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Yod and the Hermit: The Tarot Overlay

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Yod and the Hermit: The Tarot Overlay

This path is assigned the tarot trump The Hermit, and the pairing is among the most fitting in the system: the Hermit, the solitary figure with the lamp, the card of withdrawal, inner search and the wisdom found alone, answers to its zodiacal sign Virgo, the sign of solitude, discernment and service, and to the letter Yod, the point of light and the hand that holds the lamp.

The Golden Dawn read the Hermit as the seeker who carries the hidden light of the higher self. The correspondence of letters to trumps was proposed by Eliphas Levi and fixed by the Golden Dawn from 1888, as recorded in Liber 777. The layers must be kept distinct. The path from Chesed to Tiphareth, the letter Yod, and its attribution to Virgo are Jewish in origin, from the Sefer Yetzirah, whereas the identification with the Hermit is Hermetic Qabalah, the Victorian Western esoteric overlay of 1888, no part of the Jewish tradition it drew upon.

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