The Hermit

Upright

Deliberate withdrawal. Not hiding — withdrawal with a purpose, which is a different thing wearing similar clothes. He's holding a lamp, which means he's not lost. He's looking. Sometimes the most useful thing you can do about a situation is to stop consulting everybody about it and go be quiet until you can hear yourself.

Reversed

Isolation that's stopped being useful and become a habit. Or refusing to come back down the mountain — insight hoarded is just a more sophisticated way of avoiding people.

Its correspondence

Virgo — discernment, precision, the willingness to sort the real from the merely loud. Virgo gets mocked as fussy. It's not fussy; it's the sign that actually reads the label. That's what the lamp is for.

How it's usually misread

It's not loneliness, and it's not depression. It's chosen, and choosing is the entire difference.

Knowing the card isn't reading it

Every entry on this site is free, and always will be — meanings are the easy half. The hard half is what a card does in a position, next to another card, for a real question. Learn to Read is the lessons for that, plus a practice partner that critiques your interpretations — $111, once.

Or read this card in your hand: the deck is all 78 drawn the way you see it above.