From Touchstone TarotTM by Kat Black
The Hermit
Meanings
Look within. A time for reflection, quietness and solitude. Stand apart from your everyday life to assess your goals. You will find the answers you seek there.
Reversed (?)
A lonely recluse. Isolation, lack of necessary social skills. Inability to empathize or compromise.
Description
A brown-robed monk stands in a dark forest at night. He carries a lantern, but his eyes are closed. A stag, a cat and an owl watch him.
The central figure in this card is St Francis in Ecstasy by Caravaggio. Although St Francis is not specifically associated with this card in traditional tarot, I feel his relationship with both the divine and also the natural world makes him a good representation of the archetype of the Hermit.
Artwork
- Landscape: ELSHEIMER, Adam, Jacob's Dream, 1600s, Städelsches Kunstinstitut, Frankfurt.
- Owl: GOLTZIUS, Hendrick, Minerva, 1611, Frans Halsmuseum, Haarlem.
- Deer: CRANACH, Lucas the Elder, Adam and Eve, 1533, Staatliche Museen, Berlin.
- Monk and habit: CARAVAGGIO, St. Francis in Ecstasy, c.1595, Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, Connecticut.
- Cat: METSU, Gabriel, Woman Eating (aka The Cat's Breakfast), c.1662-65, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.
- Chain: HOLBEIN, Hans the Younger, Sir William Butts, 1543, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston.
- Lantern, rocks: RUBENS, Pieter Pauwel, Descent from the Cross, 1612-14, O.-L. Vrouwekathedraal, Antwerp.
Members
78 Friends members who have chosen this card as their Significator...
There's a cat added below the stag.
You can never have too many cats in a deck :P
Kat, is that your kitty? The one who is not really grey?