Tarot Talk: The Hermit (IX)

Let’s have some tarot 101 talk! Even if you are well seasoned in reading allow me to share my nuance and hopefully add another layer of perspective to this card.

The Hermit correlated with Virgo shares a similar vibe with the High Priestess. Asking us to truly listen in to hear our own divinity speak through. An important staple in this card is how they encourage us to do it.

I often like the use the example of first time parents. It’s well known even if the baby is asleep in another room so the parents can rest, the parents will hear phantom cries. Making them get up and check regardless of their sleeping baby, unintentionally leaving them exhausted in their attempt to rejuvenate themselves before proactive parenting. This is where the essence of the Hermit takes root. The baby needs instead to be completely out of the parents realm of responsibility by perhaps being at their grandparents house so they parents nervous system can truly be at ease, allowing them rest.

The Hermit asks you to take some time to enjoy solitude, not to live out a sentence of isolation. Some of us may dread this feeling alienated until this perceived sentence is over. I want to raise the example of a magic 8 ball. Having a brief moment of solitude is like shaking the ball. If you have yet to grant yourself a true moment to unplug from everything and plug into yourself — you just keep shaking, prolonging the answer your intuition is trying to reveal to you. Solitude happens often, when the world goes to sleep at night or when really early risers start to get ready for work. Despite the fact that most are unavailable and few are bustling we do not assume this will sentence us to loneliness. We know it’s temporary, just like the Hermit intends to teach you.

When making time to enjoy and nurture our own company, directing all our energy just to ourselves and not leaking our energy else where by thinking of how we may soon need to be in service of others (and vice versa) we make space for an inner revelation. Brief and momentary and now we have all we need to brace ourselves to reconnect to the world around us.

At best, I hope this widens someone’s perspective and connection to this card!