The Hanged Man

The Hanged Man has acquired a reputation as one of the most unfavorable cards that can appear in a spread. Arguing with this, perhaps, is not necessary – the described experience will definitely not be simple and easy. However, it can be very valuable, that's one. As someone great said, life experience is not what happens to us, but what we do with what happens to us.

Where one will fall into a destructive state of an eternal victim, drowning in self-pity, another will feel unity with the whole world and a mystical merging with the Flow of fate, akin to an act of love (not without reason the ancients called it 'amor fati'). Moreover, in the case of the Hanged Man, a lot depends on the theme of the question! If it's about the querent's intention to achieve some important goal for which they are willing to sacrifice something, then the Hanged Man clearly states that the event in question will happen. The question may concern years of study at a higher educational institution, acquiring real estate or other valuable property on credit, and so on. Obviously, the querent is about to get involved in something (the Hanged Man is bound), 'hang' on some goals and lifestyle for a long term (the Hanged Man hangs), and themselves, in a way, turn into 'real estate' (lose the ability to dispose of their money, time, or other resources, as they are dedicated to the chosen goal). Will it happen? If the Hanged Man appears, then Tarot says – yes. Thus, it will be a positive answer. Wherever dedication to duty is implied, the Hanged Man is in its place.

However, if the querent means nothing of the sort, their head is not at all loaded with Napoleonic plans calculated for long-term heroism, and the question concerns how a pleasure trip will go, whether the boss will lend money, or whether the interested person will call, then the Hanged Man's answer will be negative. The trip will be postponed or fraught with all sorts of obstacles, the boss will not only not give money but also cut the salary for others' sins, and waiting for the call can last until the end of the millennium. As a supporting or resulting card in a spread, it likes to say that there will be no progress forward, so it's better to abandon the planned now and leave the topic alone. All this will take much more time than desired. Since the Hanged Man has appeared, something is testing our patience or offering to learn a lesson in humility.

In other positions, the card describes the necessity (or, less often, the desire) for some sacrifices and a new approach. There are goals for which one can endure something unpleasant. If you endure, the sacrifice will be fully worth it. But sacrifice here is understood not as a fruitless loss of something dear but as a giving for the sake of acquiring something even more necessary. The main lesson of the card is to understand that the sacrifice is voluntary because THE GOAL IS WORTH IT. Both the sacrifice and the goal can be anything – physical, intellectual, spiritual. But all this difficult and possibly prolonged ('expiatory') time, one must remember – the sacrifice is voluntary and the goal is worth it.

This stage also means a period of respite between significant events, being in uncertainty, in a suspended state. Fate freezes in weightlessness. A time of apathy, lack of progress forward, and capitulation to external factors exerting strong influence. Being in a state of willful stupor, paralysis, loss of control over what is happening, inability to influence events.

Under the Hanged Man, a person often feels punished and often cries out 'Why?!' Mary Greer notes: this is merely a description of what happens to a person mired in material concerns and refusing to see what the Spirit, the next stage of consciousness development, demands of them. When the so-called real world hangs, a person gets an opportunity to understand this. The experience of the Hanged Man was fully experienced and perfectly reflected by Oscar Wilde in his manuscript DE PROFUNDIS: 'Prison life helps one see people and what moves them in their true light… People living in the external world are captive to the illusion that life is continuous movement. They swirl in a whirlpool of events and therefore live in an unreal world. Only we, living in the stillness of confinement, are given to see and know.'

As a rule, this Arcana carries an inability for external activity, confinement in a monastery of the spirit. The will is tied hand and foot, all strength goes to spiritual work, a shift in the assemblage point. Under the pressure of external obligations, one's own passivity is perceived painfully. In any case, the person feels unfree in their decisions: they cannot do either what they want or what is necessary. One must gather patience and humility, remain calm, wait, perceive the situation from its bright side. It may appear when there is a fairly clear idea of what needs to be done, but something prevents taking that action.

This is the card of accepting fate, learning duty and patience. A person may be limited by circumstances, up to the point of understanding its deep meaning, and then humility is dictated by this understanding. The Hanged Man teaches not to cling – to control, power, comforts, attachments. He does not instruct like the Hierophant, does not call to judgment like Justice, does not demolish like the Tower. He simply… suspends. Depriving of power and control, he gives genuine humble readiness to accept change, life flexibility, elasticity of thinking.

The Hanged Man often appears when what is happening seems strange, difficult to comprehend. Incomprehensible things are happening – what actually cannot be. But this should not be too frightening; it's better to try to be open to everything new, to look at the world with different eyes. The Twelfth Arcana says: if the familiar world has turned upside down, remember that you can do the same. Patiently wait for events to develop. Learn to observe but try to maintain clarity of thought and peace of soul. Learn, endure, maintain clarity of spirit – and wait. It is even more important to maintain a balance between what is in you and what is happening outside – you should not try to withdraw into yourself and limit yourself to the world of your own experiences. Under this card goes an upheaval of the entire value system (but not destruction as in the Tower, but precisely a paradoxical restructuring 'upside down'). Paradox, a view from another point, a complete change in consciousness (it can be painful in itself if it's hard for the person to sacrifice a habitual opinion).

In practice, this card means the necessity to learn something new. Thus, it is one of the cards giving a positive answer to questions like: 'Will the child enter the institute?' Yes, they will enter and get into a situation of bonds and academic obligations until they 'extricate' themselves by successfully defending their thesis; thus, many sacrifices will have to be made for the higher goal. However, it also advises adults not to hold on to old ideas but try to find a new point of view. The spirit of this card is devotion, dedication, self-denial for a higher goal (similar to taking monastic vows). Giving up something for the sake of something better, known only to you, intimate.

The main positive meaning of this card: growth of wisdom, intuition. It is also a strong card of clairvoyance.

'A sacrificial lamb.' The state of mind can vary – from lost helplessness, powerlessness, and complete incomprehension of what is happening, to unshakable firmness, self-dedication, and faith in the meaning of what is happening, like that with which Christian martyrs went to the Kingdom of Heaven from the arena of the Colosseum.

This is the creation of one's I in the image and likeness of a chosen ideal. Self-dedication, self-denial, growth of knowledge. The higher the goal, the greater the sacrifice, and this card personifies a person willing to pay dearly for what they want. All this difficult time, one must remember that the sacrifice is voluntary – either pay the price or sacrifice the goal.

The Hanged Man is the card of self-determination, crisis, sacrificing the old ego, its dissolution in the waves of a superior force, the Flow. The Hanged Man, if looked at simply, means that we are 'stuck,' have reached a dead end, and feel that we cannot change circumstances now, don't even imagine how to do it.

Upon closer examination, it turns out that behind this external immobility lies the necessity and a good opportunity to reconsider much in life, and as a consequence – to produce deep changes, both in life itself and in the view of it. The passivity to which we are sentenced in this period most resembles the image of a bedridden patient – this is also one of the card's meanings. About the Hanged Man as a feeling, C.G. Jung said well: 'Hanging means (...) also quite positive hanging on, which, on the one hand, means some difficulty, albeit surmountable, but precisely therefore represents that rare situation which demands the greatest tension from a person, giving them the opportunity to reveal themselves completely.'

The Hanged Man often testifies to undoubted depth of nature, readiness to make sacrifices for oneself and loved ones, to pay – and generously – for what is desired.

He knows what he wants, even if for others this goal is incomprehensible and unattainable. The Hanged Man symbolizes a person who rejects the status quo and consciously goes against the grain. One can assume that one of the very bright modern personifications of the Hanged Man archetype is the now legendary Steve Jobs (not without an admixture of other Arcana, of course). Initially a 'victim' (a child abandoned by parents), a 'victim' later, deprived of all rights and thrown overboard by the company he founded, and a 'victim' in the end (a difficult departure from life), he nevertheless truly transformed the modern world. In his fate, the myth of Prometheus corresponding to the spirit of the Hanged Man is discernible, who gave people a fateful know-how and parted with health, so to speak, and his speeches about those who go against the grain became a model of rhetoric on the topic. Analyzing the symbolic correspondences of the Arcana, the halo around the Hanged Man's head will be interesting – starting from a hint at hanged intellectualism, and ending with the aura that surrounded Jobs' personality by the time of his departure. The notorious Think different (a radical overturn of thinking) and the 'evangelism' of Apple come to mind. In the upright position, the card is a symbol of 'standing on one's head,' the notorious overturn of the entire system. From this example, we see that the Hanged Man is real losses and sacrifices, but by no means personal helplessness and weakness. Also, the Hanged Man likes obsessive thoughts that one cannot simply get rid of. Any slave of inspiration, any scientist or, for example, composer, who without drinking – eating – sleeping labors over capturing incoming ideas, passes under the Twelfth Arcana.

In a negative sense, this card can describe a person who sees no meaning in life, dangles in a suspended state between heaven and earth, experiences restlessness and defenselessness, humiliation, and insult.

Sometimes the card describes the state of a person who has some bad habit or shameful weakness, which they could not get rid of because they actually did not want it at all, but at the same time realized that it would be better to live without it. One must give it up for one's own good, for example, for health.

Often symbolizes the impossibility of taking any action except meditation, powerlessness over oneself, inability for external activity, a time when a person stops, hangs, and delves into themselves, with the goal of finding new, more fulfilling and correct life guidelines and feeling the taste of life again.

A stage in spiritual development when one must master the ability to voluntarily sacrifice something to achieve a goal, if necessary, to peacefully let go of what was. In life, it is very important to be able to sacrifice something, to give up something. At this stage, one must realize that we cannot get everything at once, at least not as we planned. The pathos of the Hanged Man is self-sacrifice for the purpose of spiritual growth, achieving insight and wisdom.

By losing something, one can realize what was not understood before. The necessity to sacrifice childish, selfish illusions for the sake of a true, mature dream to come true, pleasure for the sake of a goal - this is an unpleasant experience, martyrdom, but it is one's own voluntary choice because the goal is worth it. If you endure the trial, the goal will be achieved, triumph awaits you.

Traditionally, the Arcana is called 'The Hanged Man,' but other options are possible ('The Sacrifice,' 'The Messiah,' 'The Hanged God'). Before we turn to the meaning of this card, let's look more closely at the image. Before us is a desolate landscape. The sun is setting, coloring the entire picture. And against this background, tied by his leg to a crossbeam, a living tree (Tree of Life), or a flowering hedge, hangs a man. Being hung by the left leg indicates that the person came to this situation unconsciously. The crossbeam rests on two logs, each with six cut-off branches – an allusion to the Zodiac. The Hanged Man's right leg is usually bent and hooked behind the left, and he has joined his hands behind his head in such a way that they form a cross. The figure seems to form an inverted sign of sulfur. The legs being up signify the spiritualization of the lower nature. The red stockings are a symbol of earthly passions, now to be subdued. The 'cross' of the legs symbolizes earthly, material reality, and the 'triangle' of the hands – the divine plane.

In some decks, the man holds a bag in each hand, from which coins pour (according to one interpretation, this card depicts Judas Iscariot with the money received for betrayal). The card symbolizes the temporary victory of polarity over the spiritual principle of balance. Thus, to comprehend the heights of philosophy, a person must overturn their habitual way of thinking ('In doing so, they renounce the rules of gold in favor of the golden rule'). The main idea of this Arcana is sacrifice, a kind of crucifixion.

Once Odin, who was a deity not only of the warrior band but also a teacher of wisdom attained in an ecstatic state, nailed himself with a spear to the World Tree – the ash Yggdrasil. After hanging in such a state for nine days, he quenched his thirst with sacred mead from the hands of his maternal grandfather – the giant Bölþorn, and received runes from him – carriers of wisdom. The Apostle Peter makes the same sacrifice, who himself asks the Romans not only to crucify him (as they did with Jesus) but to crucify him upside down. There is much evidence that holy martyrs were in an enlightened and even ecstatic state in their ministry, and nothing could shake their confidence in the divine reward prepared for them and the crown awaiting them after death (the Arcana of Death is followed by the Angel). The Hanged Man allows his I to completely dissolve in the stream of Life, and this is the only thing that prepares for the meeting with the next Arcana – Death.

The Hanged Man (like the Hermit) is described in many religions and myths – he is the one who made a sacrifice to achieve wisdom or a divine state, in the name of higher considerations. This is both Prometheus and Christ. It is the descent of the spirit into matter, coupled with suffering. In fact, the Hanged Man is not sacrificed by someone – it is his choice, and he knows what he is doing. This knowledge is the most important component of the Arcana.

In the highest sense, a person completely voluntarily, by their own choice, limits themselves, subjects themselves to 'torments,' asceticism, meditation, confinement, for something higher, significant to them. This causes misunderstanding in others, sometimes a tendency to attack and ridicule them. Not in vain does the Hanged Man have a peaceful, thoughtful, sometimes even rapturous expression on his face (no pain, no despair, no protest, no suffering – he trusts his path and feels it is necessary). He knows the goal.

From the point of view of mysticism, in the periods between incarnations, our soul fully sees its paths and its karma. Possessing this knowledge, it chooses the circumstances of the future incarnation, with all its inconveniences (and there are no incarnations without trials, each has its own cross). Thus, like the Hanged Man, it knows what and for what it is going. With the 'impact' of the soul on matter and the realities of another incarnation, this knowledge is lost, but it can be regained in the course of life's trials – this is precisely what the Hanged Man's halo symbolizes.

Carrying within itself the feeling of primordial unity and closeness to the heavenly homeland, karma immerses a person in the contemplation of life's waves and cosmic vibrations, – symbolized by the planet Neptune, into that primordial source where human consciousness was born, with which they strive to merge. The switching off of consciousness brings bliss, and in this, it is like sleep – but that unconscious belonging to the unity, which in sleep is perceived as ineffable bliss, in waking life can turn out to be inexpressible suffering. Whether the mind accepts or rejects the joys and shortcomings of the world, it is only their passive reflector: the active role is played by the soul, making its choice, and in whose reactions the principle of analogy works: it reacts to what is close to it, what touches and moves it. But if the soul has engaged with the world stream, to which it owes its life, the mind has nothing to oppose to it, since it itself is of the same origin. And consciousness sacrifices itself in the name of the incomprehensible primordial principle. One of the meanings of the Hanged Man is the immersion of Spirit into matter. Therefore, the person is depicted head down towards the earth. On the card, this situation is depicted by a person hung upside down on the key of life: he sees the world upside down. For only in an inverted (hanged) state – a state of searching for one's lost reflection – can a person comprehend the truth and reveal the Neptunian secrets of their soul. In their reflection, there is an essential meaning for the inner world of a person. The gift of enlightenment and prophecy in most cultures is associated with trance and ecstatic states, sacrificing one's I (again Neptune).

The Twelfth Arcana characterizes better than anything what is considered the Slavic soul – a combination of restlessness and enlightenment. And the planets correlated with this card are also characteristic of this psychotype: Neptune and Uranus. At the earthly astrological level, this card corresponds to the conjunction of Mars with Mercury and signifies enterprise and even adventurism, and in the spiritual sense – it is the search for new solutions and discoveries.

The Hanged Man is considered an excellent card for mystical insights and spiritual growth, esoteric practices, and knowledge of secrets. Fasting and prayers, meditations and retreats, yoga and trances, penances and confessions, extrasensory perception and prophetic dreams – all this passes under the Twelfth Arcana. And even staying on a deserted sea coast or in a distant country, detached from familiar points of support, too. All situations where we delve into ourselves, going beyond the ego, and experience humility and merging with the flow – that is the mystery of the Hanged Man. We return changed and enlightened, initiated into the mysteries of life, which is symbolized by the halo around the character's head on the card.

Inability to control what is happening in the relationship, one's own behavior and the partner's behavior. Feeling like a helpless victim and good material for a psychotherapist. The forced need to compromise one's desires, passions, and freedom for the sake of the relationship.

It is intuitively clear that the Hanged Man appearing in a relationship spread symbolizes some crisis. Moreover, not the beginning of a crisis, like the Tower, not its end, like the Ten of Swords, but a permanent, sluggish crisis with no visible beginning or end. However, the end is sometimes discernible – in ephemeral, unstable relationships that 'hang by a thread' when the Twelfth Arcana appears, there is a great risk of losing everything.

Often in established relationships, this card corresponds to the feeling that everything has frozen, or even died. Apathy, dullness, boredom, decline. A helpless halt, powerlessness, crisis, this state lasts longer than one might assume and longer than desired. A feeling of the 'evil eye,' the relationship is unfruitful, no sex at all, what's next – unclear.

In combinations with cards hinting at a love triangle (e.g., The Lovers, Three of Swords, Three of Cups, Six of Pentacles),

The Hanged Man shows a person 'crucified' between two poles and clearly says that everyone suffers. In this situation, there are no winners, and attempts to make everyone happy end in indescribable suffering.

The Hanged Man does nothing because he cannot do anything and does not see what could be a way out in this situation.

It is perceived as a vicious circle. In theory, it can be transformed, but for that, one must start acting differently. This dilemma can only be resolved by making a sacrifice, giving up something that was natural (usually this means – finally choose the fire by which you will warm yourself in the future). But no such luck. In relationships, such a meaning of the Hanged Man as narrowness and limitation of ideas often manifests. The result of getting bogged down in contradictions and being between two fires becomes emotional exhaustion and depletion, and what is even more significant – both fires go out.

For single people, the Hanged Man marks periods of futile search for relationships, indicating that in the near future, one cannot count on forming a couple, since the soul definitely has other tasks. Fruitless attempts to meet and start a romance will not add joy to the querent. The card may indicate that creating a relationship has become a kind of obsessive 'idée fixe,' while personally the person is not ready for them (in particular, not so ready for sacrifices and altruism, which daily and nightly cohabitation will require). In general, the Hanged Man often unflatteringly states – egoism and self-absorption and focus on one's own needs, that's all you have now. And until this changes, fate will not offer you a wedding limousine, in particular. After all, marriage is crowned with 'martyr' crowns, and unwillingness to accept trials and limitations is a poor foundation for it.

In the reversed form, it means that the person is not ready to perceive new things, so learning and revising old views are unlikely. Sometimes the card means excessive immersion (egocentrism) in one's own affairs (the opposite of selfless sacrifice in the name of others), as well as a useless pursuit of an unattainable dream. The reversed Hanged Man categorically does not want to make sacrifices in essence. A very common meaning of the card – petty or hypocritical sacrifices. The person pretends to care a lot or invest, but in fact, these are show actions, and by and large, they don't bear any burdens, although they claim the opposite.

Another variant of interpretation – the uselessness of sacrifices, their wrong direction or fictitiousness. Such sacrifices are of no use. As an option – attempts to 'look fresh' with the help of a cream at an exorbitant price instead of a healthy lifestyle in general, which, of course, requires much greater sacrifices (sleep, sports, diet…) or to buy with money what should have been acquired by one's own labor.

In the reversed Hanged Man, there is much egoism, posturing, and immaturity, while in reality, the ego is not curbed at all, and the person doesn't even imagine how it is done. False gurus and false prophets also pass under this card – they are great masters at teaching how to live and demand spiritual feats from others, while they themselves often lead a very low lifestyle. This is the card of broken commandments and promises, 'breakdowns' in the middle of a learning, healing, or upbringing process. Sometimes under this card, a person engages in God-fighting and diligently resists fate, although they feel that the sands are quicksand and efforts only worsen the situation. The reversed Hanged Man resembles The World; it claims to possess everything and be free in everything, but in fact, its hands and feet are tied, and it is far from the free universal dance of the Twenty-First Arcana. The 12th and 21st Arcana are indeed connected.

This is a very deep topic. Here there is a denial of bonds that actually exist, a showy freedom that does not and cannot exist in these circumstances. The difference between The World and the reversed Hanged Man is as great as between a school graduate and a truant. Possibly, both are having fun and entertaining. But if the graduate is truly free from classes and can think of nothing, the truant's reality is completely different. Deep down, they are perfectly aware that it will remind them of itself in an unpleasant way, there's no escape.

N-o-w-h-e-r-e t-o g-o.

The upright Hanged Man renounces himself, and the reversed one – renounces obligations. This is the desire to insist on one's own – and at the same time a clear indication that in the long term, the attempt is doomed to failure.

Interestingly, in old sources, this is an indicator of common folk.