Tarot Journey with Leisa ReFalo

Number: 9
Card Title: The Hermit
Esoteric Title: The Magus of the Voice of Light, The Prophet of the Gods
Astrological Atttribution: Virgo
Elemental Attribution: Earth (cold, dry)
Dates & Timing: August 23 to September 22
Hebrew Letter: Yod Fist 10
Color: Yellow-Green, Olive
Intelligence: Intelligence of Will
Esoteric Function: Sexuality (Touch)
Qabalistic Path: Path 20: 4 Chesed to 6 Tipareth
Translation of Path: The Mercy of Beauty

Keywords: I am. Space And Time Alone, Meditation, Being Yourself, Wisdom Offered, Introspection, Searching, Solitude, Analysis, Values, Guidance, Mystery Quest, Circumspection, Research and Study, Seeking, Finding, Problem Solving, Divine Inspiration.

Ill-Dignified: Withdrawn, Paranoid, Isolated, Fearful, Hermit, Anchorite, Hidden, Concealed, Disguised, Perfectionist, Concealment, Disguise, Policy, Fear, Unreasoned Caution.

Interpretation: Guardian angel showing the light (next step) but next step only. You don’t need to know all of the answers. Guidance is available but the responsibility is yours. Wise Guide, Enlightenment, Voice of inner self. Don’t be worried about being misunderstood. Need to choose an unfamiliar path. Wise Council. Sudden flash of insight lights the way. Self Initiation. Going inward. I enjoy my aloneness. I can stop being alone when ever I wish. A period of withdrawal or solitude to better face/understand yourself.

Reversed Interpretation: Too much time alone. Too much resistance. A refusal to accept or listen to good council. Cut off from others. Lack of communication. Ego in the way of good sense. Need change of attitude. Don’t shut out world for fear of unknown. Don’t be too proud to ask for help. Face important issues and accept your faults. Closed mind. Excessive Caution, Reluctance to grow up. Foolish Vices, Perpetual Peter Pan.

 

Rider-Waite Imagery

A Man with White Hair and a long beard stands a the top of snow capped mountains. the white beard indicates the hermit is the “Most Holy Ancient One” and identifies him with Primordal will. He is father time, wise and ageless. He is a teacher, who must be asked, but will show you the way he has gone. He is holding a wand in one hand and a lantern in the other. The light of the lamp is in the shape of the 6 pointed star of the macrocosm. This star a symbol of union (fire,water) and is sacred to Virgo, the astrological attribution for the Hermit. The six sided star is the star of the macrososm. It The lamp is the light of the world and is a beacon that proclaims “as I am, you also may be”. The wand/staff is one of the tools of the magician. The white peaks are pure, absolute and the highest place a human can achieve on his own. His cloak is grey the color of the 2nd Sepheria Chochmah which is wisdom.

The Pictorial Key to the Tarot by Arthur Edward Waite (1911)

Part I: The Veil and its Symbols

9. The Hermit, as he is termed in common parlance, stands next on the list; he is also the Capuchin, and in more philosophical language the Sage. He is said to be in search of that Truth which is located far off in the sequence, and of justice which has preceded him on the way. But this is a card of attainment, as we shall see later, rather than a card of quest. It is said also that his lantern contains the Light of Occult Science and that his staff is a Magic Wand. These interpretations are comparable in every respect to the divinatory and fortune-telling meanings with which I shall have to deal in their turn. The diabolism of both is that they are true after their own manner, but that they miss all the high things to which the Greater Arcana should be allocated. It is as if a man who knows in his heart that all roads lead to the heights, and that God is at the great height of all, should choose the way of perdition or the way of folly as the path of his own attainment. Éliphas Lévi has allocated this card to Prudence, but in so doing he has been actuated by the wish to fill a gap which would otherwise occur in the symbolism. The four cardinal virtues are necessary to an idealogical sequence like the Trumps Major, but they must not be taken only in that first sense which exists for the use and consolation of him who in these days of halfpenny journalism is called the man in the street. In their proper understanding they are the correlatives of the counsels of perfection when these have been similarly re-expressed, and they read as follows: (a) Transcendental justice, the counter-equilibrium of the scales, when they have been overweighted so that they dip heavily on the side of God. The corresponding counsel is to use loaded dice when you play for high stakes with Diabolus. The axiom is Aut Deus, aut nihil. (b) Divine Ecstacy, as a counterpoise to something called Temperance, the sign of which is, I believe, the extinction of lights in the tavern. The corresponding counsel is to drink only of new wine in the Kingdom of the Father, because God is all in all. The axiom is that man being a reasonable being must get intoxicated with God; the imputed case in point is Spinoza. (c) The state of Royal Fortitude, which is the state of a Tower of Ivory and a House of Gold, but it is God and not the man who has become Turris fortitudinis a facie inimici, and out of that House the enemy has been cast. The corresponding counsel is that a man must not spare himself even in the presence of death, but he must be certain that his sacrifice shall be-of any open course-the best that will ensure his end. The axiom is that the strength which is raised to such a degree that a man dares lose himself shall shew him how God is found, and as to such refuge–dare therefore and learn. (d) Prudence is the economy which follows the line of least resistance, that the soul may get back whence it came. It is a doctrine of divine parsimony and conservation of energy, because of the stress, the terror and the manifest impertinences of this life. The corresponding counsel is that true prudence is concerned with the one thing needful, and the axiom is: Waste not, want not. The conclusion of the whole matter is a business proposition founded on the law of exchange: You cannot help getting what you seek in respect of the things that are Divine: it is the law of supply and demand. I have mentioned these few matters at this point for two simple reasons: (a) because in proportion to the impartiality of the mind it seems sometimes more difficult to determine whether it is vice or vulgarity which lays waste the present world more piteously; (b) because in order to remedy the imperfections of the old notions it is highly needful, on occasion, to empty terms and phrases of their accepted significance, that they may receive a new and more adequate meaning.

Part II: The Doctrine Behind the Veil

The variation from the conventional models in this card is only that the lamp is not enveloped partially in the mantle of its bearer, who blends the idea of the Ancient of Days with the Light of the World It is a star which shines in the lantern. I have said that this is a card of attainment, and to extend this conception the figure is seen holding up his beacon on an eminence. Therefore the Hermit is not, as Court de Gebelin explained, a wise man in search of truth and justice; nor is he, as a later explanation proposes, an especial example of experience. His beacon intimates that “where I am, you also may be.”

It is further a card which is understood quite incorrectly when it is connected with the idea of occult isolation, as the protection of personal magnetism against admixture. This is one of the frivolous renderings which we owe to Éliphas Lévi. It has been adopted by the French Order of Martinism and some of us have heard a great deal of the Silent and Unknown Philosophy enveloped by his mantle from the knowledge of the profane. In true Martinism, the significance of the term Philosophe inconnu was of another order. It did not refer to the intended concealment of the Instituted Mysteries, much less of their substitutes, but–like the card itself–to the truth that the Divine Mysteries secure their own protection from those who are unprepared.

The Tarot of the Bohemians by Papus; tr. A. P Morton, [1896]

9. 9th Hebrew letter (Teth).

ORIGIN OF THE SYMBOLISM OF THE NINTH CARD OF THE TAROT.

Hieroglyphically the Teth represents a roof, and suggests the idea of a place of safety, a protection. All the ideas arising from this letter are derived from the alliance of safety and protection given by wisdom.

Astronomically the Teth corresponds with the zodiacal Sign of the Lion.

NINTH CARD OF THE TAROT. The Hermit.

The following ideas are connected with this card–

• Protection.
• Wisdom, Circumspection.
• An old man walking supported by a stick. He carries before him a lighted lamp, half hidden by the great mantle which envelopes him.
• This symbol is midway between the sixth and the twelfth.
• Protection is indicated by the mantle which envelops the old man.
• Wisdom by the half-hidden lamp.
• The stick indicates that the Sage is always armed to fight against Injustice or Error.

By comparing this card with two others, the sixth and the twelfth, we shall see that the beardless young man in the former (6th) has chosen the right path. Experience won in the labour of life has rendered him a prudent old man, and prudence united to wisdom will safely lead him to the higher level, which he is anxious to attain (12th card).

The arrow shot by the genius in the sixth arcanum has become his support, and the effulgent aureole which surrounded the genius is now imprisoned in the lamp which guides the Initiate. This is the result of his prolonged efforts.

The ninth card of the Tarot represents the third conceived as preserver and recipient. It also balances the seventh and the eighth.

Humanity fulfilling the function of God the Holy Spirit. The human creative force. HUMAN LOVE. The preserving power of Humanity. The equilibrium of the Father and the Mother.

Equilibrium of Realization and Justice. PRUDENCE.(Silence.)

Nature accomplishing the function of humanity. Equilibrium of the Astral Light and Elementary Existence. THE NATURAL PRESERVING FORCE. The Astral Fluid.

9.The Hermit.

Affinities

• Primitive Hieroglyphic: A Roof
• Kabbalah: IESOD
• Astronomy: The Lion
• Month: July
• Hebrew Letter: Teth (simple)

Significations

• Humanity accomplishing the functions of God the Holy Spirit HUMAN LOVE
• PRUDENCE Silence
• The natural Preserving Force THE ASTRAL FLUID
• The astral fluid therefore represents the universal preservation of the active forces in nature. Here ends the first ternary of the septenary of Preservation. We shall now see the reflections of all these terms in the following ternary.

Major Arcana Signification from the Divining Point of View

9. The Hermit signifies PRUDENCE.

The Tarot by S.L. MacGregor Mathers [1888]

Symbolism of Each Key

9. The Hermit. An old and bearded man wrapped in a mantle, and with his head covered with a cowl, bearing in his right hand the lantern of occult science, while in his left he holds his magic wand half hidden beneath his cloak. He is Prudence.

Meanings of the Cards

9. The Hermit.–Prudence, Caution, Deliberation; R. Over-prudence, Timorousness, Fear.

The Symbolism of the Tarot by P. D. Ouspensky [1913]

What is the Tarot? Card IX.–”The Hermit”.

“Man”. The Path to the Initiation. Seeking for truth in the right way. Inner Knowledge. Inner Light. Inner Force. Theosophy. Occultism.

CARD IX. THE HERMIT.

After long wanderings over a sandy, waterless desert where only serpents lived, I met the Hermit.

He was wrapped in a long cloak, a hood thrown over his head. He held a long staff in one hand and in the other a lighted lantern, though it was broad daylight and the sun was shining.

“The lantern of Hermes Trismegistus”, said the voice, “this is higher knowledge, that inner knowledge which illuminates in a new way even what appears to be already clearly known. This lantern lights up the past, the present and the future for the Hermit, and opens the souls of people and the most intimate recesses. of their hearts.”

“The cloak of Apollonius is the faculty of the wise man by which he isolates himself, even amidst a noisy crowd; it is his skill in hiding his mysteries, even while expressing them, his capacity for silence and his power to act in stillness.

“The staff of the patriarchs is his inner authority, his power, his self-confidence.”

The lantern, the cloak and the staff are the three symbols of initiation. They are needed to guide souls past the temptation of illusory fires by the roadside, so that they may go straight to the higher goal. He who receives these three symbols or aspires to obtain them, “strives to enrich himself with all he can acquire, not for himself, but, like God, to delight in the joy of giving”.

“The giving virtue is the basis of an initiate’s life.

“His soul is transformed into ‘a spoiler of all treasures’ so said Zarathustra.

“Initiation unites the human mind with the higher mind by a chain of analogies. This chain is the ladder leading to heaven, dreamed of by the patriarch”.

The Tarot Trumps by G. H. Soror, Q.L.

IX. THE HERMIT
Prudence. These three trumps should be collated in studying them for they represent the three stages of initiation. The man wrapped in hood and mantle, and carrying a lantern to illuminate the Path and a staff to support his footsteps, He is the eternal seeker, the Pilgrim soul. His hood and mantle are the brown of earth, and above him is the night-sky. But the delicate yellow-greens and bluish greens of spring are about him, and spring is in his heart.

Book “T” The Tarot
Brief Meanings of Twenty-Two Keys

10. Wisdom from on high. Active divine inspiration. Sometimes “unexpected current.”