The Hermit Tarot Card - Symbolism & Meaning
The Rider-Waite Tarot Deck, Hermit Card Image on fur and with quartz crystal Amanda Linette Meder
Updated 2020.12.30
The epic journeyman. The Hermit card.
We are all this person in our own story.
And, in each of these mythical tales, there lies a period of separateness, aloneness and thus, the importance of it.
Most of us suffer from feeling lonely thinking it's going to last forever, but it never does.
If you are currently feeling lonely, spiritual and crying out for friends, rest assured, here are some themes you can expect when experiencing a natural period of loneliness on your journey:
It doesn't last forever. It only ever lasts a period of time. In cases it's 7 years, in others it's 40 days, in others, still, it's 21 weeks. In other words, this is temporary, how temporary on the other hand...
At some point, you are rejoined by true friends. The journeyman is always rejoined by true friends before they all embark on new adventures again.
While the ring bearer often walks his journey (bears his burden) alone he always is rejoined by the company of others at a later date. I use the masculine pronoun on purpose here because...
It develops the masculine in you. Outward strength, courage, action-taking skills are developed during these periods, which is why it feels so hard because it is. But there are benefits.
So we all know that loneliness has a purpose.
And knowing that it won't last forever, here are a few benefits of the Hermit periods, whether they are forced on you by circumstance or they have been self-taken, and there are benefits -
The Rider-Waite Tarot Deck, Hermit Card Image upclose on fur and with quartz crystal Amanda Linette Meder
It improves discernment. Loneliness helps with improving your decision-making skills and discernment by giving you the ample time and space to discern and no one to interfere.
It cultivates personal wisdom. Loneliness helps you put everything you've learned into practice in your life in an authentic way by forcing you to get to know yourself.
It keeps relationships healthy. Loneliness can help us distill our spiritual teachings, and help one recover from grief and go through difficulty without getting it all over everyone.
It identifies your new core strengths. it helps you learn to love yourself on a deeper level because you learn your true strength as they are forced out of you by "having to do it alone."
It develops a greater sense of self-worth and thus confidence. Loneliness builds confidence and eventually, improves and strengthens your relationships, both those remains and those yet to come for all the reasons above.
So if you've been pulling the Hermit card lately, literally or figuratively, know that this period isn't going to last forever.
In most spiritual teachings and in my experience, the spiritual journeyman is only lonely for periods of time before he or she is rejoined by others. In my experience, likewise is true, and I've found most people can expect a period of 2 years.
Though sometimes less, sometimes more, depending on the period of the journey. Regardless, loneliness periods often represent our best periods for spiritual growth and transformation, so take advantage of it.
During this time, I suggest:
The Rider-Waite Tarot Deck, Hermit Card Image far away on fur and with quartz crystal Amanda Linette Meder
- Spending time getting to know yourself on a deeper level
- Deepening your relationship with your existing guides
- Getting to know new guides
... cultivating wisdom all the while.
You can meet new guides in quiet periods of ritual, meditation and time in nature most easily on your own or in a guided way.
If you haven't done it before, I recommended starting with a guided practice then using that to move onto your own way. But if you have, still continue on.
There are also several guide-activating meditations, grounding and higher-self getting to know meditations in The Member Center - including meditations for meeting animal guides, deceased guides, and uniting with your high-self all which help relieve feelings of aloneness because we never are.
There are also series to help raise your vibration and mood, getting you out of a funk and reconnecting to your purpose, for the first one.
During periods of loneliness, we gain strength, courage, wisdom, confidence, and self-worth, always returning as the victor.
So try to use this time to deepen your spiritual practice, sharpen your journeyman, bartering and instinctive skills, and to listen more.
If you need some social stimulation to keep you going until you eventually reunite with true friends, try going to markets, shops and other places where there are living people - this often helps lift the mood and gets one through a hump before going back to it.
The Hermit is a card of solitude and it often symbolizes aloneness. We all have to be alone at times. There are benefits, reasons, and friends to make now, just perhaps, not in the physical sense as we know it, so now's the time to take advantage of it.
To end, be open to anything and always have hope, journeyman, it is a path of wonder we're after, after all. The Hermit is a stage in all life paths, and none of the stages last forever.
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