Going Insular: Hermit Year

Thread originally posted on the Aeclectic Tarot Forum on 22 Dec 2004, and now archived in the Forum Library.

Thirteen	22 Dec 2004
So, following Greer's formula, I've added up 7 (month) + 13 (day) + 2005 =2025 Which leads to 2+2+5... And so it seems I'm entering a Hermit Year! Funny to look back at 2004 and see how much of a Strength year it was. Me fighting off a lot of inner lions there. I suspect the maiden got eaten. In fact I'm pretty sure she lost the contest and became lunch early on, leaving that lion to reek havok for at least eleven months.... As for 2005, looks like I'm goin' insular. Better stock up the pantry and make sure I have plenty of water and duck tape :D

Moongold	22 Dec 2004
Duct tape? I am three days out of my Hermit year. It was not a good year by any means but Hermit was oddly comforting. The desert is still with me though and somehow it feels right. I am thinking that the year of the Hermit doesn't ever finish. We're possibly marked indelibly by it. One of the outcomes of my Hermit year is feeling very comfortable with the desert. Another thing - I am going wide eyed and curious into the Wheel of Fortune year. At least you're in the pantry.Hope there is plenty of chocolate there :) Or whatever you really enjoy.

Imagemaker	22 Dec 2004
I'm doing the same (moving from Strength to Hermit)--already saying no to some contract jobs and wanted to withdraw to pursue (even more) inner work, writing, and home/hearth paths. I'm actually looking forward to it. And I think it was my Strength year that gave me the courage to say no more and more to others, yes to myself. Thirteen, maybe we should form a Hermit Club--you only participate when you want to, at arm's length, but have others who experience the same issues of how heavy that darned lamp gets and how cold our toes get, standing out in the snow.

Ulfdis	22 Dec 2004
Oh great, now I have to worry about frostbite too! I hope that darn lion didn't eat my wool socks...

Alta	22 Dec 2004
Hi Thirteen, my Hermit year was 2002. I finished a major study and won a national science award, found a new job, tore up all of my old roots and moved to a new city. Started to travel virtually non-stop, and took on a work load that would kill a horse. Changed everything. *shrugs* I went and back and looked at my last Hermit year, the same sort of thing happened. Maybe it can also be the year that pulls you away from your comfort zone. Going out into the desert does not necessarily equate to locking yourself in a broom closet.

Imagemaker	22 Dec 2004
Ooo, now this sounds very interesting! I don't *want* to pull up roots, but then I've been here a very, very long time. Hmmmm. . . I've been out of my comfort zone in other ways a LOT in the last decade, so that doesn't faze me a bit anymore. Must turn up my lantern to see what's out there (*squint*)

Thirteen	23 Dec 2004
Quote: tore up all of my old roots and moved to a new city Uh-oh. I forgot all about wandering around with a lantern. This may make it hard on our club, Imagemaker. We might have to meet now and then at the crossroads to compare science notes and relight those lanterns.

tmgrl2	29 Dec 2004
Thirteen, again we meet! Two threads in one day! Using Umbrae's formula, I started my Hermit Year 11/3/04. I see myself as leaving my Justice year.... I just retired! So perhaps the Hermit year came exactly when it should. I have been telling everyone, I have NO plans for the first year of retirement. After 49 years of work and/or school, I want to be a HERMIT! I have sense, too of the number 9 as being near completions.....my husband's health is really declining and I need to be here to caretake...working full-time and doing that was no longer much of an option. So there is a tad of sadness but also a sense of making the most of every day we have together. We really enjoy each other. I will definitely be going to the gym (did today) by myself. I go to movies alone, since my husband can't go anymore. I love to browse in bookstores. I have my little office set up at home for readings and have my first home-office client coming in next Friday.... So...Hermit year I believe I will love. Maybe we Hermits can meet part way through our year, bring our lanterns and share our stories. Somewhere in some cave, perhaps, no? Maybe we could even do some readings for each other regarding the progress of our Hermit year?? terri

Diana	29 Dec 2004
Thirteen wrote: Me fighting off a lot of inner lions there. I suspect the maiden got eaten. In fact I'm pretty sure she lost the contest and became lunch early on, leaving that lion to reek havok for at least eleven months.... Do you mean like this, Thirteen? http://www.tarotforum.net/attachment.php?attachmentid=1731

Moongold	29 Dec 2004
Here is a different version of the Hermit for you he Hermit An unshaven drunken figure gazes into what is left of his bottle of Rum. He tries to find light and guidance inside its warm depths while the sun sets over a harsh barren landscape. In his heavily intoxicated state he knows not how he got to this dark lonely place and he is unsure if home lies across land or sea. He is though aware that only in a sober state of mind will he find a way home to salvation. Which will he choose, to be drunk and lost, or sober and found? Dignified: Perhaps it is time to get on the wagon. Only a period of sober reflection will produce a solution to the problem. If advice has been given take time to fully evaluate it. Perhaps old habits should be sacrificed if you are to progress. Ignorance may be bliss but bliss is not found in a bottle. Ill dignified: A lonely sole surveys a lonely landscape. With only a bottle for company he mourns his own ignorance. He is drinking to forget but to forget what? He can't remember. Bad habits can nurture an unproductive life. That wise advice was quickly discarded. Hit the bottle too hard and you will hit rock bottom.

Imagemaker	29 Dec 2004
I refuse to see Hermitage living as that of a drinker escaping reality, but does this description mean that as of Jan 1, I should start skipping my evening wine? (It's only a winter sip by the woodstove, anyway.)

Moongold	29 Dec 2004
Hello Imagemaker ~ The Drunken Hermit image coms from an interesting Tarot called the Alcohol Tarot. I have just my Hermit year and wasa looking for a picture of a happy hermit.. This came up somewhat surprisingly. Thie attachment to this post iis something else. It is about essentially about white rose essence which draws out the Hermit Soul in people. If you look at this rose and release all the things you would to let go, then it will happen and a more beauti*** soul will emerge. It is an exercise for the Hermit Soul which is quite beautiful.

Imagemaker	29 Dec 2004
Is the exercise to gaze at the white rose? At first reading, I thought of white rose essence as a flower essence one might take. I'm a happy solitary by nature (amid family and friends--have to have firm boundaries and subversive ploys to make my alone time!), so wonder whether the Hermit year will accentuate that tendency, or just feel comfortable. I'm ready!

Moongold	29 Dec 2004
You can take the flower essence. It does have the effect of enhancing hidden spirituality, or shining a light on it. My Hermit year, which has only just finished (10 days ago) is still going I think! In retrospect, I became much more cut off from the world but I think the Hermit needed that space to shine his lantern in the unreachable parts of my soul. - those parts which are difficult for Self to see. I have the sense that Hermit is still with me. Once that consciousness has come, it can never to forgotten - I hope. From what I've heard, the Hermit year is quite different for everyone.

firemaiden	30 Dec 2004
I had a hermit year last year. I spent it being a hermit. ;)

purple_scorp	30 Dec 2004
*Jumps up and down another hermit year finished here happy to be moving on and so the wheel turns some new beginnings???? What will they be???? Don't think it will be in my career Perhaps something exciting for me??? purple_scorp

The Going Insular: Hermit Year thread was originally posted on 22 Dec 2004 in the Talking Tarot board, and is now archived in the Forum Library. Read the active threads in Talking Tarot, or read more archived threads.