CARD 9: HAMLET as THE HERMIT
Like the solitary figure seen in the traditional Rider Waite tarot card, our Hermit Hamlet walks a lonely, dark road. Their “lantern” uncovers only the next few steps in front of them, while the dark, impenetrable woods surrounding this single small figure evoke the "undiscovered country" that Hamlet imagines awaiting him after death.
Upright: solitude | hibernation | introspection | retreat | seeking within
Reversed: isolated | avoidant | choice paralysis | withdrawing
When the Fool encounters the Hermit on his journey through the 21 archetypes of the Major Arcana, he has just come through a test of Strength (Card 8) and is about to encounter the precarity of the Wheel of Fortune (Card 10). Now is his moment to shore up his inner self-trust and ensure that when the Wheel starts to turn and things get shaky, he can still hear the voice of his own soul speak.
A NeuroQueer, Non Binary Femme Interpretation of the Prince of Denmark
Hamlet as The Hermit was the first card pairing we landed on as collaborators, inspired initially by Kate's own performance as a NeuroQueer and Femme Non Binary Hamlet in their award-winning short film adaptation of the play's Act V, Scene 2 (in which Horatio attempts to dissuade Hamlet from fighting Laertes). And with the short film's aesthetic and imagery as our inspiration, we immediately knew that our Hamlet would wear a black hoodie and have a look similar to Kate's portrayal.
Kate Andrews as Hamlet in Hamlet, 2024.
In Hamlet's rejection of Ophelia, viewed through a neurodivergent lens, his feigned madness feels more like the early stages of an autistic meltdown than a pure artifice put on for effect.
"I am myself indifferent honest; but yet I could accuse me of such things that it were better my mother had not borne me: I am very proud, revengeful, ambitious, with more offences at my beck than I have thoughts to put them in, imagination to give them shape, or time to act them in. …What should such fellows as I do crawling between earth and heaven? We are arrant knaves all; believe none of us. Go thy ways to a nunnery….be thou as chaste as ice, as pure as snow, thou shalt not escape calumny."
His frantic words highlight the overwhelm, anxiety, intense self criticism and dysregulation which he is experiencing, even as he is attempting to maintain the illusion of control by leaning into the "mad" act, and is pushing away a loving partner out of avoidant coping mechanisms and fear of hurting them.
"I must be cruel only to be kind:
Thus bad begins and worse remains behind."
As NeuroQueer individuals, when we find ourselves on the precipice of meltdown or worse, neurodivergent burnout, the only way to truly recover our sense of self and wellbeing is through rest, regulation and reduced stimuli.
In the play's final Act, Hamlet is encouraged by Horatio to “forestall their repair hither, and say you are not fit” to fight the duel with Laertes. And in that moment, our NeuroQueer femme Hamlet is never going to do anything other than fight, because they cannot allow themselves to be sidelined as "unfit" the way a neuro-conforming, misogynist world has always sought to do to them.
But what if they had been given space and understanding from those around them and from themselves, instead of smacking up against the access barriers and willful misunderstanding of a world that brutally others those who are different? And when Hamlet the "Everyman" is portrayed as Non Binary, Femme and NeuroQueer, this also serves as a reminder that we are all just one disabling event away from that same experience of othering and marginalization that he feels so acutely in the play. As our Kate puts it, "Late Stage Capitalism makes Hamlets of us all".
It is that sacred space to rest, regulate and restore their sense of self which Hamlet sets off to seek in this card, and which offers an alternative and hopeful outcome to the otherwise forgone, tragic end of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark.
Design Starting Point: Inspiration and Influences
Rider Waite Smith Tarot deck
With each card design, we start from the traditional Rider Waite Smith (RWS) deck, which for this card depicts an old man with a long white beard, holding a lit lantern (containing a six sided star) and a staff, on a snow capped mountain. A sparse design, the man's head is bowed and he wears a monk's cowl. The lantern only illuminates a few steps in front of him, and he leans on the staff for support, representing his reliance on his own inner guidance and self mastery. The colors of this image are muted, with the star and the staff the only bright colors.
This inspired some of the posture and elements of the design, with our Hamlet also hooded, also in a dark space, holding an object which illuminates with a bright yellow light a few steps ahead. However, our Hermit is young and gender non conforming, and their lantern is a cell phone flashlight. They are walking through the woods, still seeking the path, where the RWS Hermit has attained a height of self mastery. This reflects the ongoing nature of the process of self reflection and beginning to find your feet on the path to self knowledge.
Archetype Keywords
When we look at the keywords for this card, it is clear that the overall energy is quiet, dark and solitary. This is reflected in the image's simplicity, both the figure of Hamlet themself and also his environment. The introspective nature of his withdrawal and retreat inward is illustrated by the position of the face turned away from the viewer. Hamlet is on their own journey and we as the viewer are simply invited to witness him in it.
The Woods
In our image, Hamlet is setting forth to explore his own fears and relationship to that "undiscover'd country" of his own mortality. Rather than resting on a mountaintop like the RWS Hermit, Hamlet's journey takes them deep into the metaphorical woods. Will he find his way home again? Will we?
But that the dread of something after death,
The undiscover’d country from whose bourn
No traveller returns, puzzles the will
And makes us rather bear those ills we have
Than fly to others that we know not of?
The Lantern
In the representation of the Hermit's Lantern with a smartphone flashlight, we not only tap into the symbolism of the "kindly light" that leads one step at a time but equally the modern-day relationship we as humans navigate with the rise of the perpetually connected but equally disconnecting internet and social media culture. In our image, Hamlet is pulling themself away from the siren song of social media comparison that spends hours taking heavily filtered selfies and measures worth in likes and comments. Instead, they use their phone as a tool for self reflection and illumination of the path ahead, independent of what others may say or think about their choices.
Father Time / "Time is out of joint"
We didn't only reference the RWS traditional tarot images in the artwork. In her research, joell also studied the imagery of another traditional tarot deck, the Visconti Tarot. In this older Italian "tarocchi" deck, the archetype which would later become the Hermit was called "Il Gobbo": The Hunchback, Father Time. In the Visconti image, the old man doesn't carry a lantern – he carries an hourglass. We included a broken (and in the dark, relatively useless) timepiece in our image to evoke this reference and also Hamlet's famous cry that "Time is out of joint".
HAMLET:
What hour now?
HORATIO:
I think it lacks of twelve.
HAMLET:
No, it is struck.
HORATIO:
Indeed? I heard it not: it then draws near the season
Wherein the spirit held his wont to walk.
The sundial rests at midnight, reminding us that here in the solitude we are never fully alone–our ghosts and ancestors are here with us too. It is up to us how we will choose to relate to them. Will we allow them to rule our choices, driving us to despair and overwhelm by the burdens we place upon ourselves to survive as the Other in an unwelcoming world? Or will we find a gentler, more compassionate way to acknowledge those whose legacy we carry, while still making space for our own agency and will to live? Only Father Time will tell.
~ TST ~