The Year of the Hermit
Where we go to hear our inner wisdom
Embracing the Hermit
Welcome to 2025 witches. It’s a 9 year in numerology (because 2+0+2+5 = 9) and number 9 rules over our favorite tarot recluse, the Hermit.
Before you freak out about our card of the year and the prospect of packing your bags to live alone on the edge of some pond (unless that’s what’s calling you), let’s understand a bit more about who the Hermit is.
The hermit archetype sits squarely in the crossroads between the mundane and the mystical. They are a person of this earth but also tapped into realms beyond it.
The Hermit takes many forms and is often portrayed as a strange and scary being, someone living so mentally, physically, or spiritually outside mainstream societal values that they left.
The Hermit is also:
The hag in the hut
The monk on the mountain
The witch in the woods
The mystic beyond the mist
The sage in the Sahara
In stories, the Hermit appears when society is ailing and all other “logical” ways to of trying to right wrongs have failed. That’s when our protagonist/hero/main character must leave the safety of what they know to seek a different way of seeing.
If you’re based in the U.S., or in any country whose geopolitical atmosphere is undergoing a societal sea change, the Hermit’s wisdom may be a comfort. In my opinion, the Hermit has arrived just in time.
Keep a light on
The artistic vibe of the Hermit from the Rider-Waite-Smith deck is not exactly, uh, a party.
A white-bearded, robed figure stands atop a snow covered rock. They hold a wooden staff and a lantern to light the path. Snow-peaked mountains claw into the sky in the distance. Everything is shrouded in darkness. Yikes.
Symbolism of the Hermit
The darkness represents the unknown nature of the world and our unconscious.
The mountains are peaks of spiritual enlightenment. Their hight provides both literal and metaphorical perspective on life.
The snow is the cleansing power of nature, especially in moments where the earth lies fallow.
The white beard represents that which can only be learned through time and lived experience.
The robe protects and conceals the Hermit’s true identity, reminding us that our station in life doesn’t matter when we’re in search of universal truths.
The staff is a both tool and act of self support. It’s a reminder that Hermit work requires action and we must strike out on our own path to find self knowing.
The lantern is the inner compass that leads us through darkness. It only emanates enough light to see one step at a time because presence is where we find enlightenment.
Learning to speak in symbols is a big part of our Hermit journey. Hermit work teaches us to see the magical in the mundane and to open to the world around us. Only then do we begin to see a place rife with messages, meaning, connections, and life.
How can you cultivate the eyes of your inner Hermit?
What symbols, signs, and meanings do you think you’ll see?
From Kermit to Hermit
This year, we are being asked to both seek and embody the Hermit by stepping away from what we know and into the dark of what we might learn. There are many paths that lead to our personal peaks of wisdom.
Some themes you may come across as you’re bumping down the lantern-lit road.
Themes
Getting lost to get found: Remembering there is much to be discovered in the moments we feel unmoored.
Entrances and exits: Brining the clarity found in solitude back to the collective.
Endings as beginnings: The nine year is the end of a cycle in numerology, thus outdated patterns, relationships, and mental models will come to an end. What new beginnings will fill the space?
Sightless seeing: Intuitive versus physical seeing. Divine presence as our guiding light amid darkness.
Slowing down in moments of speed: Learning to stand in grounded presence within ourselves when the swirl of the world becomes a little too much (a.k.a. other’s urgency is not Ph
our emergency).
Sacredness through simplicity: Clearing emotional, physical, digital, and mental space to commune with and integrate what makes us feel most at peace and most alive.
Mystical mentors: Finding the teachers, resources, and guidance that help us grow by asking questions instead of providing answers.
Honing your hermitage: A “hermitage” is a hermit’s home. Build a hermitage—a mental, physical, or spiritual place where you can best hear yourself.
Individual intuition vs. collective consciousness: Unpacking the false dichotomy between the individual and the collective. Remembering our intuition is informed by what we’ve learned from the collective, and the collective is informed by each individual’s contribution.
Building your hermitage
Like I mentioned above, every Hermit needs a hermitage—a dwelling, of sorts—to do their contemplating.
This could be a place, practice, or time of day where the buzz of society fades away and you can be, think, and receive whatever thoughts need to come through.
Let’s get to it.
More mystical material
Our Hermit Year: A gorgeous podcast episode about The Hermit Year by
of The Moon Studio. You can also listen on Spotify.“The Social Media Sea Change”: A thought-provoking
piece that makes a great case for why clearing digital space is so important.Calculate your card of the year: Do your personal witch math and see how the energies of your card interplay with the Hermit.
XO
ALTARU TAROT
Despite The Hermit being one of the more familiar major arcana cards (Virgo stellium + human design profile 2/4 haiiii), I’ve just noticed in the Smith Rider Waite, Smith is using a six pointed star as the light in the lantern, which I’m intuiting as a symbol connected to the Hermetic Principle of correspondence:
As above, so below
As within, so without
As the soul, so the universe
…Which connects with Hermit energy *so well.*
Cultivating the quality of an internal landscape to be a light on a mountain takes solitude, fortitude, and bravery.
I really love hermiting. I can get pretty caught up being social even though I really love my introvert moments. This was nice to read because my intuition has been telling me to hermit and to go inwards. I love the bit about how that leads us to truths we can share with the world.