10
The Hermit
| Keyword: Existence |
Formative symbolism: Hermit/Yod is Fool/Aleph in duration, walking in time, in the
darkness, in the shape of a
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| Whereas Aleph (1) is the beat, or pulsation of life-death-life-death, Yod (10) is its projection in temporal continuity. So Yod (in Hebrew: the hand), is the opposite of Aleph, its partner playing against it in the game without which nothing would be. |
[Tarot Index]
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The Hermit: Yod is Aleph: the Fool in disguise. The light is hidden inside the darkness of existence and must be sought in a solitary journey. Yod, 10, is Aleph's partner and projection on the level of existence. They will be reconciled in Qof, 100, and in Qaheen, Qof-Yod-Noun, Cain. Older Tarots portrayed this card as the trump "Time" and the lantern was an hourglass, with the Hermit walking, highlighting Yod's meaning as Aleph in duration, the temporal. Neither image -- hermit or virgin -- suggest the fecundity of Betolah/Virgo or the action of Mercury there in preparing the seed of light. The Hermit begins the existential level of 10 through 90, which receives the archetypal energies of the level above as projections into spacetime/existence. Hence, the Hermit/Yod/Time is not only the Fool/Aleph/Timelessness in existence, but just as World/Bayt is the container for Fool/Aleph, Sun/Kaf is the container of Hermit/Yod. And Justice/Lammed (action) is the controlled movement of Sun/Kaf's (individual/body) response to Hermit/Yod, (in existence) and so on.
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