The Hanged Man and Five of Wands: Suspension Meets Struggle
Quick Answer: This combination often reflects situations where people feel caught between competing forces while simultaneously being called to step back and gain perspective. This pairing typically emerges when external conflict or chaotic competition coincides with an inner invitation to pause, reframe, or surrender what isn't working. The Hanged Man's energy of willing suspension, new perspective, and release of control expresses itself through the Five of Wands' arena of struggle, competing interests, and creative friction.
At a Glance
| Aspect | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Theme | The Hanged Man's perspective-shifting surrender manifesting amid competitive struggle |
| Situation | When stepping out of the fight reveals more than staying in it |
| Love | Relationship conflicts that resolve through acceptance rather than winning |
| Career | Workplace competition where the real advantage lies in refusing to play the game |
| Directional Insight | Conditionalâprogress comes from reframing the conflict, not winning it |
How These Cards Work Together
The Hanged Man represents the voluntary pause, the willingness to see things differently even when uncomfortable. He embodies the paradox of gaining through release, understanding through suspension, and advancement through apparent inaction. Where other cards push forward, The Hanged Man invites stillness that looks like stagnation but actually opens doors that striving keeps closed.
The Five of Wands represents the scramble of competing agendas, the creative chaos of multiple forces vying for dominance. This is the card of arguments that go nowhere, competitions without clear rules, and struggles where everyone seems to be fighting but no one is winning. It shows friction, discord, and the energy expended when people or priorities clash without resolution.
Together: These cards create a powerful invitation to disengage from struggle not through defeat but through insight. The Five of Wands shows the conflict arenaâthe workplace politics, the relationship power struggles, the internal contradictions. The Hanged Man suggests that the way through isn't to fight harder or strategize better, but to suspend the entire framework and see the situation from an angle that makes the struggle irrelevant.
The Five of Wands shows WHERE and HOW The Hanged Man's energy lands:
- Through conflicts that cannot be won by conventional means
- Through competitive situations where the wisest move is withdrawal into reflection
- Through struggles that dissolve when you stop feeding them your resistance
The question this combination asks: What becomes possible when you stop trying to win?
When You Might See This Combination
This pairing frequently emerges when:
- Workplace conflicts have reached a point where continuing to engage only perpetuates the cycle, and stepping back offers more clarity than another confrontation
- Relationship arguments keep circling the same issues without resolution, suggesting the real answer lies in changing the question rather than perfecting the argument
- Creative or professional competition drains more energy than it generates, revealing that the real limitation isn't your effort but the framework itself
- Internal conflicts between different parts of yourselfâdifferent desires, values, or identitiesâcreate paralysis that won't resolve through choosing a winner
- Efforts to control outcomes become obviously counterproductive, yet letting go feels like giving up rather than strategic repositioning
Pattern: The more you struggle, the more stuck you become. The conflict isn't asking for better tactics; it's asking for different vision. Suspension reveals what striving obscures.
Both Upright
When both cards appear upright, The Hanged Man's capacity for perspective-shift meets the Five of Wands' arena of competition cleanly and directly.
Love & Relationships
Single: Dating dynamics might feel chaotic or competitiveâmultiple interests that go nowhere, confusing mixed signals, or exhausting effort that doesn't translate into genuine connection. The Hanged Man suggests the solution isn't to date more strategically or pursue harder, but to suspend your approach entirely and examine what you're actually seeking. Some experience this as realizing they've been competing for partners who aren't truly aligned, or that their dating strategy reflects old patterns rather than current values. The pause this combination invites often reveals which connections merit real attention and which simply filled time or fed ego.
In a relationship: Recurring conflicts may have reached a point where neither partner can win without both losing something essential. The Five of Wands shows the argumentâabout money, priorities, family, intimacy, whatever domain where you keep clashing. The Hanged Man suggests that resolution won't come from one person convincing the other, but from both stepping back to see the conflict from outside the positions you've been defending. Couples experiencing this combination often report breakthroughs when they stop trying to solve the problem and start examining why they keep framing it the same way. The relationship itself might require a period of suspended expectationsâless pushing for change, more allowing space for new understanding to emerge organically.
Career & Work
Professional environments characterized by constant competition, unclear priorities, or conflicting directives create the Five of Wands landscape. Everyone seems to be fighting for resources, recognition, or control, yet the struggle produces more heat than progress. The Hanged Man's presence suggests your advantage won't come from entering that fray more skillfully, but from refusing the game entirelyâat least temporarily.
This might manifest as stepping back from office politics to focus on work that speaks for itself, or withdrawing from a promotion battle to reassess whether you actually want the role being contested. The combination can also appear when multiple projects demand attention simultaneously, creating frantic energy that accomplishes little. The Hanged Man invites suspension of the multi-tasking scramble to identify what actually matters versus what merely feels urgent.
For those considering career changes, this pairing often marks the moment when continuing to optimize within current constraints clearly offers less potential than pausing to reconsider the constraints themselves. The struggle (Five of Wands) won't resolve through better performance; it requires different framing (Hanged Man).
Finances
Financial conflicts or competing monetary priorities might create stress that won't resolve through standard budgeting or earning more. The Five of Wands can manifest as arguments about spending, stress over multiple financial goals that seem mutually exclusive, or chaotic approaches to money management where different strategies compete without coherent direction.
The Hanged Man suggests that financial clarity won't come from fighting harder to make the numbers work, but from suspending assumptions about what financial success means or how resources should be allocated. Some experience this as realizing they've been struggling to afford a lifestyle they don't actually value, or that competing financial goals reflect different identities they're trying to maintain simultaneously. The pause allows examination of which priorities genuinely serve your life versus which ones you've inherited or adopted without real consideration.
Reflection Points
Some find it helpful to identify where effort has become its own justificationâwhere you keep struggling simply because stopping feels like failure, not because the struggle serves clear purpose. This combination often invites exploration of what you might see if you stopped looking from your current position.
Questions worth considering:
- Which conflicts continue because you keep engaging them the same way?
- What perspective becomes available when you stop needing to win?
- Where might suspension of action reveal options that striving keeps hidden?
The Hanged Man Reversed + Five of Wands Upright
When The Hanged Man is reversed, the capacity for perspective-shift and willing surrender becomes blockedâbut the Five of Wands' competitive chaos continues unabated.
What this looks like: Struggle persists while the wisdom to step back remains inaccessible. Rather than gaining new perspective through pause, you keep fighting in ways that clearly aren't working, unable or unwilling to suspend your approach long enough to see it differently. This configuration often appears when someone recognizes they're stuck but interprets that as reason to push harder rather than reframe entirely. The conflict drains you, yet you can't stop feeding it your energyâwhether because admitting the futility feels like defeat, or because your identity has become entangled with the struggle itself.
Love & Relationships
Relationship conflicts may continue cycling through the same arguments, with both partners unable to release their positions enough to see the pattern. The Five of Wands confirms genuine discord exists; the reversed Hanged Man suggests neither person can access the shift in perspective that would make resolution possible. This often manifests as conversations where both people are talking past each other, defending rather than understanding, stuck in frameworks that guarantee ongoing conflict.
Single people might experience this as continuing to pursue connection through approaches that demonstrably don't work, unable to pause and examine why they keep choosing unavailable partners, incompatible situations, or exhausting dynamics. The struggle is real, but the inability to step back and gain distance prevents any meaningful change.
Career & Work
Professional conflicts or competitive environments continue to drain energy while the capacity to reframe or withdraw strategically remains blocked. You might recognize that workplace politics aren't serving you, yet feel unable to stop participatingâeither because you fear losing ground, or because your sense of professional identity depends on staying in the fight. The reversed Hanged Man can also manifest as resistance to perspectives that would require admitting your approach hasn't been working, clinging to strategies that produce more friction than results.
Reflection Points
This configuration often invites examination of what makes letting go feel dangerousâwhether it's ego investment in being right, fear that stopping means losing, or difficulty tolerating the vulnerability of not knowing what comes after you release your current position. Some find it helpful to consider whether the struggle itself has become familiar comfort, a known quantity that feels safer than the uncertainty of genuine change.
The Hanged Man Upright + Five of Wands Reversed
The Hanged Man's capacity for surrender and new perspective is active, but the Five of Wands' expression becomes distorted or internalized.
What this looks like: The external conflict may have quieted or never fully materialized, but internal struggle intensifiesâcompeting desires, contradictory values, or fragmented parts of self that won't reconcile. The Hanged Man offers willingness to pause and see differently, but the thing you're looking at is your own inner chaos rather than external competition. This configuration frequently appears during periods of internal recalibration, where the real battle isn't with others but with aspects of yourself that want different things or hold incompatible visions.
Love & Relationships
Rather than fighting with a partner, you might be struggling with competing desires within yourselfâwanting both connection and independence, both commitment and freedom, both the relationship as it is and some idealized version of what it could become. The Hanged Man's presence suggests that resolution won't come from choosing one desire over another, but from suspending the framework that makes them seem contradictory. Some experience this as the pause that allows integration rather than compartmentalizationâseeing how apparently opposing needs might actually complement each other when viewed from a different angle.
The reversed Five of Wands can also indicate conflicts that fizzled without resolution, leaving a kind of chronic low-grade tension. The Hanged Man invites using the lack of active crisis as opportunity for reflection rather than simply enjoying the temporary peace.
Career & Work
Professional competition might be less intense than usual, or you've withdrawn from it, but internal conflicts about direction, purpose, or values create their own struggle. This often appears when external circumstances allow space for deeper questionsâyou're not fighting for the promotion anymore, but now you're questioning whether you want to be in this field at all. Different visions of professional success compete within you, and The Hanged Man suggests the way through isn't to force a decision but to suspend judgment and let clarity emerge through patient observation.
Reflection Points
Some find it helpful to recognize that internal conflicts often reflect perspectives that each hold partial truth, and that the struggle comes from insisting only one can be valid. This combination invites exploring whether suspension of the need for immediate resolution might allow different parts of yourself to coexist long enough to reveal a synthesis you couldn't have designed through deliberate choice.
Both Reversed
When both cards are reversed, the combination shows its shadow formâblocked perspective-shift meeting blocked or internalized struggle.
What this looks like: Neither the capacity to gain new perspective nor the ability to navigate conflict constructively remains accessible. Struggle continuesâwhether external or internalâwhile the wisdom to step back and reframe remains stubbornly out of reach. This configuration often appears during periods of entrenched conflict combined with rigid thinking, where you're simultaneously stuck in unproductive struggle and unable to see any way out of it. The fight drains you, yet you can't stop engaging; the pattern imprisons you, yet you can't access the shift in vision that would reveal the unlocked door.
Love & Relationships
Relationship dynamics might involve chronic low-intensity conflict that neither resolves nor escalates, combined with inability to step back and examine the underlying patterns. Arguments continue without anyone really fighting for resolution, more like habitual friction that both partners have stopped questioning. The reversed Hanged Man blocks the perspective-shift that might reveal why you keep having the same conversation; the reversed Five of Wands suggests the conflict itself has lost definitionâyou're struggling, but it's not even clear what you're struggling about anymore.
For single people, this can manifest as continuing patterns that don't work (pursuing unavailable people, choosing incompatible partners, sabotaging connection) while simultaneously lacking the clarity or willingness to examine those patterns. The struggle feels internal and confused rather than external and defined.
Career & Work
Professional life may feel characterized by chronic struggleâcompeting priorities, unclear direction, workplace tensionsâwithout either the focus that makes competition productive or the perspective that would allow disengagement. Projects compete for attention without clear criteria for choosing between them. Goals contradict each other without you being able to step back and reassess which actually align with your values. The reversed Hanged Man keeps you locked in current frameworks; the reversed Five of Wands means those frameworks generate friction without purpose.
Reflection Points
When both energies feel blocked, questions worth asking include: What would have to change before you could imagine seeing this situation differently? What makes the current struggle feel necessary or unavoidable? Where has conflict become identityâsomething you maintain because who you are seems tied to what you're fighting?
Some find it helpful to start very smallânot by trying to resolve the conflict or gain complete new perspective, but by simply noticing moments when the struggle loosens slightly, when rigid thinking softens briefly. These small openings often provide more useful information than grand attempts at transformation.
Directional Insight
| Configuration | Tendency | Context |
|---|---|---|
| Both Upright | Conditional | Progress comes not from winning the struggle but from reframing itâyes to questions you haven't asked yet |
| One Reversed | Mixed signals | Either stuck in struggle without perspective, or seeing clearly but facing only internal conflict |
| Both Reversed | Reassess | Entrenched in unproductive patterns without access to the shifts that would change them |
Note: Tarot does not provide yes/no answers. This section reflects general energetic tendencies, not predictions.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does The Hanged Man and Five of Wands mean in a love reading?
In relationship contexts, this combination typically points to conflicts that won't resolve through conventional relationship problem-solving. The Five of Wands confirms genuine discord existsâyou're not imagining the tension or struggle. But The Hanged Man suggests that trying to fix the issue through better communication techniques, compromise negotiations, or couple's counseling exercises might be addressing symptoms rather than causes.
The real invitation often involves one or both partners releasing their investment in being right, winning the argument, or getting the other person to change. This doesn't mean accepting harmful behavior or abandoning legitimate needs. Rather, it suggests that the framework you're using to understand the conflict might be what's keeping you stuck. Some couples experience breakthrough when they stop trying to solve the problem and instead examine why they keep framing it as they doâwhat fears, assumptions, or old patterns are actually driving the struggle beneath the surface topic you're arguing about.
Is this a positive or negative combination?
This pairing carries challenging energy, as it combines struggle with an invitation to surrenderâtwo experiences most people find uncomfortable. However, the combination often appears at crucial junctures where continuing current patterns would lead nowhere productive, and the discomfort serves as catalyst for genuine transformation.
The Five of Wands alone can indicate spinning your wheelsâlots of energy expended without meaningful progress. The Hanged Man's presence transforms that futile struggle into potential opportunity by suggesting the exit isn't through the conflict but through different vision. If you can access the willingness to pause, release control, and see from new angles, what seemed like exhausting competition may reveal itself as outdated paradigm you're finally ready to transcend.
The combination becomes problematic primarily when The Hanged Man's invitation to surrender gets distorted into passive acceptance of genuinely harmful situations, or when the Five of Wands' struggle becomes something you maintain because stepping back feels like losing face. The constructive expression honors the tension: yes, conflict exists; yes, your current approach isn't resolving it; yes, that means something needs to shift in your perspective or priorities, not just in your tactics.
How does the Five of Wands change The Hanged Man's meaning?
The Hanged Man alone speaks to voluntary suspension, sacrifice that leads to insight, and the paradox of gaining through release. He represents the pause that precedes breakthrough, the willingness to see from inverted perspective, and the surrender of control that paradoxically opens new possibilities.
The Five of Wands grounds this abstract invitation in specific context: struggle. Rather than suspending yourself in peaceful contemplation, The Hanged Man with Five of Wands suggests you're being called to gain perspective while surrounded by conflict, competition, or chaos. The suspension isn't escape from difficulty into serene reflectionâit's finding stillness within the storm, accessing new vision while competing forces clamor for your attention.
Where The Hanged Man alone might suggest a quiet retreat or meditative pause, The Hanged Man with Five of Wands suggests finding that suspended state amid active conflictâthe inner pause that becomes possible even while external circumstances remain turbulent. The Minor card shifts the Major's meaning from peaceful surrender to strategic disengagement, from contemplative suspension to perspective-shift achieved not by leaving the battlefield but by refusing to fight on terms that guarantee continued struggle.
Related Combinations
The Hanged Man with other Minor cards:
Five of Wands with other Major cards:
Disclaimer: Tarot is a tool for self-reflection and personal insight. It does not predict the future or replace professional advice.