In the tarot, the archetypes of the Hanged Man and the Magician represent two ways of knowing and learning. They represent two different spiritual curriculum systems, two different epistemologies, and two different viewpoints about the essential foundations of the cosmos.

The Hanged Man is the epitome of the nonlinear world. He processes vast amounts of information at an incredibly fast rate. He travels the cosmos in a nonlinear fashion and reincarnates simultaneously. He does not have past lives in the classical way that term is understood. Rather, he has other lives.

On the other hand, the Magician is the standard-bearer of the sequential world. He processes information in a linear pattern and achieves his learning goals step by step by following the laws of classical logic. He reincarnates sequentially, fully aware of his past lives’ accomplishments at every step of the way.