The Hierophant Card
The Hierophant can be a bit of a dry card in a reading, but as I have been deepening my astrological knowledge alongside my tarot practice, it has come to be a card that I associate with similar themes to the 9th House in astrology. Those topics being spirituality & religion, higher education, and foreign travel in the sense of the broadening of perspective that occurs through travelling to an entirely new locale.
The Thoth deck Hierophant (L) and the Smith-Waite/Rider Hierophant (R)
I was looking for a quote that might relate to the symbolism of the Hierophant, so I searched for “quotes about keys” or something along those lines. I perused a few and came upon this one, which I like because it goes with the ideas I’d like to convey when talking about the Hierophant:
“Belief is the magic key that unlocks your dreams.”
-Orrin Woodward
Of course, my next step was to do my due diligence and google this character before I used this quote in my writing. My search pinged a Wikipedia article section subtitled “Pyramid scheme allegations”. Seems like this person sells motivation to sell juice?
Whatever. This is not a blog post about him! This is a blog post about the Hierophant, but I included this little segue because I think that it includes a good lesson when thinking about Hierophant themes, discernment is KEY. More about that later.
There are so many parallels to be drawn between the Hierophant and other cards in the early part of the Major Arcana. The Hierophant and the High Priestess are oft called the Pope and the Papess. These two holy figures are keepers of esoteric knowledge but where they differ is in how they conceal or reveal said knowledge. The High Priestess is often depicted holding a rolled-up scroll or a closed book. She is alone in a temple with a veil that covers either her or the mysteries behind her. In contrast, the Hierophant is often shown with two of his acolytes the temple and the keys of knowledge are often somewhere in the image.
The High Priestess, the Emperor, and the Hermit cards from the Smith-Waite/Rider tarot deck
Another parallel that is useful, is the contrast between the Hierophant and the Emperor. One is a spiritual leader and the other is a warrior king, but they both represent authority of divine provenance.
And yet another foil for the Hierophant is the Hermit, the wandering mystic who finds or becomes a teacher in out-of-the-way places, whereas the Hierophant is always linked to the institution or the establishment.
So, we know who the Hierophant is not. He is not the Lunar-led, intuitive High Priestess. He is not the fiery, controlling, and power-seeking Emperor. He is not the sagely, humble, and reserved Hermit. Who is the Hierophant?
In The Library of Esoterica: Tarot, Jessica Hundley describes the Hierophant as, “teacher and seer, philosopher and poet. He sees the validity in knowledge and asks for intimate understanding of both the outer world and the meditative subconscious. He is orthodox in his approach — his study, formal. He symbolises structure, institutions, and the core values of learning. … He insists that all knowledge gained, must be shared.”
“All knowledge gained, must be shared. ”
The Hierophant and the 9 of Cups from the Mary-El Tarot (probably one of the more provocative versions of the Hierophant I have seen!)
If knowledge is power, the Hierophant seeks to give it away to those who seek it, to those who submit to initiation. And this is where discernment comes back in. When we choose to become students, it is increasingly important to be able to judge not only the character of our teachers but also of their intentions and those of the institutions they serve, or choose not to serve. And vice versa, a mentor must wisely choose their apprentice, because they will be carrying on their lineage in whatever tradition.
The Hierophant is not a “take what resonates and leave the rest behind” kind of spiritual teacher. The Hierophant is about buying in completely and doing all of the steps necessary to keep levelling up within the spiritual system or order. This can also apply to education. When you apply to university you write a letter of intent & you typically have to put down a monetary deposit to save your seat. This is to show your commitment to the program. The higher ups in the bureaucracy of the university want people to graduate because it reflects well on them and you go on to be a shining example of the quality of the education that they can provide for other prospective students. And yes, of course, this brings us back to discernment.
What is it worth to you to achieve your goals? How much are you willing to “put down” before you’ve even started on the path? Often, this isn’t just money but years of your life and huge portions of your brain & heart-space. How consistent and disciplined can you be, in pursuit of your goal? This brings me back to the quote I included at the beginning: “Belief is the magic key that unlocks your dreams.” I would argue that if your dream is spiritual enlightenment, or a PhD in philosophy, or success in business, that belief is simply not going to be enough. Belief and a monetary buy-in to a pyramid scheme juice empire might be enough for Woodward to sell you his multi-level marketing dream (nightmare), but in reality, consistent effort and stubborn desire is what makes dreams come true.
Taurus is the zodiac sign often associated with the Hierophant, and what other sign knows consistent effort and stubborn desire better? Venus is the planetary ruler of the sign Taurus. Venus is the planet of love, luxury, art, relating, and all green & growing things. And now I will quote the inimitable Pallas K. Augustine, “Venus is always the answer.”
For this pendant’s imagery I chose the five-petaled flower-star. It is a reference to this trump’s numerical order as the 5th numbered card in the major arcana, as well as to the cycles of Venus (which you can learn more about here, at Pallas’ site). The 5 points on the star are also a reference to Da Vinci’s Vitruvian Man and the idea that underlying the beauty of nature is an inherent order in all things. You can also see the star-man on the chest of the Thoth Hierophant, pictured above.
In Seventy-Eight Degrees of Wisdom, Rachel Pollack says of the keys, “In the BOTA version of the Hierophant … the crossed keys at the Hierophant’s feet are gold and silver, representing the outer and inner ways, the sun and moon, the Magician and the High Priestess, which the doctrine teaches us to combine. In the Rider pack both keys are gold, indicating that the dark side is hidden from those who follow the outer doctrine.” My keys are consistent effort and stubborn desire.
On the reverse of the pendant is the triple cross and three interlocking circles, “emblematic of the idea of the triad”(Pollack, 2007). Recall, if you will, the Hierophant and his two acolytes in the temple. Also, throw in a little Hermes “thrice-crowned” Trismegistus for good measure. Maybe sprinkle a little Christian Holy Trinity if you so wish…
A final note: If you enjoyed the winding, sometimes nonsensical styling of this blog post, you can thank my natally combust and retrograde Mercury. What would I do without them?! But really, I struggled so much to write this post — it took me 10 months! Over many sessions and accidental deletions, I persisted! Stubborn desire and semi-consistent effort (LOL) brought you this masterpiece (I’m clearly joking here) of threads and digressions. I don’t even know if it makes sense at all! But I carry on! I have a few more cards to catch up on and I am working away at those in a similar fashion. I will leave you with another passage from Rachel Pollack’s actual masterpiece, Seventy-Eight Degrees of Wisdom, which I think is great advice about discernment in these times of conspiracy-theorising and earth-flattening:
“Reversed, the card means unorthodoxy, especially mental — forming original ideas. It can also, however, mean gullibility and this idea suggests another virtue of the card when it is the right way up. A society builds its intellectual traditions over hundreds of years. Those who accept that tradition receive from it a standard by which to judge new ideas and information. Those who reject it must find their own ways and can easily get lost in superficial ideas. There are many people who, having given up the dogma forced on them as children, fall into some new dogma, a cult or some extremist political group, just as rigid and perhaps more shallow. Having rejected tradition they have not really rejected the Hierophant. They have not accepted the responsibility of truly finding their own way.”
Bibliography
Hundley, J. (2020). Library of Esoterica: Tarot. Köln, GmbH: Taschen.
Pollack, R. (2007). Seventy eight degrees of wisdom. San Francisco, CA: Red Wheel/Weiser.
