The Hermit

Dirt power couple Terry Nguyen and Evan Grillon wonder if the past is even past.

This post is part of the Summer of Bibliomancy, an editorial collaboration with Moonlight. As part of the Summer of Bibliomancy, we’ll also be launching an interactive Dirt x Moonlight tarot deck, coming soon.

Terry: Do you believe in fate?

Evan: I sort of think of fate as a train bearing down on me, and I’m strapped to the tracks. Thank you, but I’ve got enough metaphysical commitments already! 

T: I intended that to be more of a yes or no question. 

I do recall you asking if it was a full moon the other day. When I said it was a full moon in Capricorn, you responded, “That explains a lot of things.” Now I’ve been told people are making stock portfolio predictions based on the stars. Don’t tell me…

E: (evasively) I don’t have a good history with the stock market.

T: I’m very grateful for your previous capital losses, which worked to the benefit of our tax return. But do hermits file taxes? 

E: We should ask Thoreau. He was a model citizen in many ways—refusing to fund a war through his taxes, etc. But do you believe in fate?

T: I do. I knew we were meant to be together. The Tarot has always been on our side. 

I have the utmost confidence in our latest reading, although I have no clue whether the cards are trying to convince us to move or to stay.

E: That’s nice! Have the cards ever told you I was a hermit, too?

T: When we first started talking, I pulled the Emperor card whenever I thought of you. That framed you in a very regal light. 

I don’t think the Hermit card is about you; it’s our shared burden in New York, though it suits you much better than me. I simply must be out and about.

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E: I’d rather be the Hermit than the Emperor. Too much responsibility. Hermits don’t have to wear clothes, but when the Emperor has no clothes… that’s a problem. It’s not so bad to be a hermit. Thoreau was a hermit. Walden Pond, etc. Although his mother did his laundry, if I remember correctly. 

What I want to know is why I can’t be the Magician with his Hermitage in the Sun.

T: The bicoastal dream. It must mean something that we got the Sun card, unless the cards have their own regional preferences… Believe it or not, some decks are more willful than others. 

E: Wouldn’t put it past them. I’m agnostic about willful cards.

T: Maybe I’m just projecting.

E: Which brings us to Hollywood. I would like to move to California just to write for the movies. Also, the sun is bigger over there.

T: I hope that’ll resolve my chronic Vitamin D deficiency. I always think a move will fix me, you know. Maybe I should pull some cards about the cards to test your fickle theory of fate. 

E:  We could get a Russian nesting doll situation going, and keep pulling cards on the cards that were pulled about the cards that were pulled?

T: (struggles to shuffle) What do you want the cards to tell us? 

E: Honestly, after the initial reading, I want the cards to tell us we should stay in NYC. I like it here! There’s even a bar called The Magician.

T: The cards are certainly stronger in NYC. Plenty more witches and crystals around here. 

(pulls four cards) We got Strength, The Artist, The Hermit (again!), and the Five of Cups. I’m starting to get the sense that maybe you are the Hermit. 

E: I’m fine with that. To paraphrase a friend, nothing makes me want a beer like doing something.

T: I like the Strength card. There’s a lady with a lion, and it reminds me of our dog. 

The Artist card is unique to this deck I own, and I suppose we both are “artists,” so this is a positive affirmation. But the Five of Cups is…loaded.

E: I think we have more than five cups in the kitchen…

What the hell is a Five of Cups? (looking it up) Oh, so you can’t undo the past. That reminds of the Faulkner line, “The past is not dead. It’s not even past.” This is getting ominous fast. We better wrap it up.

T: Depending on your philosophy of time, the past, present, and future could already exist. 

E: In which case, there would be fate. I don’t know if that’s comforting or not anymore. Oh well. ☀️