A Different Take on the Hierophant

Ruby Jewel

Like everything in tarot, its use in reading would be contextual or situational, not categorical. Its upright meaning here, in keeping with the Taurus association, would seem to be one of stubborn tenacity misconstrued as "moral courage," and reversed could simply mean wavering in one's resolve or sense of commitment.

(BTW, siderealists say that, technically, we won't hit the Age of Aquarius until around 2150, so I think of the New Age assumption that we're already in it as the "Piscean pipe-dream" or the "false Spring.")

Oh those Pisces do love to dream, but Aquarius' penchant for looking to the future no doubt is just as much to blame for the overly-optimistic rationale that having gone through a mere two world wars would have gotten us across that darn cusp; and perhaps Uranus was a tad presumptuous in welcoming us with the gift of the internet prematurely. Sitting up there on the Spring equinox with a 0 degree Pisces rising, dangling my feet in Aquarius' house back there in that predawn morning in 1943, I could have sworn I saw the polar star tip its hat to me .....but, then, maybe it was just pointing to the circus still in front of us as Neptune's watery dream for humanity succumbs to 4,000 years of Saturn's strict rule (Uranus still being just an upstart). I can already hear Neptunes parting song...."You better kiss me, cause you're gonna miss me when I'm gone."

But one cannot argue with a Siderealist, the title, alone, being prohibitive. All of which just invites a new definition for the Hierophant...who may well have been one of those ancient star gazers... until he got assigned to the Vatican to punish those audacious traitors who dared to give into temptation. No doubt the Pope will be relegated to a mid-management position in Saturn's New-Age domain, once it arrives....if he hasn't been already.
 

Rachx

I'd love a new definition for hierophant RubyJewel! I keep pulling it in my love/relationship reading and it scares the bejeezus out of me...."marriage, duty, doing the right thing" I don't like this card at the best of times but in my own love readings it's awful! My fella is a Pisces as well....Maybe I should have gone for an Aquarian [emoji23]
 

Aeon418

These less exalted interpretations make a lot of sense to me since they seem to strengthen my own visual impression that the RWS versions of the Hierophant and Devil card look like opposite sides of the same coin.

I think V and XV they are meant to resemble each other. I suspect the RWS designs are Waite's nod to something Eliphas Levi was trying to communicate without getting himself in trouble.

The Oppositorum.
http://www.propheticexplorer.com/images/levi_large.jpg

Incidentally Crowley's Hierophant goes one step further and has him standing in the characteristic pose of Levi's Baphomet, the Divine Androgyne.
 

Ruby Jewel

I'd love a new definition for hierophant RubyJewel! I keep pulling it in my love/relationship reading and it scares the bejeezus out of me...."marriage, duty, doing the right thing" I don't like this card at the best of times but in my own love readings it's awful! My fella is a Pisces as well....Maybe I should have gone for an Aquarian [emoji23]

OMG, the Hierophant in a love reading, over and over? Sometimes he is seen as the wounded healer, a Taurus. Much depends upon whether the elements work together well...such as fire and air or earth and water. If you are fire married to a Pisces, beware! (lol). The Hierophant, imo, brings to mind a college professor type or someone on a Board of Directors, rather than a demigod of religion. In postmodern terms, he might even be a counter-culture idol, much like an Aquarian might become. My main philosophy in life is "when in doubt, chicken out." When you see one taking a "selfie", I would for sure, run.
 

Rachx

[emoji23]LOL -I'm earthy Virgo so the healer stuff resonates! Dreamer meets healer...but yes I am keeping an eye on that Hierophant, with the Northern English philosophy of "when in doubt do nowt"! X
 

Rachx

Oooh think of the steam with a fire sign! [emoji23]
 

Ruby Jewel

I think V and XV they are meant to resemble each other. I suspect the RWS designs are Waite's nod to something Eliphas Levi was trying to communicate without getting himself in trouble.

The Oppositorum.
http://www.propheticexplorer.com/images/levi_large.jpg

Incidentally Crowley's Hierophant goes one step further and has him standing in the characteristic pose of Levi's Baphomet, the Divine Androgyne.

If one sees good and evil in a dialectical relationship, it would seem to follow that the same relationship would exist between the Pope and Devil. The Devil's right hand shows also a sign...one might consider a sacerdotal act considering that the Devil was once God's right-hand angel, and is, therefore, divine. What is the meaning connected with turning the ring and middle fingers up or down?
 

Ruby Jewel

[emoji23]LOL -I'm earthy Virgo so the healer stuff resonates! Dreamer meets healer...but yes I am keeping an eye on that Hierophant, with the Northern English philosophy of "when in doubt do nowt"! X

Virgo and Pisces are a natural together as I see it. Water and earth mate well to grow a beautiful garden....and opposites do attract. They are astrological opposites...

I think you are getting a little tricky here...is nowt 'now' or 'not'?
 

Rachx

Virgo and Pisces are a natural together as I see it. Water and earth mate well to grow a beautiful garden....and opposites do attract. They are astrological opposites...



I think you are getting a little tricky here...is nowt 'now' or 'not'?



It's Geordie for "nothing"! X love you see the relationship as natural and we could grow a garden. X His friends told me he is "quite choosy" and he has been single for a long time until we met - I read the Hierophant as reflecting that he is looking for Miss Right (ha ha or it is my ego coming in!)