The Hermit
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The Marseilles card
The Waite-Smith card
Stage III -Conjunction
The key to this card is the lantern and the newly-established light within it. The lantern is the Merkabah, the Chariot; the light is consciousness inside this new body. The Hermit stands alone on a mountaintop, just as the earlier Emperor did, but now there is a new conscious element present. This new body of light is unable to exist on its own as yet, so the Hermit must “hold” it up. This is the exact situation depicted by Pisces, the zodiacal sign associated with this card. The glyph if Pisces is a straight line connecting two semi-circles, which are traditionally fishes. one fish represents the physical body, and the other the Merkabah body. They are connected “magnetically” as it were, inside the Fool/Hermit, as this new body is not strong enough yet to exist on its own. That is the task of the next stage of the journey.