Dodal
L’Ermite · VIIII
A bearded figure in a long cloak raises a lantern at the left edge and holds a staff lower down. The head turns toward the lantern. The robe fills most of the narrow card.
Where does the light fall?
The lamp survives across the designs, while its surroundings change radically. Follow its position, the figure’s gaze and the space that becomes illuminated.
Start with the pictures
L’Ermite · VIIII
Jean Dodal · Lyon, 1701–1715
Open the source image ↗
The Hermit · IX
Pamela Colman Smith · 1922 printing, p. 105
Open the source scan page ↗Notice what changes
Smith
The Hermit · IX
A cloaked figure stands on a height, leaning on a staff and raising a lantern containing a star.
Harris
The Hermit · IX
A hooded figure holds a bright lamp near the centre, sending angular beams across the card. Grain-like forms surround the robe; a coiled serpent and egg-shaped form appear to the left, and a three-headed dog occupies the lower right.
Open Harris’s painting and reference page ↗Now read the authors
Waite’s explanation
Waite presents attained light offered as a beacon. He argues against reading this figure merely as someone still searching for truth, or as an emblem of guarded occult isolation.
Crowley’s explanation
Crowley identifies the lamp’s centre with the Sun.
Is the light being sought, protected, examined or offered—and what in each image supports your answer?
Write one thing you can point to in the image, one interpretation from a named author, and one inference of your own. Keeping the three separate gives you something useful to revisit.
Read the contemporary essay
Gabriel brings the Hermit into a discussion of solitude and inner life. Compare that application with Waite’s explicit account of a light already attained.
Sources and image credits
The Dodal cards are one early-eighteenth-century Marseille witness. The black-and-white Smith plates come from the 1922 Rider reprint, whose title verso lists first publication in 1910. Colours in later editions can differ.
The images shown here are reproduced from public-domain sources, with their original borders and page context.
- Jean Dodal · source record and rights statement ↗
- Pamela Colman Smith · source record and rights statement ↗
Harris’s paintings are linked on their host’s reference pages. Crowley’s text is the separately identified Thelemagick transcription of The Book of Thoth. Neither a modern reproduction nor a transcription replaces examination of the original artwork or edition.