Hanged Man and Death together

[DanielJUK]

I was doing a reading for myself and this combination came up and I just found it fascinating working on it.

It was actually with the Glastonbury Tarot but just talking about it generally here. The reading was just a general reading about what is coming up.

 

I know these cards are sequential in the Majors but I was fascinated by the differences as a combination, one progressing on from another.

 

The Hanged Man is patience and waiting and you cannot do anything at the time. You are just waiting as you are externally blocked. You can't make change happen but you have to find a way to cope with the current situation, like going internally or seeing things from a new angle or just being patient.

 

Death changes that, instead of waiting for your time to come or change to happen, it will force things to change around you which might be hard to deal with and you will have to take some kind of action. This is totally different to before, the external is now creating change and leaving things behind and it will drag you along. This is movement and having to make decisions / choices / take actions but also needs some sort of resilience to deal with it, like the Hanged Man.

 

One thing I was interested in, is that you really cannot change what is happening with either card, things are blocked from progressing with the Hanged Man, but you cannot stop things ending with Death. There is a surrender to the flow of life with both. The Hanged Man is like preparation, getting ready without being able to take any action and Death is finding a way to cope with things changing and learning to go along with it. You end up in a better place ultimately but it could be a difficult transition period to get there.

 

Anyway I would love to know your thoughts, theories and ideas on these together 🙂 

 

[Raggydoll]

It’s an interesting combo, because it is like the archetype for a dead end 😄

 

I’m not sure that there is much planning going on with the Hanged man, it is more of a non-action card to me, which might even suggest procrastination/stagnation or victim mentality. The hanged man would have traditionally been considered a bad guy in other peoples eyes, and strung up as a punishment. I am not sure the hanged man has regrets, I suspect he feels unjustly treated by the world and pities himself. Only in rare contexts would I see this card as some sort of initiation or as deep insights/radical perspectives. 
 

I don’t view death as transformation but rather as an ending. So I think this combo suggests the opposite of productivity or progress. And in general, I wouldn’t perceive it as a positive thing. 

[Ferrea]

In short: End of stagnation. Yay!

Looking at the cards you actually drew, I’d refine the message a bit. One is associated with the Fisher King and the other with Gwyn ap Nudd. I briefly skimmed the web: for the Hanged Man, the emphasis may lie more on topics like guilt, sacrifice, and repentance.
A psychological wound that doesn’t seem to stop bleeding—and with this, there might come the self-pity mentioned by Raggydoll, a sense of martyrdom.
But then this fierce Gwyn comes along, and I don’t think this is a silent end. I actually get the sense that this might be a person confronting you so you can let go of those self-suspending, self-undoing patterns. On one page, Gwyn was called a psychopomp, which makes me think of Hermes and of analysis. Maybe this person—and it could even be a stranger who nonchalantly holds up a mirror to you—makes you see how you’re avoiding confronting reality (Neptune).

[Raggydoll]

Imagine these cards in a reading done in the earlier days of tarot. It would have likely meant that a traitor would be sentenced to death 😁 

 

54 minutes ago, Ferrea said:

In short: End of stagnation. Yay!

Since death is the final card, I don’t think we can assume there will be action or a happy outcome. It’s unclear what will be the result after death has played its role, we lack any cards telling us about that. If a stagnant situation ends, the circumstances might as well get worse, if we are to be honest.
 

If the reading meant to say that suddenly there will be a sense of freedom and action, then I personally would have expected to see other cards than Death. 

[Ferrea]

1 hour ago, Raggydoll said:

Since death is the final card, I don’t think we can assume there will be action or a happy outcome. It’s unclear what will be the result after death has played its role, we lack any cards telling us about that. If a stagnant situation ends, the circumstances might as well get worse, if we are to be honest.
 

If the reading meant to say that suddenly there will be a sense of freedom and action, then I personally would have expected to see other cards than Death. 

 

Just for the record: I didn't mention the words action, happy and freedom in my post. 

I read the two cards in question as a sufficient message. I don't care about what's next. As you say, „we lack any cards telling us about that.” 

So I assume that the main issue is the suspension here, or the self-undoing or whatever. I don't see the need to project beyond that. 

Personally, I love seeing Death after the Hanged Man. But different brains, different experiences and interpretations.

 

 

 

 

[JoyousGirl]

My thinking is a complete change of perspective. A sort of irreversible shift that means the mind or way of thinking or being can never be the same.

 

The Hanged Man is upside down - whether he's got silver falling out of his pockets or not. He could be Judas or Odin or anyone else, but there's a process going on that leads to a realisation. This happens with time to reflect. When all the other distractions of life are omitted from the scene, when there's no one talking to you, you're forced to stop and register things. I am getting the idea that the base chakra - the most solid reality of life - the thick of it - ceases, and the experiences drain down into the brain/mind. Many have lives that don't contemplate. There's no choice here but to contemplate. Like Judas whose reality sinks in to show him what he's done and who he really is, or Odin whose concepts or formulation of life up until now is rejigged because the Runes appear before him sort of moving into different shapes and arrangements.

 

Then there's Death. We walk through the veil into a different place never to return. We have no choice, for the most part, at the beginning other than to look back as we step out of the increasing chaos of distractions we're subjected to. Anyone who has had a reading from a medium or been to a spiritual church will know some people say sorry for what they did, some are still watching but cannot intervene. Some will describe how they were. There's a different perspective now they have no barriers of flesh to interfere with reflection or insight, no substances to escape themselves, no legs to run away from their 'crimes', nothing they need to do or keep busy with and distract themselves from what needs dealing with.

 

So I see these as a sort of enlightenment, a change in perspective about something. There may be nothing you can do to alter things, but there's a realisation and you move forward with that. "Let there be light" and there was light. You can't unsee something once you've seen it sort of thing.

 

Not sure if that will open any ideas up. As always, something a little different from me 🙂 I hope it makes sense. It may not fit for your purposes.

[Chariot]

I like these two cards, actually ...especially together.  The Hanged Man (card upright, not the man!) for me indicates two things which might be happening at the same time.  One is forced inaction.  Two is a new perspective.  One of the mantras I use with this card is: stop flailing around; be still.  You are not responsible for whatever is going on just now.  

The Death card (upright) means only one thing to me.  Whatever has ended (or is going) is NOT coming back.  This is not usually a big shock.  It's something you've been aware is on the way out ...and now it's truly gone.   It's the 'not coming back' angle that is important.  It's gone.  

I have had the Death card turn up many many many times in my life, and it always signals the end of something ...usually something that  has been dragging a bit. But when the Death card appears upright, I know that means the dragging is over and the issue has finally been permanently resolved—or soon will be, depending on the card's position in the spread.

Those two cards together can actually bring huge relief ...although @DanielJUK hasn't given us the context of his particular reading.  But in general, things are happening outwith your control, permanent endings are on the horizon, and you will gain a new perspective as a result.

[Raggydoll]

11 hours ago, Ferrea said:

 

Just for the record: I didn't mention the words action, happy and freedom in my post. 

I read the two cards in question as a sufficient message. I don't care about what's next. As you say, „we lack any cards telling us about that.” 

So I assume that the main issue is the suspension here, or the self-undoing or whatever. I don't see the need to project beyond that. 

Personally, I love seeing Death after the Hanged Man. But different brains, different experiences and interpretations.

 

 

 

 

I was referring to the ‘Yay’ part of your post. I might have misunderstood you, but to me, the “yay” made it sound like it was automatically a good thing 
 

Edited Saturday at 05:47 AM by Raggydoll
Clarification

[Raggydoll]

I’ll give an example to show why I personally don’t love this combination. Maybe it’s all down to different experiences

 

What if the querent turns out to be someone who has cancer and is waiting for test results? These cards could then mean that the wait is over (for better or worse, but nothing here implies ‘for better’), but it could also mean that the querent might die while waiting. That’s what I mean about context. 

[Chariot]

2 hours ago, Raggydoll said:

I’ll give an example to show why I personally don’t love this combination. Maybe it’s all down to different experiences

 

What if the querent turns out to be someone who has cancer and is waiting for test results? These cards could then mean that the wait is over (for better or worse, but nothing here implies ‘for better’), but it could also mean that the querent might die while waiting. That’s what I mean about context. 

Yes.  Context is everything.  "Death" as an outcome card, when the reading is about somebody who is dying, will probably refer to that person's death.  But even if you're reading about an illness, and wondering about test results, the Death card CAN mean you finally get a firm diagnosis that you can rely on.  Relief or fear will depend a lot on what other cards also appear in the spread, and in what positions they appear.

However, if you are doing a reading about trying to sell your house, and 'Death' appears in a future position, it probably doesn't mean the real estate agent will die.  It will probably mean that the house finally sells, and that's the final end of the saga.  Whatever happens, Death means it's final, and won't change.

I do prefer decks that don't use the stalking skeleton as the image on the Death card.  I think it's that scary image of physical mortality that upsets people.  However, if you're a long-time reader, you must have turned up the Death card in many many readings over the years.  What percentage of those readings actually referred to the death of a person?  For me, probably only two or three ...and I've been reading since the mid-1970s.  

Context really is everything, when it comes to tarot, in my opinion.  And the more you actually 'know' about the situation you are reading about, the more accurately you can interpret the cards when they turn up.   Two cards together, at random, are meaningless if we don't have context to work with.  What is the reading about?  Maybe if you're a psychic reader you can accurately come up with this information.  I know I can't.  I need more before I can accurately interpret the cards.

Edited Saturday at 07:10 AM by Chariot

[Raggydoll]

36 minutes ago, Chariot said:

However, if you're a long-time reader, you must have turned up the Death card in many many readings over the years.  What percentage of those readings actually referred to the death of a person?

This is a good question, and I will try and answer it without going too far off topic 😊

 

I started reading cards at the age of 12, so I have been doing it for 30 years now. As a reader, I often come across people who are going through difficult things. Some of them are sick themselves, others have illness and death around them. I also have several friends and family members who work in the field of medicine, and most of them are in fields where there is inevitably a lot of death. So my percentages will likely differ from those readers who read mainly on love topic or for younger or healthier people. 

 

Overall, I find that the Death card does not show up as frequently in readings as you might expect (given percentages of cards in a deck and the amount of readings I have done over the years). It will on rare occasions refer to actual death. I wish I could give you some statistics but I am not good with numbers. However, I rarely see the Death card representing something benign or painless. I will give a couple of examples. The first one directly ties in to the topic of this thread. I am going to be fuzzy about the details in order to be respectful of other people.

 

One reading had the Hanged man and the Death card together. It was a situation where there was a lack of information and there was a difficult sense of not-knowing and dreading bad things. But in the midst of all that dread, there was also hope. The Hanged man represented that lingering hope. In that particular case, not only did the Death card mean that there was an end to the not-knowing, but there was also an end to the hope. The outcome was very sad and difficult, and it was final. Nothing could be done to change it. I will be honest, it is examples like these that made me write what I wrote in this thread. I am colored by these experiences. 

 

To give another example, there was a situation with a similar type of not-knowing and endless waiting, but the topic was less severe. The reading had the Hanged man paired with Ace of Wands. That situation ended very positively, things changed suddenly in the last minute. This is what I meant when I said that I would have expected to see other cards in order to predict a positive outcome to the stagnation. At best, Death is neutral, but it does not represent victory to me. 

 

46 minutes ago, Chariot said:

However, if you are doing a reading about trying to sell your house, and 'Death' appears in a future position, it probably doesn't mean the real estate agent will die.  It will probably mean that the house finally sells, and that's the final end of the saga.  Whatever happens, Death means it's final, and won't change.

This is an interesting example, but I am not sure I agree with you (well- I DO agree that it is unlikely to represent the death of the real estate agent! 😁). Death might also mean that the market is dead and the house won´t sell at all. It could represent the end of their hopes/desires, that it is the wrong time to try and sell this house. If the reading meant to say that there would be a successful sale, I would have expect another card in the outcome position, like a money card or a success-card (6 of wands for example). That doesn´t mean that Death cannot mean that something difficult is over, it most certainly can mean that. But I would not go as far as interpret Death as a positive outcome in most situations (context matter, you are very right about that!). 

 

[Chariot]

3 hours ago, Raggydoll said:

This is a good question, and I will try and answer it without going too far off topic 😊

 

I started reading cards at the age of 12, so I have been doing it for 30 years now. As a reader, I often come across people who are going through difficult things. Some of them are sick themselves, others have illness and death around them. I also have several friends and family members who work in the field of medicine, and most of them are in fields where there is inevitably a lot of death. So my percentages will likely differ from those readers who read mainly on love topic or for younger or healthier people. 

 

Overall, I find that the Death card does not show up as frequently in readings as you might expect (given percentages of cards in a deck and the amount of readings I have done over the years). It will on rare occasions refer to actual death. I wish I could give you some statistics but I am not good with numbers. However, I rarely see the Death card representing something benign or painless. I will give a couple of examples. The first one directly ties in to the topic of this thread. I am going to be fuzzy about the details in order to be respectful of other people.

 

One reading had the Hanged man and the Death card together. It was a situation where there was a lack of information and there was a difficult sense of not-knowing and dreading bad things. But in the midst of all that dread, there was also hope. The Hanged man represented that lingering hope. In that particular case, not only did the Death card mean that there was an end to the not-knowing, but there was also an end to the hope. The outcome was very sad and difficult, and it was final. Nothing could be done to change it. I will be honest, it is examples like these that made me write what I wrote in this thread. I am colored by these experiences. 

 

To give another example, there was a situation with a similar type of not-knowing and endless waiting, but the topic was less severe. The reading had the Hanged man paired with Ace of Wands. That situation ended very positively, things changed suddenly in the last minute. This is what I meant when I said that I would have expected to see other cards in order to predict a positive outcome to the stagnation. At best, Death is neutral, but it does not represent victory to me. 

 

This is an interesting example, but I am not sure I agree with you (well- I DO agree that it is unlikely to represent the death of the real estate agent! 😁). Death might also mean that the market is dead and the house won´t sell at all. It could represent the end of their hopes/desires, that it is the wrong time to try and sell this house. If the reading meant to say that there would be a successful sale, I would have expect another card in the outcome position, like a money card or a success-card (6 of wands for example). That doesn´t mean that Death cannot mean that something difficult is over, it most certainly can mean that. But I would not go as far as interpret Death as a positive outcome in most situations (context matter, you are very right about that!). 

 

Yes, to everything you've said.  But it does depend on context, on other cards, what question is being asked, and what spread is being used.  I guess that was the point I was trying clumsily to make.

Recently, I went through a very fraught period regarding citizenship changes.  For months on end, the thing dragged on and on ...waiting, waiting, waiting, hearing nothing, etc. and my readings reflected this energy-depleting journey—including many occasions where Death appeared reversed ...indicating that something which SHOULD be over was still dragging along.  Then, after waiting a long time ...bingo, DEATH upright.  I knew it meant the situation was finally over (successfully) and it did get a 'yippee' from me, when it appeared.  I had no doubt what it meant.  A few days later, the certificate I was expecting arrived, and that was me, finally no longer a USA citizen.  (If I had received The Tower—indicating an unexpected nasty event—or 3 of Swords meaning my hopes were skewered—I would have felt very differently.)  But Death meant, 'It's finally over.  No going back now.  That period of my life is past and won't return.'  🙂

Edited Saturday at 11:11 AM by Chariot

[Raggydoll]

34 minutes ago, Chariot said:

Recently, I went through a very fraught period regarding citizenship changes.  For months on end, the thing dragged on and on ...waiting, waiting, waiting, hearing nothing, etc. and my readings reflected this energy-depleting journey—including many occasions where Death appeared reversed ...indicating that something which SHOULD be over was still dragging along.  Then, after waiting a long time ...bingo, DEATH upright.  I knew it meant the situation was finally over (successfully) and it did get a 'yippee' from me, when it appeared.  I had no doubt what it meant.  A few days later, the certificate I was expecting arrived, and that was me, finally no longer a USA citizen.  (If I had received The Tower—indicating an unexpected nasty event—or 3 of Swords meaning my hopes were skewered—I would have felt very differently.)  But Death meant, 'It's finally over.  No going back now.  That period of my life is past and won't return.'  🙂

Great example, it totally makes sense! And I am glad that you finally got the new citizenship, I can't imagine how stressful that process must have been for you! 

[Misterei]

On 10/10/2025 at 5:39 AM, DanielJUK said:

... Anyway I would love to know your thoughts, theories and ideas on these together 🙂 

Context is key.

Similar to what @Raggydoll mentioned in an earlier post, Hanged Man + Death = 2 malefic cards. So I wouldn't like to see them for money or love.

 

OTOH I had a profound dream with exactly these 2 cards some years ago. On an alchemical level, Hanged Man comes before Death. In this case Hanged Man is the reversal of the ego-driven reality that must occur if we want Essence / Soul / whatever you call It to run the show. Putting Spirit in the drivers seat is upside down to the way the world usually runs on ego and attachment.
Death is the actual ego death. As the Sufis say: die before you die.

Thus when I dreamt these two cards [I literally was the Hanged Man and waiting for Death]  it was deeply moving as images of spiritual transformation happening in my common consciousness.

 

I have no idea if this hits for you.