1. Tarot
2. Card meanings
3. The Hanged Man

Major Arcana · XII

The Hanged Man

• wisdom
• circumspection
• discernment
• sacrifice
• intuition

Upright meaning

A pause by choice. Waite stresses that the face shows deep entrancement, not suffering, and life in suspension: seeing things from a new angle.

Reversed meaning

Reversed, Waite gives selfishness. A gentle prompt to ask whose needs a delay is really serving.

• selfishness

Symbolism

A man hangs by one foot from a living tree, his face calm, a halo about his head.

Group

Major Arcana

Element, astrology

Not given by Waite, so we give none

Source

Our own plain-English summary of A. E. Waite, The Pictorial Key to the Tarot (London: Rider, 1911), Part II §2 (symbolism); Part III §3 (divinatory meanings). The keywords are Waite’s own words. Waite’s fortune-telling lists also contain harsher terms; we keep to the reflective readings he gives and never state an event as certain.

Tarot is a tool for reflection, not a prediction of fixed outcomes. This is not medical, legal or financial advice.