What is the meaning of symbols in The Hanged Man Tarot Card?

A handsome young man is suspended by his right leg on a T-shaped cross, knocked together from freshly cut trees. His hands are tied behind his back. It would seem that he must suffer, but his face expresses serenity, and his left leg is freely thrown over his right. The face is glowing because he carries light within himself.

In the ordinary sense, the Hanged Man is a Student. After all, on the one hand, teaching is always a compulsion, a restriction of freedom, albeit a temporary one. On the other hand, this is a new view of things, perhaps directly opposite to the usual one. In the transcendental plane, this is the Initiate, who has cognized the mystical side of things, but who has also realized the impossibility of interfering in their course, and therefore is at rest, relaxing. Temporary inconveniences are no longer able to confuse his soul.

Once this card was called “Traitor” (traitors were hung in this way) and was interpreted in the literal sense, as a threat of betrayal or punishment for it. However, the name “The Hanged Man” appears already in the 16th century, and one of the French names of the card, Potence, directly indicates its different meaning, because “potentiation” is called raising to a new degree, and in homeopathy this is the name for the process of making medicines, the transformation of poisons into medicines.

In the Egyptian Tarot it is called the Victim, although the modern meaning of the Hanged Man (in a straight position) is that sacrifice is not required of you, it is unnecessary.

Archetype: Hero Martyr.

Symbolism of The Hanged Man

Inverted Hanged Man Pose
It symbolizes the descent of spirit into matter. This is the path of light in darkness for subsequent release.

External Immobility
Personifies inner freedom.

Blue Tunic
It symbolizes an altered state of consciousness: meditation, a trance in which the Hanged Man is. He got rid of the heavy burden of memories.

Yellow Color Shoes
These are actions, desires, memories and ego-intellect that have lost their former meaning. Now only spirituality guides his being.

Rope
Ropes have long been a symbol of being bound or imprisoned. All people are well aware of the knot on the shoelaces. What are we doing? We tug and shake this knot in frustration, trying to loosen our grip. This has never worked. However, when we take a deep breath and take the time to slowly loosen the knot, we can finally untie it. This suggests that the more we fight and become angry against our circumstances, the stronger our knots will be.
Also symbolizes the connection with the cosmos.

Tiedness
External stagnation, immersion in depth.

Legs
He is hanging on his right leg – symbols of higher awareness. It also means that a person came to such trials not through his own free will.

Crossed Legs
This is a symbol of an intersection. Our thoughts are confused to the point of mess, because of which we are stuck. The person is at the intersection and cannot make a decision. Also symbolizes the earthly level.

Hand Position (Triangle)
Symbolizes the Divine level.

Head
There is no expression of struggle or discomfort on the face of the Hanged Man. It is a voluntary surrender process, and he knows that the result will lead to benefits.

Halo of Light Around the Head
It is a symbol of holiness, enlightenment and the acquisition of higher awareness and understanding. It also indicates that he does not experience suffering. He is completely calm and happy that he managed to abandon attempts to outwit life and death. His life is in the hands of a Higher Power.

Red Stocking
Means that the passions overwhelming him are tempered

T-shaped Cross (Wood)
The mark of the initiate. Spiritual life.

Tree shoots
The growth of new strengths and opportunities.

Number: 12
The boundary of time in the earthly world, the end of the cycle. 12 months a year, 12 day and 12 night hours, 12 signs of the zodiac.
The number 12 was considered a super-perfect number, a symbol of the “philosopher’s stone”, completeness and the divine circle that revolves the universe. The duodecimal structure of the universe, the presence of the number twelve in many realities of life and religious and spiritual traditions have been noted by many researchers.

The Twelfth Arcana of the Tarot The Hanged Man offers knowledge that has been tested not only by time, but also experienced on oneself. Having committed this or that sacrificial act, a person temporarily makes what exists in him abstractly, and vice versa, makes the reality in which he lives abstract. And then you can combine the experience gained after the experienced situation with the experience gained earlier. Man fully becomes a living being, integral and complete, endowed with his own consciousness and his own individuality.

Discover symbolism of other Major Arcana: