"There is a natural gift that lies behind the behavior of all 2nd lines. We've seen through the 10.2 that this is the Hermit, the necessary side-stepping of behavioral patterns, the need to be alone. Here we have the natural. But one of the things to recognize about being able to be alone and not wanting to be bothered, is that these are beings who carry the 2nd line who are comfortable with themselves. Every place that you look and you see a 2nd line, you can find a comfort factor with oneself. To be able to be alone and be able to be left alone is also an indication of a great deal of creative potential. After all, true mutative processes come outside of influence. And those that carry the 2nd line, the Hermits, those are the ones that stay resolutely outside of influence... Without being confused by the demands of others, without having to deal with problems in harmony. Without having to argue over what are the values of others, simply to be left alone with the integrity of one's own inner harmony and values, these ideals enrich inspiration. Being alone is an important theme of the creative process."
"It's so important to allow the 2nd line being its gift. And its gift is the potential for it to be enriched in its private life, it's need to be reclusive, its need to be the hermit. Obviously those themes are going to stand out if the 2nd line is part of the basic profile itself, however it's also a guide to understanding any hexagram that carries the 2nd line. That 2nd line is going to indicate that--regardless of what the theme is of the hexagram--there is a need to be left alone, there is a need to find the inner harmony and values necessary, and that this is a place where there is a true gift--and not a gift that's there to be projected on others that it's time for it to come out and go on display, but a gift that's there to enrich the creative process, the creative process of the Hermit. Without that creative process, that isolation is something that can be deeply painful and not of value and not rewarding in the most romantic sense of what the individual is: to make a contribution and to be recognized for that contribution to the whole."
~ Ra Uru Hu (The Eight Profiling Gates, 2002)