Non Spiritual Hermit

Thread originally posted on the Aeclectic Tarot Forum on 10 Jan 2004, and now archived in the Forum Library.

Inana	10 Jan 2004
Hi there! Time ago i asked in this forum something on the line of how can we be sure about the cards that came up are the right ones. Now im sure they are, they always are. The problem is to read them the right way. Yesterday i did a three-card self reading about how was going to go the night just for practice. All the cards turned to be major arcana (Judgment- Hermit - Justice). I didnt know how to interpret them but with those cards i knew something important and serious was going to happen and thought the hermit was saying me to act with prudence so i did it. Happened something not nice. Today I asked "why happened this?" picking only a card: The Hermit again. So... im asking myself have you ever read the hermit as someone who is spying, investigating or trying to gather information about you, waiting patiently for it? Or im letting influence myself because of the events? I used to thought bout this card in a more spiritual level but lately when i draw him i get a blank. Can you help me with providing more "terrenal" sides for the hermit? That will help me lots.

ros	10 Jan 2004
Mabee the Hermit is showing up for you, to help you see that light will be brought to something that you're in the dark about? " follow your own star in darkness" Hope this helps.

lark	10 Jan 2004
Quote: Originally posted by Inana So... im asking myself have you ever read the hermit as someone who is spying, investigating or trying to gather information about you, waiting patiently for it? Or im letting influence myself because of the events? I used to thought bout this card in a more spiritual level but lately when i draw him i get a blank. Can you help me with providing more "terrenal" sides for the hermit? That will help me lots. I looked in my note book Inana, and I have used the Hermit along those lines. Making secret plans Prudence Caution Discretion Patient Waiting Someone who observes but stays quiet. And uses timing to there advantage. So I don't think you're far off on your interpretation. Sounds like the Hermit could be expressing those thing to you. And he knew you would understand him in that way in this situation.

Thirteen	10 Jan 2004
Quote: Originally posted by Inana Today I asked "why happened this?" picking only a card: The Hermit again. So... im asking myself have you ever read the hermit as someone who is spying, investigating or trying to gather information about you, waiting patiently for it? What an interesting interpetation. And yes, I'd say you could read it that way, absolutely. However, if you use reversals, that interpetation would seem more apt for a reversals, wouldn't it? Of course, if you don't use reversals, then it's all up to you. Certainly the Hermit can stand for concrete rather than spiritual things: a need to play Hermit for a while. Physical retreat or solitude. The Hermit canbe a teacher--the kind who teach only one student at a time--or solitary researcher. A lone mathematician working at his blackboard. Or, most certainly, a real Hermit type of person, spying on others, sneaking around, paranoid and anti-social. Without knowing more about what happened, it's hard to answer further. You asked, "Why did this happen?" --but we don't know what happened, so there's no telling whether you're being influenced by events or spot on in your reading.

firemaiden	10 Jan 2004
Very interesting thread, Inana, thank you for starting this. I am intrigued by your interpretation of the Hermit as someone hiding around in the shadows spying on you. I enjoy going with the idea, that whatever thought comes up for you for that card at the time, is the right interpretation. Personally, I often think of the hermit as a sign of withdrawal from society (as in someone... like myself...ahem... who spends too much time on the internet...gasp). This is sort of irrelevant, but I also recently interpeted this card as "snow" or "winter".

jmd	10 Jan 2004
As others have mentioned, I too see no reason why this or any other card may not be interpreted in ways which may vary from other interpretations you may normally have. I personally do not see this card in ways which is more 'spiritual' than others - and yet they may each reveal events or aspects of events with deep spiritual import. With the Hermit being drawn between Judgement and Justice (as somewhat similarly to what Thirteen mentioned, not knowing what those positions meant for you in your reading makes for skewed interpretation), it would also seem to indicate that here what one may have been hiding for some time will come to the light of day, and finally be properly resolved... The Hermit may thus also be showing a burden that one has been carrying, and thus far unwilling to express. Alternatively, the Hermit in connection within these three cards, in certain circumstances, may indicate the need to be cautious as external events are unfolding rather strongly.

HudsonGray	11 Jan 2004
I wonder if he could be seen as a sort of 'big brother is watching' from the heights he's at up in the mountains looking down. Sort of watching from above, removed from the situation yet able to influence it. He could also be in the position of a teacher or informant, after all the people who climb up far enough to meet him are doing so to learn something.

Thirteen	11 Jan 2004
Quote: Originally posted by HudsonGray I wonder if he could be seen as a sort of 'big brother is watching' from the heights he's at up in the mountains looking down. An interesting thought--however Big Brother is in control of everything as well as watching everything. The Hermit may be spying, gathering secrets, aware of everything--but he isn't in control. He's the solitary know-it-all, not the fellow who sends in the brown shirts to haul wrong-thinkers in for re-education. I tend to imagine the Hermit as the weird old man in town, the one who lives alone--but knows all the secrets, all the skeletons, all the hidden tunnels and short cuts and buried truths. He has peep holes everywhere, a spy glass, maybe even some high tech bugs. But it's all knowledge for knowledge sake. I don't think he ever uses it or tells anyone of it unless pressed into or tricked into telling.

Inana	12 Jan 2004
Thanks for the help. JMD, I didn’t use any position in the reading, don't do it with three card spreads. I read them like a line of events and sometimes the second one as an advice. It depends. I wasn’t able to interpret the cards cause they didn’t make sense to me at first, it happens sometimes with self-readings. Your interpretation has true on it. And i find very interesting the way you read the hermit as a burden we are not able to express. Thirteen, I agree the hermit has no power over the events. He will use the knowledge to get some advantage himself but will not tell it to the others. I dont use reversals, but im considering lately to start using them. I know theres no reason because the hermit has to be more spiritual than other cards. Maybe is just because he didnt showed to me in another way before. I used to see him that way: A person full of wisdom, gained in solitude, with the experience of the years and the capacity to examinate his inner reasons. Now i have more meanings to add!

allibee	12 Jan 2004
***Now i have more meanings to add!*** Can I add another? LOL If I could describe the Hermit in two words, they would be 'self evaluation' If you had someone else being a hermit in relation to you, one could indeed see them as evaluating you. A.

Inana	13 Jan 2004
Thanks for this one, Allibee!! Im seeing the hermit has a very analythical side...

Imagemaker	13 Jan 2004
I happen to know two almost-hermits, two separate women who have chosen to withdraw from society and who interact with very few people. (They don't know each other.) Though they are different in many ways, I notice that they each have HUGE imaginations and are totally comfortable spending days and weeks alone in their own worlds. Also, both are extremely judgmental of people and rather than put up with the opinions and personalities of others, would much rather be alone. So though society might consider them weird, and though they indeed evaluate others and judge, they simply don't want others for company or support or (in one case) hardly even food--she grows nearly everything. Both live extremely frugally. My 2 cents . . .

Inana	13 Jan 2004
Thats really interesting Imagemaker. I dont think i know anybody among those lines... at least not as a "life-style" to call it somehow. But your words make me think about another thing: can the hermit be a bit misanthropic or intellectually arrogant sometimes? When people rathers stay always alone it can be because their inner world is too rich, or because they consider people has nothing enough interesting to offer... But both ways it sounds as if they consider the others arent good enough to spend time with. Ok, maybe is only a matter of priorities. What do you think?

Bean Feasa	13 Jan 2004
Oh :(, in a way I'm disappointed - the Hermit's my favourite card and I tend to judge a deck by its Hermit (the lady-Hermit in the Gendron deck is my favourite of all). I saw him the way you did Inana - ***A person full of wisdom, gained in solitude, with the experience of the years and the capacity to examinate his inner reasons*** I know it's good to have the variety of extra meanings, but somehow I don't like to think of the Hermit creeping about being misanthropic, spying on people etc. Still when I think about it, all of these interpretations fit, and do make the picture more rounded. This is a fascinating thread Inana, thanks to you and everyone who contributed. blessings, Kate P.S. Firemaiden, there's snow in the Hermit scene in the Tarot of the Old Path. I agree with your wintry association, I think it's to do with winter being a reflective time, animals hibernating, vegetation in abeyance etc.

Imagemaker	13 Jan 2004
Quote: can the hermit be a bit misanthropic or intellectually arrogant sometimes? Definitely true in each of the people I know--but it didn't show up until I'd known each a long time (years). Knowing them now, I think they had to feel I was "good enough" to reveal their deep opinions to. This isn't to judge them, either, but just to note what I've come to realize is their viewpoint of others "out there." I'm very conscious of being on my intellectual toes with them--can't really be my slovenly self if I want to stay "good enough" for them to spend time on :-) And they're both fascinating people--those who imaginatively form and fill their own worlds are grand Creators!

allibee	13 Jan 2004
Quote: Originally posted by Imagemaker I happen to know two almost-hermits, two separate women who have chosen to withdraw from society and who interact with very few people. (They don't know each other.) Though they are different in many ways, I notice that they each have HUGE imaginations and are totally comfortable spending days and weeks alone in their own worlds. Also, both are extremely judgmental of people and rather than put up with the opinions and personalities of others, would much rather be alone. Good grief ... you've just described me to a tee ... apart from the judgemental bit (well, I would say that, wouldn't I ;) ) Sadly I am surrounded most of the time by people, but I use my imagination to be alone ... and then I just get quieter and quieter until I disappear ... Oh, to live upon a mountain top, in the wilderness, at the bottom of the sea ... anywhere ... as long as I'm alone ...

Thirteen	13 Jan 2004
Quote: Originally posted by Inana can the hermit be a bit misanthropic or intellectually arrogant sometimes? Oh, absolutely! But--and this is to Bean as well--that doesn't mean the Hermit is inherently nasty or mean (though, of course, it could be that retiring old gent who's always screaming "You kids get off my lawn!"). Think of the wise old "hermit" or Monk in all those stories, the one where the young man sets out, finds him, then has to convince him that he (the young man) is *worthy* of learning the Hermit's lessons. The Hermit's sharpness, arrogance, misanthropy is part of the test--the young man has to want the knowledge badly enough to stick it out, to put up with the Hermit's eccentric ways. If he can't, then the knowledge won't do him any good, because that knowledge is going to make the young man different from everyone else in his sleepy little village. And he has to be able to take the isolation, the hostility that will come with being different--the fact that there's no going back or being normal once he learns those secrets. He has to want the knowledge more than he wants acceptance--very much like every nerd ever abused in high school. You accept the nerd label and use intellectual arrogance as a shield against the isolation and abuse--or you toss it out and try to be just like everyone else. Any girls out there ever been told to "dumb it down" or the boys won't like you? That's what we're talking about here. It's hard to resist peer pressure and value the knowledge over tribal inclusion. You can begin to see why the old hermit would be secretive, mysterious, cynical, rude, misanthropic and, of course, arrogant. Because there are an awful lot of fools and idiots in this world, bores and bullies who just won't accept anyone being different or smarter than them. It's not unreasonable for an elder to eventually lose patience with such people, with seeing the same stupidity over and over again, and to leave the village in disgust. Solitude is certainly perferable to another 50 years or more of dealing with such people. And this is especially true if you're really smart or creative--if you think differently than most folk do. If you see things long term while everyone else only thinks short term. Very frustrating. Is it any wonder such a person might be not only misanthropic but arrogant? And that, ultimately, is where we connect the Hermit to us Tarot readers. The Tarot is our lantern, and with it we see farther and deeper than most people who only gaze about in daylight. It can make us impatient with those who don't light their own candles, who don't believe there's anything to see when the sun goes down and who try to tell us we're weird or evil or strange for wandering about at night with a lantern, rather than going to sleep like everyone else! What we know that they don't can make us arrogant. But like the old Hermit, that lantern is also our way of luring new young minds. And if just one of those young minds can prove themselves worthy, then, then, we can finally pass on our secrets.

Bean Feasa	14 Jan 2004
Crikey Thirteen! What a broad and deep view of the Hermit! You've really put the intellectual arrogance etc. into context, and I see now where these sides of the Hermit are coming from. It makes me realise how I've really only scratched the surface of the Hermit (and of a lot of the other cards too). Thanks for sharing the in-depth stuff. Kate

~X~	14 Jan 2004
Oooo ooooo ooooo! My favorite kind of thread! I read someone's take on the Sun a while ago and I've never seen the card the same way since. This is one of those threads. Thanks to all who posted, and especially Thirteen, you've mentioned a few things that have really hit home. I'll be thinking of this thread all day, I know it. ;)

Inana	14 Jan 2004
What to say? I love the way you explain and link the diffenrent meanings in the cards, Thirteen. Thanks to everyone for these valuable contributions!!

firemaiden	15 Jan 2004
Speaking of misanthropic... We used to call my little sister "the Hermit" -- she lived all by herself (in the snow! haha! see there Bean Feasa, we're right!) in a cabin she built by herself, in Alaska, (like a bear), caught salmon, gathered berries, for food, and stashed huge quanitites of staples.... (now she's a wildlife teacher, specialising in Bears). She spent a lot of time contemplating nature and writing a sort of environmentalist novel. I've been an almost-hermit too, but in the opposite environment, of the big city. I guess you could say both of us are a bit intellectually arrogant sometimes, that's for sure. :D :P She and I are, incidentally both Virgo's, which is the sign associated with this card in the Crowley deck. (Not that I believe in *anything* to do with astrology, mind you!)

mac22	20 Jan 2004
firemaidan said: I've been an almost-hermit too, but in the opposite environment, of the big city. I guess you could say both of us are a bit intellectually arrogant sometimes, that's for sure. She and I are, incidentally both Virgo's, which is the sign associated with this card in the Crowley deck. (Not that I believe in *anything* to do with astrology, mind you!) I'm a bit of a hermit too. More of a curmudgeon than misanthrope :) I do have my community time but also my "cave" time for ruminations, meditations & study. AS for the hermit card being "a spy" none of my journals indicate that. And I too am a Virgo.. :)

The Non Spiritual Hermit thread was originally posted on 10 Jan 2004 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.