One of the qualities I admire most in a person can best be described as one who is quietly effective. The reward comes from doing the job and doing it well. No other praise, accolades or recognition is necessary to experience a sense of fulfillment.
That is one of the qualities I see when I merge Strength and The Hermit.
The spread I created this evening based on these two cards, I call The Strong, Silent Type. (Hold up cards.) The questions I wrote are not meant to refer to either card specifically, but to both of them in a kind of synthesis of the two. For me, on the journey of emergence, Strength frees us of the addictions of our lower nature to prepare us for the spiritual enlightenment given to us by the Hermit.
In general, I would say, one way to get to know the deck is to choose any two cards in the deck. They don’t have to be sequential or even in the same arcana and ask yourself,
- What do these cards have in common?
- How are they different?
- How can one inform the other?
Quotes: Hermit. Favorite card. Show Bob Place’s Card. Explain. The Hermit, though a teacher, continues to be a student as well.
When I stumble on quotes that remind me of cards in the tarot deck, I write them down. This helps me ground the cards in the world I experience and understand.
Pass out spread and ask students to read the questions.
Assign partners to read in turn for each other.
Allow time at the end of class for feedback.
The Strong, Silent Type – Introduction to the Spread
- Seeing Strength and The Hermit as a hybrid, what would they have to say?
One possibility: Seeking solitude to find inner strength. - This is a way of thinking of the cards as part of a system of connections, a synthesis, rather than individual universes unto themselves.
- Paul Case says in his book, The Tarot, a Key to the Wisdom of the Ages, that “The Tarot is a book disguised as a deck of cards.”
- Strength and The Hermit both express certain kinds of strength: The Strength card, a kind of emotional/physical strength; The Hermit, more of a spiritual strength. Both can be thought of as caretakers from their respective domains. They both express a quality that I admire in others: that of being “quietly effective.” I have called this spread that I have created inspired by these two cards, “The Strong, Silent Type.”
- On the Fool’s journey of emergence, what can Strength teach the Hermit? On the journey of return, what can the Hermit teach Strength?
- The spread is one which you do for yourself?
- Let’s look at the questions in the spread:
Questions 1 and 2 looks inside yourself.
Questions 3 and 4 looks at it out in the world.
Questions 5 and 6 challenges you to take action into the future.
(Shuffle and prepare the deck in your own way. Lay out the cards in the following pattern:
1 3 5
2 4 6
The Spread
- What is the source of my inner strength?
- How can I nurture it within myself?
- How do I share it with others?
- How do I request and accept support from others?
- What have I yet to learn?
- What have I yet to teach?
The Strong Silent Type
A spread created by Scott Martin based on Strength and The Hermit Card
- What is the source of my inner strength?
- How can I nurture it within myself?
- How can I share it with others?
- How do I request and accept support from others?
- What have I yet to learn?
- What have I yet to teach?
Card Layout…
1 3 5
2 4 6