The Tarot Hanged Man card is about personal sacrifice, of course. But this figure seems not to be broken, although hanging upside-down. He will bounce right back, as soon as he manages to get free. It’s not that he heals easily. The Tarot Hanged Man is one of the few who is not hurt to begin with, as if invulnerable. Maybe that’s what tempts other people to use him as a scapegoat. The Tarot Hanged Man has a halo, and not a small one at that. Hanging from the wooden structure it makes him look a bit like Jesus on the cross. The martyr. He’s probably hanging upside-down not to bear too much resemblance to Christ. That would have been blasphemy in the time when this image took its shape… But the Tarot Hanged Man is a martyr that neither dies nor suffers that tremendously. He has a way of shaking it off, the essence of which is his unharmed belief in the universal power of good. An optimist, indeed. Someone who loves life so much that he sees the light of it and not its shadows. When victimized by other people, and that happens frequently, the Hanged Man doesn’t feel like a victim. When exposed to envy or even hate, he sees beyond it and pities the people who are so aggravated. The Hanged Man may even blame himself, but not for long. He has trust in all of mankind, however hard reality might whip him. So, in a Tarot reading the Hanged Man card indicates a sacrifice, maybe even a big one, but it will not be harmful at length. You will come out of it on top. Like they say: what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger, and in this case happier, too…If the Tarot Hanged Man card refers to a person, which it often is, it is someone who is willing to make the sacrifice needed for things to find their solution — even if that sacrifice is completely unrewarded… If the Tarot Hanged Man card in your divination spread refers to an event, which is not that common, then it is one where a personal sacrifice is needed… If the Tarot Hanged Man card has a position in the spread referring to you, it means you are the one readily making any sacrifice needed — either in the present situation, or as a constant personality trait. You have no fear of becoming the martyr, so to speak…
First Appearance Ducal courts of northern Italy (c. 1440)
First Publisher ○
Appearance List Sola Busca (1490s) — earliest surviving deck [Open Culture] [WaiteSmith.org]; Monde primitif… (Vol. 8: “Du Jeu des Tarots”) (1781) by Antoine Court de Gébelin; Manière de se récréer avec le jeu de cartes nommées Tarots (1783–1785) by Etteilla (Jean-Baptiste Alliette); Dogme et rituel de la haute magie (1856) by Éliphas Lévi; The Tarot: Its Occult Signification, Use in Fortune-Telling, and Method of Play (1888) by S. L. MacGregor Mathers; Le Tarot des Bohémiens (1889) by Papus (Gérard Encausse); Rider Waite Tarot (1909) by A. E. Waite and Pamela Colman Smith [WaiteSmith.org]; The Tarot of the Bohemians (1910) by A. P Morton [Internet Archive]; The Pictorial Key to the Tarot (1911, 1959) by A. E. Waite and Pamela Colman Smith; Le tarot des imagiers du moyen âge (1926) by Oswald Wirth; The Book of Thoth: A Short Essay on the Tarot of the Egyptians (1944) by Aleister Crowley; Le Tarot de Marseille (1949) by Paul Marteau; The Tarot Revealed (1960) by Eden Gray; Tarot Cards for Fun and Fortune Telling (1970) by Stuart R. Kaplan; The Encyclopedia of Tarot (Vol. 1) (1978) by Stuart R. Kaplan.
Sample Read The Pictorial Key to the Tarot (1911, 1959) by A. E. Waite and Pamela Colman Smith [Internet Archive]
Description The Tarot Hanged Man card is about personal sacrifice, of course. But this figure seems not to be broken, although hanging upside-down. He will bounce right back, as soon as he manages to get free. It’s not that he heals easily. The Tarot Hanged Man is one of the few who is not hurt to begin with, as if invulnerable. Maybe that’s what tempts other people to use him as a scapegoat. The Tarot Hanged Man has a halo, and not a small one at that. Hanging from the wooden structure it makes him look a bit like Jesus on the cross. The martyr. He’s probably hanging upside-down not to bear too much resemblance to Christ. That would have been blasphemy in the time when this image took its shape… But the Tarot Hanged Man is a martyr that neither dies nor suffers that tremendously. He has a way of shaking it off, the essence of which is his unharmed belief in the universal power of good. An optimist, indeed. Someone who loves life so much that he sees the light of it and not its shadows. When victimized by other people, and that happens frequently, the Hanged Man doesn’t feel like a victim. When exposed to envy or even hate, he sees beyond it and pities the people who are so aggravated. The Hanged Man may even blame himself, but not for long. He has trust in all of mankind, however hard reality might whip him. So, in a Tarot reading the Hanged Man card indicates a sacrifice, maybe even a big one, but it will not be harmful at length. You will come out of it on top. Like they say: what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger, and in this case happier, too…If the Tarot Hanged Man card refers to a person, which it often is, it is someone who is willing to make the sacrifice needed for things to find their solution — even if that sacrifice is completely unrewarded… If the Tarot Hanged Man card in your divination spread refers to an event, which is not that common, then it is one where a personal sacrifice is needed… If the Tarot Hanged Man card has a position in the spread referring to you, it means you are the one readily making any sacrifice needed — either in the present situation, or as a constant personality trait. You have no fear of becoming the martyr, so to speak…
