, and is led by, self-knowledge, sybmolized by the light of the Lamp from within, from inside consciousness, from awareness of awareness of everything/nothing, as a creation of word to world manifesting. From the depths of the Lamp (light), the Hanged Man sees the "Divine One" - he sees himself in the mirror of his own shadow. The Hanged Man (Number Six) changes to Nine, distinguishing shadows in relation to cosmic forces. The number Nine is, therefore, the ascending foce of life itself in all of nature and in the baptism of fire in the burning man, Number Six.
Number Six becoming Number Nine is a movement upward from below, from hell to heaven. Light energy is the creative principle of life itself. The Hanged Man and the Hermit represents the eternal cyclic movement between the two polarities of yin and yang, from which life itself emerges just at the moment when it appears to collapse.
