The Hanged Man

Professor of Runes

Centuries ago, fortune-telling bards in northern Europe used runes to divine the past, present, and future. Today, the professor of runes helps keep their ancient art alive.

Key Symbols

• In tarot, the Hanged Man is a visionary who sacrifices one life to find another. Ironically, the professor of runes is a one-eyed visionary — but he compensates with second sight.

• Odin, the king of the Norse gods, was the original Hanged Man. In a supreme act of self-sacrifice, he hung upside-down from the World Tree for nine days and nights. In return, he was rewarded with the runes — the gift of written language.

• Most tarot readers are used to seeing the Hanged Man upside-down. In the Wizards Tarot, however, the Hanged Man has turned his life around. He’s an upstanding citizen, and he’s sharing his wisdom with a new generation of mystics.

• This Hanged Man is still hanging, in at least one sense: his portrait is hanging on the wall. It’s a visual pun.

• The portrait also incorporates several reversals. The art is a recursive print that features a picture, in a picture, in a picture. The effect is hypnotizing; it’s like looking into a time tunnel, where the image spins into infinity.

• The professor of runes has two ravens: Hugin and Munin, who are named for Odin’s messenger birds.

• The stained-glass window in the professor’s classroom features the 24 letters of the runic alphabet.

• The Hanged Man card is associated with Neptune, the planet of illusion. The glyph for Neptune, a trident, is hanging on the wall.

• One of the Hanged Man’s books is open to the Hebrew letter Mem, which means water. The image reflects his connection to the depths of the unconscious and subconscious mind.

The Runes

More than 3,000 years ago, the people of Northern Europe used a magical, mysterious alphabet called the runes. Each rune had both a literal meaning and a closely related symbolic significance.

For centuries, runes were carved on stone, etched into metal, and burned into wood. Runes had the power to charm, to curse, and to spell — in both senses of the word. Runes were used in poetry, inscriptions, and invocations to the Norse pantheon of gods. Today, runes still have the power to counsel, to clarify, and to communicate.

This is the most common runic alphabet, known as the Elder Futhark. (“Futhark” is an acronym for the first six letters of the runic alphabet.) Each letter is listed in order, along with its spelling, pronunciation, literal meaning, and divinatory meaning.

• Fehu (“fay-who”) Cattle: possessions, moveable wealth, earned income, security, abundance, social status

• Uruz (“oo-rooze”) Aurochs, the wild ox: strength, endurance, courage, willpower, the challenge of the hunt

• Thurisaz (“thoor-ee-saws”) Giant; the god Thor and his famous hammer: energy, attack, defense, conflict

• Ansuz (“awn-sooze”) Mouth; the god Odin: speech, language, communication, wisdom, advice, prophecy, revelation

• Raidho (“rye-though”) Chariot; wheel: movement, travel, control, passage, journey, quest

• Kenaz (“kane-awze”) Fire; torch; lantern: enlightenment, illumination, vision, clarity, discernment

• Gebo (“gay-boe”) Gift: generosity, exchange, mutual affection, partnership, obligation, reciprocity

• Wunjo (“woon-yo”) Joy: pleasure, ecstasy, glory, bliss, achievement, satisfaction, harmony

• Hagalaz (“haw-gaw-laws”) Hail: disruption, destruction, the unexpected, uncontrolled, and uncontrollable

• Nauthiz (“now-these”) Need: delay, hardship, restriction, constraint, trial

• Isa (“ee-saw”) Ice: inertia, freeze, frigidity, cooling, standstill, blockage, slippage, preservation

• Jera (“yare-awe”) Harvest: fruitfulness, bounty, reward, outcome, cyclical conclusions

• Eihwaz (“eye-wawz”) Yew tree: endurance, reliability, constancy, consistency, purpose, death and resurrection

• Perthro (“perth-row”) Dice cup: luck, fortune, gambling, skill, mystery, secrets, revelation, initiation, the occult

• Algiz (“all-geese”) Elk horns: the upraised hand that wards off evil, protection, defense, blessing

• Sowilo (“soe-wee-low”) Sun: radiance, optimism, light, health, wholeness, harmony

• Tiwaz (“tea-wawz”) Justice; the warrior god Tyr: honor, victory, success

• Berkana (“bear-kawn-ah”) Birch tree; Ostara, goddess of dawn: renewal, rebirth, recovery, regeneration, fertility, growth

• Ehwaz (“ay-wawz”) Horse: teamwork, partnership, trust, commitment, loyalty, progress, forward motion

• Mannaz (“mawn-nawz”) Mankind; humanity: human nature, the self, the individual, community, society, friends

• Lauguz (“law-gooze”) Water: fluidity, mutability, fertility, cleansing, intuition, emotion

• Ingwaz (“eeng-wawz”) The fertility god Ing: sexuality, potency, gestation, growth, completion

• Dagaz (“thaw-gauze”) Day; daybreak; dawn: light, clarity, awareness, awakening

• Othala (“oath-awe-law”) Ancestral home: inheritance, dedication, material and spiritual heritage

• Wyrd (“weird”) The blank rune: The unknowable, the yet to be determined

Practical Magic

Make your own runes out of paper, clay, pebbles, or wood. Traditionally, rune makers would sing or chant the name of each rune as they worked.

You can use runes in conjunction with tarot cards. Draw runes to clarify the meaning of individual cards, or to add new layers of information to a spread.

You can also use runes as a secret magical language. Start by converting the letters of your name into the runic alphabet. Later, you can inscribe runes on your magical tools to imbue them with extra power and significance. You can also craft spells, charms, amulets, and totems by combining runes into graphically pleasing shapes.

The Hanged Man’s Hugin and Munin Spread

The names of Odin’s raven messengers, Hugin and Munin, mean “thought” and “memory,” respectively. Use this spread to determine what you know about a current situation, and what you remember about a similar event in the past.

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