The Hanged Man is a symbol for the turning points in life, showing up a need to stop and assess a situation. We’re hanging in the air until we find a new view of the things around us, a proper way to rearrange or restart.

The Hanged Man is nailed upside-down, a position in which the personal will is broken. The situation is at a stalemate: there is no more room to move. Escape of any kind has become impossible. The serpents of transformation and wisdom lay coiled and sleeping.

The Hanged Man is nailed to the wood of his petrified attitudes and viewpoints. His eyes are closed: he is blind to all which does not fit into the closed system of his concepts. Every new idea, every new impulse, is ignored or resisted.

His head is shaved. The hair, symbol of spiritual perception, is removed. The Hanged Man has even lost trust in his own intuition. All his efforts seem unpromising and doomed to failure.

However, even in the midst of this hopelessness, wonders can occur! The point has come at which you can no longer avoid seeing naked realities. There is nothing left but to face up to them and let go. This form of capitulation, the giving up of willfulness and frozen ideologies leads to far-reaching transformation; breaking through rigid behavior patterns, clearing away old rubbish, full surrender to the higher Self, freedom from narrow-mindedness and dogma. One who bows willingly to the cosmic order of the Universe is able to become one with the flow of the Tao. »Not my will, but Thy Will be done; for Thy Will is also mine.« The great reward for the deep surrender to the Whole is a one hundred eighty degree turn. The world can be seen from a new perspective!