MS-0019 · The Holding · card 5 of 7
The Anchorite
Nothing holds him in but the choice he makes again every morning, and every morning he stays.
- Element
- Earth
- Tense
- Habitual
- The hand
- That could not release
The card
He leans through the single window of a cell with no door, forearms on the sill, hands folded and closed, giving counsel to a woman on the road. The window is wide and low and he is already halfway out of it — nothing holds him but the decision he makes again each morning. An unlit lamp sits on the sill between them, and the ground outside is worn bare by everyone who has stood there. This card is the second man at an opening: the first could not accept, and this one declines.
To sit with
What do you keep choosing every morning without noticing it's a choice?
Whom does your staying serve now?
Related cards
ThreshingThe card before.Blow after blow he breaks the wheat open, and the basket fills without his hand ever closing on it.
CairnThe next card.He keeps adding stones for travellers he will never meet, and always keeps one back against his chest.
BallastThe section's first card.Every stone he lays in the boat steadies it, and every stone makes it harder to lift.