When you leave the Hermit energy almost all the times you enter, even just for a brief period of time, in the World energy. After all the solitude, the introspection, the wandering alone in the forest of your being, the diving in the cold lakes of your past, you come out of your cocoon with a new curiosity, with an openness to enjoy the mundane world, to meet people, travel, explore, see what's out there. You want to be part of something. You probably don't know what yet but you are willing to find it out. But without hurry. You find curiosity in this part of the journey, but the kind of curiosity that has patience and goes with the flow. Curiosity in the waiting, in not knowing, in wondering what comes next, in the process.
The World signifies the end of a cycle or journey. The Hermit represents a journey inward, towards the unconscious, towards the part of yourself that you keep hidden, that you don't know they are there, that you reject, that you don't understand. The parts of yourself that come to surface without your consent and in trying to hiding them you hurt people, you hurt yourself and it's always a complete disaster. The Hermit is a journey towards discovering those shadowy parts of you, become more aware of them, so when they come up you can act in a way that is healthier and more functional. And with this awareness you fall in love with yourself or at least you stop hating parts of you that are still you and start liking yourself a little more. You feel more whole than you were when you started.
And we find here another meaning of the World's card: wholeness. A sense of being whole, of liking yourself fully. But the World is not a blind adoration of your super powers, it's a celebration of your strengths while you are embracing your weaknesses. It's telling people "This is who I am today. I am doing my best. I am learning. I am aware. Take me as I am."
And since I love poems, and I particularly Love Mary Oliver, I think that this poem fully expresses the Hermit energy turning into the World energy and meeting, somewhere in the middle of the journey, the Strength energy... but that, The Strength, is another story, another article.
