The Hermit (IX) is the ninth trump or Major Arcana card in most traditional tarot decks. It is used in game playing as well as in divination.
Description
The Rider–Waite version of the card shows an old man, standing on a mountain peak, carrying a staff in one hand and a lit lantern containing a six-pointed star in the other. In the background is a mountain range.
According to Eden Gray, his lantern is the Lamp of Truth, used to guide the unknowing, his patriarch's staff helps him navigate narrow paths as he seeks enlightenment and his cloak is a form of discretion.
Interpretation
According to A.E. Waite's 1910 book Pictorial Key to the Tarot, the Hermit card carries several divinatory associations:
9. THE HERMIT. Prudence, circumspection; also and especially treason, dissimulation, roguery, corruption. Reversed: Concealment, disguise, policy fear, unreasoned caution.
Examples
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Pierpont Morgan Bergamo (15th century)
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Charles VI (or Gringonneur) (15th century)
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Jean Dodal Marseilles (1701-1715)
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Vandenborre (1780)
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Court de Gébelin (1781)
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Renault (1820-1830)
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Piedmontese (1865)
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Oswald Wirth (1889)
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Grand Etteilla (1890)
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Lequart Marseilles (1890)
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Papus (1909)
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Tarot ReVisioned (2003)
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In popular culture
A version of Pamela Colman Smith's Hermit designed by Barrington Colby is depicted on the inner jacket sleeve of Led Zeppelin IV.
References
- Gray, Eden. Complete Guide to the Tarot. 1970. Crown Publishers, New York.
- Waite, Arthur Edward (1979). The Pictorial Key to the Tarot. New York: Samuel Weiser. p. 284. ISBN 0-87728-218-8.
- Untitled (Media notes). Atlantic Records. 1972. K50008.
- Lewis, Dave (1990). Led Zeppelin : A Celebration. Omnibus Press. ISBN 978-0-7119-2416-1.
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