The Major Arcana and the Hero’s Journey, The Hermit: Part I

A bearded man in gray robes stands on a snowy mountaintop holding up a lantern and gazing down at the rest of humanity below. Have you ever held a lantern at eye level on a dark night? That dude can’t see a thing. As Manfred Mann would say:

He’s “Blinded by the light, revved up like a deuce*, another runner in the night”.

The light that is blinding him is a six pointed star, the symbol of the union of that which is above with that which is below; of plugging into the universal life force described by the Strength card and becoming one with it. In The Tarot, A Key to the Wisdom of the Ages, Paul Foster Case compares this experience to intensely satisfying sex, and defends his statement as follows: “Prudes may quarrel with this comparison. Let them read the Song of Solomon, the mystical poetry of Persian Sufis, or some of the narratives of Christian mystical experience, and they will learn that some of the best minds the human race has ever produced have not scrupled to employ intensely erotic imagery in their endeavors to describe the bliss of union with the ONE.”

The Hebrew letter associated with The Hermit is Yod, which means hand. It floats serenely, high above the baseline, and is the smallest letter of the Hebrew alphabet; yet it is used to form all the other letters.

“The first dot with which the scribes first start writing a letter, or the last dot which gives the letter its final form….is a yod.” Lukutei Maharan.

Like the letter yod, the Universal Life Force, forms and resides in all things. And so the esoteric meaning of yod is the starting point of the presence of God or Life force in all things—the spark of the Spirit in everything. The mystery of yod is that we are always in union with this awesome power, we just don’t recognize it. But The Hermit does.

Virgo, the analyst, the logical, practical thinker; the sign that single-handedly keeps the self-help section of bookstores in business; is the astrological sign associated with The Hermit. It gives us a clue about how The Hermit got to the top of that mountain. The results of his journey may be ecstatic, but he got there because of his desire to improve himself, and his willingness to faithfully follow a practice designed to bring him into alignment, and eventually into reunion, with the life force. Many paths lead to this blissful reunion. It is the goal of every religion and magical practice that I know of. And each and every one of these paths requires dedication, devotion, and practice.

The years of practice and study are by necessity mostly solitary. Once he reaches his goal and reunites with the One he becomes the One and is yet again alone. When he tries to describe his mind-blowing experience, he finds that there are no words to describe it and most people think he’s crazy. The best he can do is hold up the promise of ecstatic reunion and hope someone will pick a path, any path, and climb up to him.

He is The Hermit.

*Deuce coup: a 1932 Ford that was frequently souped up into a hot rod.