The Hermit IX

MystiqueMoonlight

"Wonder alone; bearing the light and thy staff. And be the light so bright that no man seeth thee. Be not moved by aught without or within: keep silence in all ways" Aleister Crowley.

Colour: Grey
Astrology: Virgo
Herb: Juniper

Hebrew: YOD - Is the opposite of Aleph, it is a steady state, continuity. The finger of a person, the extended hand. Massculinity. All that which indicates the directing power and which serves to manifest it. It is the image of potential manifestation, of spiritual direction and of the eternity of time.

Rune: ISA - Contraction, transition, use caution when walking on the ice bridge. Difficult situations are overcome with caution and inner strength.
 

isthmus nekoi

Hermit falls under Virgo; an earth sign, which denotes fertility, hence the little spermatoza. Note the presence of the Orphic egg, Cerberus and the wheat. This brings to mind deaths of the son lovers (Osiris/Isis, Tammuz/Inanna, Christ/Mary) in relation to fertility and agriculture which of course gets tied in w/Persephone and female descent narratives.

As Virgo is ruled by Mercury, this shifts fertility to creativity; its relation to YOD. Crowley writes, "...[yod] symbolizes the Father, who is Wisdom; he is the highest form of Mercury, and the Logos, the Creator of all the worlds."
 

rom

The hermit is the Great reflection of the beatle in MOON [XVIII]. It is the journey to within, Cerberus the hell dog accompanies the journey.
The Hebrew letter YOD [Is also the first letter of the TETRAGRAMATRON] and represent the MALE principle in the most concentrate form SEMEN.
THE HERMIT is another way to reach TIFERET [the well balanced existence of the 6] THE HERMIT is the way from HESED [grace]. It is nice to see that "overdoing the hermit act" [beyond the balance of TIFERET] will land us in the in the path of the devil and on the way from TIFERET to HOD [also splendor like TIFERET but like an ECHO of it beyond the balance.... [8]]
There is also another "overdoing" possible this time from DIN [or GVURA] [5] to TIFERET leads the path of ADJUSTMENT VIII, overdoing it will result in DEATH XIII and will lead us from balanced TIFERET [6] to NEZACH [7] [eternity]. So adjustment [balancing and looking for justice, just as looking for the holly can be easily overdone.......

Crowley like OSHO preaches a new way of monkhood:

"Behold! these be grave mysteries; for there are also of my friends who be hermits. Now think not to find them in the forest or on the mountain; but in beds of purple, caressed by magnificent beasts of women with large limbs, and fire and light in their eyes, and masses of flaming hair about them; there shall ye find them. Ye shall see them at rule, at victorious armies, at all the joy; and there shall be in them a joy a million times greater than this. Beware lest any force another, King against King! Love one another with burning hearts; on the low men trample in the fierce lust of your pride, in the day of your wrath."

So THE BEST WAY I know to describe it is the TEFAL WAY [you can fry anything but nothing sticks to it, all remains unattached]
 

Kaz

kaz
 

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jmd

The lantern, it may be observed, is projected out and formed from a finite space - it would otherwise be a regular octahedron, which it clearly isn't. Though this is the case, there is also an impression that the upper portion appears as though it is regular.

Overall, this gives the impression that though the upper part of the lantern, and thus the Light, is perfect, regular and stems from the infinite, the lower section is elongated, its elongation, presumably, proportional to the distance away from perfection which the carrier bears. In a similar vein, a shadow is at its longest in proportion to the obliquity of the Light source.

Both the sperm and Cerberus arise from below that horizontal divide - a divide which certainly gives the impression of dividing the card at its Golden Mean.
 

Formicida

rom said:
Crowley like OSHO preaches a new way of monkhood:

"Behold! these be grave mysteries; for there are also of my friends who be hermits. Now think not to find them in the forest or on the mountain; but in beds of purple, caressed by magnificent beasts of women with large limbs, and fire and light in their eyes, and masses of flaming hair about them; there shall ye find them. Ye shall see them at rule, at victorious armies, at all the joy; and there shall be in them a joy a million times greater than this. Beware lest any force another, King against King! Love one another with burning hearts; on the low men trample in the fierce lust of your pride, in the day of your wrath."

I know it's been 3+ years, but does anyone know where this quote is from?
 

Apocalipstick

Book of the Law. Chapter 2?

Why do I know that? :confused:
 

Formicida

Thank you! I'm just glad someone knows :)
 

ravenest

OMG! Now Crowley is compared to Osho?
 

rachelcat

I don't know anything about Osho, but I am giving the Hermit a bit of a Buddhist twist. Can't help it!

Hermit
Yod, Virgo

We see the hermit from behind. He is peering through the tall waves of green grain at the greenish world egg and serpent (Orphic egg). In the center of the card is his hand holding a lantern which holds the sun. Its light shines out in beams throughout the card. In the lower left is three-headed Cerberus, who seems pretty happy and well-trained for a three-headed dog! On the bottom right is a sperm with a homunculus. Where do the light beams/triangles that don’t come from the lantern come from? That is driving me crazy! They seem to be coming from the upper left. I had an idea, and I’ve just confirmed—it’s the path from Chesed to Tiphareth. (Just as the light from the upper left of the Emperor is the path from Hochmah to Tiphareth.) And maybe the upper triangle points to Kether. Like, “yes, the path of this card is from Chesed to Tiphareth, but don’t forget its relation to Kether.”

The hand and the hermit’s body are both in the stylized shape of yod. Yod is the fundamental letter because it is said that all the other letters can be made from yods in combination. It is also the first letter of the name of God, and, as such, represents fire/wands. I’m thinking the creative, “in the beginning” part of God is represented here. That is accentuated by the world egg about to hatch and the fertile field.

Virgo is mutable earth and right before the autumnal equinox. The crops are not quite ready for harvest, represented by a Virgin, potential fertility. Crowley makes specific mention of Persephone, the virgin who is stolen (raped) and taken to the underworld. Her fertility is now beneath the earth, where it needs to be to help the plants grow! And the hermit is associated with Mercury as the psychopomp, the guide of souls to the underworld. He tamed Cerberus, who now obeys him. Mercury rules and is exalted in Virgo. (Now I guess I don’t know the rules for exaltation, if there are any . . .)

Instead of the lantern being a hexagon as in RWS, it’s an octahedron, two pyramids base to base. Octahedron symbolizes air, maybe accenting that the Hermit is an avatar of airy Mercury.

Ok, I’ve followed along with Crowley pretty well—until I get to “spermatozoon developed as a poison.” Huh? Is this like some myth of the dangers of masturbation? No help from Snuffin, although he talks a good deal about sex magic.

What I didn’t get from Crowley is that the sperm is also the Hermit’s wand or staff. And the head looks both like a snake’s head and a fetus.

He also says the three heads of Cerberus are speech, action, and thought. I have seen them as past, present, and future. The present head is above the others, since all that really exists is the present. The past is gone and the future doesn’t exist yet!

He also points out that the egg is form and the snake is force. (Matter and energy. Limitation and expansion. Etc.)

In a reading: Potential for creativity. Meditation with the potential for enlightenment and understanding of other states of being/mind. Mindfulness of the present moment. Being active in the spiritual realm.