Meditation With The Hermit

by Yvonne Rathbone
©1998

Tarot Home

Everyday Tarot

Reading Tarot

Deck Reviews

Spreads

Further Study
Hermit Meditation
Reversals
Short Symbol Dictionary
Tarot Timeline
The Wheel
Yin Yang

Notes for recording this script: The pound signs (#) indicate places to pause. More pound signs mean longer pauses.

Close your eyes and get comfortable. Breath in a deep breath, fill up your lungs, hold it, and release. Breath in, filling up the lungs completely, hold it, and breath out completely. Again, breath in, breath in hold it, and release. With each breath, feel yourself relaxing more and more, feel yourself cradled by the earth beneath you. Now relax the muscles in your face, relax any tension around your eyes, letting them just drop closed easily, feel your jaw relax, let it drop a little, now your neck and shoulders, let them drop, they don't have anything to carry right now, your shoulders can just completely relax, relax your arms and hands, feel any tension run down your arms and hands out your fingers and down into the earth, relax your chest, breath evenly, in and out, relax your tummy and your hips, allow your pelvis to open up and relax, feel your legs relax, your knees, your calves, let any remaining tension flow down your legs and out your toes down into the earth, you are completely cradled now, comfortable.

You are standing at the edge of a wheat field facing a cave. Around you, the wheat waves in the gentle evening breeze. You feel the heavy pregnant grains brush against your skin. Behind your the sun is low over the distant mountains. The air is still warm from the day. The air around you is silent. You look at the cave in front of you. It's opening is wide, but not very tall. It is surrounded by Cypress trees. # You step out of the wheat field and walk across the scrub grass to the cave entrance and enter into the dark interior. You turn and watch as the reddened sun sets slowly. # As the sun disappears behind the mountains, you hear someone else approach. An old man enters the cave and in the deepening twilight, you see his monk's robes, his gray hair and his welcoming smile. # He sets down the unlit lantern he carries with him and in silence, takes your hands in his. His hands are old and veined, the skin feels papery. His hands look fragile, but his grip is firm and purposeful. He looks into your eyes and smiles deeply. You can feel his love for you, unconditional and unwavering. He believes in you completely. # # As the darkness approaches, he takes out a flint and lights the lantern. Outside of the cave is blackness now, and the walls inside are illuminated in a warm light. You see hieroglyphics covering the walls, You want to ask what they mean but the Old Man puts his finger to his lips, commanding silence. He takes your hand again and leads you to the back of the cave. There you see a narrow slit in the wall, beyond lies a passageway lit by the lantern. You follow the Old Man into the tunnel. # You are climbing down a narrow passageway. The stone around you is uncut and rough, you watch your step carefully on the uneven ground, placing your feet exactly where the Hermit has. For a long time you travel down into the heart of the earth. # The way twists back and forth. # You lose your sense of what direction you are facing. # The tunnel opens up into a small cave room. The Old Man steps to one side and raises his lantern so that you can see. In the center, a large rock formation rises up from the floor. It looks like the body of a woman with ample breasts and belly. Around her are more rock formations, daughters to the central mother. You look up to the ceiling and see it mirrors the floor with rock icicles hanging down meeting each uprising rock. The air here is cool, but not cold, it feels fresh and it moves. # The Old Man sets his lantern on a shelf of rock. He takes your hand and guides you to the center of the room. He helps you sit down at the base of the central rock. He helps you to get comfortable with your back resting against the smooth cool stone. # When you are settled, he places his hands on your eyes and says, "Close your eyes and see within." # He places his hands on your lips and says, "In silence, listen to the rhythms of the Earth and know you are a part of the pattern." # He places his hands on your heart and says, "Return to your heart and you will learn your true purpose for being here." # You hear him step away and pick up his lantern, in the darkness you hear his footsteps recede and finally you are in silence, alone. # # # In the dark and silence, you feel the stone at your back, you feel the presence of earth holding you. Beneath you the rhythms of the earth pulse. In this womb of safety and love, you sit breathing steadily and slowly, # in and out, # in and out. # You look within yourself and see the same rhythms of the earth in your heartbeat, # the patterns of light in your neurons, # the flow of waters in your blood, # the same rock in your bones. # You become the rock you lean against, a child of the cave. # You look within yourself, deep into the darkness deep into your heart and you see, # you see why you are here... # # # # When you are done, you slowly rise to your feet.Your hands rest a moment on the now warm stone. Love for this earth fills your heart. Give thanks for the gentle guidance and love you have been given. # # You turn and feel your way along the walls of the room until you find the opening back to the surface. You step carefully up the narrow passageway. You find you footsteps effortlessly, you feel guided as you rise up through the twists and turns. It feels like no time at all and you are making that last turn into the upper cave again, into the warm yellow light of the Old Man's lantern. Coming out of the darkness, the once dim lantern now seems so bright. # You look around you at the walls and recognize a glyph. A figure carrying a lantern out of a cave. The Hermit stands and comes towards you. He hands you the lantern. You take it from him and he steps aside. You pass out of the cave with your lantern raised, into the lightening sky of morning.

Now return to your body, comfortable, relaxed, come back to the room, slowly, bringing yourself back to waking, coming up, feeling refreshed and alive, breathing easily, waking up, you are awake and refreshed.