Sacred Empty Places.

Debra

Ok. If this is so, it affects at least the traditional concept of tarot trumps as more or less inevitably including certain cards: fool, magician/juggler, papess, etc. This and the other Visconti decks either had no devils and towers, or they were all destroyed, and I'm inclined to the former idea now probably thanks to you Rosanne. So you are saying that this Hermit goes on the list as "not what we always expect in the tarot trumps" and is not a hermit but a moneylender, perhaps exemplifying Prudence as in, "beware the money lender" or "a prudent man borrows little" or some such?

Which makes me wonder about the hour glass, because it seems to me that a better way to show a money lender than a reminder of when the bill comes due, would be to show him with some money.
 

Bernice

I'm peeved with myself for missing the recent posts in this thread!

Debra:....Which makes me wonder about the hour glass, because it seems to me that a better way to show a money lender than a reminder of when the bill comes due, would be to show him with some money.
Yes, odd there's no cash....

UNLESS! He's stood standing there with the hour-glass, a depiction of "Time to pay up!", or "The debt is due now". (?)


Bee :)
 

Rosanne

Hi Bernice!

well I think you are on the right track....... I tend to look at the way the image was painted. The Hermit of the Visconti is in the same vein (size/prominence) as Temperance and the Star for example, so I tend to think of him as Prudence-
one of the warnings of the game. The Hanged Man is also (to me) a warning card- not to cheat or get into debt- followed by Death.... You bring a Plague upon our house etc etc......think game, which really is just like life win a bit lose a bit...
~Rosanne
 

Debra

I'm still hung up on the Jewish hat, now that I've googled them. They were funnel-shaped, from what I can see, and this one isn't.

If he's not a Jew and/or not a money lender, he might still be Prudent in his use of Time, no?
 

The crowned one

Anyone looked at the Hermits shoes? Colour, and length of his Poulaines? we could learn something there perhaps?

Sumptuary laws and all.
 

The crowned one

Bernice said:
UNLESS! He's stood standing there with the hour-glass, a depiction of "Time to pay up!", or "The debt is due now". (?)


Bee :)

It represented the passing of time rather then time.
In a practical sense It could be used to limit speeches, the regulation of time. Perhaps this wise hermit is a teacher, and his essays are limited by the sand in his glass?

I beleive in England the end of life could be represented symbolically by the hourglass in the late 1400's. People were sometimes burred with a sand-glass.

Petrarca, 100 years earlier:

"Your triumphs and your pomp transpire,
The nobility passes and kingdoms crumble,
Time brings low all mortal things;
And what he reaps from those less good, he does not pass to those more worthy: And not only the superficial things are laid waste by time,
But also your eloquence and works of genius.
Thus sped along, the world moves with him;
He takes no time to rest; neither does he stop nor turn from his appointed course, Until in the end he has transformed you back to your essence: a bit of dust."
 

Bernice

TCO: It represented the passing of time rather then time......
I think this as well :).
But for divinatory purposes much can be inferred from the 'passing of time' depending on the enquiry. I'd only think of him as a teacher, or as depicting a period of learning/teaching time, acccording to the nature of the query.

TCO: Anyone looked at the Hermits shoes? Colour, and length of his Poulaines? we could learn something there perhaps?

Sumptuary laws and all.
Confession. I have no idea what 'Sumptuary laws' are. And looking at his shoes = zilch. Is there a specific clue here. What might we be missing?


Bee :)