I study the tarot cards from Paul Foster Case’s Tarot: A Key to the Wisdom of the Ages to transform the various aspects of my consciousness.

Recently, I have been studying The Hermit, Key 9, the Supreme Will, the Hebrew letter Yod. To see the tarot card, go to http://www.esotericmeanings.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/9-bota_tarot_the-hermit.jpg. The Hermit (male, so the conscious mind) is at the top of the mountain peaks shown in all the other tarot cards in this deck. He has the wisdom of life experience. He is the same figure as The Fool, Key 0, only The Fool is at the edge of the mountaintop, getting ready to go down into the depths of the valley for life experience. The Hermit has been in the valley, gained the knowledge of life experience and has climbed the mountain and completed that journey to begin another. The Fool is looking out at the distance. The Hermit is looking down at all of those who are seeking to travel the path. He attained that height through discipline, through refinement of his mental, emotional, spiritual and physical bodies. He is fully balanced between who he is and an expression of God, which is all the same thing. He is in continual ecstasy in union with God. The Hermit is shining a light for where we want to go. We must work our own way up to his peaks.

His gray robes are a union of opposites, a balance of black and white, making them gray. The white undergarment shows that The Hermit is in alignment with the primal will I AM presence. His hat is the letter Yod, which is the beginning of the name of God: Yod Heh Vav Heh, and is the unconscious blue of The High Priestess, Key 2. His staff is his kundalini always in activity in a steady ecstatic state, because he is in union with the Higher Self.  The staff is brown because brown is the color of completion. His lantern is powerful enough to contain the light of the six pointed star, which among other things symbolizes masculine and feminine energies in perfect balance. The six pointed star is called the Shield of David, and David means beloved. The lantern shines the light of the beloved.

The Hermit’s open hand is outstretched to symbolize touch. The open hand symbolizes the hand of receptivity, the hand of blessing, the hand reaching out for touch. The open quality shows The Hermit is open to experience, to that which is above. Touch is a symbol of being in union with your lover, and The Hermit is in union with the Higher Self, the Divine. In Qabbalah, everything is spiritual. Being in union with your lover is being in union with the Divine on a physical plane. If we know what the touch of the Higher Self is, we can yield to it. The open hand also symbolizes the open hand of God. God experiences itself through humanity.

The sense of touch is about being in relation not only with outward objects but also with the different parts of our selves that are trying desperately to communicate with each other.  There are parts of ourselves that are amenable to our personalities. There are parts of ourselves that we find difficult to express. There are deep parts of ourselves that we have locked away because it’s too frightening to know that about ourselves, too frightening to feel that part of ourselves. To be in touch with those parts of ourselves gives us strength and the ability to balance those pairs of opposites: the conscious and unconscious. It allows us to bring into union these parts of ourselves that may feel like polar opposites, and if we hold them close together, it can give us a heightened sense of who we are, because the truth is that we’re all of it.  Our fullest sense of selfhood is a sense of being all that we are without any shame or inhibition.

Sometimes there is something scary about the Higher Self because it is so much vaster than the ego which is floating around in consciousness. The Higher Self is the link between all levels of consciousness: conscious, unconscious, and super conscious. Often people dream of the Higher Self as forces of nature like a tornado ripping through a village. This doesn’t seem very accommodating to our personalities and dream egos. However if we approach our Higher Self as if it is a force of nature that is eternal, that is a full expression of who we are, then if we have the opportunity to yield to the Higher Self, and we know how to do that. We can trust in it, despite it possibly being frightening. If we can have a conversation with that which scares us, we can find out what kind of blessings it brings.

On the Tree of Life The Hermit is the path between Mercy/Chesed and Beauty/Tiphareth.

The Hermit is in a state where he could choose complete oneness with the Divine and he chooses not to because of compassion and love for humanity like a Bodhisattva. His choice is why the star of the beloved is at his heart.

Study this card every day for a month and you will notice shifts in your psyche. Studying Tarot, specifically Paul Foster Case’s, is another valuable tool to your transformation toolkit! To get a copy of these cards to color or paint yourself, go to https://storebota.org.

- Self Alchemy Seeker