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…a darkened chamber dominated by a large figure.
We could see that someone had been working here recently; the entrance I had so carefully hidden had been uncovered. I made a note to return as soon as I could and fill in the hole again.
The visitors were so intrigued with the entrance at the bottom of the excavation that they ignored what the figure was trying to tell them.
“Where are the workmen?”
“They must be ahead of us,” I said. “If we hurry we can catch them…I mean catch up with them.”
I herded the group through the door to…
- Images and text copyright 1985 by Christopher Manson
used with permission. [Purchase MAZE from Amazon]
Room Type: LOOP Doors: 9 13 20
Solution Summary: [COLLECTION CURATED BY WHITE Raven. SEE COMMENTS FOR ADDITIONAL SOLUTION PROPOSALS.]
● In the wood in front of the statue is XIII, indicating 13, the correct door. [Independent Credit: vewatkin | White Raven]
● In this room is an obvious spade symbol over door 13 and heart symbol over a locked door, there is also a club next to door 13, and diamond shaped studs on door 13. In a standard deck of playing cards each suit has 13 cards, and the diamonds are embedded in Door 13. [Independent Credit: David G | White Raven]
● The phrase at the bottom of the statue reads “FATA VIAM INVENIENT?” which is Latin for “Fate will find a way?” The statue represents a modification of the hermit card from a tarot deck. [Independent Credit: David Gentile | White Raven] This connection is reinforced by the card suit puzzle. [Credit: Vewatkin] The number of the hermit card is 9. “Fate” refers the fortune telling function of tarot reading. The answer to the question “Fate will find a way?” is obviously no, since the hermit is not holding his lantern, staff-less, and blindfolded. Thus 9 is the wrong choice. [Credit: One For Me | White Raven] Further reinforcing this, the number on tarot cards is in Roman numerals, the correct door is spelled out in Roman numerals as wooden braces holding up the hermit statue.
● The slope of the dirt floor (and piles of dirt in the room at the other end) suggests that the tunnel was dug from the other side. The Guide’s irritation and intention to cover the ‘entrance he had hidden’ suggests that moving from the room at the other end of the tunnel to this one is correct, and therefore taking the tunnel from this end is incorrect. [Credit: Vewatkin]
● The word “figure” in the phrase “…a darkened chamber dominated by a large figure.” if taken numerically refers to the larger of the two numbers in the room 13. Additionally the sign for 13 leans over as if looking down on the smaller figure, 9, reinforcing the metaphor. [Independent Credit: Vewatkin | White Raven]
This is my Fate Vs. Free Will solution and it doesn’t involve a hermit, that I know of.
The statue’s Latin reads, “The fates will find a way?”
If we imagine the room as The Guide remembers it, there is no tunnel- only the door to 13. Since last he was here, though, someone was willful enough to dig themselves a new way. In doing so, they slighted fate (that is, the will of The Guide) and made a new path.
Despite this new interesting tunnel, this other option, the passage ends with “I herded the group through the door to…” The group, despite the digger’s best effort to subvert the will of fate, still acquiesces to the Guide’s (and Fate’s) will. They are herded through the door rather than walking through of their own volition.
Thus, we should also walk through the intended door- door 13.
Our will is nothing.
Alright, a little bit with the statue.
There is a light choice- 13 (fate) and a dark choice 9 (free will). The light choice is illuminated by the same lantern that causes the statue’s hand to cast a shadow finger pointing at the spade- the tool of misguided free-will.
The superstitious black cat and the number 13 may further highlight the fatedness of door 13.
“entrance lighting” vs. “entrancing light” so the lantern is by the exit.
The “fates” i.e. the cards will find a way. The visitors we so “intrigued”/entranced by the hole they missed the “entrance” he looked at.
The artwork is all so different from deck to deck. But they all have a guy in robes with a lantern. Diogenese is something people come up with from the image. But hermit card is supposed to be modeled after him according to some. Other than lantern, number, and robes, he seems pretty free form in the cards. Although, as I said, they all seem to have staves, and he does not.
Let’s go for something simpler. “Looks entrance” “Looks at entrance”
Well, independent of whatever else is going on in the room, I guess the references to card suits serve as some kind of clue that the statue is a figure from a tarot card, although those suits are not the traditional suits associated with tarot cards. (Yeah yeah, go look at wikipedia, I don’t know.) Or, conversely, I guess, the fact that the statue is based on a tarot figure may be an indication that we should be heading to the door with the card suits associated with it.
Anyway, I can’t find a tarot card of the Hermit that looks very much like Manson’s statue. I certainly never would have identified the bugger. Can anyone find a tarot deck where the hermit looks like this guy?
Since I think we can all agree the statue over door 9 is major arcana #9 “The Hermit”, I looked up various depictions of the Hermit but haven’t found any that were blindfolded as this figure seems to be (certainly not in the influential Rider-Waite depiction, for one). Could this be a clue that 9 is the less preferable exit? The Hermit’s associations with introspection and understanding are dashed if the Hermit is blinded (and so, metaphorically, unable to gain new knowledge).
P.S. Sorry if this comment ends up going through multiple times, I think my browser is being mean.
It has the traditional lantern. He has a 7 under him. There are other tarot card things I think. Room 29 I have not revisited yet since 2012, but it has staves. Room 15 has a pentical. Both are tarot suits. I’ve mentioned both the star and the world in connection with room 9. I can’t recall any others except for the probably accidental “chariot” in 7.
No, I don’t believe in card reading. I own two decks, however, mostly because of Maze and a Xena episode in the late 90s. (And well some of the naked gals in the art are OK too, lol).
glowing eyes are part of the puzzle. He does not have a staff like in most pictures. maybe he is reaching for that bat?
I don’t dispute this guy is the Hermit, I just wonder why Manson didn’t draw him to look like any depiction of the Hermit I can find.
Since I think we can all agree the statue over door 9 is major arcana #9 “The Hermit”, I looked up various depictions of the Hermit but haven’t found any that were blindfolded as this figure seems to be (certainly not in the influential Rider-Waite depiction, for one). Could this be a clue that 9 is the less preferable exit? The Hermit’s associations with introspection and understanding are dashed if the Hermit is blinded (and so, metaphorically, unable to gain new knowledge).
P.S. Sorry if this comment has gone through multiple times, I think my browser is being mean.
Ah – You can use the entrance/entrance dual meaning and the direction of his gaze to indicate 13.
This restores the symmetry I thought this room should have. Like room 36, the indicators are nearly completely dual-directional. In 36 you have the shortest path, vs. some good guide information. Similiar here. 13 is shortest, and taking the 27 to 9 route yield good info. BTW – the tarot card for the star either has 7 or 8 points depending on deck and looks like the picture in room 9.
So the gesture in the direction of the spade is dual-directional. The hand and the shadow both point at 27 which has a numerological value of 9. But the entrancing eyes look at the entrance to 13. Balence. Then if you put the whole room together there is information on why the trip through the hole may be valuable.
The bat/cat/at thing is superfluous to the “entrance/entrance/13″ idea, but important to the “light at end of tunnel” idea.
We’re supposed to chance fate with unlucky 13?
Hermits lantern is on 13 side?
Yeah ok ill buy I’m missing something in this room. Still feels a lot like it did in 2012. No real big new insight. Hmmmm….
Hey I saw that today too. Lol. I was going to add “hermit” to list of red herring guides in the prologue perhaps.
Note the tarot cards associated with the exits. 9 it Hermit. So he indicates 9 in a way right there. 13 is death and that does not sound good. And I’m pretty darn iffy on my “cat” indicAtor. So one dual directional indicAtor in the spade and then a couple decent ones for 9 and the room puzzle. So really this room seems to say take door 9, not the shortest path.
David Gentile,
Correct on the hermit and the card number but not the meaning – you’re missing something.
White Raven
“The Hermit has internalized the lessons of life to the point that he is the lesson.”
Alright, who’s been playing around on wikipedia?
vewatkin,
Whoa, that has nothing to do with the solution but that is damn freaky.
So we should not be a hermit and hide in a hole?
The hand of the statue seems to indicate the spade on the ground, but would that be a clue to follow the digging, or the spade over door 13? It seems this room is not going to give a door choice. “Let the fates decide”. And actually we can not go too wrong. We either exit to 13 or we wander around until we get to 13. There are no Trap doors in this area.
Numerology is often practiced in conjunction with tarot cards, and the numerological value of page 27 is 2+7 = 9 which could indicate exit 9. Note that if you follow the finger of the statue or of the shadow, they both indicate the number 27 in the corner.
What about the cat? It is next to the exit to room 13, and both 13 and black cats are considered unlucky. The numerical value of the first two letter of “cat” give us a “3” and a “1” and this is perhaps a weak directional indicator that says exit #13 provides the shortest path from here.
But again we have directional indicators pointing both ways. And while 13 is the best way back to 1, taking the path from here to room 9 is the only way you would state thinking about room 9 in terms of cards, and that can lead to a number of good finds in that room, and that may be why the guide wants to hide this exit.
OK – so the “room puzzle”. We clearly have cards in this room. The spade above 13 seems to be reading, so we have a card reading. The Hermit is clearly labeled with is Tarot card number of 9, so we have tarot cards.
The lantern together with the statues eyes give us “light”. The cat and the bat give us “at”. “Entrance” is in the text twice and the Hermit could be said to be in a trance. Subtract those to get “ent” =”end”, and finally we have the obvious tunnel. So “light at the end of the tunnel”. With the above we should specifically be looking for “tarot card light at the end of the tunnel”. And then we add the sign under the statue. And the “fates” or “card” will find a way. And in fact what we will find in room 9 is a picture that could be tarot card number 17, the star. And 17 will indeed find “a way”, a way to room 45 in the center of the Maze. Also note the guide says that the entrance he had so carefully hidden had been uncovered. He does not mean the hole in the ground. He means the door to 17. So mostly what we have here is a complex version of “Go 17” found on the floor in room 1.
But for those very competent in advanced Maze speak there may be just the tiniest of nuggets more. We have a little bit of text unused. “Work” is repeated. We Also have “catch them” and ‘catch up with them”, which repeat “catch” and “them”. Subtract those two phases and you have “up with”. Combine that with “work” and you have “work with ‘up’”, which is the tiniest help for locating room 29 perhaps, and with knowing what to do there.
This is a rather impractical clue, however, since you probably knew about 17 long before you could figure out this.
As an additional note. Thinking about tarot cards when you get to room 9 and numerology as used in this room could lead you th the “world” card which is the answer to the Maze puzzle. Plus finding “Jack of Spades” is useful for the identity of the guide, and the way out of the Trap.
A variety of elements have been pointed out of value, the spade pointed lazily at by the statue matching with the spade over the door, the identification of the statue. Less certain are the squares on the door being diamonds or the club/baseball bat being an indication of a baseball diamond, both may be true but they are also unnecessary to solve the riddle. Cards on the table (pardon the pun), I would vote yes.
Welcome Wanderer!
The studs on the door to room 13 look like diamonds to me, which could complete the four suites (if the baseball bat is a club) and be pointing in the right direction. Also, there are 13 cards in every suite so that could mean something.
i think those are diamonds. that’s a good find.
You’re totally right. The four suits do point to 13. Well done!
Semi-textually, the fates finding a way points to cards. Luck versus intention (digging a tunnel is an intensive task.)
Naswering my own nystery. If you enter room 9 from 3, you do not get the Tarot connection, and would miss the numerology stuff in 9. And room 9 contains a clue to “the World”, the answer to the whole thing. So that is why the guide might want to block the path from 27 to 9.
Another possibility: Nine contains the torn picture that perhaps provided a clue to the narrator’s identity. (Leastways, if he’s a Greek mythological character.) Could be a reason to keep it buried, I guess, though burying that one doorway doesn’t actually seal off the room. And without that doorway there aren’t 190 doors, so how surprised can he actually be to see it?
I’m sure of the guide identity now – see my prolouge or identity of the guide. I might still be missing something about that painting, however. “R” for ripped and the letter value 18 is a possibility but a stretchy one.
HEre is all I have for 9 now.
I believe the tarot deck and numerology which is often practiced with tarot cards are keys to understanding this room. Room 27 gives us a strong push in this direction (see room 27 description).
We have a blind mouse which should make us think of “Three blind mice”, and we also have “3 bearded men”. These might be interpreted as clues for door 3. But using the numeric values of the letters we have 3+b+m = 18, which indicates the other door. The numerological value of 18 is 9, the number of the room we are in. In reality it hardly matter which door we take, since we are not on the shortest path and both doors are safe, but 18 is the way back to the start from here. Other indicators of “18” might include a “ripped” painting, and “R” is the 18th letter. Also in the doorway we have two “A” words, angel and apple. In the room we have to possible “H” words, “hole” and “hanging”. “A” is the first latter of the alphabet and “H” is the 8th, so there are some more “18”s.
The star on the one picture may be tarot card 17, “The Star”, and may be a hint to try to get to room 17, along the same lines as “Go 17” in room #1.
We might also think about “The World” card, number 21. The numbers of the exits give us 18+3=21, which is a fairly remote connection, but still a possible one. The numerical value of the World card is supposed to be 9, which is the number of this room. So this may be another hint to the final answer to the maze, “The World”.
The text says, “I think we are supposed to think it is a trick, that’s the trick”. And maybe this means that we need to look at the clues that seem to be for 3 but are really for 18.
This is what I have on this room. Mystery to me: why does he want the hole hidden?
We might think the figure here is Diogenes in quest of an honest man with his lantern. Another thought might be based on the quote below the statue, “FATA VIAM INVENIENT?” or “The fates will find a way?” The quote is from Virgil, and Virgil was Dante’s guide through the inferno. But, I think the identity of the statue is actually the hermit from the tarot deck who traditionally carries a lantern. This card is traditionally labeled with a 9, as we see under the statue, and the quote about “fates” can also point to the tarot deck. Additionally we have various suits here, which evolved from the suits used in the tarot deck. We have a spade and a heart above the doors, and we also have a “spade” on the ground and possibly a “club”. It is also, arguably, a bat, which would rhyme with the “cat” picture it is next to. (And as was just suggested gives u a diamond via baseball)
Numerology is often practiced in conjunction with tarot cards, and the numerological value of page 27 is 2+7 = 9, which also indicates the Hermit. The card generally is said to mean, “Meditation, contemplation, and the quest for truth”.
The reference to tarot cards links to room 9, I believe (see that room’s description).
Daedalus is said to have made statues in the maze so realistic that they came to life. So maybe the statue has done the excavation?
What about the cat? It is next to the exit to room 13, and both 13 and black cats are considered unlucky. The numerical value of the first two letter of “cat” give us a “3” and a “1” and this is perhaps a weak directional indicator that says exit #13 provides the shortest path from here.
Or maybe the point of the quote “the fates will find a way” is that both doors reall are equally clued here. Yes, room 13 will get you back to room 1 quicker, but if you take the other path, there are no trap rooms, so you will wander around parts of the loop until you get to 13. Almost the same differnce, maybe.
OK duh. Spade over door 13 could connect with spade for digging. Of course the digging spade could also indicate the hole to 9. Ambiguous.
Interesting about the card suits.
Three things of interest:
1. Only other appearance of a cat is the one that sniffed at the Guide in room four.
2. Fortunato may be entombed in room 39.
3. Justice is blind as is fate. The statue leans left.
What’s oddest about the card symbolism in this room is that there are two spades, both the spade icon over door #13 and the actual spade down in the corner.
While the baseball bat can be taken as our required “club”, I think it might be pulling double duty, since it also conjures up the image of a baseball diamond, thus supplying the last and least obvious suit in the room. Of course, what we’re actually supposed to *do* with this knowledge is another question entirely.
the “figure is trying to tell them” in his shadow finger to go back the way they came (room 20).. sure it’s unlisted, but you’re in the loop now and that’s the way out. the other two options are up to fate (doesn’t matter which you take until you find another way out of the loop)
I think the shadow’s finger is pointing not at the (inaccessible) door, but at the spade beside it, indicating the door to Room 13.
(13 is, in fact, the quickest route back to 1.)
How does the spade indicate 13?
Sorry, I should have made that explicit: There’s a spade over the doorway to Room 13.
I read that the phrase under the statue says, “FATA VIAM INVENIENT” which means “The fates will find a way.” The room also has a heart and a spade over the doors, suggesting gambling. Gambling… fate… something here maybe?