I looked on their faces and didn’t see anything but my own alone-ness staring back at me.

Tarot’s The Hermit comes to make you see that some journeys must be explored by yourself. Sometimes you have to sit and feel your own personal silence. To know that alone we each become truly ourselves. Without the other, there is just you. Maybe a silly statement but some times we forget what that is like; commonly seeing ourselves only in the context of being with someone else.

The Hermit wants you to indulge your alone time, to make the most of it. What is it that you do or explore by yourself? What is it that you look forward to doing when no one else is around? How does this activity make you healthier and more ready to face others when you do face the external world? Knowing your inner world as well as you do your outer world is essential to having a balanced life.

The Hermit can also be a warning that you have indulged too much into the inner world and need to incorporate the external more into your life. For me, The Hermit is my natural inclination, so at times I forget how to talk to people. The Hermit reveals, according to his context, that I have become overly isolated, and I’m losing practice in social skills.

For the more extroverted, though, he can speak of going in, looking to the workings of your private nature, remembering who you are when alone. Removing social play, playing by yourself to see how you flourish. To come alive doing the things you can only do on your own, that which is some times neglected so that you may be with other people. Being with others always requires some degree of compromise, compromise that ultimately achieves great feats. Yet how do we express to others who we are if we do not prioritize time to get to know ourselves? Tarot’s The Hermit says, “Know thyself and then you may proceed with greater intent.”