The Hermit and the Pendragon / Pure, Male Energy (March Forecast)

This forecast explores deeper meanings of commitment, collaboration, and confrontation, in connection with the Hermit tarot card. The common themes of meditation, solitude, and reflection are incomplete and only scratch the surface of this dynamic Major Arcana card. 

This episode also examines the oracle card the Pendragon (Pure, Male Energy), looking at the latter's role in providing and protecting the balance between vulnerability and strength. I encourage you to reflect on your passions and how these cards can guide your spiritual and personal growth.

Major themes with this episode:

• Commitment, collaboration, and confrontation. 
• Wisdom is not gained overnight but through a lifetime of self-exploration.
• Being committed to unpacking one's lifetime's work and reflecting on the self and the world around.
• The need to trust in one's actions and non-actions, as well as the importance of enforcing sacred spaces for protection and reflection

Research links:
link 1
link 2
link 3

My theme music is by GraveDancer. Check them out on Instagram and listen to their newly dropped music.

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Email me: wolfchildmagick@gmail.com

Transcript

Ashlie McDiarmid: 0:00

Music. Hello there, dear spirit. Thank you so much for tuning in and listening to the Tea and Tombstones podcast. Tea and Tombstones is a platform dedicated to helping you root into nourishment through the haunted darkness and claim your hallowed ground through tarot education, spell crafting, spiritual coaching and nature-based services. My name is Ashlie, the creator and wolf child of Tea and Tombstones, and I welcome you here. Hello there, my dear sweet hauntings. I hope you are well today. Thank you for inviting me into your day, into your life, wherever you may be at this moment.Today's episode is going to be a continuation of the monthly cards for March. The Hermit and the Pendragon (pure male energy) are the cards that we are working with. In this episode, we will follow the previous episodes in exploring the deeper meaning with each card, share the haunted and the hallowed, including similarities or contrasts, and finally, end with some suggestions, some invitations for working with these cards in bringing them into our daily life, as with all of the other monthly card podcast episodes. My goal with these cards, and my goal in pulling monthly cards, or pulling, uh, having cards set aside for each month is I really want to invite in a full spectrum experience for you in working with these cards, and for myself as well. I really want to engage with these cards, invite these cards in in ways that encourages us to step into our spiritual evolution, to meet the haunted and the hallowed as equals, and to really elevate our magical spectrum and to elevate our magical space so that we are guided and moved with intention, with purpose, and we step into a sense of wild reclamation. So grab your tea, your coffee, whatever you are sipping on, and let's start talking about the monthly cards. Beginning with the Hermit, the Hermit is a card that [sic], I should say the images depicted for the Hermit are going to be pretty on the nose. It's usually an elder, a wise one, a sage holding a lantern. Sometimes there is a sense of being in a cave or the surrounding area is, is vacant, is bleak, it's removed from the waking reality of, of our world. The deck that I learned tarot on was the Wild Unknown, and the Hermit in the Wild Unknown [sic] is depicted as a turtle or a tortoise, and he has his legs and his head retreated back into his shell, there's a sense of protection, and the lantern that sits on top of the shell is lighting the darkness, so that there is a sense of illumination. The tortoise or the turtle also speaks to age, speaks to wisdom coming through time and experience. The turtle or the tortoise also speaks to an element of slowness, that when we are working with the Hermit and when we are inviting the Hermit into our daily life, that there is an element of softening our pace, slowing our pace. Some of the key words or key phrases that you will see or read in tarot literature is meditation, solitude, stillness, reflection and isolation, even obviously that is going to come with the name, and I think that those themes are, are valuable. I think that those themes are correct in a sense. However, I will say that I feel that there is an underbelly to the Hermit that does not often get discussed, in my opinion, and again, if you work with any of the tarot cards, or if you disagree with how I , how I work with the cards, or anything like that, that's completely okay. I am not saying that there's anything wrong with those themes, but I think that there is a little bit of glamorization that comes with the Hermit, that when we speak to meditation, stillness, isolation, reflection, even when we speak to those themes, there is weight that comes with that, and we need to be able to go to the underbelly of those themes and see what's really underneath the surface of the water, so that we can fully explore and engage in the invitations and the messages. The Hermit is is an absolutely beautiful card, but I fully believe that it is one of the most challenging within a tarot deck, and I think that what is challenging about the hermit, again, is often reduced to this picturesque idea of what the Hermit stands for on the surface, at the very tip of the iceberg, there is this picture, this picturesque idea of what the Hermit is about and there's so much underneath the water. There's so much underneath the surface to unpack and to work with, to peel back the layers on and as we do that, we can feel very conflicted. We can feel very triggered. At least I have when I have worked with the Hermit. So some of the key themes that I have found in working with the Hermit to be the most accurate is Commitment, Collaboration and Confrontation. So let's start with Commitment. What do I mean when I say the word Commitment in relation to the Hermit? What I mean is this, it's not that we have to reach a certain age, a certain timelin, or a certain threshold in order to gain wisdom. We have to be committed to engaging with the self. We have to be committed to engaging with the self, peeling back the layers of the self, and really exploring the ways in which we are of this earth, part of the surrounding how we have, how we are, woven into the tapestry of our daily life, and therefore into the tapestry of each day, each life, and all of the surrounding tapestries that accompany ours. It's really about being committed to unpacking a lifetime's worth of work over a lifetime. It's not about one day waking up and reaching enlightenment. It's, it's about really being committed to seeing and to perceiving and to reflecting on the self, reflecting on this world, reflecting on all the microcosms and how they contribute to the macrocosm. That's what I mean when I say Commitment. It's about finding and forging this bond with yourself and with your daily life and with the daily life of everything around you and the world as a whole in a more full and aware and awake way. In a way that is guided more by intention, that is guided more by what it means to really be humble to the day, to be humble to your life, to be humble to the world. It's really about being committed to taking every moment and recognizing that there might be something there that will come up today, tomorrow, on our deathbed, and will provide an element or an illumination for us to become more fully aware and fully awake. So when we talk about one of the key themes with the Hermit, like withdrawing into solitude and creating, or, I should say, retreating to a space that is of ourselves and removed from the external environment, I, I see that I agree with that I and I honor that, yet I think that it's not about the act of retreating into solitude. It's what we do once we are in solitude, that is where the wisdom comes from, for the Hermit to then emerge with a guiding, with the guiding light, to emerge with a sense of being a beacon for others. It's not about just saying, "Okay, I've removed myself. I'm retreating back into the self. I'm retreating into isolation." It's about being committed to showing up to the self and knowing that we're not always gonna find wisdom in in solitude. We're not always going to find answers even in isolation. Yes, we can remove the bias and the energies and the learned, shared coping mechanisms from others, but that doesn't mean that we are going to come to an answer any more fully than if we were part of the external waking world. So it's not about just finding solitude. It's about creating space and committing to the self in order for the solitude to be a teacher, in order for the solitude to be a part of what teaches us how to be. When we speak on commitment, it's also not about just finding and answering and uncovering all of these unknowns. It's about recognizing that we are wrong at times, that we have to call ourselves out at times and call ourselves, you know, call ourselves out for the ways in which we have been part of, the systems that we are now trying to retreat from. We have to be aware of both the spirit and the human. I would say that the Hermit is about gaining wisdom and insight and uncovering these deeper or more esoteric truths, but it's really about recognizing the ways in which we have been of service and the ways that we have also been in the way of truth. How are we of service to truth, and how have we been in the way of truth? How that's really where I'm I speak to and I mentioned and use the word Commitment, because this isn't something that just happens. Again, it's it's going to take a lifetime, and that is also recognizing that the world that we live in doesn't always allow for that, for that complete and total isolation, for that complete and total retreat into solitude, so we have to have a little grace and work with the space that we have, where we can, and how we can, and being committed to maybe opening that space a little more, creating more of a space for the retreat into solitude to be more of service. It's not about just finding some dark corner of the world and just sitting there and uncovering all of these esoteric truths and and never coming back out into the world. It's really about standing up for what the solitude is meant to provide, and that's meant to provide grace. It's meant to provide teachings and guidance, and then offering that back out into the world and recognizing how we have also committed to the systems that that caused us to retreat in the first place. I hope that this concept of Commitment makes sense as being deeper than the sense of meditation, or solitude, or reflection, or isolation. I hope that the that the keyword commitment awakens a little bit maybe more within working with the Hermit, because I know that, at least for me, it absolutely has that when I kept trying to just work with the card on the surface, when I would pull the hermit in a tarot reading for myself, or in my daily pull, I'd be like, "Okay, well, you know, I'm meant to, you know, focus on myself today." And I was like, you know, I don't really think that it's just that. I think it's that I'm committed to the process of living. I'm committed to the process of being, and I'm committed to recognizing where my sacred sovereignty overlaps with the communal, collective energies. How do I need to release, reject, or disown teachings or guidance that society has placed on me willingly or unwillingly, and how do I step into my sovereign space and recognize all of the faculties within me, all of the microcosms within me that contribute to the billions and millions of microcosms that exist in the great macrocosm of this earth. I also mentioned the key word of Collaboration, and this really just goes back to what I just said about seeing the overlap. When we speak to the Hermit, I, when I speak to the Hermit, at least, I see collaboration being key, because if we just retreat into sacred solitude, if we retreat into isolation, and into stillness, and into reflection, but we do not work with and collaborate with those energies in order to construct, and to move, and to shift, and to shift the depth of this communal waking energy, then, in my opinion, the Hermit isn't it's a very passive energy, and I think that all of the tarot is active. I think all of the tarot is inviting us into some kind of threshold, into some kind of work or message to consider. In working with the Hermit, I I recognize that I want the Hermit to be active even in stillness. I want the Hermit to be active even in retreating into sacred solitude. That as we retreat into the depths of ourself, and we uncover both the the monsters and the treasures and the darkness within, we can see where the overlap is to the waking reality, so in a sense, is there ever full and complete retreat into isolation, because we are part of ... we're part of this world, and because we're part of this world, there is overlap, even in the moments when we are in sacred solitude, we bring with us the totality of ourselves, and in so doing, we bring the totalities of interconnection to the waking external reality. If we can shift some of the energies and focus on Commitment, as I said, and then also Collaboration, I think that that gives purpose to the retreat when we can collaborate with all of the depths within and what we find within our own deep, dark unknowables. When we can mine a little bit more out of the caverns of ourself, we can collaborate with the solitude to create grace and ease for the mining of the caverns of the selves to happen a little bit more we can therefore Collaborate and Contribute and take part in the waking external realities when we emerge back into them, when we emerge back into the communal interconnection, into that big tapestry that we are really staking our claim and saying that this is what I bring, and it is better, it is shifted. It is part of this process, and that process is me. That Commitment and Collaboration allow us to be more in awareness and alignment with what we bring to the totality of ourselves and what we bring to the interconnected tapestry of community and the world. It's very hard. That's a lot of energy, and just in just a few simple keywords that they carry a lot of energy with them. I also see with collaboration that we are willing to see beyond the waking reality, and this is where I do think that the the themes of meditation and stillness and isolation are... they're not incorrect, there's just more to them, but when we Collaborate with the solitude, when we Collaborate with our retreat itself, and allow grace and ease to open the the door within, we can see beyond the waking reality. We can reject these, these bills of goods that are just sold to us, that we know are not true. We again, we can be in in service to truth, and say, I see beyond this. I see beyond what I have been fed, but really recognizing that through collaboration with the retreat itself, we can Collaborate and shift the communal self with more purpose, with more guidance, with more energy, and this theme of Collaboration also includes collaborating with both the past and the present in order to shift the future. Again, speaking back to that, seeing beyond the waking realities, that when we collaborate with the past and the present, we can shift and guide the future more forcefully or more purposefully into a space that is more in alignment with truth, that is more in alignment with the wisdom, that we have attained, that is more in alignment with the wisdom that we impart onto the world and leave as part of our legacy, and that is part of the legacies of others wisdoms So, when working with the Hermit, I think it's important as well. and vital even in looking at Collaboration, is even the small ways that we collaborate with ourselves. How do we set ourselves up to step into that commitment? How do we collaborate with others so that our life, our truth, and the wisdom that we hold can be more fully imparted into the future. What gifts do we bring in the space of solitude that we can then impart to the inter the interconnective tapestry? I definitely see the theme of Collaboration as a way to bring forth the wisdom, as a way to bring forth the life force and the life energy that is obtained when we step into solitude. So again, it's not that solitude or isolation or retreat are incorrect words or terms when speaking about the Hermit, but it's there's just so much more to unpack there. When we speak to Collaboration and Commitment, speaking to one of the most, I think, beautiful forms or beautiful messages or invitations that comes with the Hermit, and that is the bringer of the life force, bringer of this life energy, that is not convenient to a lot of people, because, again, it is work. It is all about shifting and collaborating and committing to go through the process over and over again, even when we feel triggered and we feel challenged, committing to show up for the self and to mine for the treasures that are within the deep caverns of our being. When we Commit to that and we Collaborate with the self and with the interconnected layers of energies of what surrounds us, we're really bringing forward this life energy, this life force, this awareness that life is not in a way meant to be convenient, that where the sweet things are in life is where often the challenges are, and it's also yet where it may be the most simple, and that leads me to my final keyword that I mentioned at the beginning of the podcast, which was Confrontation. This may seem like an out of the ballpark keyword, or to use with the Hermit, whose energy seemed to be very straightforward, seem to be very lovely, and they are, however, when we speak, when I was speaking to the glamorization of the Hermit, and only seeing the tip of the iceberg, or only seeing the only seeing the small portion, or seeing this archetypal image of what accompanies the Hermit, there's so much that is left unnoticed. There is so much that is left unattended to, and I use Confrontation as a word to describe the Hermit, because I think it is in this way that we truly see the element of what work is required with the Hermit. I'm gonna digress for just a second, but it, [sic] There is a purpose to this story. But a few days ago, I was in a yoga class with my cherished friend Kara, who is creating a new type of yoga space, where she is facilitating yoga spaces, and we come into communal energy, through meditation, through chanting, and through warming up with the body, and then we move into more of a personal, private, or individual yoga practice so that we can attend to our own needs as yoga practitioners, and we're not just following the asanas, the poses, and the flow of an instructor, and I love this form of a facilitated yoga space because it accompanies the themes that I see so beautifully within the Hermit. That there is this communal interconnection of elevating the energy, but there is also this need to tap into what is within your personal need, what is within your particular need, seeing where your sovereign yoga practices forces you to recognize what your yoga practice should, should be, and not just following the standard flow and following the leader, so to speak. So we went through the, she set up the practice, and we went through our communal waking up the body, raising awareness to the spirit and to the internal faculties. And then we shifted into our own personal yoga practice, and one of the intentions that she had set at the beginning of the class was to really call attention to the breath and really paying attention to why we inhale on a certain pose, and why we exhale on another pose. And really trying to become more aware of the why with the breath in these postures, not just following the breath, being aware of the breath, and going through the meditation and then into the personal yoga practice, I really started to find myself getting very, very triggered[sic] when we were sitting in the meditation, it's this beautiful space, it's this beautiful practice. She's one of my most cherished people in my life, and I'm sitting there wanting to take in all of the glorious medicine of this space and I was thinking about Netflix, and then I was like, "why am I thinking about Netflix?" And the more that I thought about it, the more I was getting triggered by it. But the fact that I was able to call out and bring awareness to the fact that I was getting triggered is truly what meditation is. Meditation is often given the dialog of just being a way to lessen stress and to find peace of mind, and in reality, at least for me, I find meditation to be one of the most triggering activities that I do. I still try to do it on a fairly regular basis, because it is important that we step into that Hermit energy of meditating and cultivating awareness of the self, but I find it triggering, because again, we bring the totality of our whole beings to the meditation. So when I was in the meditation, in this yoga class, I was bringing the whole totality of myself, and subconsciously, I, I was really carrying a lot of attention to a new series that I wanted to watch, and that's one of the most inconsequential things ever, what I watch on Netflix, or what I don't watch on Netflix, and yet it's part of it, was part of my being in that moment. That's where meditation is, that is where true meditation is, is that it's seeing and being aware to everything that is coming into the space with you in a meditation and sitting in that discomfort, breathing into that discomfort, and acknowledging it, bowing to it, being humble to it. And again, that is not easy. Like that whole practice, I was just triggered. I was like, starting to get mad because I was like, why? Like, my rational brain knows that I shouldn't be thinking about Netflix right now, but for whatever reason, that was what was sprouting within my, within my internal faculties, and so it's a in a way, it's just about surrendering to that and just naming it as a thought, and then if it keeps coming up, you just keep naming it. And you could just keep naming it as thinking, thinking, thinking, okay, thinking, thinking about, thinking about Netflix. So it's, it's, it's really not just this beautiful, picturesque peace of mind, vacancy of everything, one with the universe. And the ones who have found that have been so removed from society, have been so removed from the external world that there was really nothing to to focus on other than the internal self, and even then it was, it's something that most people will never attain. We can certainly enjoy our meditation practices, but meditation is not it's not just about finding enlightenment every time we sit down to meditate. And the reason that I bring that up, the reason that I digressed on that little story, was because I find that to be where a lot of the challenges with the Hermit that when we step into this space of retreat and isolation, we're still bringing with us the whole totality of all that we are, all that we carry within our bodies, within our spirits. We bring with us our past and how our past is woven into the past of so many other peoples and places and memories. So when we sit down into the space of isolation and into a tree, and when we press pause on the external world, we are still bringing in so much energy, and if we are cultivating and committing to the solitude and collaborating with the solitude, I would say, more often than not, it's gonna bring up thoughts or feelings or situations that feel uncomfortable, because there is so much to be uncomfortable about in this world. Unfortunately, it is not easy to live in this world. It is not easy to be in this world, and again, as someone of privilege, I am granted so many more opportunities and so many more doors open and leniencies are given through toxic, systemic, oppressive systems like white supremacy, and yet it's still it's still hard to to show up in this world. It's still hard to show up for the self. So, I say that knowing that I have privilege, and I say that knowing that my heart is someone else's absolute blessing, but it's still this triggering moment within the Hermit that when we show up to the self, when we are committed to collaborating with the self, it's really going into the dark spaces within ourselves, and I say dark more as unknown. I don't mean like shadow work. I mean more of like, just really cultivating and calling forward that which needs to be heard, which needs a witness within us that's really hard. And like I said more often, I would say more times than not, it's going to feel uncomfortable. It's going to feel... it's going to at times, maybe even feel unbearable. It's going to bring up so many things, because we bring so much with us wherever we go. It's almost impossible to not and that's why I use the word Confrontation that went in regard to the Hermit, because when we really cultivate and call in this space, we are confronting ourselves in a very beautiful and intimate, but also kind of in a brutal way. We are confronting ourselves in our complete truth, and that doesn't mean that it is once we do it, we can never back out of it, that we can never check out and just be in our human bodies. We absolutely can. But when we step into the hermit energy, and when we use the energies that are coming with the hermit, it can feel brutal. It can feel like the door is being slammed on us, or that everything we knew we don't know anymore, and we doubt and we question, and that's completely normal, and I would say that's also one of the most beautiful parts of, of the Hermit. And I would say that that is maybe the hallowed part of the hermit, is that the Hermit is such a human card. It's such a spiritual card, the name the energies obviously speak to spiritual sustenance, spiritual support, and stepping into into the inner realm of everything that we are, so that we can bring forth wisdom and bring forth that life energy, and yet it is such a human card as well because when we look at our internal faculties, when we look at our structures and everything that we are carrying with us, when we step into that space, we also see all of the times that we have healed old wounds by stepping into that space, we see the scars of the times that we've done this before. We see the ways that we've adapted from, from the same process in different times before. So, we see the spiritual aspect of it, and yet we see the human aspect that we keep confronting the self, and if we're committed to it, it's going to feel uncomfortable. It's going to hurt at times. It's going to be triggering, and that's something that we have to deal with. That's something that we may have to heal or confront or acknowledge or be a witness to, and then we get to see the human side of that, where we carry, we carry that something else that we carry within our bodies. It's something else that we carry within us to the next time we show up to this energy, or to the next time that this energy calls out to us. So, I would say that's one of the most beautiful parts of the human of the hermit, and maybe like the hallowed part, that on one end of the spectrum, when looking into our internal faculties, we can really reveal the repairs and the adaptations and the and the inner workings of everything that has brought us to this point, and that's so incredibly that's so challenging, But at the same time, it's so intricate, it's so unique, it's so gorgeous and glorious. The Haunted aspect, I would say, is, again, it's a little bit one in the same, I would say, with this card, and that's why I I've devoted so much time to just breaking down these three key words from the hermit, because the the the hallowed part of it is also the haunted part of it. And that is, again, the the confrontation is totally fine, to to check out, to take baby steps, to simply dip the toes in. There is nowhere in Tarot literature that says that when we pull this card, we have to show up with 100% energy. Sometimes we can't do that again. We don't live in a space where some of the energies of the hermit allow us to fully envelope ourselves in completely we have to keep one, you know, we have to keep some of our of our body above water so that we can handle all of the daily and mundane tasks that are in front of us, or all of the other important and needed tasks that bring excitement and their own wisdom. But the confronting is where it can feel very it can feel very triggering, and it can feel like we're really in that haunted aspect with the hermit when we step into the self and we are just completely overwhelmed by some of the things that come forward that there is, and there's no telling, that's the other thing is, there's no telling when something's going to be come forth and just be a little bit uncomfortable, or when Something's gonna almost knock the air out of you, and again, it's just committing to show up and to do it regardless, committing to unlearn, to go back to the roots, go back to the foundation, again and again and again, so that every time we step out of that space, we are a Little bit more merged with the light, with the adaptation of the seeking of this world that calls in the most beautiful and hallowed aspects of of the hermit and of all things. So yeah, that's the hermit. So now let's talk about the pen dragon. Pure male energy from the Oracle of the Dragon Fae from the guidebook. There were a few other titles listed in relation to the pen Dragon, and they were the hunter, the sage, the Father, the provider or the protector. Immediately, we're seeing a commonality between these two cards off the bat, with the reference to the sage and a reference to wisdom. Both of these cards really speak to using wisdom as needed. With the Pendragon, wisdom may be used to provide, but it may also be used to protect. So it may be used almost as a weapon at some point. Whereas with the hermit, wisdom is used to to collaborate with the energies and to associate the self into the seeking of a more shifted world, a more guided world, a more, I would say, a more spiritual world, or you could just say a more intentional, whatever you want to put in there, because it's unique to to you when working with the hermit energy. So I would say shifting to a more spiritual world. And so it's a little bit more of a guiding road map in relation to the hermit when speaking about wisdom. But both of these cards have the element of wisdom within them. When I was doing my research on the Pendragon, I discovered, and I will have all of the links in the show notes, I discovered that the term Pendragon was actually given to King Uther. I think I'm saying that name, right. Who was the father of King Arthur. So King Arthur's last name was Pendragon, and this name was given to King Uther. This website says that he acquired the epithet Pendragon when he witnessed a portentous dragon shaped comet, which occurred at the time of of the death of his brother, ambroseius, and ordered the construction of two gold dragons, one of which is used as his battle standard. Another website goes on to say that as an epithet, Pendragon can be interpreted as something like foremost leader, Chief war leader, or chief of the warriors. This website also states that he commanded the king's forces in Ireland when with Merlin. He acquired the Giants ring as a memorial to the dead of the night of the Long Knives. Later, it was Uther who was victorious over the rebellious King paskin of welt. And where I'm not even going to try to pronounce that last part, basically, he was a fierce leader, and then when he when his brother died, he ascended to the throne and was chief war leader in his own right. So what to take from that energy? And some of the notes that I have was that when we look to cultivating and calling in energies and collaborating with energies, we cannot shy away from the chief dragon that is within us, that we have to include the elements of the chief Dragon, or the chief male energy within us, because when we bring in that energy, we create a sense of wholeness. When we disown this part of ourself or shun this part of ourself, we kind of we create a sense of aloneness within the self. We are more exposed. There's weakening, and we're more able to be easily wounded. There is a need to trust in our actions and to trust also in our non actions. When we step into a space of retreat or solitude or isolation, we need to trust that what will come forward is what needs to come forward. And if no, if nothing comes forward, no answers are gained, and if we are confronted, then that is its own teacher, that is its own leader, and we need to trust that that is what needs to be worked with. We need we we also need to trust that our strength and our fight precedes love and play. So sometimes, when we look to the sense of confrontation or collaborating or isolating or retreating or reflecting, there is an element of needing to also be an enforcer to that space. We need to enforce the blessings of that space to be protected and the accompaniment of ourself within that space also means that we enforce others to not be part of it unless we let them. This is where, again, the chief dragon can tend to come in that when we reflect on what is sacred, and when we take time to reflect on what is sacred, and we allow the chief dragon energy within us to be. And enforcer to be this, to create this wholeness and to use the strength within us to enforce that space more fully. We're really doing that as a testament to what is sacred, what we love, what we cherish, and to the ways in which we wish to play and imagine in this world with the past and the present in order to move into a more shifted into a more guided future. The Pendragon also speaks to receiving that which our internal strength and our internal fight wishes to give us and wishes to put out into the external world when we look to what is within our personal strengths, what is our personal fight? What is, what are the ways that we need to protect and show up for ourself and for this world? Because we are a part of this world, we also need to receive the blessings that come with that, that even though it's hard and even though it's exhausting to exert that enforcing energy at times, we also need to be in reception to the blessing of what it means to be part of this world when We take the ownership, or when we take the ownership of being part of this world, being part of a community, being part of a family, and we cultivate our strength and our fight to provide and protect for those spaces, we also need to be in the reception of The blessing of what those spaces give as as motivation, as a continued reminder of what is so beautiful in this world and what is worth putting this enforcing energy out there to to protect the Pendragon also speaks to a fierce exterior protecting a beating heart. This speaks to me so much as a Scorpio moon. I know all about fierce exteriors and underneath, it is raw, it is visceral. It is vulnerable as hell. And I think this is where the Pendragon and the hermit can be incredibly of service, but they can also really shine a light on the ways in which we we could be led astray into toxic coping mechanisms, having too fierce of an exterior or retreating too much into solitude. Neither of these are of service. There needs to be a balance of vulnerability, and there needs to be a balance of letting that vulnerability be visible. So I would say that these two are again challenges that come with these cards that it's we need to have that fierce exterior to protect our beating heart. We need to take those moments to retreat into the into the self, to collaborate and commit to humbling ourselves, to the macrocosm that houses us and yet we also need to be vulnerable in the external world too. We need to be vulnerable in the spaces where we are seen by by strangers, by yourself and yeah, just by our very actions. Another thing that I was talking about in this yoga class, we were talking about how it's weird to speak aloud to like do like chanting or OMS in yoga, even when we are by yourself, and it feels really vulnerable, because just the act of speaking aloud is vulnerable, even though there's no one there to hear us, even when it's just our cats, you know, sitting there watching us while we do yoga or whatever, it can feel vulnerable just to speak aloud. And so even with ourselves, we have exteriors, we have walls, and the Pendragon and the hermit speak to and they speak beautifully to how we can be of service to to others, to those we care about, to causes and to the world and to ourselves. But it can also speak to the ways in which we build up walls and push and create and rely on toxic coping mechanisms in order to handle to handle stressors that we need to let what is raw and visceral within us also be seen as well, because that is a part of our of our truth, that is a part of what is within us, and it also needs to be put out there in the right time and in the right space. Obviously, we don't want to be doing that with people that would just take advantage of us or use our precious gift in order to just suit their own agenda or their own needs. But we definitely want to make sure that we are speaking or COVID. Activating the vulnerability within us to be part of that external tapestry. The Pendragon speaks to true power and true fight comes from internal passion, and this is very similar to the hermit as well, that when we look to actions and choices, it's really about what is the internal drive when we feel the need to step into that intimate collaboration, when we with the self, we are choosing and acting upon the passion within to create that intimacy with the self. When we're working with the Pendragon and we need to be in that enforcer, Chief dragon role we are cultivating what is within us that we are passionate about and what we love as well. So even though they are a little different, that the hermit is more internally focused, where the Pendragon is more externally focused, they are both being driven by these internal forces, these internal passions, the hermit is more of a surrender and a stillness, where the Pendragon is more about using strength to build and protect. Both are incredibly active cards, again, active in choosing and in action, and both shape the internal and the external to guide each other. So in working with these cards, I would say, first, really see what commitment, collaboration and confrontation mean to you within the self. What does it mean to step into those into those themes, with yourself. What does it mean to be an enforcer and to provide and protect for yourself? What wisdom do you have in this very moment that you are using to cultivate and call on what is sacred within you? What is your internal truth? These are just some very basic questions, and these are just some ways to just some things to start thinking about with these cards. Finally, I would say that in working with these cards, really tap into, what are your What are you passionate about? What in this world, of this world are you passionate about? And how are you showing up for that passion, for that part of you that is precious and pure, because those are the areas that need your service and your alignment the most. And by utilizing and calling on the hermit, you can create that intimacy and then emerge back into the sacred space more fully, more in alignment, more in more with wisdom, more with guidance. And the same thing with the Pendragon, by seeing what you are passionate about and what you are speaking to calling on and protecting and providing for really, really speaks to your strengths. It speaks to the fight within you that is built on from imagination and pure play, which is so beautiful. And I think that is where I wish to end this podcast today. I wanted to keep it a little bit shorter, and I feel like I got out what I needed to say. I really hope that these podcast episodes of the monthly cards are of service for you. 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