Hermit blue, Hermit purple

Parzival

I find it interesting that the pocket universal waite has a pastel purple Hermit, while the standard sized universal waite printed in italy (2006) has a moody blue Hermit. The so-called "original" waite-smith tarot has a gray-cloud Hermit. Why the variation? Does it make a significant difference in the tone/spirit of the image? Which is your Hermit, the purple, blue, or gray one?
 

Lilija

My deck is the Universal Waite, and I see the hermit as a pale slate grey, almost the same color as the shadows in the mountains. Not quite as blue as the sky, but not monocromatic grey either.

Not sure what that means, honestly. I liken him to a solitary standing stone, filled with knowledge and wisdom, solid, like those mountains, but detached.
 

Rosanne

It says in the book by Frank Jensen on the Waite Smith Tarot that colouring is remarkably different between Pamela A B C D and examples are given of the Horse on the Sun card.
A- the Horse is grey marble
B Beige flecked
c dark bone with some white
D More white and medium beige.

Jensen talks about differences in colour and quality of colour, and suggests that this is because the original plates were destroyed or worn out and that all decks after WW2 were different because the colour plates were destroyed in Plymouth and all anyone had to go by were the black and white illustrations in the Pictorial Key to Tarot and the greatly varying decks printed before hand.
In my early 1970's Hermit it is light Grey, One is dark Blue Grey, one is mainly white with purple- so I guess the copyist decides from using the black and white illustrations- what colour is appropriate. I think Grey is as typical idea of worsted yarn from sheep or linen thread all not likely dyed.
~Rosanne
 

Parzival

Hermit Blue, Hermit Purple

I showed the three different cards side-by-side to a distinguished art teacher and painter/stained glass artist who is a colleague with whom I work. She is especially interested in the power of color in art. She thought there was a distinctly different tone with each card, the purple more mystically meditative, the blue-surround one more an immersion in spiritual thought, the gray one more the lonely seeker on the path to truth. She thought the purple one had the stongest tonal impression. When I looked again, the golden staff of the gray one stood out, as if truth were with the Hermit as he travelled along his way, his "inner guide" or "Higher Self" being that golden staff, and the lantern's light as well. The coloration of the various Waite-Smith decks is like attuning to different auras and their energies.
 

53rdspirit

Being a hermit myself, we wear shades of brown or gray as those colors are relaxing and we tend to then blend more into our natural surroundings. When a hermit is feeling sporty, we wear black.

:laugh:
~53rdspirit