View Full Version : The Hermit
le pendu
18-11-2004, 19:01
Picture the Hermit in your mind, watch him for a few moments.
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Is he standing still or walking?
Rusty Neon
18-11-2004, 19:09
One of my views on this is that the Hermit is walking very slowly, yet surely. Like the hour hand of a clock. After all, under some historical views of card origins, the Hermit card represents Time.
(I voted a little bit of both)
I see him walking, and I see him feel my presence. Then he stops, acknowledges my presence, and continues his search for whatever it is. I am unsure whether I am invited to follow.
WhiteRaven
18-11-2004, 19:23
I voted that he is standing still
Standing still, in deep contemplation of what he needs to do to go forward upon his path. A moment of pause to reflect in solitude so may hear and see what needs to be done for himself. Perhaps the lantern that he carries suggests that he is searching on this path...yet he HAS paused to contemplate on which direction he is headed.
I always feel that the Hermit is moving somewhat toward me, beckoning me to where I must go to reflect.
terri
I see The Hermit as following his dog ~ sent after The Fool...
i voted a little bit of both... i feel that he is pausing to collect his thoughts while on a journey.
a few years ago, i had IX tattooed on my ribcage. (IX=roman 9) i was on a journey of my own, pausing in a foreign town to collect my thoughts and look within,and i felt the wisdom of the hermit guiding my path. the tattoo is a reminder that the answers are always within, i just need to find them. with, of course, some guidance from my cards.
This is a very interesting question Le Pendv.
You see, L'Hermite is moving in a way that defies definition by our paltry 3-dimensional terms.
The Hermit is indeed standing still. And he is also moving, while he stands, still.
The Hermit exists outside of time, in a place where he is truly alone. He is betwixt and between, he is outside of our world and he is inside of it. I don't know why I have always felt this way about the Hermit, but he is indeed standing still as far as we are concerned, and moving as far as he is concerned.
Imagemaker
18-11-2004, 21:43
Elf, that statement is beyond cool. What more solitary pure-examination place can a consciousness go than outside Time? That moment of otherworldliness really teaches us about our Selves
He stays in his Hermit cave during the day...
But he comes out at night to check things out, when he's the least likely to meet other people.
He stands on his Mt. top and surveys the world around him.
His light shinning in the night, for those that are ready to see
For me he is about freewill, we come to him when we are ready for his truth.
I think he's standing still.
Interesting thread.
I'd imagine it depends the deck upon which you form your base of tarot.
I voted standing still. I think he has paused while walking to illuminate (something in?) the road ahead before he proceedes.
Woof
That's based on my mind's eye picture of the hermit.
Always walking but he goes no where
Always alone as fore company he does not care,
Never finding a partner, a single pair,
Never looking for love cause in his heart it is not there
You look into his eyes and only get a blank stare,
You then realize he has drawn u into his lair,
The fresh victim of a hungy bear,
The last pages of the book end only in a tear
The Hermit is an Old One. One of Those Who lives between the world of Spirit & Man, in a sacred space outside of Time. He is also known as Father Time-- a misnomer for he marks not time nor distance but moves from within as a Seeker of Knowledge from which Wisdom is distilled. He is also Merlin. He may appear to be keeping a solitary vigil, & in a way, he is for no other accompanies him. He is complete & sufficient unto Self. His journey of an inner path bridging multi-dimensions.
When he appears, it is to acknowledge one's own recognition of the seeker within, moving towards Self-knowledge & Enlightenment.
(Voted: Other)
DarkElectric
19-11-2004, 00:05
I voted other as well...for the same reasons Elf and MeeWah stated much more eloquently than I!
(Elf, you go, girl! This is why you're going to be the radio QUEEN!)
Before reading through what everyone else says, I voted a little bit of both - as a pause... a pause implies both action or movement and inaction or immobility, yet immobile he is not, and may be the most active when still.
The movement is not necessarily without, but also within.
Jewel-ry
19-11-2004, 02:47
I voted walking, before reading what others had put. My (impulsive!) thoughts being that he was guiding us along a path. Now, having read everyone elses posts, and actually giving the question some thought, I can see that his is moving, but not actually walking!
Jewel-ry needs to engage brain before writing, I think :|
~
WolfSpirit
19-11-2004, 05:06
The movement is not necessarily without, but also within.
Yes that's how I see it too. I think that he has movement within, because he does not have to move outward, he can concentrate on the inside.
That's how I have always seen the hermit.
I'm for a little bit of both.
In my mind the Hermit is about searching, and even when searching inwards there is some form of motion. A shifting of the eyes behind closed lids, a shift in position and a slite move of the lantern to better light the bit s/he is contemplating at the time, a step in some or other direction, or perhaps a fleeting motion that seems still but at the blink of an eye I find that the hermit has turned around or to the side or moved the lantern from one hand to the next or some other more or less expected motion.
Sometimes he is also moving constantly but slowly, like a snail moving across a vast field, knowing it will get to where it needs to go someday and meanwhile is savouring the adventure that is the way there.
I see him as walking... slowly... through the darkness.
Moonbow*
19-11-2004, 10:15
He is standing still.
Think about it... would you walk holding a lamp out in front of you? Nope! He stops and shines his lgiht for us to follow.
rachelcat
19-11-2004, 11:21
He is still. He is meditation. The still point around which the universe turns.
le pendu
19-11-2004, 12:01
Thank you everyone for sharing your thoughts on this!
The question came up for me during a chat with several AT members, when the Hermit card was drawn from the Haindl deck as a card to discuss. What struck me was that in the Haindl Hermit ( http://www.geocities.com/pichate1964/herinit-hd.jpg )the card is associated with the rune "Isa"... -Ice. I have always considered Isa to mean standstill, stagnation, being frozen, immobility... and this doesn't agree with my mental image of the Hermit.
I'm not sure why, but I have always considered the Hermit a "wisdom seeker".. lighting his path with the lantern as searches for truth and inspiration.
Perhaps I consider him a wandering monk, and quite likely I think of Diogenes ( http://www.samamultimidia.com.br/port/diogenes.jpg ) who is supposed to have gone about with a lantern "looking for an honest man".
But for me, he has always been *moving*, a searcher.
Upon reflection, it occured to me that many decks seem to portray the Hermit standing still, almost as if his light were a beacon, and we were to find him rather than the other way around.
Is there a difference? Does it matter if he is searching? Or is he the beacon for us to find? Or as some of you have already mentioned.. is he both.
And lastly, does the Rune Isa belong associated with the Hermit?
best,
robert
The Hermit's Rune
EIHWAZ : Signifies dream knowledge and psychic renewal,
and I call this Rune "the inner eye" (which helps w/spelling).
ISA : Works well for The Emperor ~ glacially slow to move,
and whose far reaching decisions slowly permeate the realm.
I always see him as moving but he stops when he needs to have an epiphany.
WhiteRaven
19-11-2004, 17:53
Well, I gotta tell you...in some decks the Hermit looks like he's looking down and is at the edge of a cliff...now if he's a movin' then he's gonna fall down that cliff just like the Fool looks like he's heading...
I have always looked at tHe Hermit as being at the top of a mountain, therefore that is where The Hermit spends his contemplation time, the journey/movement he endures comes once he decides to descend.
I feel he is paused.. but moving forward. As if he is contemplating his journey.
I think he was walking and suddenly he realized he had to stop and change his path because if he keeps walking he is in risk to fall from the mountain edge.
Seems to me that when you find the Hermit, really and truly find Him, you are in a space that is part of the inner journey, and it is perhaps, frightening.
Perhaps so many people see a light as they die because they have finally entered the domain of the Hermit. So alone, but suddenly, everything is awash with light, and just as suddenly, there is nothing you cannot know. No secret can be kept, no lie hidden.
The light of the Hermit's lamp floods our minds, our Soul and this is how we come to know Him. Stepping into the light, and out of the body.
And lastly, does the Rune Isa belong associated with the Hermit?
I think that Isa could be associated with a Hermit like state of conciousness. Imagine a coma.
Imagine being trapped, alone, a kind of Hermit, and there is input, there is altered conciousness, there is even sound and light. But no movement. Everything frozen at the point when you went into the coma.
So, there is thought movement, there is heart-beat movement, the body's systems are in motion, the mind is in motion, but the conciousness is behind the lamp. The body cannot move, the mind is traveling.
Now imagine looking at life through an Icicle. Isa.
Being trapped alive under the snow in an avalanche. Isa.
Falling through the ice and looking up through the ice cold water and there is no visible hole to surface through. Isa
Every example is experienced alone. They each perhaps lead to the light of the lamp...
Except that, Isa is the freeze just before the thaw.
There is always fire and ice in the mythos.....so where does that leave me?
TemperanceAngel
19-11-2004, 19:57
I said 'other' because although I think he is standing still, I also think he's floating or hovering :)
Great POLL le pendu!
Moongold
19-11-2004, 19:59
The Hermit is the quiet place in my soul, the light place in my heart. He is nowhere else to be found. He simply is.
I put a little bit of both. I feel that he IS moving, but very slowly. I don't think he does exist outside of our realm. A lot is put on the "outside observer," someone who has retreated to study their inner self as well as the world. Society moves almost too fast to accomplish these things and remain a part of life. I remembered this from Dune, because the real trick is to NOT retreat from life, society and time and still accomplish the Hermit's goals:
"So I quoted the First Law of Mentat at her: 'A process cannot be understood by stopping it. Understanding must move with the flow of the process, must join it and flow with it.'"
(Speak for myself, I have yet to figure out how not to retreat and accomplish anything that I want to accomplish...)
Shalott...second response to a comment of yours today!
Synchronicity?
I love the Dune series!
Yes...I too believe that we must be living to learn and not isolating. Sometimes, though, we must go into the desert, into the dark night of the soul, into the ice (as elf said) and freeze ourselves in the place between all boundaries that knows no time or space.
This allows us to realize that sometimes we become too much of the EGO and too little of the pure LOVE from which we emanate, and to which we long to return.
I believe that it is this reflection and meditation, that allows us to again move into the frenetic world of movement and time and space, hopefully with a better understanding of how unimportant most of what we worry about is.
If we, in reflection, understand that we are one with the Source and the Source is LOVE, then there cannot be Ego or Fear, since Fear and Love cannot exist in the same "space and time."
So, poor, weak humans that we are, we must live to grow, but sometimes we must go within....like Paul in Dune, going off by himself, to know our path.
Just my own beliefs....
terri
You know, I must admit that my last post was a dreamy kind of meditation that just happened as I sat pondering...
I can't say that it is something I've long held...
And I too love the Dune books.
Well, my Hermit card ended up sitting in meditation, so I voted Other. Isa isn't the rune I would have picked for him, but I see outer stillness as an essential quality for this card - the search is on the inside.
I've always seen the RWS Hermit as not a hermit at all, but something like Diogenes - searching for an honest man?
I voted Other.
I love elf's answers to this :)
My hermit is a snail... not walking, but moving, ever so slowly. When I think hermit, he's the one I think of.
Annabelle
23-10-2005, 22:54
Picture the Hermit in your mind, watch him for a few moments . . . Is he standing still or walking?
I voted that the Hermit is walking. I know that different decks picture him differently, and some even show him sitting down, but when I picture the Hermit in my mind, he is walking slowly, never just standing still.
Emeraldgirl
24-10-2005, 00:43
I voted a bit of both. I think he walks then stops pauses and thinks for a bit and then he walks along a bit more then stops pauses and thinks for a bit and so on and so on and so on. I have always seen him as the eternal traveller constantly searching although what it is he searches for can be constantly changing.
I kinda think of him as leaning forward, about to walk, but not doing so yet. First he has to see what the light reveals and what can be felt with his walking stick. Then decide which foot to lift...
NightWing
24-10-2005, 04:52
I've always experienced the Hermit as walking, albeit slowly and carefully. As well, a held lamp always flickers, or an hourglass in hand has flowing sand. But then, I see motion in virtually all of the card images, even if it is "just" water flowing or grass moving in a breeze. It is how I experience the images, regardless of the deck in use. For me, it is one way that tarot is "alive".
I know this is about the Hermit walking but this is kind of related to it.
Has anyone had him come up as someone with vision problems or blindness?
That's been popping up in my readings for people lately.
I notice the staff and the lantern and it feels like they need extra light and to "feel" their way along (extra help like with new glasses) because of their bad eyes.
So I'll bring that up and everytime so far they have had a major change in their vision.
I'll have to write that in my tarot journal.
Is there any tradition anyone knows of that is related to blindness or eyes with the Hermit?
Fudugazi
24-10-2005, 11:16
He walks - far and wide. He seeks, he finds, he shows the way to others, he seeks out those who are lost.
Sometimes he comes back to his hermitage and rests, or gives shelter to those caught outdoors in the night.
But generally, he walks.
I see him as pacing, like all great thinkers - pacing and muttering to himself.
i see him shuffling like a very old man who knows he must move with care but still makes very decent and sure progress. sometimes he pauses to inspect his path.
PlatinumDove
24-10-2005, 11:49
I see him standing still at the moment, lighting his way, making sure of the path ahead of him.
i have always seen him as standing still but then i use the rider-waite ... he is standing and illuminating the path below for those ascending ... i'm thinking he's different on other decks
good question tho :)
sharpchick
24-10-2005, 14:13
Interesting thread.
I'd imagine it depends the deck upon which you form your base of tarot.
I voted standing still. I think he has paused while walking to illuminate (something in?) the road ahead before he proceedes.
That's what it looks like in the Romani deck.
light2000
12-11-2005, 14:26
For me is walking very slow. He is at his spiritual path, and the spiritual path requieres patience and time.