The Hermit Tarot Card – Memphis Flyer

It’s 2025 and our tarot for this year is card number nine — The Hermit. This card invites introspection. Instead of pushing forward, it advocates for a strategic withdrawal, a pause for self-reflection and understanding. The Hermit is about assessing our past choices, finding wisdom, learning more, and sometimes being more reclusive or protective of our energy.

Each suit reflects the meaning of The Hermit card back to us in some way. If we can study and understand the meaning of each of the minor arcana nine cards, we will be able to see the whole picture behind The Hermit. And since study is part of The Hermit card meaning, it feels rather appropriate to do a deep dive.

In tarot, the nine of wands signifies perseverance, resilience, and the determination to push through challenges even when feeling weary or battered by obstacles. The nine of wands is often interpreted as a message to “keep going” and not give up, drawing on inner strength to overcome adversity. After all, you’re at the nine card — you are almost there!

The nine of cups is often called the “wish card,” signifying the fulfillment of desires, achieving goals, and the manifestation of dreams. After a long journey, the nine of cups symbolizes the finding of self-satisfaction. The emotional journey of the cups is starting to come to a close after the volatile ups and downs you faced in the earlier numbers of this suit. You have struggled to find purpose and joy after loss, you have tasted the different things that life offers, and you have left comfort in order to find greater heights. Here, you have found them, and you are indulging yourself as you celebrate this new stage of your life.

The nine of swords signifies a state of anxiety, fear, despair, and overwhelming negative emotions. This card often represents feelings of being consumed by worry, guilt, or past trauma. The suit of swords is concerned with the mind, logic, intelligence, and communication. But somehow the nine of swords was caught on the destructive end of the spectrum, the one which turns inward on itself, and then multiplies and festers. Questions are plaguing you, and you find yourself reciting all the possibilities — all the things that can happen to you. You are haunted by what could be. The nine of swords must begin to understand the process of unresolved issues that has led them to this breaking point.

The nine of pentacles signifies a state of achieved success, financial independence, self-sufficiency, and the ability to enjoy the fruits of your hard work. This card indicates that you have reached a stage in your life where you are confident, independent, and self-sufficient. Through hard work, you are now ready to enjoy money, leisure, and material comfort.

In the major arcana, the four nines correspond with The Hermit. The Hermit’s solitary presence and long grey beard suggest his maturity and understanding. The nines of the minor arcana suits all ask the same questions of themselves. What was it all about? Who am I? Where have I come from? Where am I now? Where do I want to go next and why? The Hermit has seen many cycles come and go. He even resembles Father Time, and his knowledge and wisdom are infinite. What he has learned has not come easy. He advises the four suits that if they have not found the answers they were looking for in their current cycle, they just might in the next. The idea is not to give up, even if what they look back on does not, in their estimation, amount to much. There is no such thing as failure or mistakes, for all is knowledge and experience under The Hermit.

Emily Guenther is a co-owner of The Broom Closet metaphysical shop. She is a Memphis native, professional tarot reader, ordained Pagan clergy, and dog mom.

At the beginning of 2024, I wrote about how to find your personal tarot card for the year. To kick off this new year, I want to discuss the tarot card for 2025. This card is for all of us and is often a summary of what to expect from the year ahead.

If you’d like to find out what your personal tarot card for 2025 is, all you need is your phone. For this exercise, we are only going to focus on the major arcana portion of the tarot deck. Although there are 22 cards, they are numbered 0 to 21. When you do the math to get the number correspondence for your card, you will want a number between 1 and 22. It is impossible to get a 0 when you are adding numerical values higher than 0 together. To compensate for not being able to have 0 as a number, if your final number is 22, then that means The Fool card, card number 0, is your card for the year.

The first thing you will do is add your birth month and day to the current year, 2025. Let’s look at an example. For our example, we’ll use a birthdate of February 10th. You can add 2 (for the month of February) plus 10 (for the day) plus 2025. If you add 2+10+2025, you get 2037. 2037 is much bigger than numbers 1 to 22, so we will need to reduce this number. Next, we will add 2+0+3+7, which gives us 12. Using this method, card number 12 — the Hanged Man card — will be your card for the year.

To find the tarot card that represents 2025, we will do a similar exercise of adding each number for 2025 together. 2+0+2+5=9. When finding your personal tarot card for the year and when finding the tarot card for the collective for the year, we are going to focus on the cards in the major arcana portion of the tarot deck. Card number 9 of the major arcana is The Hermit card. However, if you’d like to get more in-depth, you can also look at the cards of the minor arcana that share the number 9 as well.

2025 marches to a different tarot beat than 2024 did. The card for 2024 was Strength. But 2025 will be ruled by The Hermit, which invites introspection. Instead of pushing forward, this card advocates for a strategic withdrawal, a pause for self-reflection and understanding. This is a fantastic year for study. Deepen your knowledge with books, classes, and lectures. Get a library card. Work closely with a trusted teacher or mentor. It’s also possible you could play that role with others. Share what you know and be open to other ways of looking at the world.

The Hermit card is also a card of taking a step back from the world. This can allow us to gain clarity. Many worked hard in the past year, only to see their goals fall short. Rest is needed. Wise elders will emerge, and the heroes may wear cloaks instead of capes. Many world leaders may retire or step out of the spotlight for other reasons. The fight to preserve wisdom could be intense as institutions such as libraries, schools, and universities come under attack. We must not let history repeat itself, or we could return to a new dark age. The wisest among us have learned from the past and will shine a light on what we need to do to keep moving toward an enlightened future.

And perhaps most poignantly, the number 9 represents the end of a cycle. Certain situations may be ready to wrap up in your life. This will allow space for new things to come into your life. Let go and trust that the universe will sort it out.

The Hermit is associated with Virgo, a sign that knows how to clean, declutter, heal, and serve. 2025 brings an opportunity to clean up after ourselves and others. No matter how big the mess may be, a concentrated effort will clear the slate and lay the groundwork for a fresh start.

Emily Guenther is a co-owner of The Broom Closet metaphysical shop. She is a Memphis native, professional tarot reader, ordained Pagan clergy, and dog mom.