I love this card. This one, we can take at face value; The Hermit. He is telling us that it is time to take a break, to go into seclusion for a while.
Life is so complicated, so rushed that often, when in pursuit of our goals, we lose touch with ourselves on that all important inner level. The Hermit reminds us, in no uncertain terms, that we need to stop and re-access. While we may be acquiring things outwardly, we are not acquiring what we need inwardly. We aren’t wrong to have that outward goal but it can’t be at the expense of our inner light.
True success and personal growth can’t happen unless our progress is inner as well as outer. The deep person. The inner voice that speaks to us and reminds us that we are not the answer to the world’s/our employer/our S.O’s problems.
The Hermit manifests when, while we may seem to be busy little bees, “getting ‘er done“, we have a sense of superficiality to our lives. Something isn’t right, there’s an overwhelming sense of “Is this it? I have that new wide screen 3D state-of-the-art television but something is missing here…”
When we take the shadow side of the Hermit, he manifests this darker side as the desire to fill our lives with more THINGS, with more people, but the feeling persists. Something is missing.
And something is, we are multi-dimensional – we are a structure if you prefer. If we do not maintain the foundation, keep it in good repair, the other levels are weakened.
The Hermit wants us to take it all down a notch and re-evaluate our lives. He isn’t going to give you more material wealth, he isn’t going to clear the career path – he will help you to find something far more valuable. Yourself. He is there to remind us all, we were nothing and to nothing we will return. It isn’t depressing – it is a solid statement of fact, all the things in the world can’t change the inevitable. A huge bank balance can’t buy the inner happiness and peace that we all seek.
You can see the shadow side of the Hermit in many of the famous and infamous people who flood our newspapers, our televisions, sound systems and magazines; the ones who are always out there buying more and more, drinking more and more, carousing on grand levels until their castles built on clouds in the sky, start to fall to earth as do they.
They are searching; something isn’t right in their world. They have a gnawing need for more but haven’t clue #1 as to where these missing pieces of actual satisfaction can be found. In their fever to find this level of happiness that they thought would, magically, appear with fame and fortune, their own inner voices are becoming more and more faint, replaced by that overwhelming need to fill a void, to attain something…although they are not so sure about what the “something” might be. The desire for more, more, more becomes an overwhelming addiction. They are chasing the dragon.
They should serve as a lesson for all of us. These people who seem so much larger than life. They are simply balloons, blown up out of proportion, with no solid foundation or substance and when they leave, they will simply shrivel and disappear.
The Hermit can apply to relationships as well but not as often. If he appears in regard to a relationship issue, he indicates to us that either we need to find ourselves before committing to someone else or that the relationship, as it stands, requires more work on the foundation. Roses and dinners are fine but they don’t sustain us when we are alone, together. We must be able to connect on a far deeper level than just physical attraction and we can’t do that unless both parties are stable on all levels, conscious, sub-conscious and spiritual or the unseen, if you prefer.
If the Hermit graces your reading, take the step back, seclude yourself and re-assess what you are doing, in all facets of your life. Are you truly happy or are you just amassing the things that the material world tells you, will make you happy? Direct your goals to the less tangible. Find, nurture and maintain the inner self – the rest will, eventually, fall into place without taking over and forcing you to be the hamster on a wheel of perpetual motion.
Here comes the Sun…do dee do do..Here comes the Sun, I say…it’s all right. Older folks will get that – younger folks, not so much.
Wicked Emerald - Live From The Montérégie 