Sign: Pisces
Element: Water
Numerology: XII
Numerologically speaking the number twelve is a master number, it signifies divine order, wholeness, cosmic order, spiritual authority, and spiritual perfection. This number is a gateway number through the presence of number 3 within its make up (2+1). The number 2 can be seen to represent partnership, union, the high priestess, and the vessel. The number 1 can be seen to represent leadership, new beginnings, a new cycle, and divine order as well. When we combine all of these energies we see that the number XII is a perfect representation of harmony, unity, divine presence, and assertion through Divine Will.
Message from Dilara:
The Hanged Man finds us between the Justice and Death card. The Hanged Man is the moment of suspended perspective, of the pause, the intuitive insight to gather oneself into the moment and re-asses what is needed, why, how, and when. The Hanged Man is in essence another leap into the void (like The Fool) but instead of an action this void is the void where choice is suspended and held aloft until further notice.
Some schools of thought say that the literal position of the figure in the card is illustrative of a shift in perspective. Of a finite moment in which all belief in reality comes to a halt and the world is perceived through the eye of the beholder and in this case the beholder is the heart, as the head is inversed. I feel The Hanged man is a deeply heart oriented card. It is only when the world is askew that our heart leads us unfalteringly into the next chapter.
Indecision, confusion, delay, procrastination and sacrifice are all energies associated with this card as well. Because of the shift in perspective, psychic abilities and ‘seeing what others are unable to’ is also part of what this card holds. The sacrificial element is particularly strong here for a few reasons: One is that, before we go into death there is a sacrifice of the self in some way, a letting go, a release, and a movement away from the old in order to make space for the new. The other element of sacrifice here is that at times humans can be quite self-sacrificing in order to please another. To please our parents / care givers, friends, beloveds. This self-sacrifice can create a specific perspective of the SELF which may not be entirely true.
For example, if a child considers herself worthy of love only when sacrificing her voice so that other’s can speak over her, this will develop a perspective of the self which could be – I am only worthy when I am quite or when I give space to other to speak before me. This particular sacrificial energy diminishes the potential and possibility of expansion for this child’s expression.
The Presence of The hanged Man allows for a pause to occur for us to re-evaluate where we may have been sacrificing in our lives, and in what way.
Reversed:
The feeling of ‘nothing I do works out’ is associated with the reversed position of The Hanged Man. Powerlessness and a sense that even in the pause nothing is working in your favour. The difference between the Hanged Man upright and reversed is that in its upright position the pause is fruitful, the stagnation has deep meaning and purpose. In its reversed position the pause feels draining, disempowering and deeply bitter. Where there is resentment there is a judgement of reality as it stands. This means that there is also a resistance to reality as it stands.
The Hanged Man in its reversed position presents a sense of denial and sacrifice without ANY reason. In essence, perspective is blocked. Your potential is blocked. Your perspective of self is ungrounded.
In its reversed position this card can also symbolise a spiritual turning point and a deep revealing of where stagnation may have taken hold in your life.
Message from The Herd:
The Hanged Man. Listen to the name. Take in the name as it is a strong explanation of the card. To be illusive is an art form. Having a sense of the underworld and the storm in the soul before the soul shakes into a new layer of itself.
The Hanged Man is the very full, very powerful halting of life in order to gain perspective on what the horizon offers, the horizon in this instance is the calling. What calling can you see from your new vantage point? What colours? What elevation and expression can you sense which may have been cut off from you before this moment.
Rushing never did anyone any good. Rushing is a syndrome of fear.
The Hanged Man asks you to look any fears you may have straight in the eye yet from a new angle, with this angle you are a crafting a sense of self which has fringes in it. Which has recalibration and a sense of remembrance. The Hanged Man can bring up a discomfort due to its ungrounded nature. The dreamer dreams in symbols. The dreamer has no fortune in roots but rather a firm and residual belonging in the potential of the sky. The sky holds all that is inverse.
Water falls rather than rests in its body, everything you see in the sky has a rotation to it. The clouds, sun, stars, moon, wind. To be able to observe the sky in its full format, which The Hanged Man is capable of, is a blessing and insight. Therefore, this card brings with it the insight of the cosmos. The insight of the celestial counterparts of its nature. The insights of its being in full capacity.
It is down to the one who asks the question to be brave enough to sit in the power of that perspective. Do you have the courage to sit within the essence of your opposite? To gain clarity through surrendering all you have known without an attachment to what may come through. This is the medicine and purity of The Hanged Man energy.
To be within the moment without gaining any momentum towards the next moment, at all. This is why the card appears before the Death card. In order to step into true Death and Rebirth one must first grow through surrender. There is a step before dying, which is living from a place of recognising all that is the opposite of what you have known before!
Reversed:
Reversed, this card offers the one who questions the opportunity to seek and find. What we mean by this is that there is possibility yet no action. A revelation has occurred and the one who seeks it with an unbridled sense of who they are is ready to take up the mantle of the new. However, there is also a slip in action. The action needed cannot be attained somehow, it cannot be mastered therefore there is a sense of remembrance without placement. At its most centred depth The Hanged Man is a card of finding spirit, the journey is simply about mastering what we would call ‘the still point’ in the endeavour to remember. Reversed, the perceptive of self is hidden and action is desired yet there is a feeling of being unable to move toward what is needed. This, for a human, can be a deep returning to safety. An invitation to create safety through the unknown, once again.