The Hermit in 7 decks
The same card as 7 decks draw it, five and a half centuries apart. What stays the same is the card’s core; what changes is where a reading can find something new. The meanings are written for the Rider–Waite–Smith picture; the descriptions here are of each deck’s own.
Side by side
Choose any two decks and read the pictures against each other.
Pamela Colman Smith, 1909
An old man in a grey hooded cloak stands alone on a snowy peak, head bowed, holding up a lantern in which a six-pointed star glows. His other hand rests on a tall staff. Below and behind him the mountains fall away into darkness. He is not looking at the lantern; he is lighting the way for whoever comes next.
Lequart, Paris, 19th century
Numbered VIIII and titled L'HERMITE, an old bearded man with grey hair holds up a red lantern in one hand and grips a pale staff with the other. He wears a red robe under a heavy yellow cloak and a blue hood that hangs behind him. A patch of ground shows at the lower left.
Rider–Waite–Smith
Pamela Colman Smith, 1909
An old man in a grey hooded cloak stands alone on a snowy peak, head bowed, holding up a lantern in which a six-pointed star glows. His other hand rests on a tall staff. Below and behind him the mountains fall away into darkness. He is not looking at the lantern; he is lighting the way for whoever comes next.
Tarot de Marseille
Lequart, Paris, 19th century
Numbered VIIII and titled L'HERMITE, an old bearded man with grey hair holds up a red lantern in one hand and grips a pale staff with the other. He wears a red robe under a heavy yellow cloak and a blue hood that hangs behind him. A patch of ground shows at the lower left.
Tarot de Viéville
Jacques Viéville, c. 1650
Numbered XI, a grey-bearded old man in a long red cloak with a yellow hood stands facing left. His raised right hand lifts a fold of yellow cloth and his left gathers a dark cloth hanging to the ground; no lantern or staff appears.
Visconti-Sforza
Bonifacio Bembo, c. 1450
An old man with a long white beard walks forward in a deep blue robe with a gold hem and a broad gold-banded hat. He holds up an hourglass in his right hand and leans on a long thin staff in his left. He wears red boots and stands on green grass before a low fence and tooled gold.
In the Visconti-Sforza deck the number cards show only their suit symbols, and the trumps are unnamed and unnumbered.
Sola Busca
c. 1491
A bearded old man wearing a spiked crown kneels on one knee, gazing upward, a long sceptre resting on his shoulder. He wears purple with a red drape across his lap, and a shield stands behind him with a blue object on the ground. The name FALCO is at the top and VIIII at the right.
Sola Busca trumps are named figures matched to the standard trumps by number only.
Oswald Wirth
Oswald Wirth, 1889
A white-bearded old man in a long brown hooded cloak lined with blue walks to the left, holding up a green and yellow lantern and leaning on a jointed yellow staff. A small red snake rises beside the foot of the staff. Below are a numeral 9, L'ERMITE and the Hebrew letter teth. The top of the card has a faint stain.
Soimoi
Mike Koz, 2025
A hooded old man with a long white beard climbs a stone path on a mountainside at night, raising a glowing oil lantern in his right hand and leaning on a wooden staff. He wears dark layered robes and carries a pack with a pole across his back. A red fox sits on a rock beside him, and tall pines, a distant stone lantern and starlit peaks surround him.