Thoughts on The Hermit

KariRoad

My favourite card, love to discuss.

PamColSniHer9ix.jpg


Wisdom, sex appeal, mystery.
 

dadsnook2000

One or the other

Do we wish to start with this question: "Is he looking for something or is he positioning himself so others can find him?" We know the classical interpretations of this card, but what does the picture suggest?

If I wanted to be found, perhaps to share knowledge or to help others, I might want to frequent lower areas where people are likely to be. If I wanted to be alone or to look for something, again, a bare mountain top with snow isn't the place.

The answer is suggested by a third possibility, he needs solitude. Of course, the lamp then becomes a contradiction. Perhaps all of this is why this card has so much appeal. It gives us difficult-to-answer questions to consider.

Dave
 

Teheuti

KariRoad, please tell us more about the "sex-appeal." I never thought of the card this way before.
 

ozzimo

He is standing on a snowy peak to indicate that he awaits us at the summit of our evolution, our spiritual evolution.
I would like to point out that it is only the fool that you see so aloft before his descent, The fool numbered as 0 the Hermit is 9. Both 0 and 9 typify the absolute. zero is the absolute as it leaves the source and enters into manifestation. Nine is the absolute as the goal of existence. you can find these two ideas pictured in these two cards : The fool zero is a youth looking upwards to the morning light as he descends into manifestation. nine is a white bearded Ancient, at night, looking down.
There is a sexual element to this Hermit card : Its been said that the object of accultist and mystics alike is the union with the Hermit. The letter Yod stands for the accult extension of sex union. The union of the lower self and higher self. "It is the melting of the personality into something which takes possession of it". In it "all sense of self-consciousness is lost and the personality is fused with the universal consciousness". For us who give up our personal will and identified our will with that of the higher self meet the Hermit :)
 

Teheuti

Thanks for the explanation. I suppose you could say that the Hermit is the hermaphrodite—as per Tiresias in the Oedipus plays (who had experienced being both a man and a woman). Traditionally, the World is the androgyne.

BTW, in a great, unexplained one-liner in Pictorial Key to the Tarot, Waite reveals that the Hermit is Persephone - probably a reference to the corresponding zodiac sign, Virgo. As Queen of the Dead she makes the journey to and from the underworld twice a year, bringing Spring to the upperworld and leaving Winter behind her when she returns below.
 

KariRoad

Ozzimo!

Absolute poetry!
ozzimo said:
He is standing on a snowy peak
to indicate that he awaits us
at the summit of our evolution,
our spiritual evolution.

I would like to point out
that it is only the fool
that you see so aloft
before his descent,

The fool numbered as 0 the Hermit is 9.
Both 0 and 9 typify the absolute.
zero is the absolute as it leaves the source
and enters into manifestation.
Nine is the absolute as the goal of existence.

you can find these two ideas
pictured in these two cards :

The fool zero is a youth looking upwards
to the morning light
as he descends into manifestation.
nine is a white bearded
Ancient, at night, looking down.

There is a sexual element
to this Hermit card :
Its been said that the object
of occultist and mystics alike
is the union with the Hermit.

The letter Yod stands for
the occult extension of sex union.
The union of the lower self
and higher self.

"It is the melting of the personality
into something which takes possession of it".
In it "all sense of self-consciousness is lost
and the personality is fused
with the universal consciousness".

For us who give up our personal will
and identified our will
with that of the higher self
meet the Hermit

[Note: Yod is letter 10.
IX The Hermit thus might possibly be letter 9 Teth.]
 

KariRoad

Teheuti said:
BTW, in a great, unexplained one-liner in Pictorial Key to the Tarot, Waite reveals that the Hermit is Persephone - probably a reference to the corresponding zodiac sign, Virgo. As Queen of the Dead she makes the journey to and from the underworld twice a year, bringing Spring to the upperworld and leaving Winter behind her when she returns below.
A One-Mile-Long One-Liner:

In a fit of deadline fever, Waite penned, the "...presentation of justice is supposed to be one of the four cardinal virtues included in the sequence of Greater Arcana; but, as it so happens, the fourth emblem is wanting, and it became necessary for the commentators to discover it at all costs. They did what it was possible to do, and yet the laws of research have never succeeded in extricating the missing Persephone under the form of Prudence."

Persephone (underworld) was the daughter of Demeter (harvest).

Athena (don't ask) was the daughter of Metis (prudence). So........

We cannot conclude that Waite intended "Prudence" to be associated with IX The Hermit,
because Waite does not permit conclusions. He is " conclusion proof " and bottled in bond.

Please also, if I may ask: where might I find Waite's association of IX The Hermit with Virgo?
:) Thanks
 

ozzimo

Hermit - Virgo

virgo is associated to the intestinal tract. The intestinal tract is a coil. It is called the black dragon because it is coiled and shut out from the light. Where the intestinal track joins the stomach, at the head of this dragon, is a milky substance which was called "the liquid that does not wet".
The greeks called this CHYLE. The Alchemist called it THE VIRGINS MILK. It is the essence of our food which has been extracted by the digestive fluids, and from these essences is derived the necessary elements for body building. Virgo is ruled by mercury and mercury comes to its highest manifestation in Virgo. This means that the mind (mercury), the intellect (the thinking lobe of the brain), governs the highest manifestation the mind is capable of making. Consequently, the highest thing that mercury can do is empower the subconscious to utilize this element in CHYLE, which is essential for regeneration. Its interesting to note how our minds and digestion are so closely related, how mental stress can effect our appetite and if we eat or drink the wrong things it affects our mental judgment.
So in purifying the body one opens the third eye. Now the eye is open he knows what to eat to lift his physical vibrations. Its purifying and one needs to be purified to climb the mountain to meet the Hermit. With our third eye open we see the light from the lamp which will guide us to the summit.
Virgo stands for sex union with the spirit, please don't tell the church i said that, and the light within the Hermits lamp is the soul, Our journey home.
Its interesting to note here, this journey back to the source is the FOOL's vision, ever wondered what was on his mind as he was about to descend?
He was holding on to this vision, he knew his purpose was to descend into this physical gross substance, and through the process of purification return to the source. ( UNION )

I hope that wasn't too long winded i tried to brake it down :)
 

barbaragraver

To me, the Hermit represents the light of spirituality held aloft and available to all. I see the actual figure as contemplative. The act of holding the lantern an invitation of sorts, but with the (implied) climb up to the individual. This card is, and has always been, a very important card to me personally with a very pure and ultimately simple message. (Maybe because I have always had a strong emotional response to the idea of spiritual light just in general.) I had the Led Zeppelin IV poster in my room growing up and wondering if I should find a reprint!

I'm not sure about the Virgo association but some traditional astrological correlations work for me and others don't. The correspondence with the Hebrew Yod is interesting, of course, as it is part of the Tetragrammaton and has a lot significance to me in a religious sense.
 

Teheuti

KariRoad said:
Please also, if I may ask: where might I find Waite's association of IX The Hermit with Virgo?
:) Thanks
In one of his Golden Dawn teaching papers (can't look it up right now), he makes it clear that he uses the GD astrological and zodiacal associations. Indications of this can be seen in a few of the cards, although it's not made obvious in all of them.