09/09/09 09:09 – The Hermit
There will be a lot of posts today revolving around the triumvirate of 9′s in today’s date. I’m adding to it. Bear with us as we indulge our numerological excitement. It doesn’t happen often.
The Tarot is broken into two sections, the major and the minor arcana. That doesn’t matter for this post other than to say that to keep this post to a reasonable size I’m going to go with the major arcana 9 card… The Hermit rather than doing all 4 of the minor arcana 9′s.
My interest in the tarot goes back to when I thought it was the key to the information of the ages, information encrypted to hide it from an oppressive government, but there, available for study to those who knew how to find it and understand it. The legends of Tarot, passed down from Egyptians, or from medieval mystics to hide from the Inquisition, were hugely interesting to me, but as the son of English and History majors I’d almost have to notice the history and symbology of the cards.
The Hermit, the 9th card depicts a solitary man with a lantern typically walking with the aid of a staff. The lantern is the light of knowledge, and the old guy by himself… is you, and me, using the light of knowledge to guide ourselves on our path through life. The staff is what he leans on for support if he gets tired or weary. He’s alone not because he has no friends, or because he’s been run out of town on a rail. He’s alone because he’s independent. He’s self-sufficient. A long time ago while riding in the car with my Mom she said that people who could ride in the car with the radio off, just listening the sound of their own heads were comfortable with themselves… I think of The Hermit as someone who could drive for a long way without needing to distract himself with the radio.
I also see The Hermit as being on the way somewhere, he uses a walking stick after all… I think he’s going to somewhere with people. I think he’s taking his knowledge with him to share. Just like you can light a candle from your candle without dimming your candle The Hermit can share the light of his lantern without lessening his own light, or knowledge. It’s there to be shared. It’s important to share light and knowledge. Locking either away makes them less than they are.
Some decks have The Hermit wearing a hood or cowl to hide his face as he retreats from people to learn on his path into and out of the woods or whatever the arch typical wilderness he’s going to have to pass through on his journey… this card though he has the hood thrown back so you can see his face. I like this card better. In my mind he’s on the down hill part of his journey, almost out of the woods, almost to where he’s going and the worst part of his journey is behind him.
The importance of the time The Hermit takes to get away from people, to go through the wilderness and recharge his batteries is an important time. It’s important for The Hermit, and it’s important for the people he knows. They need to learn to work and live without him for a while. They need to find their legs and get their feet under them. They will need him to return, or at least need the hope of his return… but they need to work on things in his absence.
The Hermit is a very important role for a manager as well. He needs to no always be there, micro-managing his employees and not always running around his store stamping out fires. He needs to let his employees grow and learn to stand on their own. He needs to make sure he himself takes time to grow as a manager, and this is often done best while not hip deep in alligators at work. I’m not saying The Hermit won’t be hip deep in alligators while he’s away from work, but they’re different alligators, and that makes a lot of difference.
The best managers are also busy when they’re not at work… their mind is working, their down time is busier than some people’s up time. While the manager needs to be gone for a while to let his employees learn, he needs to come back recharged, lamp lit, and ready to help those who need it upon his return. If he goes without coming back, or comes back with his lantern dimmed, or under a bushel… he’s not doing his part. He’s not fulfilling his part in the heroic journey. The coming back and sharing is as important as the retreating or going away.
When I train an employee the hardest part for them is the part where I leave them alone and tell them that if I stay too long they’ll only know what I know, they’ll never figure out what they know. I’ll be back, and when I come back we’ll both know then what they don’t know, and we can work on it… we can fill in the gaps that they don’t know are there, and can’t find while I’m there. The going away and returning is a huge final step in training, and it used to be the hardest for me. I’d rather spend all my time hovering over them and clucking a lot… after I learned that I have to let them walk on their own, and actually schedule time away as part of the training I became far more effective as a trainer.
The card pictured is from The Gilded Tarot deck by Ciro Marchetti and I think that’s a beautiful deck. It’s new, so probably not handed directly down to us from Solomon by way of the Knights Templar and Rosicrucians. All that being said, it’s quite a pretty deck and I enjoy the artwork.
The 09/09/09 09:09 – The Hermit by Rich Griffith, unless otherwise expressly stated, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.
September 9th, 2009 at 9:00 PM
I enjoyed this post. The time away as part of the learning process is underated. Sometimes the learners are so insecure that they don’t want the crutch taken away. But only by taking it away do they realize they can do it. Then the next encounter is able to reach a higher level.
September 10th, 2009 at 6:04 AM
In the past I’ve not listening to the radio (actually my ipod now) and just driving alone with my thoughts, but what ends up happening is after like three hours I’ll look up at some highway I’ve never seen before and think “Oh crap, where the hell am I.” If it happens that I was driving to work, the next thought will be “Oh crap, I was supposed to be to work over two hours ago.” Your blog is typically pro work ethic. And now you’re doing a complete about face, practically daring me to drive without music on my way to work everyday.
Okay, what do I have to add about the Hermit card.
I like comparing the card to the Sun and the Moon. The sun is masculine and also the great exposer. It shows all things as they are (thus the position of the sun in astrology in our natal charts shows our most prominent and easily identifiable personality points), and thus is also the bringer of truth. The moon meanwhile is female. It is night, it is what is hidden, and thus it represents the sacred mysteries.
The Hermit travels through the night, the sacred mysteries, and brings with him light, from the lantern, to expose the truths, and this in turn is a marriage of the male and female in regard to the sacred officiated by the Hermit. This is why Crowley also features the Hermit on the Lover’s card officiating their marriage.
Speaking of Crowley, he made a connection between the Hermit, the Lovers, and the Tower in the Book of the Law (one of the cards, I think the tower, is only pointed out as being the card in his later commentaries). It’s important to remember that, at the time, Crowley was not using his own deck and probably had something similar to Regardie’s Golden Dawn tarot. With that deck, right away, we see similarities between the Lover and Tower cards. The eye of god the lightning falls from is the same as the symbol on Perseus’ shield, and Perseus descends from the sky in the exact same manner as the lightning. The Hermit card is a little less connected, but depicts the Hermit as one of the Magi traveling to Christ.
What Crowley was getting at is that the three cards are all depictions of the various states of spirituality. In the first state, man worships and tries to appease the divine, and in return is graced by the divine and is prosperous, or in the case of the tower when they anger the divine they are punished (the tower being directly tied to the tower of babel, and how God struck down men who tried to circumvent him and reach heaven on their own). The tower also features many people, and that is because this type of spirituality is a group effort. It’s a group of people who worship a divine force together as a community, and they are blessed or punished as a group.
The second state is that of the Hermit. The Hermit has intimate knowledge of the inner mysteries. He understands the divine, and he also understands how to manipulate and use the divine and its power in order to control the universe around him. The lone magus is a good biblical symbol of this, since the Magi knew enough to read the stars and predict the birth of God. The Hermit is alone because this spiritual path is a solitary spiritual path. It isn’t something that can be done in a group. It is a journey to seek truth and knowledge that must be taken alone.
The last spiritual state is that of the lovers, and this is the state of man as god. Here we have man, empowered by his own abilities, and ascending into a higher state. If you remember Genesis, the final supreme act of God is to create man and woman in his image. At the same time the ultimate act of God is one that a man and woman are able to perform together. With the Golden Dawn tarot, we have Perseus descending from the skies to save Andromeda from the sea monster, besting Posedin. Perseus is one of the Greek heroes who became a god, but his ascension into godhood was coupled with a divine’s ascension into humanity. Medusa was the mortal goddess, and from my understanding of her, she is a goddess of compassion. In order to be compassionate something must first be understood, and so Medusa needed to understand mortality. In order to be mortal though she has to eventually die, and so Perseus was chosen to do it, and at the moment he ended her life he completed her as a mortal being (as opposed to just a divine being). But in doing so, Perseus had killed a god, and only one who is more powerful than a god can kill one, and so Perseus had become, at the very least, a god. And his next act is to best another god to save Andromeda. So the Lovers represents man as overpowering the gods, being as the gods or above them. The highest ascension though is one that can’t be taken alone, but must be taken in a partnership, and so there are two on the lovers card.
Getting back to the Hermit (sorry, I just think that no tarot card can be understood without also understanding and comparing it with the other 77 cards), as we said he moves through the night or darkness, which is the female aspect of spirituality. What other place can we think of that is dark, and mysterious, and female? Yes, he is walking through a symbolic vagina. In fact, early churches were modeled after temples and the large double doors at the front of these temples were symbolic vaginas, as people were supposed to enter into the vagina or the sacred mysteries. Now this Hermit is walking through there shining this light, which as I said above is masculine, and I think you know where I’m going with this. The Hermit is a giant dick! Symbolically speaking
I actually like a serpent on the Hermit card, and I’m surprised they omitted it from the one you posted, considering the serpent is a pretty obvious symbol of knowledge (usually the Hermit shines the light exposing the serpent).
Okay, I think I’ll stop for now. Feel free to edit the last part before letting the post through moderation if you think it’s too racy for your blog.