Tarot card meanings · Major Arcana 9
What does The Hermit mean in tarot?
In A. E. Waite's Pictorial Key to the Tarot (1910), the Hermit upright means “Prudence, circumspection”, and reversed “Concealment, disguise, policy, fear, unreasoned caution”.
Upright
Prudence, circumspection.Waite, The Pictorial Key to the Tarot, Part 3
Reversed
Concealment, disguise, policy, fear, unreasoned caution.Waite, The Pictorial Key to the Tarot, Part 3
What does the picture show?
The variation from the conventional models in this card is only that the lamp is not enveloped partially in the mantle of its bearer, who blends the idea of the Ancient of Days with the Light of the World. It is a star which shines in the lantern.Waite, The Pictorial Key to the Tarot, Part 2
Where does the Hermit fall in a reading?
The Hermit belongs to the Major Arcana. On this site you draw three cards, which take three of the places in the ten-card method Waite describes: “This covers him”, “This crosses him”, “This is before him”. The same card reads differently in each place, and the I Ching cast beside it may agree or disagree.
Ask one question. Draw three cards, and cast an I Ching hexagram beside them to see where East and West agree. Free.
Draw three cardsWaite's words are quoted as printed, and left out where they speak of money, law, illness or disaster. The pictures are the 1909 deck drawn by Pamela Colman Smith. For entertainment and self-reflection.