Feb 22 | 2023 — The Hermit
I actually pulled this card on Monday in place of The Moon before I decided that, no, I needed to use The Moon since it jumped out of the deck during shuffling. But The Hermit has been sitting on my desk, a lone card staring back at me, so I’ve had plenty of time to sit and think on it. Even more so, The Hermit is the one of the cards I most identify with in Tarot, and not just because I’m largely introverted, have a general dislike of people, and wouldn’t mind having a house on a mountain side (that has awesome wi-fi, regular grocery delivery, and undisrupted postal delivery). I tend to be reflective by nature, and have always searched for meaning in just about everything (even when there isn’t meaning to be found).
Traditionally, The Hermit shows a turn inward and the need to leave your (not necessarily physical) surroundings and venture to higher ground to reflect on your experiences and search out your own truth. To me, The Hermit’s mountainous climb reflects the desire for divine inspiration, to be closer to the Source of all knowledge, yet he still holds his man-made lantern, illuminating the dark with his own truths and experiences, as opposed to seeking celestial light.
About The Hermit: When I was putting this playlist together, I stumbled upon Joni Mitchell’s “Both Sides Now” — a classically weepy song that’s been covered by over 1,500 different artists. As I listened to the song again, it hit me how connected to The Hermit it was, and even more so how deep and meaningful this song is to me.
To start, the song is a journey through time, actually rather like the three legs of The Fool’s Journey: adolescence, adulthood, late life (shall we call it “autumn years? Senility?”). The first “leg” of the songs ruminates on clouds and how youthful imagination sees “ice cream castles” and “angel hair” in the the patterns. But as a child grows and imagination recedes, their view becomes jaded, and what was once “feathered canyons” are now just things that block the sun and bring rain and snow.
The second leg grows up and a bit, and rather than musing on clouds, the song focuses on love. The same pattern exists: elation and magic at their first taste of love, but only to be burned and jaded by love unreturned.
The final leg advances the theme, but now focuses on life and the joys of friends, dreams, and saying “I love you,” only to be countered with disappointment, change, and loss. The song sums it up by saying “I really don’t know life at all.”
This song could have be written and sung by The Hermit. Reflective and a little forlorn, The Hermit stands upon his mountain peak having experienced life below and now looks at it from up above.
I’ve looked at (clouds, love, life) from both sides now
From win and lose and still somehow
It’s life’s illusions I recall
I really don’t know life at all
And I sit here and think about this. Who am I? I’m no fount of mystical knowledge or some bastion of great insight. I’m a 46 year old boy (<ahem> I most certainly don’t feel like a man) doing his best to make it through life with my own emotions and experiences, doing my best to help others and pull them alongside me. I don’t know what the fuck I’m doing most of the time. How to be a dad. How to be husband. How to be a son. How to be a friend. I see the wins and losses in all these, but I still profoundly get: “I really don’t know life at all.”
My little cluster of experiences shape my views, my feelings, my interactions, and my reactions. It creates my understanding of the world and my own sense of truth, something that may be wildly different from someone born into contrasting circumstances. And in that line of thinking… what exactly IS truth?
So while I sit here and spout advice and life lessons like the Grand Poohbah of Tarot, please know that I am nothing of the sort. I’m just a boy on a journey, learning from life just like you. I stand on top of my mountain looking down, wondering what I need to do to “understand” my life. How do I make the changes I need? How can I feel better about the things in life I can’t control? Why do court cards hate me?
As introverted as The Hermit can be, perhaps he has it wrong all along. Perhaps he shouldn’t be looking at the world below him, but looking inward and upward. The world makes no sense; there is no reason half the shit in this world happens (well, there is: it’s called free agency, freedom of choice). But we CAN find peace in our own actions and our choices. I think, at the end of the day, that’s what The Hermit is really looking for.
Decks shown above:
