The first thing that comes to mind when I draw the Hermit card is isolation. However often I draw it, however many descriptions I read about it, I still think, first and foremost, of aloneness. Maybe it’s because I’ve spent so much of my life alone, or because I both dread and crave time to myself so strongly. Loneliness is a hard wound to heal – but being trapped at home with two screaming children for nearly a year thanks to COVID makes total isolation sound . . . sigh . . . idyllic.
Whatever the case, I’m wrong about the Hermit card. While it does (obviously) have to do with solitude, I wouldn’t say this is its primary meaning. This card goes far deeper than that.
I see the hermit is a spiritual they. It, them, whatever. While many of the previous cards have had some pretty strong gender affiliations, either energetically (yin and yang) or simply in my weird brain, the Hermit card is distinctly agender to me. Anyone can take time to themselves, reflect, meditate, delve into mysticism, and grow a long beard. Trust me, anyone can grow a beard if their heart is true – just as long as it’s pure white and stretches down to their knees. If someone tells you otherwise, they’re lying.
Sure, anyone can embody the Empress, Emperor or High Priestess energy as well, but no one sex has cornered the metaphoric market on hermitude in our collective consciousness. The wise woman in the woods and the scholarly mustache holed up in his library with his pipe are equally powerful images of the solitary quest for knowledge and wisdom. Nuns and monks both exist, and misfits, loners, and singles come in all shapes and sizes.
This card can speak of your own reclusive tendencies or need to take a time out away from the influence of the external world – or it can speak of someone else who’s done this, gotten to know the inner workings of their own soul, and consequently has some wisdom to spit . . . for you?
To you? At you?
Ew, no, not at you. No one’s spitting at you.
Either way, the hermit is a wise, spiritual individual. It’s someone who observes in silence, uncovers what’s hidden, and can guide others through the inner realms to find meaning. Aloneness is generally a prerequisite for the type of uncontaminated knowledge the hermit possesses – especially in today’s noisy, demanding society – but rarely should this be interpreted as ostracization or loneliness. While the choice to take a break can be born from pain, the break itself, in this case, is more healing than harmful.
The Hermit Upright
▹Solitude
▹Research
▹Vision quest
▹Patience
▹Introspection
▹Maturity
▹A teacher or guide
The Hermit Reversed
▹Return from isolation –or– forced isolation, loneliness, exile
▹Need for reflection –or– too much reflection
▹Excessive need for alone time –or– social addiction, rejection of solitude
Obviously, the Hermit reversed can go one of two ways – it’s a card of extremes when taken the wrong way. Time to ourselves – the requisite quietude for clarifying out thoughts, getting in touch with God, the Universe, our own inner knowing – is vital for our health and happiness. But you can always have too much of a good thing.