The Hermit: Rider-Waite-Smith published by Universal Games, The Mythic Tarot by Juliet Sharman-Burke & Liz Greene, Tarot Illluminati by Erik C. Dunne 

The Hermit is you, alone with yourself…finally.

Most people are familiar with the iconic image of The Hermit and it’s one that’s ingrained in most cultures. The wise old one who lives alone separate from the mainstream.

The word hermit is derived from a Greek word meaning desert.

How apt for this card!

Although the Tarot has developed into something that's almost mainstream now, with so many decks being created, everything from vampire themes, popstar themes and just about everything under the sun (and moon), the oldest Tarot decks  were infused with Christian ideals.

It’s ironic that so many of those who embrace Tarot identify as pagan!

As I always say, the Tarot is not a religion or a belief. 

History and myth are filled with people who fulfilled the archetype of The Hermit.

The early Christian contemplatives went into the desert in the 3rd and 4th centuries to go somewhere with no distractions.

They wanted to connect with the spiritual realm by going to a place that strips anything unnecessary away.

Merlin from the Arthurian legends was another. He lived alone in the forest which is a desert of trees.

Another example is Ramana Maharshi the great Indian mystic who spent many years living in caves.

In a very real sense, The Hermit doesn’t just go to the desert, he (or she) is the desert.

The Hermit is the place where the inner and outer landscapes meet.

However, you can also wander alone in the desert and become lost in time. This is because you aren’t connecting with your inner light while you’re there. More on this later.

The Hermit card from a Tarot de Marseilles deck (Nicholas Conver) reproduced by Yoav Ben-Dov

Father Time

Some of the earliest Tarot decks (like the Visconti-Sforza from the 15th century) portrayed The Hermit with an hourglass instead of the modern versions where he has a lantern.

In fact, in one of my decks, The Mythic Tarot by Juliet Sharman-Burke and Liz Greene, The Hermit is associated with Cronos from Greek myth.

Another word for Cronos is Father Time and he is also associated with the planet Saturn.

I’m not going to recount the entire story here, but the part I do want to share is that Cronos ate his children because he didn’t want to relinquish his control on everything. He didn’t want to have to give it up to one of his progeny.

This illustrates the shadow side of The Hermit whereby solitude can become closed off and the wisdom not shared.

This is also connected with spiritual bypassing where someone uses “spirituality” or solitude as an escape from facing actual responsibilities they may have.

This is not to say that there’s not an authentic call to solitude or being a monk.

These days it’s even a saying people have; to be “monk like” for a time in order to accomplish a goal without distractions.

The fascinating thing is how The Hermit card developed from being associated with time, rhythm and structure to being the wise sage with the lamp instead of the hourglass.

I see this as the vertical entering the horizontal.

In other words, timeless eternity (vertical) entering time and space (horizontal).

In Tarot, this is illustrated by The Fool who travels through the entire deck in order to gather experience and ultimately, to learn about Love. 

This implies that The Fool is behind every experience as the witnessing presence, I am.

Everyone, no matter how extroverted, needs time alone.

Without it, everyone would get even crazier than they already are!

In fact, this lack of the vertical dimension in life, or as Eckhart Tolle named it, The Power of Now, leads to an imbalance in emotions and causes great amounts of stress on the body and mind.

This time alone can create the space or “crack” where the Light can enter. The vertical can again connect with the horizontal.

Back to the Greeks, there is a famous historical character named Diogenes.

Although an actual historical character, he’s one of those figures where a lot of myth and legend has been created over time. 

The truth in a good story outlasts the facts.

Diogenes lived the lifestyle of an ascetic and hermit and one day was walking through a crowded market place in broad daylight carrying a lit lamp.

People asked him why he had a lit lamp in the middle of the day.

He replied, “I am looking for a human being.”

This story implies that in order to be fully human, we need to be connected with our inner light.

If we never stop to just be, and are always chasing the horizon, we are not fully being human.

When you don’t access the vertical (or make space for the vertical to access you), you get tangled up in knots. 

That’s when you get upset over petty things or you get more irritable or frustrated in life. An argument with your partner or spouse over something that is just not worth the damage.

Finding that inner space allows you to breathe and to observe those things in perspective. Then when you come back to engage with them, you see more solutions. 

Doing this requires effort and practice at first, although the desire to practice comes from the light of the lantern in the first place. 

The paradox is that the lantern never actually goes out. It’s always there just behind the clouds waiting for you to discover it. 

When you do, it seems as if you lit it.

The more you practice, the more your conditioned self starts to realize it doesn’t always need to protect you like that; it can relax and get out of the way so that grace can enter.

The Hermit and Virgo

The Hermit has a vivid astrological correspondence that truly makes perfect sense once you hear it.

The English School of Tarot from the late 19th century has informed much of what Tarot is known as today.

This was mostly developed by a group of people called the Order of the Golden Dawn.

According to their templates of “correspondences,” The Hermit happens to be associated with the astrological sign of Virgo.

Here’s a fascinating piece of the puzzle; Virgo is associated with the lower digestive system of the human body!

Processing and digesting information is a key meaning of The Hermit.

We need time alone in order to metabolize feelings and thoughts about something that’s important to us.

Virgo is also cautious which lines up with The Hermit.

The sign of Virgo also aligns with the shadow side of this archetype.

The negative expression of Virgo can be very critical of others and be overly suspicious of them as a result.

This can lead to feelings of isolation instead of solitude.

In a relationship it could manifest as feelings of alienation.

The Hermit card from Rider-Waite-Smith published by Universal Games

If you look at the image of The Hermit in the RWS card, you see an old man standing on a mountaintop covered with snow, holding a lantern.

He’s gazing down into the abyss and supporting himself with a staff.

The lantern has the six sided Star of David inside which is formed by a downward facing triangle intersecting with an upwards facing triangle.

Again, this is showing the blending together of Heaven and Earth.

When you look at the card, you instantly get a very visceral sense of wisdom.

The Hermit's old age is a symbol of wisdom (even though not all elderly folks are necessarily wise in a deep way). It also circles back to the original association with Father Time. 

The lantern symbolizes the inner divine spark that is within all of us. But how often do we light it?

The mountain shows height which also suggests connecting with higher dimensions.

The grey cloak illustrates the transcendence and synthesis of polarities. The individual realizing unity with the universal.

And the looking down into the abyss shows that “the desert” doesn’t let you avoid what you’re carrying. 

It removes every outer distraction until what’s inside becomes impossible to ignore.

You either face the darkness and unknown deeper dimensions within yourself or you continue to distract and find means of escape.

But deep down inside of our “inner hermit” we know that cannot work in the long run.

Not if we want to find true peace and understanding in this life. The kind that is within us.

The kind that nobody can take away from us.

Takeaways

The Hermit card carries its own evolution within it. The earliest decks showed him holding an hourglass. Father Time, Cronos, the horizontal dimension of lived experience moving through time. 

Later the hourglass became a lantern. Time deepened into presence. The card itself made the journey that it shows.

The lantern holds a Star of David which is two triangles, one pointing up, one down. As above, so below. Heaven and earth unified in the light he carries. The vertical and horizontal eternally intersecting.

The desert does double duty. It’s where you wander lost when you’re living only horizontally. No inner light, just time passing. And it’s where you go deliberately to find the intersection again. 

Behind the Hermit’s aged face all that time, the Fool watches. Unchanged. The I Am that never aged. The still point inside the moving figure. Cronos on the outside, the eternal witness within.

The vertical was never absent. Just unseen. The desert is where we stop long enough to realize it again.

One of the simplest and most powerful ways to do this is to just sit and be. Allow thoughts and images to appear before you.

Breathe into your belly in a deep but relaxed manner. Exhale any stress or tension through pursed lips.

Scan your body and note any tension and allow it to release. The shoulders are one of the main places for most people.

This isn’t a formal meditation. Just BE. 

Allow the dust to settle.

If you'd like to experience this directly rather than just read about it, Presence Sessions are exactly for that.