The Hermit

What the card means

Upright

The answer is not outside and no new advice is needed - a pause is. Nine nearly closes the circle: nearly everything is already here, and what is missing is the quiet to make it out. He lights his own way, but the lantern is held high enough to serve whoever is behind him.

Reversed

Solitude has turned into avoidance: not thinking but hiding. Or the reverse - a refusal to be alone, because alone you would have to hear what you already know.

Love and relationships

Upright

A pause, distance, needing to work it out by yourself. Not a break but a breath. For anyone single, a stretch of not wanting to look, and that is right.

Reversed

Left and did not come back, and explained nothing. Or a solitude that long ago stopped being chosen.

Work and business

Upright

Work it out yourself instead of consulting ten people. A good time for deep work, research, study. A poor one for meetings and presentations.

Reversed

Shut into the task and lost sight of what it was for. Or not asking for the help that would settle it in an hour.

Money

Upright

Time to count rather than spend. Good for an audit, for going through subscriptions, for an honest look at the figures.

Reversed

Hiding how things stand, including from yourself.

The card's advice

Be alone, and do not fill that quiet with other people's voices. Ask yourself the thing you have been putting off. And if you already know the answer, what you need is not advice but nerve.

As the card of the day

A quiet day, better without appointments in it. Good for working something out, writing it down, finishing the book. Whatever occurs to you on a walk is worth writing down.

What is depicted

An old man on a summit, a lantern with a star inside it in one hand, a staff in the other. He is standing rather than walking: he got this far and stopped, in order to give light.

Zodiac sign and correspondences

Virgo - attention to the small and the exact.

With other cards

• The Hermit + The Moon — walking in the dark with a small light; slow, but you can see.
• The Hermit + The High Priestess — knowledge somebody went inward for and is in no hurry to bring back.
• The Hermit + Four of Swords — a pause the body needs as much as the head does.