Casting light in the shadows: Margarete Petersen’s The Crone

Now that we’ve moved into Virgo, let’s take a break from the suit of Cups and look at the equivalent of The Hermit (associated with Virgo) in Margarete Petersen’s tarot. She calls her card ‘The Crone’, who appears (to me) to be represented by a woman carved out of black stone...very earthy, befitting the Earth sign of Virgo.  

The Crone IX (trimmed):
© Margarete Petersen Tarot

I can’t see a lantern in her hands, but there’s a massive burst of light above her which, although it leaves her in shadow, does provide illumination. Margarete Petersen writes, in her accompanying book, of “aging as a spiritual journey”, and “listening to the voice of the heart” so the traditional values of The Hermit are certainly at work here.   

I’m not sure I’d ever thought explicitly about the connection to ageing, although the gaining of wisdom through experience has always been there in a more implicit way – the self-containment, inner wisdom, etc.  I think the mutability of Virgo comes through here too - being able to take the wisdom and disseminate it, sharing it.

Drawing on wisdom

Withdraw, contemplate, alone

Listen to the soul.

Margarete Petersen Tarot, AGM-URANIA, 2004