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The Hierophant

MAJOR ARCANA · V

The Hierophant is card V of the major arcana. Between two pillars sits a religious leader, one hand raised in blessing, with two disciples kneeling before him. Upright, he stands for teaching, tradition and trust; reversed, for empty formality and constraint, or for breaking the mold.

Name and number

Upright meaning

Keywords: teaching, tradition, trust, guidance, belonging

If the Emperor is order in the world, the Hierophant is order in the heart. People kneel before him not to obey power but to seek teaching.

The upright Hierophant stands for learning from teachings and customs that have been handed down: taking the advice of a trusted teacher or mentor, studying at school or for a qualification, carefully following an established method. It also stands for supporting one another within family, community or an organization. It often appears around promises made in society, such as marriage or contracts.

Reversed meaning

Keywords: empty formality, constraint, breaking the mold, over-reliance

The reversed Hierophant is read in two directions.

One is teaching and rules that have become mere form and tie people down: following precedent without thinking, leaning too much on titles or common sense, swallowing whole what someone tells you. The other is breaking the old mold yourself: stepping off the set path to look for your own way. Which applies depends on whether it comes from feeling stifled or from wanting freedom.

What the picture shows

• The triple crown: its three tiers are said to stand for rule over three worlds: heaven, earth and the underworld, or body, mind and soul.
• The hand of blessing: two raised fingers point to both the seen and the unseen world.
• The triple-cross staff: a sign of the authority of teaching.
• The two kneeling disciples: those who will receive the teaching and pass it on.
• The two crossed keys: the keys of Saint Peter that open the gate of heaven, standing for the way into hidden wisdom.

History

The Hierophant card originally showed the Pope of Rome himself.

In the fifteenth-century Italian Visconti–Sforza deck, a pope in the triple crown sits on a throne: the other supreme authority alongside the Emperor. In the seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Tarot of Marseille he is called Le Pape, with two tonsured clerics before him.

Putting the head of the Church on a playing card sometimes met resistance, however. In some regions, decks were made that replaced the Pope and the Popess with Jupiter and Juno from Roman mythology.

Waite, who designed the Rider–Waite–Smith deck, named the card "the Hierophant," the title of the high priest who revealed sacred things in the ancient Greek mysteries of Eleusis. It was redrawn as a card not of the pope of one religion, but of traditional teaching and the role of linking people with the divine.

Correspondences

Previous and next cards

• Previous: 4 The Emperor
• Next: 6 The Lovers
• The major arcana

Lucky colors for The Hierophant