Card Number IX - The Hermit

I did some musings about this card before, but did not post them here. Recently I get The Hermit quite often, so I thought I would write a post about him. Also (and that is the main reason, hehe) I found that a Japanese picture I kept on my refrigerator for quite a while resembles the card and I'm very inspired by Enrique Enriquez idea of seeing tarot in the world around us.

VIIII L'Hermite from Tarot de Marseille, ukiyo-e lady with a lantern, IX The Hermit from Crystal Tarot.

What I struggled with was that 9 is a number I associate with birth - it's the number of months of human pregnancy. Instead of a newborn baby, however, we get a grandpa dressed in a habit. He has a lantern: maybe he's awaking to a new life? Birth is also a shock and a kind of trauma to the baby that was in the darkness and comfy for whole their life. The Hermit is withdrawn and he's looking at the life he left in the past. He has a walking stick - he'll soon walk on, but he still wants a glance at his old shell he's leaving behind.

In the card we can see an old man, round-shouldered with age. Where is he going to in the winter of his life? Maybe he wants to show to other people what he's discovered? His hood is off his head - he's ready for new ideas.

The Hermit is an ascetic, he practices in solitude. He's not afraid to meet his inner self. Isolating himself is to help him find God and himself too.

The counterpart of IX The Hermit is XIX The Sun. The small lantern he's holding will turn into huge celestial body. In The Hermit you're learning alone, in solitude. In The Sun you've got company, you're learning from others. You can see God in another human being and you're much closer to the end of your journey than you were in The Hermit.

In the spreads the card can mean wisdom, experience, solitude, old age, being isolated.

Positive sides: wisdom, experience, self-determination.

Negative sides: loneliness, lack of understanding from others, tiredness.