9 - The Hermit

The Hermit is the 10th card of the Major Arcana (it is Card No.9 because the first card of the Major Arcana is card No.0, "The Fool"). Some older accounts of the tarot refer to "The Hermit" as "Father Time", a representation that may convey the wisdom gained over the passing of time even more naturally than the modern "Hermit" representation.

The Hermit is usually depicted on the Tarot Card as an elderly gentleman with a long white beard and a staff. He is often shown standing on the top of a mountain (if a snow-capped mountain, this is to further emphasize the height of learning he has attained via solitude and experience).

When The Hermit appears in a spread he may be indicating that we should put our experience and learning to work for us in our present situation. Alternatively, he may be indicating that unfinished business from our past should be completed before we can move into the future with confidence.

Some specific terms associated with "The Hermit" Tarot card include:
Wisdom, Meditation, Search for The Truth, Wisdom of the Ages, Knowledge, Discipline, Completion, Contemplation, and Introspection.

The cards of the Major Arcana are widely considered to be the most powerful cards in the Tarot Deck. The 22 cards of the Major Arcana tell a complete story when arranged in upright and numerical order (beginning with The Fool). This is a story of of development and enlightenment and is sometimes referred to as "The Fool's Journey".

Some texts also include meanings for "reversed cards". These are for the situation in which the cards are shuffled in both order and orientation. The theoretical advantage to this is that it effectively doubles the number of possible "cards" in the deck from 78 to 156. (However, in terms of the calculation of obtaining results according to chance alone, it is not a simple mathematical doubling because once a card has been drawn it cannot be drawn again in the opposite orientation in the same reading.)