The Year of the Hermit
The Hermit shines a bright light within. It is a card that calls for self-reflection, for inner wisdom, and for spiritual growth. These are the concepts we are going to come back to again and again in 2025 because this is a year of The Hermit. Are you ready for some soul-searching?! I certainly am, but that’s kind of the name of the game around these tarot haunts, so that should come as no surprise.
The way tarot year cards work in numerology is quite simple: add up the numbers of the current year and that end product is the corresponding number for the tarot card of the year. So here’s how we do it for the year 2025:
2 + 0 + 2 + 5 = 9
Card 9 is The Hermit in the tarot deck.
Viola!
It’s fun and interesting to keep the message of that tarot year card close to your awareness as the year unfolds. This sparks insight into how the themes of that card are showing up throughout the year and also helps you learn more about tarot and numerology. I’m always looking for opportunities to develop my tarot wisdom and a year of The Hermit is definitely one of those years during which esoteric knowledge can be nurtured and harvested.
Here are five ways that the energy of The Hermit can manifest in 2025:
The Hermit card from the Wild Unknown tarot deck.
1. Retreat
The Hermit is commonly known as a person in retreat. Here is the devote disciple heading off into the wilderness alone to set up camp in a woodsy cabin or even a cave. In solitude The Hermit can be completely dedicated to a spiritual quest, one that takes place on the inner plane. Isolation creates the circumstances for growth to occur.
It is unlikely that we are all setting off into the wilds this year on a hermetic retreat. The woods would be full! It wouldn’t work! More to the point, we each have responsibilities and activities in the modern world that we need to attend to. Still, there is space for alone time that you can make for yourself during 2025. It could be a routine walk by yourself, a solitary meditation practice with the door closed, or some other private time to step away and just be with yourself. There are major benefits that can be derived from taking time for yourself.
The other side of the Hermit energy is a tendency to cut yourself off from the world. When things get tough, you cross your arms and shut your eyes to outside circumstances. It can be too hard to be present when things get difficult. It shakes you to your core and the discomfort is unbearable. Notice when and how your desire to isolate hardens you and prevents you from being part of this world. Retreat is beautiful and nourishing, but it is not an escape from reality.
The Hermit from the Shadowscapes tarot deck.
2. Soul Searching
One of those beautiful products of retreat is the ability to search the soul. We all need time to tend to our inner heart, to ask ourselves what we really want out of life, to explore our values. When you give yourself time alone, you can ask yourself what really matters to you in life. What do you want to create, become, do, transform, or allow? Do you believe that you are here in this world for a purpose? Do you know what that purpose is?
During a Hermit year, your soul may reveal to you a new path or direction. When you are quiet and listen, you hear that your soul is leading you onward towards an unknown that is more aligned with your true self. This is the quest for truth, for authenticity, for whole self expression. The Hermit seeks meaning. You won’t be content this year unless you are figuring out the why behind how the world works and how you fit into it.
Let the search be deep but also light. There is only so much we can uncover or know at each stage of our lives. Be persistent, but also allow for sweeping generalizations and half glimpses of the truth. There is no one right way to explore the soul or meaning of life. There is no one answer to the meaning of life. Remember, that ultimately the truth may be unknowable. But what is enough for now?
The Hermit card from the Meraki tarot deck.
3. Inner Wisdom
After we search our souls we hopefully come upon inner wisdom. There is a core knowledge within the self, often associated with The High Priestess. This is the inherent knowing that we are born with. The Hermit combines that intrinsic knowing with the wisdom of our actions in the world to create a personal philosophy or creed. This is the alchemy of truth that we sense and the truth that we acquire through our accumulate experiences. This is why it is important to retreat but to also be active in our daily lives.
Inner wisdom allows you to play a vital role in the world, but also act with a certain amount of detachment. This is best called equanimity- a state of mental balance and even mindedness. You can be thrown deeply hurtful or challenging situations and instead of getting mired in the pain of it, you can move forward with compassion and an open heart. Inner wisdom reveals the temporary nature of all situations and circumstances. It may be all consuming at the moment, but things will change. Your ability to be nonreactive to the situation now will help that change come to pass, or at least it won’t create more suffering.
4. Completion
The development of inner wisdom brings the change that closes out a cycle. The number 9 in numerology is a number of completion. We are reaching the last part of a cycle and are ready to finish things up. This is the end of an era. The way things were is no longer viable. We have searched our souls for an inner truth that brought the wisdom to transform. Now it is time to move onto the next level of our lives.
At the beginning of the year, ask yourself what you want to complete in 2025. The Hermit is a spiritual card, so ponder ways that you are ready to grow and let go of that which is keeping you from growth. If you are quiet, do your soul searching, and listen to your inner wisdom, the answers will come to you easily this year. If not, persist. Don’t give up on this chance that the Hermit is offering you to heal, to move on, to complete a cycle. You can hang onto the past, stay here, stay stuck, get left behind. But it is better if you let go.
The Hermit card from the Rider Waite Smith tarot deck.
5. The Old Guard
The Hermit is traditionally depicted in the tarot as a bearded old man, pointing towards the wisdom that comes with old age. But what implications of the status quo does this involve? Does wisdom only come with age? People can get stuck in a rut, caught up in the way things have always been done. We look to those who have done it longest and think they are wise because they are the best at staying to the path that we are all on.
Do we really need any more old, white men leading the way? The path we are on needs to divert, to take a tangent, to find a new course. We can’t keep following the old guard and hoping to go back to a better time when their system “worked”. Who did it work for? Those same old white men. The Hermit asks us to notice systems that aren’t good for us all and search for a new path. We are complete with this time, it is now time to move on.
Let’s wrap up this Year of The Hermit exposé:
The Hermit card from the Spacious Tarot deck.
Ok, there are your five ways that the year of the Hermit can unfold for you in 2025. What did you think? I find it inspiring and useful. I do take time for myself on a daily basis to meditate and search my soul. I know how and where I would like to let go of old patterns and transform. But I get stuck and can’t seem to let the past go. Maybe it will finally happen this year. If I persevere and keep attempting to let go and let go and let go, I will succeed. There certainly doesn’t seem to be any other path forward besides continuing to try!
Remember, when times are tough this year, that The Hermit is a light in the darkness. The world can be a dark place and it certainly feels like dark forces are afoot, trying to steal our light. BUT- let’s not let that happen. Stay shiny. Stay bright. Keep your inner fire aglow. When you get tired, bank the coals, but don’t let yourself be extinguished by the darkness that surrounds us. Ultimately, the energy of The Hermit has your back. Use it wisely!