the hanged man in work, career or business ✨
this is the moment the self discovers that it cannot think, strive, or control its way into becoming. It is the voluntary suspension of the mechanisms the ego has historically used to navigate reality.
themes: hanging suspension, chrysalis, being up in the air, feeling stuck, return to the present, control (being out of control), turning inward, movement halts, impossibility of momentum through movement, surrender, identity, wait, see differently, allow
how this plays out:
knowing your job no longer fits, but not yet sure of what comes next
when your business (or career) has plateaued, and everything inside you says to do more or push harder
when you’ve been attached to a particular professional identity (executive, artist, SME, tech bro, etc.) and you can feel that identity shifting, being tested or dismantled, or that it’s just not it anymore
you keep trying to force the business, book, idea, podcast, side-hustle, or body of work and it’s not coming together the way you originally intended
you don’t get the promotion, client, funding, opportunity or launch you expected
you’ve reached the limits of productivity as a solution (PSA, doing more or doing it all can only take you so far — now you’re feeling it)
you’re trying to make a major career decision before you’re actually ready to make it
the strategy that created your success is the thing preventing your evolution (and you may or may not see this yet)
externally, very little appears to be happening, but internally you are feeling some big changes
invitation: to surrender (😆 always easier said than done). to stop using yesterday’s definition of success long enough to discover what becoming asks of you right now.
In order to deepen into the medicine that The Hanged Man brings, it’s helpful to dive into the major arcana for a fuller context and view of the picture we are living in. ⬇️
about the major arcana & a deeper dive into The Hanged Man: the major arcana is a 3 part series of becoming where the first line represents the line of the caterpillar, the second line represents the line of the chrysalis, and the third line is the line of the butterfly.
Line two of the major arcana asks, “who am I?”. It is the underworld journey. The descent into Dante’s inferno, if you will.
And as the second line is asking “who am I?” and The Hanged Man answers with:
“you cannot discover who you are while insisting on remaining who you have been.”
If we look at where The Hanged Man sits in position with the rest of the second line, we see that there is a progressive dismantling taking place.
(Strength ➡️ The Hermit ➡️ The Wheel of Fortune ➡️ Justice ➡️ The Hanged Man ➡️ Death ➡️ Temperance)
Strength turns our attention toward our relationship with ourselves — our instincts, fear, desire, courage, and the parts of ourselves that we might otherwise try to dominate or discipline into perfection, or that we may have even turned our backs to. It asks us to open ourselves and to these parts, to love them back into existence, and to allow our hearts to open and become a channel into the world.
The Hermit brings us back into ourselves, withdrawing us from the world (but specifically and importantly from external sources of truth). It asks us “what do I know when no one or nothing else is telling me who to be?”. To answer a question such as, Are you still an artist, if no one ever sees or engages with your work? (for example — and, you are btw.)
The Wheel of Fortune disrupts us and our relationship with time and control. It shows us that life is always moving forward, even when we are still, even when we don’t want it to. It hands us important medicine on how to keep our peace when we are riding the wheel of fate and we aren’t sure where it’s taking us.
Justice asks us to see clearly how our choices, patterns and ways of being have manifested, or have contributed (or impacted) the world around us, a situation, a cause we care about, or scenario that may not feel fair.
And then comes The Hanged Man. The Hanged man says to stop trying to get somewhere. The Hanged Man is a card where movement becomes impossible.
If we go back to line one (the caterpillar line), the caterpillar has spent its entire existence crawling toward things. Searching. Eating. Growing. Acquiring experience. Developing an identity.
But transformation into a butterfly cannot be accomplished by crawling harder, faster, more, or better. Identity can only take you so far and at some point, the caterpillar has to stop being a caterpillar.
And, there is space between caterpillar and butterfly. And The Hanged Man is that space. It is the liminal experience and strange interval of
I can no longer continue as I was, but I cannot yet map what it is that I am becoming.
The Hanged Man is suspension inside the unknown. It’s the in-between. And the medicine is surrender.
Death (which follows), is release (but more on that in another entry).
So if we come back to the main question of line 2 in the major arcana, which is “Who am I?”, the Hanged Man might say,
“What if the version of you asking that question is precisely what must be surrendered?”
Because you’re not going to get to where you are going in any way you know how
(not by fixing the uncertainty. PSA, you can’t)
(not by rushing through it. PSA, there is no where to go)
(not by demanding revelation. PSA, divine timing is a thing)
(not by turning discomfort into another self-improvement project. PSA, discomfort is your growth - just be in it)
If you see the Hanged Man in your tarot spread — it’s time to (yes I’m gonna say it), just hang there. It’s time to stop participating in (and managing) the maintenance of who you’ve been.
And yes, it is extremely excruciating. But, this is one of those moments where growth is happening if you simply allow it. And frankly, you’ll never get to where you going, if you don’t.
