The Hierophant as a Sacred Revealer

Images from Spiral Tarot copyright 1997 by U.S. Games Systems, Inc. Used with persmission.

I have written about the Hierophant a few times over my years as a blogger. Yet, there always seems to be more to say about this multi-faceted Major Arcana card.

I wrote a poem for the Hierophant as part of my 78 Poems Project.

I complained about certain tarot decks that attempt to change the Hierophant in a 2014 blogpost emphatically entitled “Stop Fixing the Hierophant”.

Most recently, I wrote about the Hierophant and its numerological counterpart, Temperance. That was in January, in honor of the fact that 2021 is the year of the Hierophant.

Over the past week the Hierophant appeared in two client readings in deeply appropriate ways; ways that make me appreciate the most traditional interpretations of the Hierophant archetype.

This caused me to begin an ongoing conversation amongst my YouTube channel members, and, of course, to write yet another blogpost about Major Arcana 5, the Hierophant.

The word ‘hierophant’ is Greek in origin. That translates as ‘sacred reveal’.  I have always been struck by the similarity to the word ‘hierarchy’. That similarity is not accidental. ‘Hierarchy’ is also of Greek origin, meaning ‘sacred ruler’.

The Hierophant is Key 5 in the Major Arcana. That places the card in the first seven numbered cards, which I see as the lessons of the physical plane. That means that, to me, cards 1-7, Magician through Chariot, each teach us what we need to know to live well on the planet. When we see these seven cards together as a story, we see our journey as we learn these basic life skills and lessons of human existence.

We know the Hierophant is tricky simply because the card is number Five. In tarot, all the Five (5) cards deal with expansion. That is, moving out of the safety of the comfort zone, breaking out of the confines of what we know, and moving into something more. Before we get to that something more there is a moment of unsurety, of conflict, and of fear. The Hierophant encompasses these processes and feelings.

The Hierophant is related to Taurus, and therefore the element of Earth. Although sacred, the Hierophant is grounded and connected to the earth, and not always in the best way. In this we see the materialism often associated with religious institutions. That Taurus energy can reflect the Hierophant’s stubborn adherence to outmoded traditions.

Archetypally, the Hierophant is the Pope. In Roman Catholicism, the Pope is God’s appointed representative on earth.

In early tarot decks, Major Arcana 5 was literally named ‘The Pope’. In many tarot decks we see the Hierophant in the regalia of Catholic religious hierarchy.

Some modern decks show the Hierophant as a religious leader from other traditions. For example, in World Spirit Tarot the Hierophant is an Incan priest conducting a ritual.

The problem with the Hierophant is the problem with any religious authority. Religious authorities may be loving spiritual mentors, teachers, healers, and guides. Or they may misuse their power, misunderstand their doctrine, and abuse their congregants.

Key 5 in tarot represents the doctrine and dogma as well as those who teach it. Operationally, in a tarot reading, the Hierophant can speak of the ‘priest’ of any ‘church’, or the ‘church’ itself. The Hierophant is both the authority and the doctrine. The Hierophant can represent a doctor, and medicine, or an attorney, and the law.

The Hierophant is the boss. That means the Hierophant can represent a business owner. I often say that the Hierophant who owns a business likes to be the boss. The Hierophant reversed who owns a business doesn’t like having a boss tell them what to do. That subtle energy difference can be quite apparent in readings for entrepreneurs.

This brings me, finally, to the two recent readings in which the Hierophant figured prominently.

The first reading was for a business owner who was vaguely dissatisfied with the way her business was going. I did my usual eleven-card Celtic Cross. In this spread Card Two is the atmosphere around the client. The Crossing Card, or the Challenge Card, is Card Three, and is placed to cross Card Two.

In this reading the Hierophant was reversed in that second position, referencing the atmosphere around the client. The Hierophant was crossed by the Star. I immediately interpreted this as her dissatisfaction in the way her business was going.

As we got a little further into the reading, it became clear that those two cards, the Star crossing the reversed Hierophant, had an additional, more traditional, more hard-hitting and more important interpretation.

My client had been speaking with a friend who had experienced a lot of dogmatic spiritual and financial abuse within institutional structures such as Islam, Catholicism, and some New Age and yoga-based traditions. Every spiritual organization this person had been involved in turned out to be patriarchal, rigid, and personally abusive of her. This had caused my client’s friend to turn away from any possibility of spirituality, and spiritual healing. All of this weighed heavily on my client.

Clearly, the Hierophant reversed was the need to leave all patriarchal abusive traditions behind. The Crossing Card, the Challenge, was the Star. My client and her friend needed true spiritual healing, true connection to grace, and an end to fundamentalist abuse.

In a reading, tarot cards can mean so many different things. It is poignant when a card shows up so clearly and powerfully in a traditional archetypal interpretation.

Just a few days later I was reading for a tarot student who was raised in an oppressive religion. She has left that religion though still dances the fine line with her indoctrinated family. She is now finding spiritual healing and inspiration through tarot reading, Reiki and magic. Obviously, she must hide this from most of her family. Occasionally, she still feels a tug of guilt for abandoning the religion of her family and her childhood.

In this reading, the Hierophant crossed the High Priestess. The meaning was clear. She needs to honor her inner priestess, her inner wisdom, her inner magic, and her intuition. The Hierophant as a crossing card was challenging her to resist the feelings of guilt instilled by the doctrine of her oppressive church and family.

We are in a time in history when many are polarized and divided by their belief systems. Many are indoctrinated in dogma, both spiritual and political, that is illogical and hurtful. It is no wonder the Hierophant is finding his way into some powerful readings. It makes sense that the Star and the High Priestess appeared to challenge the Hierophant. These feminine cards bring the healing that comes with direct and intuitive spiritual connection to Source. They offered needed messages of feminist spiritual empowerment.

The Hierophant is named as the keeper and revealer of sacred truth. Even when he represents a perversion of what is sacred, he is still a sacred revealer, and still points the way to truth.