9. The Hermit: Searching
Above: 'Aloneness', the Hermit equivalent from the Osho Zen Tarot.
When you spend time alone in nature, you find company. When you search for connection with plants and animals, without the distraction of other humans, forgetting yourself, you might actually find yourself.
I am the Course Director for an online ecotherapy training programme; as part of the training, we ask students to reflect on how it feels to be outdoors alone compared to being with others. Many people respond that they find a deeper connection. There are always exceptions, of course, and going for walks with others is a beautiful thing to do. But we also need a little bit of time alone sometimes, whether we consider ourselves to be the Hermit ‘type’ or not. In some ways, I believe that we are all the Hermit type.
Walking with a friend, we might fill the spaces with chat. We are conditioned to view silence between people as intimate or uncomfortable; it might feel okay with a partner, but not with others. We might therefore chat a lot about the weather as we walk alongside a companion, without noticing how the weather actually feels against our skin.
Walking and looking deeply at what is happening around us can bring the simplest of revelations. We can actively look for symbolic sights in Nature that we can relate to, for example, an old twisted tree that speaks to a sense of struggle. We might realise that it’s not just humans who suffer, feeling empathy for the tree, connection with it.
At other times we can simply walk, seeing what catches our eye (or ear), exploring the land with our senses. How does this mossy rock feel to the touch? How does it look up close? Is there a scent?
Can you make some quiet notes about what you experience at these times?
The Hermit is about more than just spending time alone: he finds wisdom through self-searching, watching for things that can only be found through personal contemplation. When we explore the amazing phenomena of other life forms with a view to it all being our kin (even the rats and the dandelions and the wasps), wisdom is waiting.
The truth is that wisdom is rarely found through intellectual study. It is not transmitted via heady information but by direct experience. We can find knowledge through study, sure (and knowledge is great!) but not wisdom. Wisdom is found silently by watching the way that things work with a silent heart. We find wisdom when we listen more than we talk. We feel wisdom on a visceral level, we know it in the body, and it doesn’t matter a jot if we don’t know what kind of bird that is or not.
I adore The Hermit. I’ve always related to his desire for aloneness and quiet. But he’s not just for the likes of me. The Hermit raises his lantern, leans on his stick, shines a light on what has gone before (by looking to the left – the cards that came before him in the sequence). He knows the value of slowing down, of shutting up. He has discovered the importance of giving up hopes and dreams and plans to just be.
Above: Tarot de Marseille by Jodorowsky/Camoin.
In some Marseille decks, his hair and beard are light blue, a colour associated with spiritual receptivity. His mind (the blue head) is open to receiving, rather than trying to actively figure out clever formulas or anecdotes (which a red head would indicate). He speaks the colour blue (the beard/mouth area), reflecting a sharing of his spiritual truths. In other decks, his head and beard are often white, the colour of clouds, of light, another colour representing spirituality. He is a teacher as much as a silent observer.
You can be a Hermit in the company of others; you can receive the natural wisdom of All That Is anywhere, anytime. We often go through strong Hermit phases in our lives but we don’t need to live in solitude to embrace this. During these times, we might take ourselves to the woods and listen out for birds, watching them flit from tree to tree. We might stand at the sea and watch the waves rolling, inhaling the scent of the salt, feeling the crisp air on our skin. We might walk in the snow alone, enjoying the sound of our shoes crunching against the icy water particles. We can allow ourselves to become sound, movement, and nothing else. All this, without distraction.
Perhaps you are lucky enough to have someone in your life who you can do Hermit activities alongside, but that’s rare. Hermit Walking is often a solo activity.
If you are frightened of spending time alone in Nature … what is that about? What kind of conditioning have we received to be scared of simply existing on our home planet? Yes, some places are dangerous (I have lived in some genuinely dangerous places, so I know this first hand – but they were always cities, funnily enough!). But this fear of quiet time in Nature? Let’s work with that, push that a little bit. Buy a notebook, go outside, write down all of the interesting things that you observe. We all need to be the Hermit from time to time: he lives inside of us all, and he is waiting to watch. Waiting to grow.
That’s all for now, friends. Thank you for being here – and please check out my Tarot Therapy Sessions if you’d like us to work together. You can also sign up for the Tarot Blog newsletter (different to my main newsletter) below to receive email updates on every new post.
Smiles from Scotland,
Stephen
