The Hermit (and his nine levels)

Thread originally posted on the Aeclectic Tarot Forum on 16 Feb 2003, and now archived in the Forum Library.

Diana	16 Feb 2003
For my Tarot class, I am doing an assignment on the Hermit. What I'm working on now are the nine levels that we have been asked to explore in the cards assigned to us. The nine levels are: 1) Affective (emotional) level. How this card functions in one's relationships with others, especially concerning the obstacles this card constitutes concerning one's relationships. 2) Practical - Pragmatic. How can one use the energy of the Hermit in our relationships. How can we use it to allow for better communication with others. 3) Universal realisation, i.e. the energy that we can call upon when we are working outside of our personal preoccupations. 4) Introverted aspect: self-centeredness, ego-inflation and personality problems. 5) Behaviour aspect: what attitude can we modify or adopt in order to improve our relations with others. 6) Interiorisation: How will our understanding of this card allow us to understand ourselves better. 7) Pathology: What deep message just crashes against a brick wall, by forming a blockage, sometimes very deeply ingrained. 8) Archetypal aspect: active spirituality. (The stress is on "active"). Actions motivated by deep and profound thoughts. 9) Holographic aspect: The source of the problem and the solution to the problem are one and the same. What is the source and the solution of the Hermit? We were asked to just choose two or three words for each aspect - not write a whole long text. This is what I came up with: 1) Tendency to cut oneself off from others. Isolation. 2) Tolerance, patience. 3) Wisdom, spiritual seeking. 4) Refusal to progress, blocking oneself in the past. 5) Being more open to others, more joy in life. 6) Solidarity with others. 7) Bitterness, superiority complex. 8) Philosoper, prophet, initiator. 9) The path lightens as we move along it (the lantern). One therefore needs to have faith. I don't know if this kind of approach to the cards will be of any use to anyone, but I did want to share it with you, just in case.

Aoife	16 Feb 2003
Wow Diana! This is brilliant - thank you! Eve

Alex	16 Feb 2003
I once had a friend who was all into drugs and outrageous parties, held the worst possible companies and used to be taken to jail every once in a while for driking-related problems. So one day he decided to get away from it all and spent a year in a cabin his parents had in the mountains. Just himself. He had to walk several miles to buy anything in the nearest town, cut his own wood for fire, hunt deer for food. After this year of isolation, he came back to town, married his high school sweetheart and raised a nice family. Because some extraverted people have a very hard time going inwards, they sometimes need to completely block external stimulation in order to find themselves in the silence that is left. As for "intraversion", I would had said, finding oneself through introspection in order to progress. Just a though Thanks for sharing that Alex. Quote: Originally posted by Diana 4) Refusal to progress, blocking oneself in the past.

The The Hermit (and his nine levels) thread was originally posted on 16 Feb 2003 in the Using Tarot Cards board, and is now archived in the Forum Library. Read the active threads in Using Tarot Cards, or read more archived threads.