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February 2026 Apparently this one is my soul and personality card, which was weird because I actually resonated with it. So I got it tattooed. ;)
The hermit card is deeply blue, a pathetic fallacy for the somewhat morose expression on the Hermit’s face. He’s not glum or depressed… Well, maybe a little bit. Something is off. His head is humbly tilted downwards as he holds a light out in front of him. That’s a bit of a misnomer actually: the light is a star, sometimes depicted as a Star of David. He carries a staff. Wears a grey robe. He is bearded. By all accounts, he looks like some kind of wizard.
Interestingly, this particular card is quite barren in the background. The star leads him, but where? There is no destination readily apparent to the reader. He has to look for it. And for me, I think that’s what this card means: it’s the seeker’s card.
Inverted, I suppose this would mean that this card takes on a more nefarious characteristic. Maybe something feels blocked—inspiration, motivation, hope. I think in this state the card represents a kind of depressive force for me. That slight morose expression becomes more like full-blown melancholy.
Symbols
April 2026
- white landscape, it’s cold and snowy.
- staff distinct from how wands are depicted in the RWS tarot.
- lantern to light the way
- the lantern doesn’t have a candle in it, it has a star.
- the star has six sides—i.e., it’s not a pentagonal figure or a Star of David. It is a hexagram.
- the hermit wears dark robes.
- he is white-bearded, indicating a more advanced age.
- perhaps it’s just an idiosyncrasy of the drawing, but only one foot is visible, and this has always struck me since it feels like we look at him from a bit of an angle.
The Hermit as a Seeker
In the past, many of the occult fraternities recruited members from religious organizations. … These recruits would continue to belong to their previous religious organization, but would supplement their spiritual needs with a secret occult life.
… what is self-initiation? Its representatives have been the hermit philosophers of all ages who persistently sought out the arcane knowledge despite the dangers, eventually becoming “self-initiated” into the esoteric doctrine themselves. Followed wholeheartedly, self-initiation of this kind has always led to genuine initiation into the higher worlds. It is the veritable seeker which our platform seeks to serve, and bona fide discipleship naturally provides its teacher when the student is ready.
—self-initiated.com, emphasis my own
Funny enough, this description lays the groundwork for explaining this independent bookshop’s name, but the description caught my eye as it is precisely this description which I felt described what the Hermit card represents (to me).