As we close out the month of March, I wanted to share some thoughts about working with the Hermit, showing up to this invited space even when we feel that we aren’t immediately getting what we want or need from this card. What I know today about this card is this: this month has been extremely profound in helping me work with this card, and I hope that my words share and spread the completeness of this card to you.
In this blog post, my goal is to show and share some ways to respond when the Hermit comes up for you in reading, or if you are working with it in depth. I find this to be a needed discussion in all of the tarot. We pull the cards, and we want the instant epiphany, the lighting bolt of clarity. Often, our work with these cards is much more obscure, two steps forward and one step back. I have written a detailed bio of this card, which you can access by clicking here, or by heading to the The Wild Unknown Card Meanings tab in my menu to see all the written insights I have uploaded thus far.
In working with the Hermit, it is important to ask yourself what you really want to gain. What you do wish the Hermit to do for you? What is needed when this card comes forward? By gaining clarity on what is lacking in the intimate workings with this card, you can better gauge where you need to sit with the energies. As I have mentioned before, the Hermit is not merely about retreating into stillness. This card, ruled by Virgo, is a card of internal working and tending. If you have felt unwilling to confront the darkness, that may be the first place to sit with this card. If you are still stuck, the Hermit is a card of collaboration. How can you initiate collaboration with this card?
The Hermit from the Hush Tarot deck shows an owl sitting on a branch, surrounded by external man-made things, architecture and barbed wire and nails. The Owl is not disturbed. He is of the whole earth. The internal mechanism within is revealed, speaking to the tending and adapting of nature and artifact in order to repair and rebuild as needed.
One of the best ways to respond to the Hermit when you feel like you aren’t getting what you want or need is to work with the seasons. The seasons are cycles that embody natural law. The seasons turn and change subtly even from wet to dry, from cold to warm. The seasons in relation to the Hermit can help us drop in to internal manifestations. We are different between winter summer. Our bodies respond differently to these changing currents. What energies are you feeling within the season of your landscape? What kind of work, action, or choice does the season inspire in you?
If you do not want to work with the seasons, work with the Moon. The Moon is another cycle of natural order, and can have a profound effect on the shuffling of our own energies. These larger cycles and turns of our world are great ways to embody the Hermit, and really sit with the invitations, because that is what the Hermit is exactly about, collaborating with the energies that are here and present in order to gain wisdom and emerge into the interconnective fabric with a willingness to create change.
Moon cycles and season cycles speak to moving, breathing life of the natural world. Each of us are one piece of this living thing, but the Hermit shows us that the importance we carry in being a steward for these cycles is beyond compare. When we realize how interconnected we are in the totality of ourselves, we can see how we can be the bringers of wisdom and light.
Apart from working with seasons and Moon cycles, I highly encourage you when working with the Hermit to write your narrative down. Write down or document what is needing expression within. Journal. Create art. Write a song or poem. Write your name again and again. This form of working with the Hermit is vital because one key element with Virgo is a sense of organization and detail. For me, I cannot overly organize my life or I start to feel restricted. However, when I organize my thoughts and feelings in to organized language and expression, I feel I am embodying the most beautiful part of the Hermit.
Write or document your thoughts and feelings, and return to them at a later time. See how much even in a week can change or develop your understanding of any given situation. This is Hermit work, to commit to the self as to commit to any other relationship or interconnective thread. See where your feast and famine sit within you, and feed the hungry wolves that lie in wait. It isn’t about retreating. It is about connecting your whole self to larger forces to be influential to the cycles of the community, and the world.
Through writing and documenting your thoughts and feelings, you are connecting with yourself in fullness. You may not get every little word out or thought down, but you create the space to engage and understand. You create the space to acknowledge and adapt. This is some of the hardest work to be done on the self. Many avoid this confrontation, and it is obvious.
One final thing that I want to say on the Hermit, and responding to this cards appearance is to not rush. There is no rush to understanding, to gaining wisdom, to being a bringer of light. There is no destination to wokeness, to change, to enlightenment. We are always changing and turning, just as the world does the same. That means we are always teachers and students to the darkness and the light. We are ever evolving. Do not rush this work. Root into your sacred center and breathe. That is all you can ever do, for yourself, or for the world.
