reaching the end

In the misty days of long ago, a group called Moody Blues had a song about "Knights in white satin, never reaching the end."

But that's ridiculous. We all reach the end sooner or later, and that's what this card is about. Today we call him the Hermit, and he carries a lantern which shines the light of knowledge which he has acquired in his solitude.

Originally, however, the lantern was an hourglass, and the various names the card was known by -- Time, the Old Man, and the Hunchback -- all point to the deterioration  everybody who doesn't die young experiences. The age and condition of the figure on all versions of this card are reminiscent of the god Cronos (Saturn), from whom the symbolic content of the image derives.

 The Old Man (Il Vecchio) is also the penultimate image of the first half of the trumps, which include the stations of rank and status in society (trumps I through V), then love and war (VI and VII), two eternal conditions young people everywhere and in all times deal with, and finally the Old Man/Hermit, a difficult situation that is, ironically, the best possible outcome.

The hourglass in the Visconti-Sforza version of Time, shown here, didn't last long, and by 1500, tarot's Old Man was carrying an object in his right hand which can't be identified, but which he holds up like a lantern. In my version, which is a portrait of the Swiss psychoanalyst C.G. Jung, from a photograph taken a few days before his death, I've retained the posture, but brought back the hourglass, nearly spent in this version, which is also a light source.



Click on images for a larger view; photo and tarot card "The Old Man" ©2001, 2012 by Dave B, a.k.a. catboxer.

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