Can the hanged man ever mean an actual hanging?

I was doing a reading about a difficult situation where there is one party involved who threatens to kill herself quite often. The conflict has come to a head and my reading had the hanged man in the "danger" position. I usually associate this card with a positive meaning, so in that position I was a bit puzzled... I drew another card as a clarifier and it was queen of swords upright- an apt description of her.

Answered

In a rather quick succession of events, I got my answer. She's "hanging him out to dry" by going to her lawyer and suing the person concerned in this mess. Who would have thunk?

I was going to answer that The Hanged Man in the "danger" position cold mean it's dangerous to take a "wait and see" attitude towards this issue.

My answer would be that could it ever mean that? yes it can. The tarot can be extremely literal but how often does it ever actually mean that? probably very rarely! so I would be very cautious about reading it as that or giving that message to anyone else. As you found out Madame Fox it most probably doesn't mean that

as well as your interpretation you worked out Madame, the danger I think is that she is not seeing another point of view in this situation but Queen of Swords could so be the lawyer! good luck to your friend!

I think there is a deck which depicts The Hanged Man as actually a hanged man on the neck. I cannot recall which deck it was now. Anyone?

In Renaissance Italy, where the first decks were designed, to be hung at the town gates by the ankles (a slow and horrible death), usually both ankles, was a death reserved for people convicted of treason, that is, traitors. In one or two early decks, the card is even called "The Traitor". The Tarot of the New Vision is interesting on the subject: based on RW images but showing then from the other perspective so that we see what is normally not in the card, it shows a crowd of townsfolk jeering at the hung man, reinforcing the historical sense of this figure as a criminal.

the Hanged Man card from Cagliostro Tarot

Here is the Hanged Man card from Cagliostro Tarot.

thank you everyone, for the insightful information! Yes, it turned out to be an eerily accurate description of what transpired. The woman "queen of swords" (who was known to threaten suicide when she didn't get her way) certainly sees the querent as a traitor and is unhappy, again, that he's not behaving according to her wishes, so she's threatening lawsuits related to old issues of child support. Interestingly I had drawn one other clarifier, the page of pentacles reversed.

It's a hairy situation, and my first spread that is less "woo woo" "feel good" "Listen to your angels." Nope. This one said, "the biddy wants you to hang."