12. The Hanged Man
i. The Nutshell
Upright
The Hanged Man is intentional pause. When this card appears, it asks you to step back and look at something differently. Moving forward without reflection may be keeping you from seeing what really matters. This card invites a shift in perspective, even if it means letting go of control or clarity for a moment. It’s about releasing the need for quick answers to allow deeper insight to surface. Sometimes progress begins with waiting.
Keywords: Surrender, pause, new perspective, letting go, suspension, insight.
Translation: Stop forcing it - try seeing it differently instead.
Reversed
The Hanged Man reversed shows up when a pause has become a standstill. What started as reflection may now be avoidance, fear, or hesitation. You might feel stuck, calling it patience, but nothing is really changing. This card is a sign that it’s time to stop waiting and start moving because clear thinking often comes through action, even if that’s a simple daily walk.
Keywords: Stagnation, delay, resistance, confusion, overthinking.
Translation: Is this a holding pattern? At some point, not deciding is the decision.
ii. Illus-traits
A quick glance at The Hanged Man’s symbolic traits in the Rider-Waite-Smith deck - what's hidden in plain sight?
Halo Around Head – Enlightenment through surrender.
Inverted Position – Perspective flipped on purpose.
Tied Foot, Free Leg – Limited motion, chosen stillness.
Calm Face – Peace despite the predicament.
Tree Frame – Growth requires a break. This pause can lead to new opportunities.
iii. Influences
Planetary:
The Hanged Man symbolises Neptune as a force of change by dissolving the mist. It helps you see differently by blurring boundaries and surrendering control. It strips away ego-driven stories, asking you to release the need for immediate answers and let meaning unfold in its own time.
Natal House(s):
The Hanged Man represents the Twelfth House of undoing, surrender, seclusion, and the unconscious, allowing the soul to express itself. It signifies a pause before rebirth, and where the ego unravels. The Sixth House opposite reminds us that insight is only valuable if applied in daily life. These houses prompt you to consider where you need to retreat for truth and how to integrate your discoveries.
Astrological Sign(s):
The Hanged Man lacks a traditional sign ruler but is often linked to Pisces, a mutable water sign that embodies deep receptivity, boundary-blurring empathy, and a drifting, anchor-less nature. In this card, Pisces’ flow of water becomes a temporary billabong. The invitation is to yield to a higher rhythm, even if it makes no logical sense. Virgo, the opposite sign, asks you to turn the insight you receive into something serviceable, grounded and real. Space in, versus spacing out.
Numerologically:
The Hanged Man is Twelve, which reduces to Three - the number of synthesis, creation, scattered energy, optimism and gestation. Twelve is a transitional space: not quite here, not quite there, whilst being fully intentional about it. It asks you to suspend action in favour of reorientation because you’re in strategy-planning mode. Three is germinating; something is forming here and it needs stillness to shape itself.
Element: Water moves without force. It adapts and flows, mirroring its surroundings while maintaining its essence. It teaches us to be present in uncertainty and encourages us to feel rather than fix. The Hanged Man says this will be quicker if you relax your stance whilst remaining strong in that temporary billabong.
iv. A Day in the Life of The Hanged Man
Well That Escalated Quickly
You’re hanging on, but not in the enlightening way; more like hoping someone else makes the hard call for you. You confuse stuckness with surrender and wonder why the answer never lands. You stall, overthink, and repeat. Every delay feels inconvenient and you’re noticing things happening to force you into a standstill. You’re sick and tired of waiting. You suspect you’re going in the wrong direction but trying to hammer that square peg into a round hole anyway.
Adjusting the Knobs
You’ve hit pause yourself, but you’re not quite sure what you’re listening for. You know something has to shift but can’t name it yet. You're suspended between knowing and acting, and you sense this discomfort has a purpose, but still bargain with it anyway. You journal, meditate, maybe over-symbolise, hoping insight arrives before you're forced to choose. You’re starting to see there’s a difference between pausing with intention and waiting to feel in control, and you know that one moves life forward, whilst the other keeps it on hold, but you just can’t quite embody this yet.
Unsubscribed from Self-Sabotage
You surrender to the pause without trying to edit it. You embrace the in-between sensing this space holds more truth than the action you were ready to force. You’re open to standing on your head and willing to see something from another angle without needing it to match your previous plans. You’re now being more present.
Writing the TED Talk
You surrender with intention and make peace with the not-knowing whilst letting stillness do its work. You reframe stagnation as gestation and trust timing without demanding timelines. You let discomfort become insight and allow this perspective to do what willpower alone couldn’t. You know clarity isn’t always that light bulb moment and that it’s being with the quiet that shows the way.
v. Working with these Energies
Living The Hanged Man with Presence and Perspective
The Hanged Man invites a new vantage point and challenges you to trust the discomfort of pause, to stay curious in uncertainty, and to recognise that some shifts only come when you let go of your grip a particular outcome:
1. Relinquish control to gain clarity
– Where are you pressing forward when life’s asking you to pause?
– What opens up when you stop needing to define the outcome?
– Are you waiting with presence, or avoiding discomfort?
2. Reframe resistance
– What if this pause is permission…to…?
– What belief is this delay challenging?
– Where have you mistaken surrender for weakness?
3. Let discomfort be a teacher
– What is this stuckness trying to show you?
– Where does patience feel like a threat to your identity?
– Can you listen longer without rushing to interpret?
4. Shift your perspective, not your plan
– What changes when you look at the situation upside down, literally or figuratively?
– Are you sticking with what you know instead of making a wise choice?
– What happens if nothing changes but the way you see it?
5. Honour the sacred pause
– What would it take to rest without apology?
– Where in your life needs reflection more than reaction?
– How can stillness become a choice of circumstance?
vi. Building Skills
Wise Mind Meditation
The Hanged Man is the pause between knowing and acting; the still point where perspective lives, just beneath the noise. It’s about surrendering urgency so you can see things from a different angle, one that isn’t dictated by fear, habit, or old stories.
Sit quietly and take a few deep breaths. Place your hand on your stomach, just below your ribs. Think about a decision or question you want direction on. Now, ask your inner self what it knows. Don’t analyse or judge the response; just listen.
This is the practice of a wise mind, where emotion and logic meet in stillness. The Hanged Man invites clarity by surrender over force and fretting. When you stop trying to control the answer, the answer has a chance to speak.
vii. Embodiment
Tarot is lived, felt and suspended in the body, and The Hanged Man shows up somatically as the pause between impulses, the release of resistance, and the stillness that holds space for insight. It lives in the exhale, in the unclenching, in the moment you stop bracing for answers and let them arrive on their own. Consider these ways to embody The Hanged Man today:
Smell:
What does surrender smell like? Maybe it’s petrichor; and the scent of damp earth after the rain. Your hammock. Or, something quiet, clean, and a little unfamiliar. Like something you’ve smelled before but couldn’t name until now.
Body:
Where are you holding tension that isn’t helping? Is your neck tight from trying to see too far ahead? Are your shoulders creeping up from carrying questions you can’t answer yet? What shifts when you stop pushing and simply hang where you are?
Soundtrack:
What song feels suspended but deliberate? Think slow tempo, unresolved chords, space between the beats. Meditative versus melancholy. Music that invites reflection without giving answers. A sound that lets the moment stretch.
Action:
What can you not do today? Can you pause instead of pushing? Delay a decision out of respect for timing? Let something marinate before you label it? Let go of needing immediate resolution?
Nature cue:
Go outside. What reflects quiet suspension? A leaf frozen mid-fall in a web? A bird gliding without flapping? Water so still it mirrors back more than it moves? The kind of moment that asks to be witnessed.
Notice what quiets you:
Pause long enough to feel where intentional surrender becomes insight.
viii. Your Impressions
Look at The Hanged Man card in your own deck if possible. Take a moment to notice without overthinking.
Where does your focus land first - on the inverted figure, the serene expression, the halo of light, the bound foot, the crossed leg? Does it feel peaceful or precarious? Surrendered or stuck? Are you looking for tension or release?
Now check your body. Do you feel suspended? Stilled? Slightly disoriented or oddly calm? Is there an invitation to let go, or a quiet resistance to pause long enough to notice?
This card asks if you’re willing to stay still long enough to receive your dawning.
ix. Intuitive Meaning
Use this space to explore what The Hanged Man means to you as a lived experience. Let it reflect where you’ve paused instead of pushed, surrendered control, questioned your momentum, or let something fall apart so something else could realign:
When have you chosen stillness over struggle, or wisdom over weakness?
Where are you holding on when release is what’s really needed?
What would it look like to trust the in-between without needing to rush to clarity?
Applied insight with a three-card reading using The Hanged Man as your anchor:
What perspective is trying to shift in me, and what resistance is keeping me stuck?
Where am I being asked to surrender defeat and trust in something deeper?
What part of my life would benefit from pause, reflection, or a complete reversal of approach?
Pull or shuffle-fling your cards and note your feelings. Take your time and let the answers unfold. Write three ‘you’ words that relate to your current experience:
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x. Closing Reflection: Track Your Evolving Lens
Your relationship with each card will grow over time because it’s meant to shaped by your life. Consider the prompts below to revisit and reflect.
What I thought this card meant when I first pulled it: —————————————————
A recent experience that changed how I see it: —————————————————
How I feel about it now, in my body or life: —————————————————
What surprised me as this card kept showing up: —————————————————
One way this card is living in my life right now: —————————————————
If this card visited me today as a guide, what would it want me to remember? —————————————————
Revisit these after a week, a moon phase, or a meaningful moment. Let the card evolve as you do.
If you feel a quiet sense of recognition, curiosity and want to explore it, browse the sessions page for what feels right.