The Year of the Hermit
The year is 2025. We are in an age of extremes - genocide, climate disasters, political corruption, greed, the rise of the far right - it looks pretty bleak. Yet, there is hope. The archetypal energy and themes for the collective in 2025 are associated with the Hermit. In the tarot, the archetype of the Hermit is wise, patient, magical and carries a lantern that illuminates the path back to self.
The theory behind this year correlating to the Hermit archetype comes from tarot scholar Mary K Greer. When you reduce 2025 to a single digit number by adding the digits together, you get the number 9, which is the number of the Hermit in the Major Arcana. The number 9 in numerology is the number of completion, transformation and pause - all positive qualities that the Hermit archetype embodies. It is the end of the single-digit numbers from 0 to 9. The Hermit, therefore, signifies reflection, a deep inward journey into self to figure out who we are, what we want and where we are heading.
The Hermit is astrologically associated with Virgo, an earth sign, represented by the maiden. As the card is attributed to a sign associated with earth, I feel like questions in relation to resources such as food, water, climate, and our health - not just our own physical and mental health, but spiritual health and the health of our planet will be key this year.
Symbolic Interpretation
On the Rider Waite Colman Smith tarot card, we see a tall figure of a man. His beard is full, his posture slightly stooped, and he wears a long grey-hooded robe. He holds a long staff in one hand and a lantern containing a glowing star in the other. Mountains can be seen in the distance, but they are tiny compared to the figure of the hermit who dominates the space on the card - it's just him, his lantern and his staff, and that’s the point. This card is about figuring it out on your own and seeking answers from within yourself. This is a search for the soul and what it wants. To do this, traditionally, people have sought solitude and left everyday society to go off alone into the wilderness in search of one's true meaning or the meaning of life itself.
The Hermit, set against an expansive landscape, alludes to the monumental journey that is about to begin. The sparseness of the landscape also points to the loneliness that may occur during the quest. The journey, however, doesn’t always mean embarking on a journey in the physical sense. This journey, more often than not, is inward, a journey in search of the soul. One that requires a keen sense of listening, a quiet pause to centre and reveal what lies within.
This idea is symbolically represented by the lantern and the star held by the Hermit. Lanterns are often considered to be symbols associated with knowledge and consciousness. Within the lantern sits a six-pointed star, sometimes seen as the Seal of Solomon, which is formed by two triangles overlapping one another: one pointing upwards representing the spirit of fire and the other pointing downwards representing the element of water. The star contained inside suggests that we turn our attention inward, to orbit ourselves around our own truth and the wisdom and knowledge. We come from stars; we are bits of carbon thrown together with other elements to make our human form. Before the invention of GPS, the stars were used by sailors and nomads as a way of navigation. The stars told them how to find their way in the dark and come home.
Hermits, like witches and shamans, were usually outcasts who lived on the fringes of society. They were known to possess special knowledge about the world, often devoting their time to study in seclusion, away from other people. Not needing others and conforming to societal norms caused them to be seen as oddballs, weirdos, different or other. One famous Hermit was the ancient Greek philosopher Diogenes, one of the founders of cynicism, a philosophical belief that advocated living simply and with nature, away from social constraints. Worldly possessions, social conformity, power and wealth were renounced. Legend has it that Diogenes walked around Greece searching for an honest man, sometimes holding a lantern in the daytime and slept in a ceramic jar on the streets of Athens.
While not an advocate for all of the philosophical ideas related to cynicism, (I don’t think I could comfortably live in a ceramic jar), I can see how some of the values could benefit us in today’s western society and how it relates to the message of the Hermit archetype as our collective card for this year, especially living simply and with nature. The Earth as we know it is dying under the pressures of Capitalism, and reality as we know it appears precarious. It feels like some days I have stepped into a Rick and Morty episode. The warped nature of some of our fellow human beings is frightening and not funny in the slightest.
Politicians are working for the billionaires. Honest working people are getting screwed left, right and centre. Yet we are paying the billionaires with our time, endlessly doom scrolling and killing ourselves to keep up with algorthims making reels about what we had for breakfast. We are now living in an era of Technofeudalism, as Yanis Varoufakis calls it.
‘capitalism has been killed by its own hand…by capital (Varoufakis).
I feel like the message of the Hermit archetype is inviting us to step back from the drama. Take breaks and figure out the way forward from a place within. To do this, we need to disconnect from social media and the political circus that unfolds before our eyes.
We are being called to spiritually awaken. To stop using Amazon, stop using social media, stop funding these giant corporations that don’t give a shit about us. To walk away and get our power back. This might feel lonely. It might feel weird and isolating. Yet, I feel this is what the Hermit archetype is asking of us. Our habits are leading us in the wrong direction. We need to change direction and seek new ways of restoring our health and that of our home, planet Earth. We need to find new ways of building community, to stay in the loop with one another without feeding the billionaires that keep us enslaved. We need to ask ourselves important questions. Are we fulfilling our soul's purpose? What do our souls need? What does Earth’s soul need?
Pollack, R, (1997) Seventy Eight Degrees of Wisdom
Arewa, Caroline S, (1998) Opening to Spirit
Greer, Mary K, (2021) Archetypal Tarot
Varoufakis, Y. 2024 Technofeudalism, https://youtu.be/Fhgm5b8BR0k?si=-d23NqGZQ8KSs2bZ
