What is the meaning of the Hanged Man in Tarot Cards?

The Hanged Man Tarot Card is one of the most mysterious cards in the deck. Simple and complex at the same time, it’s attracting and interfering. The Hanged Man disturbs, because he symbolizes the action of the paradox in life. It presents us with certain truths that are hidden in their opposites.
This card is considered one of the most unfortunate in the deck, which does not carry much good. The Major Arcana Tarot card The Hanged Man usually means that a large number of problems and life difficulties are looming on the horizon, which will not be easy to go through. But the experience gained will also be of great benefit. In this article, we will consider the description and meaning in the relationship of a straight and inverted card, interpretation and combination with other cards in the spreads of love, health, career and work.

Depiction

A man is hanging upside down on a post, his hands tied behind his back. His head radiates light.
(For a detailed depiction, analysis of the Symbols and all Elements of the The Hanged Man Tarot Card, click here)

Meaning of the Card

The meaning of Hanged Man Tarot card depends on the essence of the question itself. If we are talking about any very important matter in the fate of the questioner, for whom he is ready to make every effort to implement it, then the card says with confidence that this event will definitely happen.
However, if nothing is implied in the question, the answer will be negative for everything. And if the Hanged Man’s card fell out as a final one, we can definitely say that progress in your case is not expected and you can safely postpone the decision until better times. It will take a lot of time to resolve issues, more than you planned to spend.
The Hanged Man Tarot requires you to voluntarily suffer from any loss or to sacrifice pleasure for the sake of achieving the end result. The higher the target, the greater the sacrifice. If you pay the price, the goal is achievable. You just need to remember that the sacrifice is voluntary during all this difficult time. Either pay the price or sacrifice the goal.
As in the case of the Hermit, many religions and myths describe a divine or semi-divine figure who made personal sacrifices to achieve divine wisdom or even divine state. In Scandinavian myths, for example, Odin (the ruler of the gods) hung for 9 days and 9 nights on a sacred tree to penetrate the wisdom of the runes. In the case of the Hermit Tarot, solitary pursuit is a means to an end. The Hanged Man teaches that personal sacrifice is needed to achieve a goal.
The Hanged Man Tarot is not sacrificed by others or for others. It is his choice and the reward awaits him. This is the idea behind the card. There are goals for which you have to make a personal sacrifice and to experience something unpleasant. If you endure, the sacrifice will pay off. If there is another benefit, as in the case of Odin’s runes, this is just the icing on the cake.
It is important to understand that you make the choice, the sacrifice must be voluntary, because the goal is worth it. Both the victim and the target can be anything: physical, intellectual, spiritual. But whatever the goal, you must sacrifice your childhood or selfish illusions for your mature dream to come true. As God created man in his own image and likeness, so you must re-create your I in the image and likeness of the chosen man.

Image of Victim
The meaning of the the Hanged Man Tarot card in the spread is sacrifice. This means that there is a purpose for which it is necessary to lose something, to sacrifice. But this does not mean that the effort will be wasted. Quite the opposite, the sacrifice will pay off completely in the future. But this is necessary, there is no other way. Both the target and the victim itself can be in different incarnations – both something physical and material, and spiritual, subconscious.

Passive state
Another meaning that the Hanged Man Tarot card describes is a certain period in life that occurs after the completion of some significant event, possibly the achievement of a goal. In this period, a person is in anticipation, he has an apathetic mood, there is no desire to actively develop.
According to this card, a person often feels that he was treated unfairly and asks the question: “Why?”. Often this is due to the fact that a person is too deeply immersed in the daily routine, the material world, and completely forgot what the Spirit requires of him for the development of self-awareness and spiritual qualities.
In addition, the 12 Arcana indicates complete passivity in a person’s life. He cannot make volitional decisions, since all his efforts are spent on maintaining fortitude. He also cannot free himself from this and make informed decisions, which causes him mental anguish and suffering. All this situation must be endured and wait a little and everything will fall into place after a while. Usually this card falls out when there is an important problem in a person’s life that he knows how to solve, but something stubbornly prevents him from doing it.

Humility
There is another feature of the Hanged Man card: it teaches us humility, acceptance of the situation as it is, and patience. The card makes it impossible to cling to various material goods and values: power, wealth, attachment to something. All this makes it difficult to comprehend and prevent any circumstances in time.
The Hanged Man’s card can appear when strange and sometimes even mystical things happen in life. Everything is going tumbling down, the circumstances are not going as planned. In this case, it is necessary to show humility and patience, and it’s even better to try to get used to the things that are happening, to adjust to them. Perhaps you need to think about your own values ​​and try to change them.

A step to the new
The Hanged man may also describe the need to learn new things. If initially the question was: “Will my child go to college,” the answer will be yes. He will not only enter, but will also be stuck in educational activities for a long time until he graduates and receives a diploma, for which it will be necessary to make a significant sacrifice. But it will not be wasted, it will pay off in full. As for mature people, the card advises to follow the traditional thinking as little as possible and try something new for yourself.

The path all goes as it pleases God. One foot there, the other here. I can see the promised land. Naked we come into this world, naked we leave it. Allow yourself to be real.

At present, a period of testing has come in your life, which dictates the need to learn some lessons. You are going through a transitional period, realizing that you are stuck halfway from old to new. But you are capable of selflessly tackling a significant project or making your desires a reality. You have a unique perspective that others simply don’t understand or appreciate.
Perhaps you have to let go of something from your life or sacrifice something in order to achieve a higher goal. Perhaps you will join a group of people who also made similar sacrifices. You need to give up the old in order to clear the way for the new. Perhaps you will sacrifice your own selfish desires for the sake of love for your neighbor. You may want to end some kind of relationship, as you realize all its futility. Time spent in contemplation, relaxation, and reflection will pay off handsomely. You need to restore the system of spiritual values ​​in your life. Perhaps you were too worried about something and now you need to turn to higher powers. Most likely, those around you will not understand you.

Persons designated by Upright The Hanged Man Tarot Сard

Those who selflessly devote themselves to the realization of a specific goal. People who move away from the hustle and bustle of life in order to engage in meditation. Those who are able to find the courage to change. Hospital patient. Spiritual person. Saint.

The Main Meanings of the Card In a Reversed Position

Key Words and Phrases

Materialism. Refusal to make the necessary sacrifices. Martyr complex. Imaginary security. Unsuccessful investments. Problems in solving financial issues. Lack of interest. The triumph of selfishness. Dissatisfaction. Depression. Yearning. Apathy. Insufficient effort. Feeling worthless. Observance of neutrality. Refusal to break with the past. Lack of spirituality. Excessive conformity. Death of the soul. False “I”. Denial of an important part of oneself. The desire to conform to public opinion. The end of indecision.

The main meanings of the card in a reversed position

Preoccupation with the mundane self;
Disregard for spiritual potential;
Selfishness;
Victim;
Delay, postponement;
Illusions;
Close attention to detail;
Loss of time;
A futile pursuit of an unattainable dream;
The period of “hanging” is coming to an end.

Situation and Advice

For some reason, you are deceiving yourself. Perhaps you have sacrificed some part of your life in vain. You may be living your life to meet someone’s expectations, and for this you give up your own needs and values. Are you playing the role of a victim in your relationship with someone? Such behavior can only lead to a feeling of uselessness and an unwillingness to devote oneself to achieving a more worthy goal. You may not want to sacrifice anything even for better results. Are you afraid to upset others by dancing to your own tune? Remember Emerson’s dictum that silly consistency was a bogeyman of limited minds? It looks like you need to turn your world upside down in order to see. Don’t waste your energy on useless projects. If what you asked was about financial matters, then beware of making a bad investment or following questionable advice at this point.
The positive value of this card lies in the fact that the period of “suspension” and uncertainty sooner or later comes to an end. If you manage to reconsider your priorities and chart new directions in life, then you will be ready to take decisive action.

Persons designated by the Reversed The Hanged Man Tarot Сard

Victims. Egoists. People who are trying to meet the demands of others. Unreliable people. Self-loving people.

In the Spreads

12 Arcana Tarot can be interpreted in two completely different ways, the meaning takes on the following aspects.
All change is a small kind of death, since the old must die in order to create the new. It may simply indicate shocks or changes in the future, perhaps beyond the control of the person himself.
Another interpretation refers to the sacrifice, although it is difficult to know if the sacrifice is small or large.
Both interpretations imply consistency, and the Querent needs to think very carefully about the decisions he makes in his life.
In spreads, the Hanged Man Tarot can appear in a positive meaning, strength or advantage, when people are ready to make sacrifices in order to achieve their own goals. The power of prophecy is on his side. If the Hanged Man Tarot appears in a negative position, the weakness or obstacles during the sacrifices are very difficult to perceive. Possibly the impact of poor health.
The “Hanged Man” Arcana of the Tarot reflects the need to suspend the action. As a result, it may indicate a period of indecision. Actions or decisions that need to be implemented can be postponed, even if at that particular moment a rather urgent decision needs to be taken.

The passivity, to which we are sentenced during this period, most of all resembles a bed patient. This is also one of the meanings of the card. A turning point has come in your life and it’s time for you to decide in which direction to move on. At the same time, it is necessary to make some kind of sacrifice in the name of gaining the desired goal. Otherwise, you still have to lose something, but the sacrifice will be much more serious.

In a Reversed Position:

You neglect your spiritual potential and become more preoccupied with your worldly self, which means you have closed your heart and mind to spiritual guidance. You are vulnerable to the influence of other people who do not have your interests in their hearts and can deceive you, so you need to proceed with caution and avoid making hasty decisions. Plus, you can use it to question the values ​​and beliefs you currently hold.
The reversed Hanged Man represents a certain period of time during which you feel like you are sacrificing a significant amount of time without getting anything in return. You may have felt that some things are in a stagnant state without any specific permission or promotion. You put all your effort and attention into something, but it doesn’t work out as it should.
In an inverted position, the Hanged Man means excessive immersion in one’s own affairs, self-centeredness, and also a useless pursuit of an unattainable dream. Another option for the interpretation of this card is that you are ready to sacrifice something, but under the circumstances it will turn out to be useless. The card can warn against striving for a purely material or selfish goal at the expense of spirituality, indicating stagnation and lack of growth.

In a Personal Spread

“The Hanged Man” speaks of the depth of your nature, high spiritual development and readiness to make sacrifices for yourself and loved ones. You are careful and prudent, busy looking for your place in life.

In the Spreads for Different situation

In an Upright Position:
Right, now the only thing to do is wait as calmly as possible for the situation to calm down. This card encourages you to accept certain situations, even those that are unpleasant, because after a while they will turn out to be correct. The thoughts of the interested person will turn into a detachment of what is close to his heart in the present, through undesirable events. This card evokes a sense of duty that cannot be escaped at the moment.
The time has come when you should take a break and rethink yourself, your actions, desires. Right now, you can make a discovery for yourself in order to start moving towards a great goal.

In a Reversed Position:
The upside down card evokes feelings of defeat or failure, which is the cause of anguish, disappointment, bitterness, and anger. The querent may be faced with a truth that is difficult to accept, or requires a painful decision.
A waste of time, a feeling of uselessness, a tendency to deceive oneself, the inability to perceive new things, although this is simply necessary now.

In the Spreads for Relationship

In an Upright Position:
It symbolizes a decadent and sluggish union that cannot be controlled. In such a relationship, you feel helpless, unable to change circumstances.
The card describes the relationship between people who are “at an impasse”. There is absolutely no romance in them, people are tired of each other and for the most part are tormented. But this does not mean that such a crisis has just begun. On the contrary, it has been going on for quite a long time. But if the Twelfth Arcana is present in the scenario, the ending becomes even more sad – people will disperse.
The paradox is that people are trying to find solutions, a way out of this crisis, but point-blank because of their own contradictions, pride, and they do not see them. All you have to do is sacrifice your beliefs, but that won’t help either. Because the card describes the state of narrow thinking and non-acceptance of the other side and new views. Thus, being in an oppressive, difficult and depressing relationship will sooner or later become burdensome for both partners.
Arcana Hanged Tarot in relationships and love symbolizes unhappiness and being in a rut. It’s time to get rid of any poisonous connections and focus only on those that give peace and joy. If you are hesitant to end a romantic relationship or friendship, there is no need to rush. You need to do some introspection.
Try to improve, it might be a situation in which the Hanged Man Tarot represents a departure from the past and moving on a different path.

In the Spreads for Family

In an Upright Position:
In the family, you receive help and support.
In a Reversed Position:
Don’t sacrifice yourself for anyone in your family. Help, of course, but not to your detriment. A person will only get worse from such sacrifice.

In the Spreads for Friendship

In an Upright Position:
People appreciate you because you are willing to sacrifice your needs for the good of any other person.
In a Reversed Position:
You go with the flow without setting boundaries in your relationships with people. In the end, this will lead to resentment on both sides.

In the Spreads for Money

In an Upright Position:
For the most part, having the Hanged Man card in the spread is a direct path to the “financial hole”. Endless wasting awaits you, payment of financial debts, fines. Any unsuccessful financial investments are possible. For example, investments in an apartment, which will have huge debts, or a vehicle, which after some time will require financial investments. You will have to sell something, pawn valuables in a pawnshop, cut costs and save money.
You know how to save, and this quality gives you stability even in the midst of general instability.
It takes longer than expected to make a profit. Financial stability appears to be fragile. The situation will improve if you continue to make constant efforts. You should avoid borrowing money, making promises, or going deep into investments. Fear can often lead to rash decisions that only make the situation worse.
In a Reversed Position:
You are naturally generous, so you need to be sure not to become a martyr or give too much to people. Check yourself on this score from time to time.
You need to realize now that you are NOT alone, and you do not need to do everything yourself. Feel free to ask for help if needed. If you are in financial trouble, now is an important time to “open the flow” of prosperity by giving away some of what you have. Know that there is someone nearby who is likely to extend their right hand to share their piece of bread with you.

In the Spreads for Education

In an Upright Position:
You are thinking about what can be learned from different subjects. Not only in terms of test scores, but also what you could give to the world through knowledge.
In a Reversed Position:
You need to focus, and it’s best to do it immediately. You get valuable information that you won’t have time to re-study.

In the Spreads for Career

In an Upright Position:
Unfortunately, when the Hanged Man card is dropped, there is no need to hope for development on the career ladder. In this case, in the professional field, only failures await you. Situations will occur in which you are guilty, in other words, someone will set you up and make you a scapegoat.
Sometimes the card symbolizes the sacrifice of your personal relationships for the sake of work. This may relate to a long-awaited vacation, which at the very last moment will have to be canceled, weekends, which will have to hang around at work from morning to evening, or maybe undermined nerves and health due to stressful and conflict situations.
For a person engaged in entrepreneurial activity, the Hanged Man indicates a change in the direction of business. Perhaps you need to completely revise the strategy and tactics of your business, learn something, discover something new.
If the questioner is engaged in the implementation of any project, with the Hanged Man’s card, he will face numerous stops due to lack of adequate funding, or the management will deliberately slow down the implementation of the project.
Projects can be temporarily blocked or take a long time. Sometimes they are simply canceled. Until there is a new beginning, the 12th Arcana causes a period of reflection, when a person feels in himself a lack of interest in his work. You will have to endure and during this time learn to pay attention to the little things that seem unimportant to you, but, accumulating, are of great importance in making it difficult to move forward.

In a Reversed Position:
When things go wrong, it’s important that you resist the temptation to blame everyone and everything but yourself. At the same time, it is important that you do not paralyze yourself from being able to move forward. You may need to change something important in your current job. Think about what your “ideal” situation might look like.
Missed opportunities, lack of desire to move forward and achieve set goals, negative attitude of the bosses.

For example, many people have found that their health improves markedly when they stop eating dairy, meat, or vegetables altogether. You can radically change your mind about what you think is physically wrong. Listen to your body and what it is telling you, and think about a possible spiritual relationship with any physical symptoms.

In the Perspectives

You are heading for a dead end, which will require all your patience, but it will also provide an experience of deep self-discovery. Chances are, you have to make a big change or bring something to the harvest in order to overcome an unfortunate situation.

Answer to Yes / No Tarot Spreads

In an Upright Position:
No, and accept this “no” voluntarily, then in the future you will be rewarded.
In a Reversed Position:
Definitely no.

Combinations with other cards

Strengthening
The Fool: belief in existence, commitment to society
Strength: patience, buying time
The High Priestess: reduced activity, wait
Ten of Swords: sacrifice, martyrdom
Weakening
The Magician: activity, doing
Four of Pentacles: hold, control
Seven of Wands: defiant behavior, confrontation
The Chariot: self-affirmation

Arcana’s warning

You can make the wrong decision or make a useless sacrifice. It is necessary to change the direction of thought.

Self-Development Lesson

We are all able to become conductors of light and learn to reflect the highest spiritual wisdom in our daily lives. In doing so, we will learn to refrain from the desires and concerns of the worldly self and surrender ourselves to the power of cosmic forces.

Key Ideas

You have reached a turning point. Perhaps you have lost something, but in return you will gain a new one.
Remember that when one door closes, another door always opens somewhere nearby.

Psychological (Personality) Meaning of the Arcana

Type of person in an upright position:
A person contemplating life; diligent but unproductive worker; a student devoted to his teacher.
The card means a person who is disinterested, attentive to others, tactful in communication. Excessive frankness is not characteristic of him. He is revealing his thoughts only to those whom he deeply trusts. In turn, he is good at keeping other people’s secrets. Of the shortcomings is that sometimes he is slow in making his mind, which is why it unwittingly lets other people down.

Do not try to withdraw into yourself and confine yourself to the world of your own experiences. Wait patiently for the development of events. Yes, you stopped for a while, but soon life will carry you forward again,so try to be psychologically ready for this.

Final Advice of Arcana

You cannot move quickly forward in life. If you are frustrated with a situation that you cannot change, you must first change your view of it.

In an Upright Position:
Turn your world upside down and see.
Be flexible, take into account changing circumstances. At the same time, do not delay making a decision for too long. Otherwise, delay will most negatively affect the affairs of the Questioner.
In a Reversed Position:
Reconsider your own priorities and chart a different direction in life. This is the meaning of the Tarot card The Hanged Man in the spread for council.
Show stubbornness, disobey where they are trying to impose someone else’s will. Looking for like-minded people, being alone is dangerous, there is a risk of becoming a bargaining chip in the hands of intriguers

Conclusion

The Hanged man, if you look at him in a simple way, means that we are “stuck”, at a dead end. On closer examination, it turns out that behind this external immobility lies the need and a good opportunity to rethink a lot in life, and as a result – to make profound changes, both in himself and in the look at things. The passivity to which we are sentenced during this period most of all resembles the image of a bed patient. This is also one of the meanings of the card. CG Jung said well about the Hanged Man as a sensation: “Hanging means (…) some difficulty, although surmountable, but that is precisely why it represents that rare situation, which requires the greatest stress from a person, giving him the opportunity to reveal himself entirely”.

The stage of development of the inner “I” comes when you clearly understand that in order to fulfill your cherished desire you need to sacrifice something. Without sacrifice, there will be no result that would be completely satisfying. Therefore, it is necessary to learn to accept such circumstances and treat them as completely natural.
Only when you get rid of something can you understand what was previously inaccessible. You always have a choice of how best to act, but the Hanged Man’s card insists that in order to fulfill the cherished desire, it is necessary to part with any stereotypes, change your thinking, in general, voluntarily sacrifice something and only then the dream will come true.
The Hanged Man’s card also symbolizes the mystical direction. It is the best suited for the period of spiritual practices, self-knowledge and self-study, renunciation of everything material and immersion in the subtle world. In this case, a person goes through global self-development and comes out completely different, as if he is being born again, already with new ideals and aspirations in life.

Discover other Major Arcana: