The Hermit
Major Arcana
What the The Hermit means — upright and reversed, with keywords.
09What this card is
High on a dark slope, an old man holds up a lantern with one small light inside it. The Hermit is deliberate solitude and deliberate slowness: stepping far enough back from the noise to hear what you actually think. He is not loneliness and not withdrawal from life. The lantern is the detail that matters, because he is not hiding, he is looking, and it lights only the next few steps rather than the whole road ahead.
Upright meaning
KEYWORDS
Stepping back on purpose to find an answer only solitude can give.
Reversed meaning
KEYWORDS
Withdrawal that's tipped from useful into isolating.
People also ask
- What does The Hermit mean?
- Keywords: introspection, solitude, inner guidance. Stepping back on purpose to find an answer only solitude can give.
- What does The Hermit reversed mean?
- Reversed, the keywords shift to isolation, avoidance. Withdrawal that's tipped from useful into isolating.
- Is The Hermit a good card?
- Neither, and the question is worth resisting. Upright it speaks of introspection; reversed, of isolation. The same card is encouraging in one spread and a warning in another — what decides it is the question you asked and the cards around it.
- Where does The Hermit sit in the deck?
- The Hermit is a Major Arcana card, number 9 of the twenty-two. The Majors mark the large movements of a life rather than the week's weather, so when one lands it usually answers the question behind the question.
- Which cards are read alongside The Hermit?
- The Majors run in order, like a story, so The Hermit reads differently depending on what it follows: Strength and Wheel of Fortune. Reading them in sequence is the fastest way to see where this one sits.StrengthWheel of Fortune
Combinations with The Hermit
A card rarely arrives alone. Each pairing below changes the reading — sometimes softening it, sometimes sharpening it into something the single card never said.