The Hermit. Art by Sam Dow , from The Literary Tarot.
Mary Shelley's Frankenstein
Isaac Marion (Warm Bodies) brings Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein to life in the iconic major arcana card The Hermit. Like Adam, the “monster” created by Victor Frankenstein, the Hermit is on a journey of knowledge, understanding, and self-acceptance, but is destined (or perhaps doomed) to make that journey alone.
“Isaac Marion paired Frankenstein’s monster with the Hermit card, which deals with a search for one’s own self, through solitude, withdrawal, and introspection. Reversed, it’s biting loneliness and the toll that isolation can take. Both are painfully accurate for Frankenstein’s creation, and his search for understanding and answers about who and what he is, while ostracized from the world he at first fears, and then longs for, and then resents.
“This is one of the cards that hews very close to the classic illustration: the Hermit as a figure on a cliff, removed from human society, bearing staff and lantern as he looks out into the night. The creature both stares at the patchwork of his own hand, reflecting on that which makes him so alone and so unwelcome in the city below; and in the broader framing cradles the city itself in his palm, a small, precious source of light and warmth that he wishes to posses but cannot. Both myself and the author who chose the pairing very emphatically wanted to capture the aching loneliness of the creature, a tragic figure who feels deeply and inherently longs for connection, rather than the simple lumbering monstrosity that he’s often portrayed as in pop culture.” —Sam Dow
