Major Arcana: IX Hermit
Meaning of the card facing you: soul-searching, being alone, introspection, inner guidance
Meaning of the card facing away from you: isolation, withdrawal, loneliness
Professor Severus Snape is the Hermit of this Tarot deck. There were a lot of cards that I matched Snape with. He fits with many different descriptions and meanings of cards, but after going through everything, I decided that Hermit fit Snape the best.
Most people don't see Snape past the idea that he is evil and a Death Eater. If you read the seventh book, it becomes clear that he was more like a double agent, leaning on the side of the Light. He passed them information while being Voldemort's right hand man. I personally find a lot more good than bad about him, but not everyone will agree with me.
Snape spent his life alone. He grew up as an only child with parents who were not the most loving or the most interested in him. He made a friend, Lilly Evans, who was a muggle but had a magical spark that he found out about and tried to explain to her. They were friends but excluded Lily's older sister and left her very very very resentful of the magical word and its people. At school, Lily was her only friend aside from the Slytherins that he felt he had to be close with in order to protect himself. But their friendship was strained. After a few years and a very public humiliation, they stopped being friends and Snape was left feeling more hatred towards the Marauders than ever before. In a state of complete hatred and almost (in my opinion) desperation for something to belong to, Snape joined the Death Eaters and immediately regretted his decision when he learned that he would be the reason that Lily, the love of his life, would be hurt. When Voldemort ignored his plees of leaving the girl alone, Snape knew he had to do something to fix things. This is introspection He saw the darkness that was inside himself and realized why he needed to change his ways. He had to find a way to 'save' Lily Evans ne Potter now that he had failed her. He went to Dumbledore for guidance and found an open and forgiving mind.
Ove the years he gained Dumbledore's trust and he began to trust Dumbledore as well. But there were things that went wrong. Dumbledore asked Snape to keep an eye out for Harry but Snape resented Harry for his father rather than caring about him for his mother. In Harry's fifth year when Harry needed Dumbledore and was given Snape as the only option, things did not go well. Dumbledore also did not trust Snape with all the information that he needed. Snape realized that all the time that he had spent trying his hardest through the hatred to watch out for Harry, the hours of torture he endured and was forced to put on others because of Voldemort, the masks he had to wear, the people he had to ally himself with and those he had to hurt were for nothing, because Harry had to die.
Snape died alone. Though Harry physically was in the room with him as he died, Snape had no one. At that point in time, Harry had not watched the pensieve and did not understand all the things that Snape had done for him. He couldn't tell Snape that he forgave him or that he was brave or thank him. Snape died without knowing that Harry knew the truth and that is the most alone I think a person can be. He gave up everything and did not know that it amounted to anything.
