Major Arcana · 9
The Hermit
L'Hermite (Tarot de Marseille) · Il Gobbo / Time (Italian tarocchi) · Prophet of the Eternal; Magus of the Voice of Power (Golden Dawn)
An old man in a grey cloak standing alone on a snowy height, holding up a lantern. In the Waite–Smith tradition the Hermit stands for solitude, reflection and the search for inner truth.
Upright solitude · introspection · wisdom · guidance · search for truth · withdrawal
Reversed isolation · loneliness · avoidance · withdrawal from life · refusal of counsel · paranoia
- Astrology
- Virgo
- Element
- Earth
- Hebrew letter
- Yod
- Number
- 9
- Golden Dawn title
- Prophet of the Eternal; Magus of the Voice of Power
- Yes or no
- Maybe
Upright
The Hermit steps back from the crowd to see more clearly. In the Waite–Smith tradition the card signifies introspection, study, solitude and the wisdom that comes with time. It can also describe a guide or teacher who lights the way for others.
Love and relationships: a period of solitude or of needing space within a relationship; a time to understand oneself before seeking another. For couples it can suggest quieter, more reflective companionship.
Work and money: research, specialist knowledge, careful and unhurried work, or stepping away from a competitive environment to reconsider one's direction. Gains come through depth rather than visibility.
Advice: withdraw for a while, think, and listen for your own answer. The lantern lights only a few steps at a time; readers often stress that this is enough, and that the path becomes clear as one walks it.
Reversed
Reversed, the Hermit's chosen solitude can become isolation. Readers describe loneliness, withdrawal from people who care, or retreat used to avoid a problem rather than to understand it. Others see the opposite difficulty: being unable to be alone, always seeking distraction, never pausing to reflect.
In relationships it may point to emotional distance. At work it can warn of excessive caution, or of expertise kept so private that it helps no one.
These meanings are offered by readers who use reversals; many others read every card upright and take nuance from the spread.
The image
Smith's Hermit is an old, bearded man in a long grey hooded cloak, standing alone on a snowy peak against a dark grey-blue sky. In his right hand he holds up a lantern in which shines a six-pointed star; in his left he grips a long staff. His head is bowed and his eyes look down, as though watching his footing or lost in thought. There is nothing else in the picture but the mountaintop and the light.
History
In the fifteenth-century Italian decks this trump was often an old man with an hourglass, a figure of Time or of old age, sometimes called il Gobbo, "the hunchback". By the time of the Tarot de Marseille the hourglass had become a lantern and the figure was named L'Hermite, a hooded hermit with a staff. Court de Gébelin read him as a sage seeking justice, and some later writers linked him with Diogenes searching with his lamp for an honest man.
The Golden Dawn attributed the card to Virgo and the letter Yod. Waite's Pictorial Key to the Tarot (1910) rejects the popular image of a man searching for truth and describes him instead as one who has reached the heights and holds up his light as a beacon: "Where I am, you also may be" is the sense he gives it.
Symbolism
The lantern's six-pointed star, formed of two triangles, is often read as the union of opposites and as the light of wisdom; the staff recalls pilgrimage and support. The snow and height suggest attainment and austerity, the grey cloak humility and invisibility. The Hermit's lowered gaze, compared with the upward looks of the Fool and the Star, signals concentration on the path immediately at hand.
Nine is the last single digit and in numerology the number of completion and wisdom gathered over a cycle (see number nine). Yod, the smallest Hebrew letter, is said to be the seed of all the others, which Golden Dawn writers took to signify the hidden spark of life. Virgo, an earth sign ruled by Mercury, brings discernment and careful analysis. The path joins Chesed and Tiphareth on the Tree of Life.
In a reading
Readers often take the Hermit as advice to pause, study or seek counsel from someone experienced. With the Four of Swords it emphasises rest and retreat; with the High Priestess it deepens the inward turn; with the Three of Cups it may set solitude against the pull of company. As an outcome it suggests insight gained more than worldly success.
Sources and further reading
- The Pictorial Key to the Tarot — A. E. Waite, 1910
- The Game of Tarot: From Ferrara to Salt Lake City — Michael Dummett, 1980
- The Tarot: History, Symbolism, and Divination — Robert M. Place, 2005
- Tarot for Your Self — Mary K. Greer, 1984