KEYWORDS: Reflection, Introspection, Focus, Permission to Step Away, Mental Health Day, Restorative, Reconnect to Yourself, Mute Notifications, Do Not Disturb Mode, Focus Mode. This card is based on The Hermit Card which is the 9th card in The Major Arcana.

“Art is a way of recognizing oneself.” — Louise Bourgeois

The Seeker is someone who seeks deeper understanding and wisdom. It’s also someone who needs time alone, away from everyone and everything to really go deep. Sound like anyone you know?

It’s ok to withdraw from the outer world so you can reflect and have those insights. This card may be showing up today because you may desperately need some Me Time. Putting your phone in Airplane Mode or Do Not Disturb mode for a few hours may be enough.

Going somewhere by yourself for a half day could be a possibility. Your project might need it, and really benefit from a bit of solitude today. Even if that means going to a cafe and writing in your journal or sketching.

The Seeker does not sit alone in the dark. This card really is about our connection to ourselves. Creative work requires that we give ourselves the solitude we need as people who make things.

Taking this time means you are actively exploring, and sometimes that means patiently waiting for things to come together while you are on a walk, or staring out the window. The Seeker gives themself permission to think and be. When you pay attention to this need, you return to your true self. INSIGHT: The answers you seek are not outside but within you.

WRITING PROMPTS:

1. If you had the chance to do a solo art retreat to a cabin in the woods next week, fully stocked with everything you need, how long would you stay before feeling ready to return to the world?
   

2. Write a list of emotions and adjectives when you think about unplugging completely from social media for a month.
   

PAINTING CREDITS:

Self-Portrait

Vincent van Gogh

St. Remy, France, 1889

57.79 × 44.5 cm (22 3/4 × 17 1/2 in.)

National Gallery, Washington D.C.

Collection of Mr. and Mrs. John Hay Whitney