Another look at the Court Cards, part two

The Hermit and the Page of Disks, Cary-Yale Visconti Tarot deck

The Knight of Cups, Queen of Wands and Page of Disks.

Page of Disks – Virgo (Mutable/Earth, Mercury in Virgo), under the rulership of The Hermit.
The Page of Disks is all about taking care of practical things. They do not see the point in learning something unless it has a practical use. The Page of Disks are excellent at organising, planning and executing all sort of tasks and teamwork. They are analytic, a good judge of character, but they can be impatient and very critical with others. Logical, detail-oriented, gifted with languages, especially in writing, and with mathematics, the Page of Disks will seem hesitating because they always double, sometimes triple check everything before they give their good to go verdict. Still, they can have second thoughts, and sometimes it makes them look insecure or undecided, or, in other circumstances when they hesitate to act immediately, they may be considered cowards. They may appear to lack self-confidence, which may or may not be the case. Because of their detail-oriented nature, they may lose sight of the bigger picture. The Mercury in Virgo type of person can be shy and withdrawn and usually will prefer to stay in the background and orchestrate things quietly from the shadow. They are adaptable, and during a crisis, they remain calm and most likely will find a solution. They are loyal but may lose interest in projects that do not seem to have a purpose. Similarly, if they are not stimulated continuously, they may lose their interest in any relationships.
The Hermit is one of the extraordinary cards among the special cards which constitute the Major Arcana of the Tarot. One book, and probably that would still not be enough to analyse all its aspects and implications adequately. In a nutshell, The Hermit was the subject of a spectacular transformation and from the Saturnian figure of the Father Time, who must be told, may be associated with Death, was converted into the Wise Old Man of the Renaissance. At the simple visual level, the hourglass was replaced by the lamp. At a thoughtful examination, an external factor, the merciless passing of time ultimately signifying death was replaced by the inner search for the light of awakening and enlightenment – which, eventually bear the flickering hope of immortality. The archetype of The Hermit more conveniently is associated with Hermes Trismegistus. The curious case of Hermes Trismegistus – “thrice-greatest Hermes” – most probably would require another separate book. Hermes Trismegistus is the purported author of the Hermetic Corpus, a series of sacred texts that are the basis of Hermeticism and it was of inestimable influence on Renaissance philosophy. While most of the books attributed to his name were produced in the second and third century C.E., his myth has far deeper roots. The Greeks identified him with Hermes, the Egyptians with Thoth and some may speculate further back till Metatron, the celestial scribe or “recording angel”. Hermes, just like most of the Greek gods, had several attributes such as the god of trade, heralds, roads, travellers, thieves, trickery, sports, but also he was considered the emissary and messenger of the gods and the god of boundaries and the transgression of boundaries. It is said that he was capable of moving freely between the worlds of the mortal and divine, and was the conductor of souls into the afterlife. In its early depictions, The Hermit Tarot card borrows both from Hermes and Moses. He has the winged cap of the Greek god and the magic stuff of the Jewish prophet. Hermes is identified with the Roman god Mercury which makes The Hermit an attractive candidate for representing the Zodiac sign Virgo. However, it does not fit the gender according to the astrological attribution of the sign, while Virgo is considered a feminine sign and there is nothing feminine about the Wise Old Man with his long white beard. No matter how appealing it is the association with The Hermit to my Virgo ego, in my opinion, it is not the card to match the Zodiac sign of Virgo. However, this is a different story, for another time!
Straight: practical, logical, systematic and adaptable.
Reversed: detached, worried, conservative and shy.

Read the full article at https://www.patreon.com/posts/31029569

#tarot #courtcards #knightofcups #queenofwands #pageofdisks #pageofpentacles #astrology

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