Tarot Tuesday: The Hanged Man

Tying Your Own Noose

Per special request, this week we are going to explore The Hanged Man.  Traditionally, this card depicts a male figure hanging upside down by one leg, hanging helplessly in negative space and unable to free himself.

Hanged Man

This card, in my experience has layers of meaning and can help or hinder the seeker when it comes up in a reading.  For me, it plays heavily on the cards that are surrounding it for whether it is having a negative impact or positive on the the person getting a reading.

The Hanged Man can create a sense of helplessness, frustration, and victimization.  You are bound and helpless to the situation at hand. You feel adrift, without anchor and have a tendency to let things happen to you rather than taking a stand and making what you want to happen.

This card can indicate that the person getting the reading is is being pulled in two different directions and can't see the way out.  It is warning that the recipient has a tendency to blindly follow routine and to resign themselves to their fate.

On the flip side this card can be a wake up call that the person needs to shift their perspective.

When we are faced with a problem and can not seem to break through and find a solution we need to turn our thinking upside down.  We need to explore unexpected avenues for a solution.  An outside perspective can help because many times we are too close to the problem to see the solution.

Safety can create stagnation.

The position the Hanged Man is in is hardly safe.  It is a precarious perch, that if he falls can create severe injury or even death.  We sometimes need that wake up call.  We need to be challenged, we need to make our thoughts uncomfortable or we risk rusting.

The rewards for this kind of thinking is to reach a kind of illumination that you would not normally achieve. One example of this would be Odin.  He sacrificed Himself to Himself for knowledge.  This was not altruistic sacrifice, but selfish; He acted to gain knowledge for Himself.  In so doing, He gained a greater insight into the world and how it worked as well as the Runes.

Shifting our perspective helps bring bright illumination to a problem; almost Eureka flashes of knowledge that help us see what we are being pulled between and which situation will lead to what we desire to happen.

In essence, this card is about freedom and slavery.  We can either be slaves of our own self- victimization or we can free our consciousness from tired old ways of thinking. If you are meditating on this card try and use it as an insipiraton to shake up your world view and be uncomfortable with your world.  Sometimes you have to be willing to make a sacrifice in order for things to get back on the right track.

Practical Pathworking

Pull the Hanged Man card from your deck or find an image on the internet that resonates with you. Set up a meditation like the one from the Strength. Put yourself into the card and feel yourself hanging upside down,

Hanged Man from the Thoth Tarot

helpless.  Surrender to the feeling of helplessness. Immerse yourself in it.  Let the feelings of anxiety go, relax into it.  Let your mind flow and float above your problems. We can either be slaves of our own self- victimization or we can free our consciousness from tired old ways of thinking. Look down and see the dynamic between them.  What do you need to sacrifice? What do you need to let go? Listen to the messages from the Universe and carry them with you as your return to a normal state of mind.