The Hanged Man
The Hanged Man represents the dual themes of transcension and suspension, showing that physical limitation can be a gateway to spiritual and mental freedom. It teaches that inner resources and choice enable liberation even when external circumstances are constraining. Periods of delay or suspension are temporary opportunities for conscious surrender, altered perspective, or decisive action that can spark change. Reversed, the card often indicates emerging freedom, the resolution of long delays or addictions, and new paths opening that invite action. Magickally, it is used to enhance trance, meditation, calm nerves, and to create or overcome delays.
Keywords
Description
This card has two primary themes: transcension and suspension. Though physically trapped and bound, the Hanged Man overcomes his circumstance to gain spiritual and mental freedom. The physical body and the physical world are but temporary vessels that can only partially contain the spirit, while the liberated soul treads freely and forever.
Reminder
The Hanged Man reminds us that all we need to succeed is already inside us, and that although the outside world can hinder us and harm us, we have a choice in every moment of every day to think and feel whatever we like. Just as the soul can transcend the body to achieve a greater awareness, so too can the body transcend the limits of the mind in order to fulfill one's purpose.
Delay and Suspension
Though the Hanged Man speaks of delay and suspension, it is but a temporary pit stop on the way to finding true freedom. We may feel that our hands are tied, when in fact there are actions we could take right now to spark an immediate change. The Hanged Man urges us to seek those out.
Divinatory Meanings
Unwillingness or other delay in making a decision or taking a needed action; restraint; a state of suspension and a period of waiting; overcoming circumstance to find inner peace and liberation; willing surrender and conscious submission; altered consciousness; excessive intoxication or other addiction is hindering freedom; calm acceptance of fate; anxiety caused by procrastination; a feeling of being stuck; awaiting a judgment or sentence; an unfavorable judgment or sentence; being a victim to circumstance; being unable to act.
Reversed
Gaining freedom from what binds you; taking care of a matter after long delay; a desire for sobriety; a crime or wrongdoing is pardoned or otherwise unpunished; a serious and long-suffered inability to see beyond one's current state; options are available and doorways to new paths are opened that the querent has not yet considered; the time has come to take action that will lead to liberation from current limitations and restrictions.
Magickal Uses
Excellent for invoking a state of heightened spiritual awareness and for aiding in astral projection or entering another trance state, good for spells to calm and soothe irritated nerves, great for meditation, and good for charms to create a delay or a suspension. It can be used to represent inebriation, and reversed, it can be used to help overcome addiction or indecision.
Visual Description
A shrouded human figure is bound upright inside a metal, coffin-like frame and suspended from a thick tree branch by a heavy chain. Leather straps cinch the body at chest, waist and legs, and the head is covered with a white cloth and a dark band. Runes are carved vertically into the tree trunk around the hanging container, and gnarled roots and branches spread at the base. The background is split into two color fields, a cool blue on the left and a warm yellow on the right, framing the suspended figure.
Modern Spellcasters tarot
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