9: The Hermit

Major Arcana 9 is The Hermit card and this card has a very obvious meaning, and it also has a lot of magic behind it. The hermit is the card of the solo seeker, the one who hermits by going with in to understand the nature of spirit.


On the card we see a man with a grey beard, dressed in a grey hooded cloak and even outfitted with grey shoes. The color grey representing his desire to be unseen and his internal focus, not unlike the plain clothes of a monk. In his left hand he holds a staff symbolizing his desire for deeper spiritual knowledge and in his right he holds a lamps with a 6 pointed star, representing the union of spirit and matter, the merkaba. One part of this picture I especially love is the mountain tops under his feet. He has climbed the mountains of spiritual experience and dedication to higher knowledge and now he is ready to come down the proverbial mountain side to share his knowledge. The sky in the background is clear signifying mental clarity resulting from soul expansion. The hermit goes within so that he can eventually share and expand upon the knowledge he’s gleaned from literal soul searching, and everything about him reflects this.

This card in a reading can symbolize the spiritual seeker who is on some portion of their spiritual, inner self, journey. It can also symbolize the need to go in, to focus more on the self, to focus more on the inner journey. These are all good things, in my opinion. We can also see it coming out with some warnings to stop isolating so much and to start the journey out of the cave, or if you are hermiting, are you making good use of your time? Or are you just being antisocial for fear of being truly viewed as yourself?

While the hermit has many helpful lessons, it can also have helpful warnings. In a reading, the cards that land around the hermit card or the position of the hermit card can help you to recognize where you might need to make a change by moving attention inward or likewise moving outward. I know personally, I have had many moments where I was stuck in the cave too long because I didn’t know how I would share what I had learned, or better yet how what I shared would be received. The hermit reminds you the journey inward, while bringing you more understanding of the self, isn’t so much about the self as far as the ego is concerned, but more about the higher mind and how soirit expresses itself through the human experience. The journey through the hermit card brings us to a place that transcends previous experiences of the self as separate and instead shows us how to embody unity or divine union of self and spirit


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