“The Hermit, as depicted by the medieval illustrators, is an old man leaning on a pilgrim’s staff who walks along a path lit by a lantern. He hides the light from his lantern beneath the folds of a cloak, and a serpent precedes him on the path.” (Fredric Lionel, The Magic Tarot)
The truth which we all seek is Read more KS Hermit
At a closer look, there are many similarities between two or sometimes three cards of the Major Arcana. There are hidden – esoteric -, underlying connections.
One of these pairs can be Read more The Fool and the Hermit
“…the Alphabet of Thoth can be dimly traced in the modern Tarot which can be had at almost every bookseller in Paris. As for it being understood or utilised, the many fortune-tellers in Paris, who make a professional living by it, are sad specimens of failures of attempts at reading, let alone correctly interpreting the symbolism of the Tarot without a preliminary philosophical study of the Science.” – Helena Petrovna Blavatsky Read more Archetypes and iconography
The Temptations of Christ is a fresco by the Italian Renaissance painter Sandro Botticelli, executed in 1480–1482 and located in the Sistine Chapel, Rome.
In 1480 Botticelli, together with a couple other Florentine painters, left for Rome, where he had been called as part of the reconciliation project between Lorenzo de’ Medici, the de facto ruler of Florence, and Pope Sixtus IV. The Florentines started to work in the Sistine Chapel as early as the Spring of 1481.
The theme of the decoration of the Chapel was a parallel between the Stories of Moses and those of Christ, showing the continuity between the Old and the New Testament. It also was meant to prove the continuity between the divine law of the Tables and the message of Jesus, who has chosen Peter, the first bishop of Rome, as his successor. This would finally result in the legitimation of the latter’s successors, the popes of Rome. Read more The Hermit in Botticelli’s Temptations of Christ
The timeline of the Tarot in 50 imagines is a project I was thinking about, and I have planned and prepared for a while now. Read more Tarot timeline in 50 imagines, video 09 The Hermit
“Everyone must travel through the stages of this breathtaking odyssey. It is time to take up our pilgrim’s staff and set out, as the Hermit has done, to discover the world. Read more Go beyond the appearances
Fortune-telling interpretation:
Upright: betrayal, dissimulation, hypocrisy, a traitor, a crafty, corruptor, seducer. Trap, imposture.
Reversed: solitary, anchorite, occult, disguised, misguided. Politician, smart, sneaky person.
Divination:
Leo was one of the earliest recognised constellations, with archaeological evidence that the Mesopotamians had a similar constellation as early as 4000 BCE. The Persians called Leo Ser or Shir; the Turks, Artan; the Syrians, Aryo; the Jews, Arye; the Indians, Simha, all meaning “lion”.
In Babylonian astronomy, the constellation was called UR.GU.LA, the “Great Lion”.
In Greek mythology, Leo was identified as the Nemean Lion which was killed by Heracles – Hercules to the Romans – during the first of his twelve labours.
Upright: strength, sincerity, generosity, spontaneousness, romantic, passion.
Reversed: arrogance, laziness, intolerance, possessiveness, authoritarism.
