The Hanged Man
The Hanged Man shows a seeker suspended beneath the World Tree, embracing chosen stillness to gain a new angle on life. Upright, it urges pause, surrender of control, and intentional sacrifice to allow insight, wisdom, and unexpected routes to emerge. Reversed, it warns of purposeless stalling, clinging to the familiar, or martyrdom without change. Ultimately the card invites cutting ties or inverting your approach so that stillness becomes strategy rather than a prison, offering patience and perspective before the next step.
Keywords
Visual description
An upside-down man is tangled in thick green tree roots beneath a gnarled trunk. He wears loose bright red trousers, a wide metal belt, and cuffs, his bare chest exposed. Long pale hair spills downward, and small dark horns curve from his temples. Blue and pink lights dot the web of roots, with XII at the top and the title 'THE HANGED MAN' at the bottom.
Meaning
Suspended in the under-roots of the World Tree, the seeker hangs calm, a guest of Veles' shadowed realm where pathways turn upside down and secrets drip like sap. What looks like captivity is a chosen stillness: control is surrendered so a new angle can bloom, and the red of life is tethered while the mind clears. Upright, this card asks you to pause, accept delay, and trade certainty for insight, letting old plans dangle while you listen for the whisper in the roots. It favors sacrifice with intent—releasing an outcome, offering time, comfort, or pride—so that wisdom and unexpected routes can appear. It is the liminal hush before the next step, a blessing of patience and perspective. Reversed, the same roots become knots: stalling without purpose, clinging to the familiar, or wearing the martyr's crown while nothing changes. It warns of paying a price with no initiation at the end, of denial of the necessary letting go, of saying "later" until the path rots. Cut a tie, choose, or invert your approach once more so that stillness becomes strategy rather than prison.
Slavic Legends Tarot
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