L'Hermite and his Lantern

Allegory and realism

(IMHO), the image of the hermit, as well as others, are more allegorical than realistic. I don't think the image was intended to be a realistic rendition of a hermit with a lamp but more as a symbolic representation. I tend to think of what Lark writes about (the "guiding light"), also certain lamps had blinders that kept the light from blinding the user when it was held in front of them.

Yes, the Tarot de Paris hermit is definitely ringing a bell. In his other hand, he holds a string of beads, likely a rosary. (Is ringing a bell ever a part of praying the rosary?)

The Hermit of the 1810 Gumppenberg Ancient Tarot of Lombardy is carring a lantern or censer on a chain at knee level. His other hand holds a book. He is looking down to confront a snake in the grass.

I know that in cloistered convents and monasteries a bell is always rung as a call for all to assemble for prayer.
They live their life by the bell, it calls them to prayer, meals, sleep, ect.

ihcoyc you live in a shuttered room in the Bastille.....have you ever heard the bells?

Was there a Hermit's Handbook back in ancient times,
"The Complete Idiot's Guide to Hermitry" or something?

And where did they shop for all their neat gear, hermit.com
or some such: lanterns, bells, cloaks, and squiggly sticks...

There is no logical reason for L'Hermite to be in the Tarot,
which is precisely his role: the revolution is here, it is now.

I love your post Fulgour, but I always think of the Hermit as an old partially naked man in a diaper-like garment...the wild madman of the hills...

Oh how we hold the Hermit in such high esteem! The man of wisdom , so well representing the archetype we know is alive and well today. But even men of wisdom cannot know everything. And sometimes can be very self -focused to the exclusion even of great truths.

Interesting that comment about how difficult it is to walk with a lantern held up to the eyes. Good point ! And one I have pondered for quite some time.

There is the wise old man, walking with his cane. Holding up a lantern where no one walking - or even not walking , would position it. In the daylight too. Makes no sense at all. And maybe neither does the Hermit. Strange for a wise man to make no sense , isn't it? Very curious.

Because the Hermit is BLIND.

Dark Inquisitor said:

Because the Hermit is BLIND.

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Why, all delights are vain, but that most vain
which pain hath purchased doth inherit pain:
As painfully we pour upon a book
to seek the light of truth, while truth the while
doth falsely blind the eyesight of his look.

Light, seeking light, doth light of light beguile.
So ere you find where darkness lies,
your light grows dark by losing of your eyes.

I.i.73-80 Love's Labours Lost

Excellent Fulgour !! I think some of the rest of that applies too:

"Study is like the heaven's glorious sun
That will not be deep-search'd with saucy looks:
Small have continual plodders ever won
Save base authority from others' books
These earthly godfathers of heaven's lights
That give a name to every fixed star
Have no more profit of their shining nights
Than those that walk and wot not what they are."

Now we can form conspiracy theories relating to Shakespeare and the tarot..

Diana said:

I was not implying that the Hermit is a leper. I was implying that he was an outcast.

Firstly, there is nothing to say that the Tarot (I'm not talking about the first cards found in museums) did not originate in the 12th century in France (not Italy). Please keep in mind Huck, that when I speak of The Tarot, I am not necessarily speaking of tarot decks.... So often here on Aeclectic we talk at cross purposes due to the word "tarot" which means different things for different people.

Secondly, symbols do have the wonderful ability to not limit themselves to one particular period of time.

I love the idea brought up in previous posts about the bell warding off evil spirits. When I told Bocher about elf's idea of a lunchbox (I did tell him that she was joking though!), and said that he therefore may have his sandwich in it, he said something like "Peut-être est-ce pour cela que le beurre est si rance dans cette lame" ("Perhaps that is why the butter is so rancid in this card.")

Am pretty convinced now that this lantern is a not a lantern and that therefore all Tarot books (Marseilles of course) need to be re-written. Except of course, jmd's unpublished book which we are all waiting for eagerly.

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Well, I feel sure that you don't want to rewrite the books about the holy Bavarian Animal Tarot, whose devine sources go back to times when we all survived the cold ice in caverns and painted the walls with Tarot card motifs.
At early 19th century some Tarot painters felt sure, that the bell of the hermit was a lantern, although the Marseille-iconography might be interpreted in two different ways, lantern or bell.

http://trionfi.com/01/j/i/gambler_ru/d02971.htm - see Nr. 9
http://trionfi.com/01/j/i/gambler_ru/d02380.htm - see Nr. 9

In 15th century all hermits did ring bells, which were disguised as small little objects with running sand in them, but in reality contained small little churches with very smalls bells in them.

http://trionfi.com/01/j/i/gambler_ru/d02046.htm - see Nr. 9

They had only 14 trumps in early 15th century, but surely everybody remembered, that it were 22 symbols and they perfectly invaded from France.

Of course the perfect Tarot is not limited to space and time. But "real" history needs "real" time, otherwise history doesn't exist. Well, nobody minds "fiction" - but entering the doors of "real history" it needs a little more than ... - just suggestions?

Nobody denies, that probably all the motifs of the Tarot trumps are older than 15th century. Probably not only in use in Italy, but also in France for instance. Perhaps even already in 12th century, although I've some specific doubts about a Hanged Man in France in that time.

But perhaps your personal definition of Tarot allows smaller iconographical changes. There is something "real" in France with 78 elements in 12th century? Or something with 22 elements? What is there in 12th century in France, from which you think, that it should be named Tarot?

Undenyable there are some early cabalists in Provence and they love the Hebrew alphabet, and as their moment of enlightment, somehow connected to the prophet Elias, is given the year 1170. Do you speak of this context?

I’ve already read in several places (can’t remember where, right know) about this possible relation between L’ Hermite and Anthony the Abbot. Here are some representations of Saint Anthony the Abbot; the one from Fra Angelico is particularly interesting. http://www.catholic-forum.com/saints/sta06001.htm

Saint Anthony's cross is a T, or tau-shaped cross, a kind of cross that could very well be “mistaken” with a traveller’s stick. His story is the typical story of a ermit: he abandoned his confortable life and went to the desert for 20 years, looking for loneliness, though always seached by devotees. He personally had nothing to do with leper, but could cure skin deseases, so he eventualy got to be portraited with a bell.

An interesting trait of this character is the fact that he was also often portraited with a pig. This is the explanation why: “Skin diseases were sometimes treated with applications of pork fat, which reduced inflammation and itching. As Anthony's intervention aided in the same conditions, he was shown in art accompanied by a pig. People who saw the art work, but did not have it explained, thought there was a direct connection between Anthony and pigs - and people who worked with swine took him as their patron” (from http://www.catholic-forum.com/saints/sainta06.htm). But the pig is also a symbol of the devil, and the image of the saint with a bell and a pig was also interpreted as meaning that he could ward off the devil (with the pure, “catholic” sound of the bell).

He is also the “founder” of the eremitic concept. But, more than a hermit, he was in fact a misogynist, as you can read in http://www.sacredspiral.com/Database/saints/6saint.html.

He is, most of all, the biggest symbol of a Hermit the Catholic Church has to offer. In that point, there is no doubt about the card’s name and the figure represented.

Now, about bell or lamp, both of them are generally related to worship. The bell calls people to the temple; the light is a symbol of God’s presence, and also of man’s faith (those who keep the lamp burning).

In the Bible, the bell is mentioned as a distinctive feature of the High Priest, as in the small golden bells attached to his dress (Ex. 28:34: “A golden bell and a pomegranate, a golden bell and a pomegranate, upon the hem of the robe round about”).

As to the lamp… "Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path." Psalm 119:105