The Hanged Man
By Claire Coleman, Art by Robin Ator

This card is possibly the strangest image in the Tarot pack. A man hangs upside down, but looks rather happy about it. A halo burns around his head. What has he learned? What is he trying to tell us?

The Hanged man evokes a Christian theme, sacrifice, and considering the cross he is hanging from, this could be interpretted as an image of Jesus. Sacrifice involves giving up something you really value in order to obtain something of more value. The Hanged man can also be assigned to Odin, Viking God, who hung from the World tree for nine days in order to learn to read runes. He sacrificed in order to gain hidden knowledge.

Sometimes you have to be passive to win. If you give yourself over to life, you can be swept along to a quite unexpected conclusion. Let the universe create your path, because it can see a lot further than you can.

As you may have noticed, the Hanged Man is also upside down. His perspective on life is very different from ours. Sometimes the only way to learn is to look at things in a totally different way. If you are having problems or arguments with someone try to focus on what is driving them. What do they want? Look at it from their side. You would be amazed how much this can help.

The Hanged Man is all about trying to solve problems in new ways. Try it and hidden knowledge might well be yours!