Tarot cards tend to have correspondences to animals. According to tarot expert and profoundly wise author T. Susan Chang, such corresponding fauna for The Hermit card, the ninth in the Major Arcana, are the bear, cat, pig, and squirrel. 

I’d like to make a case for the pangolin. 

You might remember this scaly prehistoric-looking mammal from the onset of the pandemic. It made headlines as a possible source for the then-novel coronavirus in 2019. (Don’t worry, the University of Melbourne makes a strong case for why it shouldn’t take the blame.) 

Since, I’ve learned that the pangolin is considered the world’s most trafficked animal. They have broad, artichoke-leaf-like scales made of keratin enrobing them like chainmail — and are prized in some traditional Asian and African medicines. Their defense mechanism is tightening into a ball and pretending they’re not there (relatable!). This, however, makes them tragically easy for humans to snatch up.

Besides these bummer facts, their lives are fascinating. Pangolins are sweet toothless weasels cosplaying as chic pinecones. Scaly cherubs. Armored bug-guzzlers. The pangolin is famously reclusive beyond the first three months of life, which it spends velcroed onto its mother’s tail. (Baby pangolins are referred to as “pango pups”; life can be beautiful sometimes.) 

After, the pangolin goes out into the world, existing as a quiet, shy, solitary nocturnal creature. (They break isolation seasonally to mate.) They’re forever roaming a territory that’s as varied as it gets: grasslands, woodlands, and forests. They almost continuously quest for grub like ants and termites, covering as many as 40 miles at a time. A keen sense of smell acts like a bright beacon towards food. Slinky little tongues, which jut from tapered snouts with startling dexterity, lap up insects with a gluttony so fierce they often grab a bunch of sand and stones in the process. (Relatable!)

Pangolins look plucked from a Mesozoic timeline. Indeed they’ve been around for 80 million years, an ancient being that is, scientifically speaking, in a mysterious category all its own. Some in Africa describe them as mystical. “The genus name Manis come from the Latin word for “ghost” or “underworld,” which may refer to their solitary, nocturnal habits,” says Harvard. Hell yeah.

What’s notable about The Hermit is not that they’re alone. It’s that they’re questing.

Tarot decks often depict The Hermit being led by their lantern across a barren night-soaked expanse. They’re at the tippy-top of mountains, farther than most. The archetype connects to literal self-reliant hermits across time and cultures, who spend long spans seeking spiritual truths. (The word hermit comes from the Greek word erēmitēs, meaning “person of the desert,” reflecting the tradition of going to uninhabited places for meditation.) Like the pangolin occasionally encountering others, those hermits would unite with others seasonally, dispensing wisdom. 

It’s not that The Hermit never interacts with, needs, or loves others. It’s that The Hermit’s deepest well springs from their relationship to self and spirit. Like the pangolin, The Hermit’s ancient way of being is about moving through their world and discovering new nourishments. 

The next time you get The Hermit, ask yourself what richness arises from the quest you’re on. What happens if you foreground the quest itself instead of the thing you’re seeking?

I’ve been creating more mixed-media paintings on glossy paper. The one at the top of this edition was inspired by the Hermit. I incorporated colors that correspond to the sign of Virgo (The Hermit’s corresponding sign). Newsletter subscribers get 15% off any of my art with code FRIEND15.

Reply and tell me what’s most relatable to you about the pangolin. No judgment if you, too, curl up in times of woe.

Thanks for reading!

Cristina

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