nisaba
From http://grannyjonestarot.blogspot.com/2012/01/hermit.html
The Hermit is one of the sweetest cards in this sweetest and most endearing of Tarot decks. In fact, as far as I'm concerned, it's almost up there with Temperance, which I believe was the very first card I looked at here. I've lived in NSW on the east coast of Australia, and in southern Western Australia, and they have quite different beach-sands: in WA the sand is so white that it's almost blue, whilst in NSW it is yellow. This scene immediately reminds me of NSW beaches.
Behind the beach are two chalky-white cliffs, reminiscent of parts of the UK, and a stretch of universally blue sea-water, above which a cheerful sun blazes and three happy birds fly. On the horizon, two sailing-ships seem to be pulling away from the land into the mysterious unknown, whilst in the mid-ground, two orange five-limbed starfish recalling the Pentacle, that five-pointed star that symbolises Earth, Air, Water, Fire and Spirit, jauntily move across the yellow sands.
I suppose we are all familiar with the Hermit Crab, that mysterious and magical creature of both Earth and Water, who lives in the discarded shells of other sea-creatures, and changes them regularly as it grows. The ultimate recycler! This deck is full of puns, and this is one of them: the human Hermit becomes a Hermit Crab, retreating in his monastic habit into a discarded seashell on the beach, which is also his monastic cave.
With him he has his lantern, its flame taking the form of the Magen David, with all its implications including the implication of the union of opposites, much as the yin-yang symbol of more Easterly cultures. His brown monk's habit shows his dedication to the life of the spirit, his books of knowledge, on which his left hand rests protectively, indicate his pursuit of the spirit, his inkwell and quill show his dedication to adding his own personally-realised knowledge to the annals of humankind.
What I love about this Hermit is his charmingly un-charismatic face: his bristly, untrimmed beard, his wonky glasses, his big nose, his gentle eyes. He is a gentle soul, intending harm on none, retreating from society because its noise and its bustle interfere with his meditations, not because he is anti-social.
The Hermit is dedicated to his path in life, and takes on none of the baggage of an ordinary life (like wives, children, jobs) because that would eat into the time he has to touch base with the more profound things of life. His use of discarded shells like the crab indicates his willingness to grow and develop, his light indicates that in the very darkness of the inner spiral of the shell which equates to his own inner mind, spiritual light is to be found. He engages with the world in his own way - he peers out at it, and has his books at the ready should a quiet and questing soul approach him gently and ask.
The Hermit fills me with a warmth every time I pull this card. He engages my maternal instincts - I would like to cook for him and leave abalone shells full of tasty nutrition out there for him, and make sure he has enough blankets to make his shell nice and warm in the cold winds of a winter's night on the beach. If I were to approach him, though, I would not shower him with a barrage of questions seeking to draw his wisdom out of him - it is enough just to know that he exists.
Some Tarot decks have characters from the Major Arcana moving about in in the Minor Arcana. In the Finnish Kissatarot (Finnish for "Cat Tarot"), for example, Death appears as a guide to happiness in the Five Cups, holding the offering of a warm orange flower in his skeletal fingers. In the better-known Mythic Tarot, the Hierophant, shown as a Centaur in a cave in his own card, appears, still in his cave, as a background character looking out in the Two Wands, watching over the watcher.
In the Granny Jones, it is the Hermit. He turns up as an adviser and guide in the Three Wands card, as the help of all travellers, on a physical or a spiritual path towards a keenly-sought destination.
The Hermit is one of the sweetest cards in this sweetest and most endearing of Tarot decks. In fact, as far as I'm concerned, it's almost up there with Temperance, which I believe was the very first card I looked at here. I've lived in NSW on the east coast of Australia, and in southern Western Australia, and they have quite different beach-sands: in WA the sand is so white that it's almost blue, whilst in NSW it is yellow. This scene immediately reminds me of NSW beaches.
Behind the beach are two chalky-white cliffs, reminiscent of parts of the UK, and a stretch of universally blue sea-water, above which a cheerful sun blazes and three happy birds fly. On the horizon, two sailing-ships seem to be pulling away from the land into the mysterious unknown, whilst in the mid-ground, two orange five-limbed starfish recalling the Pentacle, that five-pointed star that symbolises Earth, Air, Water, Fire and Spirit, jauntily move across the yellow sands.
I suppose we are all familiar with the Hermit Crab, that mysterious and magical creature of both Earth and Water, who lives in the discarded shells of other sea-creatures, and changes them regularly as it grows. The ultimate recycler! This deck is full of puns, and this is one of them: the human Hermit becomes a Hermit Crab, retreating in his monastic habit into a discarded seashell on the beach, which is also his monastic cave.
With him he has his lantern, its flame taking the form of the Magen David, with all its implications including the implication of the union of opposites, much as the yin-yang symbol of more Easterly cultures. His brown monk's habit shows his dedication to the life of the spirit, his books of knowledge, on which his left hand rests protectively, indicate his pursuit of the spirit, his inkwell and quill show his dedication to adding his own personally-realised knowledge to the annals of humankind.
What I love about this Hermit is his charmingly un-charismatic face: his bristly, untrimmed beard, his wonky glasses, his big nose, his gentle eyes. He is a gentle soul, intending harm on none, retreating from society because its noise and its bustle interfere with his meditations, not because he is anti-social.
The Hermit is dedicated to his path in life, and takes on none of the baggage of an ordinary life (like wives, children, jobs) because that would eat into the time he has to touch base with the more profound things of life. His use of discarded shells like the crab indicates his willingness to grow and develop, his light indicates that in the very darkness of the inner spiral of the shell which equates to his own inner mind, spiritual light is to be found. He engages with the world in his own way - he peers out at it, and has his books at the ready should a quiet and questing soul approach him gently and ask.
The Hermit fills me with a warmth every time I pull this card. He engages my maternal instincts - I would like to cook for him and leave abalone shells full of tasty nutrition out there for him, and make sure he has enough blankets to make his shell nice and warm in the cold winds of a winter's night on the beach. If I were to approach him, though, I would not shower him with a barrage of questions seeking to draw his wisdom out of him - it is enough just to know that he exists.
Some Tarot decks have characters from the Major Arcana moving about in in the Minor Arcana. In the Finnish Kissatarot (Finnish for "Cat Tarot"), for example, Death appears as a guide to happiness in the Five Cups, holding the offering of a warm orange flower in his skeletal fingers. In the better-known Mythic Tarot, the Hierophant, shown as a Centaur in a cave in his own card, appears, still in his cave, as a background character looking out in the Two Wands, watching over the watcher.
In the Granny Jones, it is the Hermit. He turns up as an adviser and guide in the Three Wands card, as the help of all travellers, on a physical or a spiritual path towards a keenly-sought destination.
