Hermit Archives < Arwen, Professional Joy Seeker

When Ravens Fly Alone

I long to be a modified hermit where I see only people who bring me joy and read only things that bring me joy. But because of the world I live in, I must be a person who understands that sometimes I have to dig deep for the joy.

#affirmation Today I carry my own light. Today I set my eyes on my own prize. Today I move forward knowing I am the only one who knows my way. Loved and loving, I love each of you. Seek joy, y’all. Pass it on.

Here is the Hermit from the Animalis Os Fortuna. Strangely this is not one of my favorite cards from this deck. I am not sure why but I think it is because it doesn’t clearly show the theme of the deck.

Still, it’s a nice representation of the energy of the Hermit card. Focusing on something only it can see, the Raven flies off. It is on a solitary journey but it carries the light in the hopes others will see and follow.

Sometimes it feels that way to me. Especially when I read of horrific things in the news…most especially then. I want to set my filters so I see nothing in the news.

And I know that’s not a great attitude for how will I know what to avoid if I don’t hear the news, right? It’s that dichotomy that is speaking to me today.

[Tweet “What do you do when you are digging deep for the joy?”] When your focus is pulled away from your joy journey? What are some of your tricks?

Hermit, Animalis Os Fortuna, Zaheroux

Seek joy, y’all. Pass it on.

#dailyaffirmation
#tarot
#seekjoy

What’s The Hermit’s Lesson?

This card reminds me that there are times when I must go inward just as there are times that I must go outward. This is a rather unusual depiction of this card. Here we see the light shining out as the Hermit reflects in. But when you flip this card, you see the light going in as the Hermit looks out.

Right now I’m feeling very inward. A lot of that has to do with a back injury but it is also because I am in incubation mode. I’m putting together a class. I’d hoped to have it ready for the first of June, but that won’t happen now. It will be later in June or even in July.

I have to remind myself that the balance is necessary. See, I’m one of those people who prefer interacting via the net. It’s easier because I can walk away when the social aspect gets to be too much. I can’t do that politely at actual gatherings. 😀

What about you? Do you get energized by being around people or by being by yourself? Or is it a mixture of the two for you?

Here’s to walking with the Hermit today and learning his lesson.

Seek joy, y’all. Pass it on!

Hermit, Revelations Tarot

Are You A Nosy Parker?

Today’s card reminds me of this quote I got from the AWAD newsletter. The word was so far from the essence of this card that it made me laugh. I liked the juxtaposition of the card, the word and this quote.

The word was “nosy parker”.

The quote was, “Moral certainty is always a sign of cultural inferiority. The more uncivilized the man, the surer he is that he knows precisely what is right and what is wrong. All human progress, even in morals, has been the work of men who have doubted the current moral values, not of men who have whooped them up and tried to enforce them. The truly civilized man is always skeptical and tolerant, in this field as in all others. His culture is based on “I am not too sure.” -H.L. Mencken, writer, editor, and critic (1880-1956) ”

The quote makes me think of the Hermit as the skeptical yet tolerant civilized man. However the Hermit is the furthest thing away from a nosy parker.

I like Mencken’s notion that the more right you think you are, the less civilized you are. I agree with that wholeheartedly.

In fact, grin, you might say I’m right. Ha!

Seriously though, how flexible are you? Can you be like the Hermit who remains a dedicated student of life? Can you follow his lead into quiet introspection about how things work? Will you join him in his intense search using the natural world as his vehicle?

And let me just state here and now that I live in a city and I can find nature EVERYWHERE I go. It may be harder when the weather is severe, but nature is there. Look for it.

Your 180 second challenge today? Search within yourself to find where you are “RIGHT, DAMMIT” and see how much flexibility you can worm into that.

That’s three minutes of admitting that your point of view might not be the only one with validity. That maybe that person with a different religious belief or cultural understanding of the world might simply be different rather than wrong.

Hermit, Shadowscapes, Llewellyn

How Do You Play?

Another side of the Hermit is the solitary learner. The one who returns to nature to dig in and find both himself and God. There is a feeling that to be a Hermit one must be a “Very Serious Person.”

Today’s card reminds me that some days it’s okay to be the crazy cat lady (or man). Well, maybe I’m reaching on this card. But truly, I like this Hermit from the Tarot of the Cat People. It’s a rather unusual deck. It was published by U.S. Games Systems, Inc in 1984.

Is our Hermit going into the cave or coming out? I know I need both solitude and companionship to feel balanced. If I get too much of one, I crave the other. Maybe the Hermit is the first one to have mentioned guests and fish both smelling bad after three days?

I have to wonder though…how much life can you learn if you are serious all the time? In today’s A.Word.A.Day newsletter, there was a quote that really spoke this for me.

“Man is most nearly himself when he achieves the seriousness of a child at play.” -Heraclitus, philosopher (500 BCE)

Isn’t that the truth?

Have you ever watched a child playing? The focus and intensity would awe an Olympic athlete. They are all about the game. There is nothing else in that moment for them.

When is the last time you felt that focus? That “nothing else” intensity?

Today’s 180 second commitment is going to be hard. Grit your teeth. Grin and bear it. Just muscle through, okay?

Today I’m asking you to commit to 180 seconds of fun. Three minutes of doing something for the sheer joy of it.

A. Count the petals on a flower.
B. Tell someone a long, involved Shaggy Dog story.
C. Skip down the hallway.
D. Throw a ball for your dog (or go to a dog park and throw it for someone else’s.)

Have fun for three minutes today that doesn’t include any thoughts of “I shouldn’t” or “I should be doing something else.”

Come out of the cave and play.

The Hermit, Tarot of the Cat People, U.S. Games Systems Inc, 1984

Seek joy, y’all. Pass it on.

Guts, Judgment & Mistakes

Don’t trust your gut. Arwen discusses why.

Today’s card is a reminder that sometimes it is not okay to trust my own judgment. I have to understand that my wanting to believe in the innate wisdom of my own gut is a crazy thing.

And that’s perfectly normal to believe.

It’s also really really wrong. Gotcha!

This card shows the Ffiona Morgan Daughters of the Moon (B/w version)’s Hermit. This Wise One takes her own advice. She goes her own way. She knows that sometimes that makes life a little lonely when others don’t “get” her. But she’s accepted that.

When I first accepted this about the world and myself, I became a happier woman. Was I ever wrong? Heck yeah, but I also realized that I had to accept my own responsibility in those situations.

Trusting my gut. Going my own way. Learning from my stumbles. Moving on. Releasing fear.

Those were the beginning steps for my becoming a professional joy seeker.

Trust.
Go.
Learn.
Move.
Release.

Seek joy, y’all. Pass it on!

The Wise One, Daughters of the Moon Tarot, Daughters of the Moon, 1984 (OOP)

Tarot In 9 Words: Hanged Man

I’ve studied Tarot for over thirty years now. And 25 or more have been as a professional Tarot consultant. I still get hung up (pun fully intended) by the Hanged Man. Come see why.

Here is my next poem for the Major Arcana. For those of you who are new to my blog, this is a series that I do based on my 9Words Poetry Challenge that I developed. I’ve been doing this for nearly seven years but only began to do this for Tarot as well in 2008.

I take nine words that come to me while looking at the card. For this exercise I am using the Rider-Waite-Smith deck. Then I write a poem that uses those nine words. The poems are Continue reading “Tarot In 9 Words: Hanged Man”

The Tarot Nose: Hermit

The Hermit from Esscentual Alchemy. This is my third review of scents from this marvelous company.

First scent to me is a sharply sweet one. I want to say anise or hazelnut. Something a bit sweet with a bite. I have to say that I’m not fond of this one. It makes me want to go away.

Of course, that makes me laugh since this is the Hermit. One of the attributes of this card is chosen solitude.

On the skin it is muskier, heavier than it was in the bottle. And, strangely, it feels very tingly on my skin. Almost a light burn. I feel like my wrists are being opened up and energy is flowing fast and hot.

After it’s been on my wrists a while, I still feel the slight burn, but the lingering scent is a medium one. Some floral but more wood to me really. If I had to color this, I’d pick chestnut or sienna–just brown. But not a dull brown. No, a deep ruddy brown like a roan horse.

Wow. This one is so hard to peg. It is fading on me really really fast. But, oddly enough, the tingling isn’t. I swear it feels like someone has opened holes in me for air to rush through.

I want to experiment with this on my other chakras (Wrists have chakras in case you didn’t know) to see if I get this same feeling. But I will wait on that.

As much as I loved the other two, this one is not as high on my list. I wouldn’t wear it as a personal scent but I do think I would work with it as a companion to the Hermit card. Maybe on a weekend when I chose to go into seclusion and just work.

It definitely captures the Hermit’s solitude and seemingly prickly exterior for me.

Tarot&Food: The Hermit’s Lemony-Garlicky-Snickety Chicky

Last night I made some chicken. I don’t know about you, but it helps me to cook ahead. I work nights so when I come in from work, I am hungry but tired. I often eat poor choices because of this. I also do this when I know I need to focus on writing. By taking this off my list of things to-do, I can’t use it as an excuse. 🙂

So I chose this for the Hermit since he is the card that reminds us sometimes the path is lonely. Sometimes we need to hole up so that we can focus on what must be done. We have to remove ourselves from the distractions of the world.

This Hermit is from Joanna Powell Colbert’s Gaian Tarot. She says, “The Hermit, the lunar male, retreats from the company of others to replenish his soul in solitude as he communes with the natural world.” If you study this card, you can see several different animals joining him. The Gaian Tarot mass-market edition will be released in September from Llewellyn. You can pre-order the Gaian Tarot from Amazon. Continue reading “Tarot&Food: The Hermit’s Lemony-Garlicky-Snickety Chicky”

Bags, Death & Fire

I’m just starting week four of a five week online class on how to learn the Tarot. I’ve got the most amazing minds in this group. One of them asked what was in the Fool’s Bag. It created an intriguing discussion on our class loop about whether it was empty or full.

One person proposed that it was all 78 cards and the Fool’s journey was to learn how to use them.

So I asked this question: What is in my Fool’s bag?.

The premise behind the question is that this would be things I need to address, acknowledge or work with right now.

I pulled three cards. Continue reading “Bags, Death & Fire”

Musings On The Fool’s Journey: The Fool Meets The Hermit

The Fool put the house and the lady and the lion behind him as he lead his dog down the dusty path. The sun high above him warmed his back so he kicked up his heels.

“C’mon slowpoke! Let us find this Hermit and find out if he has this Will I am told by the Magician I need.”

Barking excitedly his little white dog raced past him chasing a butterfly into a field. The Fool laughed with sheer delight as he joined his dog in the tall green grass.

“Well this is nice, isn’t it. Let us lie here for a while, Continue reading “Musings On The Fool’s Journey: The Fool Meets The Hermit”