A lantern, a mountain, and the strange business of finding your way without a map. There is something rather peculiar about the Hermit.
Everyone else seems to be going somewhere. Building something, searching for something, chasing something, or trying to get somewhere before the opportunity disappears and then there's this guy he's standing on a mountain, holding a lantern, looking as though he's perfectly content to have absolutely nobody around. No crowd, celebration, instructions.
Just a walking stick, a little light, and a rather considerable amount of darkness he may be onto something.
The figure who walks away
In Tarot, the Hermit is traditionally associated with introspection, wisdom, solitude, and the search for understanding but it's easy to reduce him to a simple message take some time for yourself. There's more going on here.
The Hermit represents a deliberate movement away from the familiar noise of everyday life. He isn't necessarily rejecting the world. He's creating distance from it so that he can see differently and that raises an interesting question:
What can we discover when we stop looking outside ourselves for every answer?
Why the lantern?
Look closely at the Hermit's lantern. He doesn't carry a great bonfire. He doesn't illuminate the entire mountain. He has just enough light to see something immediately around him. This is an important distinction we often want complete certainty before we take a step. We want the whole map, the final destination, and preferably a written guarantee that everything will work out. The Hermit doesn't have any of that he has a little light and that's enough.
The lantern becomes a symbol of knowledge, awareness, and the ability to navigate uncertainty one step at a time.
You don't need to see the entire journey to begin walking
The mountain and the solitary journey
Mountains appear throughout mythology and religious traditions as places of revelation, testing, encounter, and transformation. They are difficult to climb. They separate the traveler from ordinary life. They offer a different perspective on the landscape below. Think of the many stories involving people withdrawing into wilderness, climbing mountains, entering caves, or spending time in solitude before returning with new understanding. The physical journey becomes a metaphor for an internal one. The Hermit stands within that tradition of the seeker.
L He has stepped away from the ordinary world to look for something that cannot necessarily be found in the middle of the crowd.
Inanna descends into the Underworld.
Persephone enters the realm of the dead.
Heroes travel into forests and caves.
Seekers withdraw from ordinary life to pursue knowledge.
The darkness isn't always something that must be defeated it can be the environment in which something important becomes visible and the Hermit understands this. He doesn't demand that the night disappear. He learns how to carry a light through it.
The uncomfortable question
Perhaps the Hermit isn't asking us to disappear from the world forever maybe he's asking something much more challenging. When was the last time you stopped long enough to hear your own thoughts? How much of what you believe comes from your own experience, and how much comes from the expectations of other people? Are you following a path because it is genuinely yours, or because everyone around you seems to be walking in that direction and if you stepped away from all the noise, what might you discover?
Sometimes solitude isn't about being alone it's about finally being able to hear yourself.
The descent continues
This week we've been exploring the dark half of the year through mythology, folklore, and seasonal traditions. Now the Hermit gives us another way to understand that journey.
He reminds us that entering the darkness doesn't necessarily mean becoming lost. It might mean deliberately stepping beyond the familiar.
As we approach Bridge to the Darkness, we're asking what happens when we stop standing at the edge of the unknown and actually begin the descent.
What do we discover?
What do we leave behind?
What light do we carry with us?
Perhaps the Hermit's greatest lesson is surprisingly simple you don't have to illuminate the whole road. You just have to be willing to take the next step.
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