Thoth Tarot by Aleister CrowleyLike the Order of the Golden Dawn, Crowley's attribution for The Hermit is the zodiac sign Virgo, a mutable Earth sign known for being industrious, discriminating, logical, analytical, intellectual, and for having a tendency to be critical. Virgo is ruled by Mercury, planet of communication, intelligence, perception, and intellectual energy. Mercury is exalted in Virgo, giving it additional strength with respect to The Hermit.
One World Tarot by Crystal LoveThis deck associates The Hermit with the zodiac sign Aquarius, ruled by the planet Uranus in modern astrology. Love explains that Aquarius is associated with "futuristic thinking, invention, genius, originality, science, electricity, and technology." Uranus is viewed as the planet of change, originality, upheaval, and revolution. Negative traits associated with Aquarius and Uranus include perversity, eccentricity, and fanatacism. Love's Hermit card depicts Alpha Centauri, "a hermit among the stars."
A.E. Thierens, PhD. (Astrology & the Tarot)
Thierens associates The Hermit, Trump 9, with the ninth sign of the zodiac: Sagittarius (a mutable Fire sign known for being freedom-loving, expansive, knowledge-seeking, and open to new ideas and exploration). Sagittarius is ruled by Jupiter, planet of good fortune, expansion, abundance, and wisdom. Thierens writes: "The sign is that of thought-power, creative mind, idealism. . . and consequently the Sagittarian is remarkable for always seeing things in his own light and trying to throw light on things in order to instruct other people. . . And mentally he is always more or less lonely. All this is very distinctly symbolised in the card of the Hermit."
The Celestial Tarot by Brian ClarkThis deck links The Hermit with the zodiac sign Virgo, The Wise Virgin. Clark writes: "Virgo is ancient and instinctual, craving sanctity and ritual in everyday life. . . It did not originally mean chaste, quite the reverse. Ironically, it implies an image of freedom and independence, a woman in relationship to her internal self, contained and autonomous, in charge of her own desires. . . When the card appears, the Hermit, represented by Virgo, suggests her wisdom of cycles needs to become consciousness."
The Mandala Astrological Tarot by A.T. MannMann associates The Hermit with the zodiac sign Virgo, sign of "ripe fruit; orderly storage and collection; selection; discrimination; purity; perfectionism; health and hygiene; analytic mind; prudence; diet." Mercury, ruler of Virgo, is "Mind, reason, self-expression, communication, knowledge, intelligence, movement; friend, sibling, mediator, guide." Mann tells us that Mercury "fertilizes itself and transforms simplicity into understanding by releasing conflicting pictures to achieve harmony through the application of perceptive mind."
The Whispering Tarot by Liz HazelThis deck links The Hermit with the zodiac sign Virgo and "sometimes Saturn." Saturn is viewed as the planet of discipline, responsibility, restriction, and limitation -- all of which can be seen in The Hermit.
The most common association seen in these examples is that between The Hermit and the zodiac sign Virgo, ruled by Mercury. Love's association of the card with Aquarius and Uranus doesn't work well for me. As a Sagittarian myself, I find the Sagittarius association presented by Thierens to be intriguing and well reasoned.
I welcome your comments!
Zanna
The Virgo/ Mercury combination seems to sit well for me and the quote I used in another post from the Everything Tarot book really does seem to relate to the Hermit to me. The Hermit takes what he thinks he knows and meditates on it until he finds out what it is he really knows!
ReplyDelete"Virgo is an earth sign and along with practicality, uses mental ability. This star sign is ruled by Mercury a planet that represents communication, intellect and reason. In this combination we have Mercury that gathers the information and Virgo who sorts it all out."
The Mercury association is a given; I'd also like to point out that the hermit has the morning star (venus) in that lantern, which takes the Saturnian six-pointed star form. The hermit has this sense that they have been everywhere and seen everything, and the resulting disillusionment somehow precludes his/her ability to have ego-drives. Still earthbound, but lacking the zeal of naivety, because the hermit has been around the block enough times to understand that everything is illusory and the universe is too elastic to really change anything. Venr Saturnian. I see the Uranian stuff too with science and magic but i feel like these are borrowed from Saturn anyway, and i feel like the Hermit has all of the magic and science but no earthly drive to use it.
ReplyDeleteExcellent insights, GoblinKA. Thanks for stopping by!
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