Hermit as a location

Thirteen

Most Hermit images have him looking ahead....

Ace said:
The Hermit is looking back to see where he has come from. Maybe a location would be somewhere nostalgic. Somewhere you visit but you really can't return to because you have outgrown it.

I'm curious as to why you say that. In this Marseilles deck cards (https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/dc/24/9e/dc249ef360e85c134bd289d31c22b7a7.jpg), the Hermit is very clearly looking forward. Eyes open and focused on what is in front of him. Meanwhile, in the RWS Hermit card (http://www.learntarot.com/bigjpgs/maj09.jpg) he seems to have his eyes either lowered and looking down at what his lantern is illuminating in front of his feet, or closed and head bent in meditation (perhaps about whatever he just saw by the light of his lantern?). And in the very cool Thoth Hermit (https://www.e-act.nl/admin/img/94/Image/kluizenaar.jpg) we see the Hermit's back, including the back of the head. He's not only looking ahead, but moving in that direction. His lantern (interestingly!) is back as if saying, "I'm lighting the way for you. Follow me into the future!"

So...why do you say the Hermit is looking back?

samantha

Barleywine said:
The idea of the heights is that he has reached a pinnacle of wisdom and is showing the way to enlightenment for those laboring up the path behind him, following the light of his lamp. The "cloistered" idea comes from the fact that hermits were often monkish figures that led solitary lives as recluses.

Thanks BW. I should have got the link to the monk as I often get this card to indicate soul searching ....and it's accompanying spiritual dimension. By " pinnacle" do you mean you think he has learnt as much as he is going to ? An, ironic, *plateau* as it were ? Or is there more for even him to discover ?

samantha

JMI_Tarot said:
In the deck I created, The Cult of Weimar Tarot, I used an image of Gustav Nagel for The Hermit. He was a real person living in Berlin in the 1920s.

Gustaf Nagel, often called The Barefoot Prophet, The First Hippie, lived for a time as an honest to goodness Hermit.
He was a preacher of sorts rejecting the artificiality of modern life and encouraging people to return to the rhythms of nature.
He developed a considerable following and may be in some way responsible for several back to nature movements that developed around the Weimar time.
The banner he holds reads, "Ich komme zu euch in Frieden." (I come to you in Peace.)

Many people are surprised to see him in a deck devoted to 1920s Berlin because he looks like a hippie from 1960s Berkeley.

See the Hermit card here: https://www.cultofweimar.com/card-composition-2

I chose him as the Hermit because he went his own way, against the rising tide of modernism and spent a life seeking wisdom that comes from solitude and asceticism, eschewing worldly pleasures.

He was an anomaly in 1920s Berlin, that's for sure. That to me is the true spirit of the Hermit.

Thankyou for posting and for sharing your Hermit card. You have set him in a city scape ...so I guess this goes back to what an earlier poster said ; the isolation could be cerebral rather than literal/physical. (Where did the real Gustav Nagel hang out ?)

Ace

Thirteen said:
I'm curious as to why you say that. In this Marseilles deck cards (https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/dc/24/9e/dc249ef360e85c134bd289d31c22b7a7.jpg), the Hermit is very clearly looking forward. Eyes open and focused on what is in front of him. Meanwhile, in the RWS Hermit card (http://www.learntarot.com/bigjpgs/maj09.jpg) he seems to have his eyes either lowered and looking down at what his lantern is illuminating in front of his feet, or closed and head bent in meditation (perhaps about whatever he just saw by the light of his lantern?). And in the very cool Thoth Hermit (https://www.e-act.nl/admin/img/94/Image/kluizenaar.jpg) we see the Hermit's back, including the back of the head. He's not only looking ahead, but moving in that direction. His lantern (interestingly!) is back as if saying, "I'm lighting the way for you. Follow me into the future!"

So...why do you say the Hermit is looking back?

I have always seen the Hermit as looking back to see where he has COME From. I used the RWS, the Robin Wood And now the WorldTree Tarot where the Hermit is a HERMIT--up in a cave on a mountain. I was taught at the beginning of my journey that the Hermit is a meditater and looks for the gut--inward not outward. So I guess I always say, he is looking BACK not forward. This is not to say he won't GO forward, but only after looking back to see how far he has come.

barb

samantha

Thirteen said:
The Hermit's isolation (upright card at least) is one he goes into willingly. So, cloistered, yes, prison...maybe if the card was ill-dignified. Because walking and exploring is a "must" for our hermit, and prison tends to keep a person from doing that. As for heights, yes, but not because his vision is loft. Because heights give you the ability to see things from above and therefore "clearer." The big picture. Also, heights are remote and hard to get to, and so isolate. It's why stories often have those monasteries on mountaintops. They're naturally fortified against intruders.

I'd also add in caves (hermits used to live in caves) or, in our modern world, a basement and, yes the woods. Because people easily got lost in the woods, and so didn't venture into them. A "cabin in the woods" has always been considered isolated and hard to find--but also serene. And, finally, my favorite, a lighthouse (echoing his lantern light, and very isolated).

Keep in mind that the aim of the Hermit is to seek his own knowledge in his own way. So he doesn't want to interact with others because (1) he doesn't want to be influenced (they would tell him what to think or what was true; he wants to find all that out for himself), (2) they would distract him from his investigations. He wants to focus on what he's looking for. Other people make that hard to do. So, his choice of location is going to be a place which is not only remote but serene. Not noisy or difficult to live in; also rich in things to investigate. A place to stimulate the mind and allow for long, solitary walks with his lantern.

I've always considered the Hermit to be high minded and somewhat of an idealist (see my reply to Think ...along similar lines) so I was interested in your reply: "...but not because his vision is lofty". Maybe I accord him too much ! I'll have to think on this some more.

I particularly like the idea that his location has to be serene. I hadn't considered that specifically before ..but of course it makes sense. Thankyou

samantha

Ace said:
I have always seen the Hermit as looking back to see where he has COME From. I used the RWS, the Robin Wood And now the WorldTree Tarot where the Hermit is a HERMIT--up in a cave on a mountain. I was taught at the beginning of my journey that the Hermit is a meditater and looks for the gut--inward not outward. So I guess I always say, he is looking BACK not forward. This is not to say he won't GO forward, but only after looking back to see how far he has come.

barb

This is interesting and echoes the question I asked BarleyWine. I won't put words into his mouth before he has a chance to reply .....ok, perhaps I will then

but it seems (if I understood him correctly) that he believes the Hermit's wisdom has reached its zenith....whereas you appear to be saying that he still has a way to go. I think I have looked at him in a similar way - he continues to explore, continues to learn. Thanks for your thoughts.

Barleywine

samantha said:
This is interesting and echoes the question I asked BarleyWine. I won't put words into his mouth before he has a chance to reply .....ok, perhaps I will then but it seems (if I understood him correctly) that he believes the Hermit's wisdom has reached its zenith....whereas you appear to be saying that he still has a way to go. I think I have looked at him in a similar way - he continues to explore, continues to learn. Thanks for your thoughts.

Correct. The Hermit has reached the highest point in the landscape, just short of "ascending" into Spirit. Now he is prepared to disseminate his wisdom to all below. The Hermit has always struck me as "perfected wisdom" of a practical nature, since it is associated with the "active" letter Yod, meaning "hand."

From James Sturzaker: "Although named the Hermit, this is not the path of a recluse but of stepping out into the world. In most packs the arcanum shows the Hermit standing on a mountain peak, the point of achievement. The initiate who follows this path must also light the way for others. A follower and a leader, to follow the path of true wisdom and lead others to and along the path."

From Paul Foster Case:

"The Hermit is a title referring to a passage in the Qabalah which says: "Yod is above all (symbolizing the Father), and with Him is none other associated." A hermit lives alone, isolated. The picture shows him alone, standing on a snowy mountain-peak, far above the climbing travelers for whom he hold his lantern aloft as a beacon.

Although the Hermit seems to be alone, he is really the Way-shower, lighting the path for climbing multitudes below. He has no need to climb, hence his staff is in his left hand."

From Liber T:

"Wisdom from on high. Active divine inspiration."

samantha

Thanks BW that was very clear ! Do you consider him the wisest (character/archetype) in the major acana ? How does he compare to the High Priestess ? (This should probably go elsewhere ..) EDIT : Though maybe I need to make a distinction between wise and knowledgeable ?

Barleywine

samantha said:
Thanks BW that was very clear ! Do you consider him the wisest (character/archetype) in the major acana ? How does he compare to the High Priestess ? (This should probably go elsewhere ..) EDIT : Though maybe I need to make a distinction between wise and knowledgeable ?

I don't consider any of the major arcana any "better" than any other; the wisdom of the High Priestess is of a different order from that of the Hermit - it's more akin to the other Earth "wisdom" card, the Hierophant. Since the Hermit is associated with Mercury-ruled Virgo and the idea of a "hand," it strikes me more as "applied" wisdom than spiritually abstract. The High Priestess and the Hierophant received their wisdom as a privilege of their elevated status, but the Hermit had to climb to get his.

samantha

Barleywine said:
I don't consider any of the major arcana any "better" than any other; the wisdom of the High Priestess is of a different order from that of the Hermit - it's more akin to the other Earth "wisdom" card, the Hierophant. Since the Hermit is associated with Mercury-ruled Virgo and the idea of a "hand," it strikes me more as "applied" wisdom than theoretical. The High Priestess and the Hierophant received their wisdom as a privilege of their elevated status, but the Hermit had to climb to get his.

Ok. So they (Hermit/HP) are both types of inner wisdom which have been arrived at via a different route. Thankyou.