Card Meanings - WTH?

I've been noticing this a lot in reading threads in this forum: Why are the meanings I associate with particular cards so different than everyone else's? Example. Saw a thread that asked if the Hanged Man always means wait. It never means waiting for me. I associate the Hanged Man with fateful, final decisions. Did everyone else read the same book except me?

More than one meaning...

alchemist1248 said:

Saw a thread that asked if the Hanged Man always means wait. It never means waiting for me. I associate the Hanged Man with fateful, final decisions. Did everyone else read the same book except me?

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Think of tarot cards like words. If you look in a dictionary, some words have a lot of different meanings. A beginning student, who looks up a word, may get one meaning, while another gets something else. And yet both are right. Take the word "hang"—does it mean "hang up your coat" or "I like to hang out with them..."? Or how about : "I'm going to hang up now"? What the word means depends on how it is said in a sentence. Where is the word located? What are the other words before and after it?

Ditto for card meanings. No card has only one meaning. All cards have a variety of meanings. When you're starting out, it's a good idea to stick with just one of these. Like "Beginnings" for the Fool, say. Try to learn too many and you'd be drowning in meanings and unable to move forward. You get those initial meanings connected to the cards. Then you start to do readings. Then, as you become more adept at readings, you expand your understanding of the card. "What does it mean in this position?" and "What does it mean next to this card or that?" And especially, "What does it mean in answer to this or that question?"

If the question is "What is the situation on that computer I ordered?"...well, the Hanged Man isn't going to mean "fateful decision" is it? It's more likely to mean "Wait." And if the question is: "How is this person feeling about being with me?" Then it probably means that they're thinking it's a fateful decision that's going to turn things upside down. Question, position, the other cards...all these help decide the meaning of the card.

Does that help?

Personal message

Oh, and just to add—though this might confuse matters more—sometimes cards have personal meanings just for us. One reader may find that every time they get the 3/Swords it means that a relationship will end. Every other reader may say, "that's not what happens when I get that card..."

Decks get to know us as we get to know them. And they often have a "short-hand" with us, the way friends do. So, they may have a card that always means "X" to us. A meaning that no one else shares—or if they do, not as reliably--but which is pretty consistent in meaning that in our readings.

I definitely get that cards have different connotations in different situations. I've been reading for 10 years and I feel like I've gotten "okay" at having a big circle of definitions for each card.

Just trying to understand why it seems everyone else has a different 'word' than I do. When I see someone else on the forum offer an interpretation that makes zero sense to me, and then several people agree or offer very slight modifications. Just trying to get a handle on perspectives.

alchemist1248 said:

Just trying to understand why it seems everyone else has a different 'word' than I do. When I see someone else on the forum offer an interpretation that makes zero sense to me, and then several people agree or offer very slight modifications. Just trying to get a handle on perspectives.

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'Cause these are your very own "words" which you got from the long practice. They also mirror your experiences, thoughts and anything which is going on with you. The same with other people, we all have our own ways to interprete and we don't need to understand someone else's. I think it can be a bit impossible since we're not in their heads.

I think the most important is if the reading has the meaning for a person who wants it. At the end, this is the thing which really matters. How the interpretation goes, it's secondary, only between other readers who would like to compare.

Oh, and we can't forget that we can interprete the colour in the card, a shape or a face or anything else what we feel is meaningful. In such moments, I forget about the "general" meaning but stick with the impression.

Back to basics then

alchemist1248 said:

Just trying to understand why it seems everyone else has a different 'word' than I do.

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Ah. I see. So you're wondering why so many agree that "wait" is right of the Hanged Man, but no one seems to have heard of "fateful decision"? I think, to answer that, you need to get back to basics. Here is the Rider Waite interpretation and corresponding Crowley. These two are the ones that almost all creators of tarot books will use as a springboard for their meanings. IF you read a book where the writer didn't pay any attention to these, only their own feelings, then that might account for why you're not getting the same meanings for these cards as others.

The Hanged Man:

RWS: Waite has no one interpretation for this, but says: "It should be noted (1) that the tree of sacrifice is living wood, with leaves thereon; (2) that the face expresses deep entrancement, not suffering; (3) that the figure, as a whole, suggests life in suspension"

Bold mine there. That one part there would explain why so many see it as "waiting" rather than a "final" decision. It doesn't seem "final" at all given those notes--especially as Waite insists that this card isn't about death or endings, but life. So, it would seem right to read this card as a pause, as being in the middle of a process, rather than a fait accompli.

Thoth/Crowley Interpretation: "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."

Again, this seems more in line with "waiting" then with a fateful, final decision. So let me ask you--WHY do you see this card as a fateful, final decision? What book did you read? And how does the image imply this to you? Most books agree that readers should not apply Christian metaphors to the image, as it is not about a Christ figure dying for others. It relates to an old form of punishment for traitors who were hung by one foot, upside-down. In many early decks, the card was called "The Traitor." And though this might seem to suggest the card is about betrayal, it's actually about the person who sees things "upside down" from the rest of us. Others see him as "betraying" them, but he is being true to himself. And willing to sacrifice their opinion of him in order to do so.

This is why his expression is serene rather than suffering. He is finally seeing the world as he always should have, and is absorbing this new perspective (see also the story of Odin hanging from the tree).

My first deck was the Universal Waite all those years ago. I studied the little white book, but honestly don't remember the specifics now. Reading your description of the Thoth interpretation is a lot closer to how I see the card, but I'm not sure where I got that from.

I do know that I have read about the card being "the Traitor" at one point, and that Odin's sacrifice for the runes was supposedly another influence for it.

I have never seen the Hanged Man as death, or an ending. When it comes up in a reading I usually see that there is some decision to be made, or that has been made, that cannot be taken back. Something that will change the course of events. Fateful, not final.

alchemist1248 said:

I have never seen the Hanged Man as death, or an ending. When it comes up in a reading I usually see that there is some decision to be made, or that has been made, that cannot be taken back. Something that will change the course of events. Fateful, not final.

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You said "final" in your original post And I think we'd all agree that once the person goes into Hanged Man mode, and see things from a different perspective, there is no going back. Odin cannot unlearn what he learned hanging from the tree. So, in that regard, there is no disagreement.

But, I think you answer your own question of why you have this interpretation rather than "waiting." You are focused on the fact that people who go through this can't go back. But that isn't what most readers focus on. After all, a lot of decisions are "fateful." But not all such decisions include reflection and seeing things differently. For example, the Lovers. That card often indicates a choice that will change a person's life, either in a big or small way and there's no going back from it. But there's also no indication that the results will be a pause for reflection.

The fateful decision of the Hanged Man seems to be that he decides to see things differently, and take time out to reflect on this new point of view. Which is why the image is of a man inverted and suspended (rather than, say, the man deciding to walk away as in the 8/Cups). Our Hanged Man didn't make a snap decision, nor did he make this decision on a whim or foolishly, even though any or all of such decisions could be equal "fateful." I think that clarifies why readers here focus on the suspension and waiting aspect; because the Hanged Man's decision leads to that. Fateful, yes, that interpretation is correct, but what it results in—that pause--seems more key to the card than the fateful part.

I usually view The Hanged Man's basic meaning as, time to pause and view the issue from a different prospective.




But also take into account the meaning given in the decks lwb. It can very slightly from deck to deck. That may be why you see a variety of meaning in forum. You also need to take into account the readers intuitive take on the card.

Card meanings can definitely be a, "you say potato, I say potahto", kind of thing.

I also see the HM as situation of seeming stagnation, standstill, uncomfortable but illuminating - and I also sense very strongly the watery aspect. Being moved by the water, gathering strength, before moving again on one's own power. The Thoth depiction is so very watery ;-) and so of course is the מ - the mem - when I see the mem I see mayim, water.

There are these times when nothing seems to happen - and all of a sudden you feel transformed, change your life, use everything you've understood while hanging on that tree, submerged in an experience you didn't ask for, and turned on your head.