The Hermit, Lanterns and Solitude

Original illustration inspired by the Hermit's raised beacon. It is a new interpretation, not a reproduction of a historical card.

The hermit is a figure of withdrawal from ordinary company. In pictures and stories, however, the figure's relationship to other people depends on the setting: a person may retreat, wait, study, hide, guide or return. A lantern can illuminate the bearer's next step, signal to someone at a distance, or remain concealed.

This page examines cultural and literary material surrounding the Hermit and the lantern. For the wiki's model-specific practitioner commentary, see Hurts.

Historical background

Tarot's documented European history begins with playing cards. The Metropolitan Museum of Art identifies early references in fifteenth-century northern Italy and describes a pack with suits, a fool and twenty-one trumps. Its later occult interpretations belong to a different historical context from those early card games.

It is therefore useful to name the deck and commentary being discussed. An interpretation of one Hermit image should not silently be presented as the meaning of every historical version.

Waite's Hermit: a raised beacon

In The Pictorial Key to the Tarot, A. E. Waite describes the Hermit's lantern as containing a star and the figure as holding a beacon from an elevated position. He calls the card an image of attainment. His explanation gives the raised light a relationship to others who might reach the same place.

Waite also rejects an explanation based on protecting the bearer through occult isolation. This makes a solitary figure an incomplete description of his account: the lantern is held outward and is available to be seen.

These are Waite's stated interpretations of the image, rather than empirical claims about people who seek solitude.

Reading the arrangement

The following are descriptive comparisons for reading an illustration or story.

Feature	A distinction to notice
Lantern	Is the light carried openly, directed towards a path, raised as a signal, or covered?
Position	Is the figure above the path, beside it, within a shelter, or beyond a boundary?
Staff	Does the object visibly support standing or walking?
Distance	Can other people approach, see the light, or communicate with the figure?
Route	Is there a visible way to arrive and a visible way to leave?
Direction of attention	Does the figure look towards a route, towards others, or away from the scene?

A person alone on a mountain and a person inaccessible behind a locked door occupy different arrangements. The presence of a lantern does not erase the importance of the route, distance or boundary.

A literary comparison: Walden

In the “Solitude” chapter of Walden (1854), Henry David Thoreau presents being alone as companionable and argues that social proximity need not remove loneliness. The following chapter, “Visitors”, describes receiving company and associates his three chairs with solitude, friendship and society.

Commentary: reading the two chapters together keeps retreat and hospitality in view. Thoreau's first-person account provides a particular literary treatment of chosen solitude; it does not establish that all experiences of being alone are alike.

Idioms and associated expressions

• Shed light on something: make a subject easier to understand.
• A guiding light: a person, principle or example treated as a source of direction.
• Keep someone in the dark: withhold information from them.
• See something in a different light: understand or judge it from another perspective.
• Come out of your shell: become more willing to interact with others.
• Retreat from the world: withdraw from ordinary social activity or its demands.

These expressions draw on visibility, direction and enclosure. Their everyday uses need not match Waite's specific account of the card.

Related pages

Hurts | Shadows | Elevation | Hills and Mountains | Paths and Trails | The Living Death Metaphor

Browse the library

Metaphor Atlas | Subject index | Spirit, death and the unseen | Stories and literature