Herodotus
In Waite's Pictorial Key to the Tarot, in the section on divinatory meanings of the Major Arcana, he writes of the Hermit:
"Prudence, circumspection; also and especially treason, dissimulation, roguery, corruption."
This treason business surprises me, especially considering this is the only source I'm aware of which treats the Hermit this way.
I'm given to understand that the Hermit does march to the beat of his own drum, and his lantern is intended to guide others along his path, which, when taken to extremes, can amount to what Waite says of him. I'm also given to understand that Waite purposefully wasn't exactly straightforward in his writing for the sake of maintaining at least to some degree the secrecy that was supposed to surround the Tarot, and with that in mind, I try to take everything he says with a grain of salt.
However, I'm still left scratching my head about all this. Can anyone shed some light on this? Perhaps illuminate for me just what Waite was getting at here?
(On a semi-related note, this reminds me of Led Zeppelin's use of the Hermit image for Stairway to Heaven, and the accusations of subliminal Satanic messaging the song received from many uptights which followed. Maybe there's something to those claims, after all.)
Thanks.
"Prudence, circumspection; also and especially treason, dissimulation, roguery, corruption."
This treason business surprises me, especially considering this is the only source I'm aware of which treats the Hermit this way.
I'm given to understand that the Hermit does march to the beat of his own drum, and his lantern is intended to guide others along his path, which, when taken to extremes, can amount to what Waite says of him. I'm also given to understand that Waite purposefully wasn't exactly straightforward in his writing for the sake of maintaining at least to some degree the secrecy that was supposed to surround the Tarot, and with that in mind, I try to take everything he says with a grain of salt.
However, I'm still left scratching my head about all this. Can anyone shed some light on this? Perhaps illuminate for me just what Waite was getting at here?
(On a semi-related note, this reminds me of Led Zeppelin's use of the Hermit image for Stairway to Heaven, and the accusations of subliminal Satanic messaging the song received from many uptights which followed. Maybe there's something to those claims, after all.)
Thanks.