Nines
Water 9 
Wood 9 
Air 9
Fire 9 
Earth 9 
Metal 9
IX The HermitNINE
Nine. The last of the single digits and therefor associated with endings...but there are no real endings, are there? We all know that. Nine is part of a cycle, the part where things are about to re-cycle, the part that comes when you stop running to catch your breath (Ten) so that you can get going again (One). Nine is one of a series of three numbers associated with a flow that goes round and round and round again.
When you come to a Nine in any reading, there's the powerful suggestion that you've gone about as far as you can go and still be doing the same thing. There's an ease at Nine of being in the given suit, whatever it is, that brings a comfort level that you are reminded is temporary, because all things are. There is a sense of accomplishment achieved with an underlying tickle that just might be an indication of...boredom? No...not boredom, not really, more the itch, the urge that lies beneath the surface to be back in the game, whatever the game is.
Three is, in many metaphysical cultures, considered to be a magic number so Three times brings a lot of potential magic to the table. Nine, Ten, One - Three times Three. It's the Beginning hidden in the ending, the essence of a suit embodied and the path that seems to about to end before revealing yet another curve.
WATER - Here you are, grabbing a few sips of water from an unexpected creek, sparkling, clear, potable, water that will quite literally become who you are...for a while...then, transformed by the magic of your human form, leave you again, no longer what it once was but still liquid, still water-like, still even referred to as water.
Feelings are like that. They come; they go. And they're never the same upon leaving as they were when they first arrived; they can't be; that's not the nature of feelings. That's not to say that this is always a speedy process because it isn't necessarily, but if you see Water Nine in a reading, count on it, that processing is well under way.
WOOD - Wood Nine, represented by the ancient tree, shaggy, craggy and beautiful in a way that pulls at our hearts, has learned all it can learn about from whatever situation it has found itself in. Wood Nine may be a little tired - personal growth will wear you out sometimes, even when the learning experience was an enjoyable one.
At Wood Nine, self congratulations are in order. A nap may be in order as well.
AIR - Ahhh! Finally. Finally. You got it! You are not your mind. Yo have a mind, of course, and that's often troublesome, but Air None is around to remind you that there's a whole lot bigger picture for you to see than the endless loop you are running in the theater inside your head. It's an invitation to open your eyes and take in more, sometimes it's an invitation to open your eyes and take in anything...anything at all, just to kick start a change of focus or, at the very least, to bring you back to your senses.
When Air cards get up into the highest numbers they are usually indicators that waaaaaay to much mental activity has been going on. When the Mind is in control, Spirit often isn't. Just a reminder.
FIRE - The dying embers of the fire provide a glowing warmth that brings comfort. The sort of inspiration that Fire often brings with it can sometimes be so energetically charged that it sweeps you away, a condition not always conducive to the kind of clear and directed thinking that it can take to bring an inspiration to life. But Fire Nine has settled in. Still bearing enough potential to start something - even something big - Fire Nine brings with it the kind of reliable and constant vision that inspires both commitment and action.
If the element of fire were compared to the ages of a human being then Fire Nine would be the matured, tempered, experienced visionary energy that can come only from many decades of living in the world. Fire Nine is what many of us might be striving to work towards as members of a species that considers itself the embodiment of the Spirit in flesh.
EARTH - Earth Nine has reached the repose one comes to when there is, simply, no more to be done. The goal - something in the material world - has either been reached or surpassed and doing is done. It may prove to be more a time of exhaustion than of a peaceful rest, but it is a stopping point, a place to linger and a time to review.
It may be time, as well, to consider opening to new endeavors.
METAL - Metal, the suit of hanging in there, while not as discomfiting as Air tends to be, always - or perhaps I should say usually - brings with it the responsibility of effort extended. And I say usually because once you've become proficient at the use of will power, the hallmark of the suit, as you obviously have when the 9 shows up, you're already on cruise control. You get it.
The term mastery is one applied to having learned a skill to such an extent that it becomes second mature to you. Nine is a number associated with mastery. It is the mature single digit, gone as high as a single digit can go; it is 3 times 3, magic times magic while staying within the single digits. 9's in the original five suits of the tarot don't carry as much weight as they do in the Asian influenced suits of Wood and Metal because all of the original five suits approach life as something that happens to you, which is the way life used to be viewed in a world where power over was a more influential idea than personal power, the world which spawned the tarot some hundreds of years ago.
Now that we know the role that what-we-think plays in our lives, things are different. This is a different world from the one that generated tarot, a world where we realize that things don't just happen to us, a world where we are asked to take at least some credit - even if it's only to acknowledge our own unconsciousness - for how our lives play out. This is why the suits of Wood and Metal were added to the deck, to bring in, from a far more ancient tradition, one that grew up and grew wise long before the western traditions, the acknowledgement that we can and do affect our own lives by virtue of that which we think and do.
Metal 9 is the card of the master, of the effortless extension of energy towards a goal, of a mental state that has grasped the honored concept that the goal is actually the journey itself.
AETHER - The Hermit -Among students new to the tarot, The Hermit is often misunderstood as someone desiring to hide from others...but it's more complex than that. Nine being the number, as it is, of completed accomplishment, when it hits the suit of Aether it becomes very special indeed, carrying with it the energy of this most elevated element, one that goes beyond the material world we inhabit.
This is the energy of the teacher, the one who has learned what needs to be learned and who has moved into a realm where he or she can now gain as much from contemplation and comparison as from actual life. It's a been there, done that card that brings with it a desire to be useful if needed so the Hermit is not exactly hiding.It is, rather, rendering itself less accessible to the casual seeker who would, in all likelihood, be unprepared for the level of advanced wisdom that the Hermit has to offer.
When this card shows up in a reading, either you have become such a figure (even if only in one aspect of your life) or you are in need of such a figure. The surrounding cards will clarify that for you.
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