A Different Take on the Hierophant

Barleywine

In a recent blog post on Auntietarot, author Tony Willis gave some of his views on the Hierophant. After going over the usual religious connotations (and making the interesting comment that he only sees the Hierophant as a "teacher" in an initiatory setting, not in a general sense), he mentioned that "continental gypsies" (who according to Willis had little use for the Catholic liturgical trappings of the card) neatly resolved the often conflicting meanings A.E. Waite cobbled together in The Pictorial Key to the Tarot by simply saying that the Hierophant upright shows "the courage to resist temptation," while reversed it can mean "beware of deceivers and intriguers."

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. In fact, I just had the two paired (Devil upright, Hierophant rx) in a career reading for my son, who is going through a difficult time with his job of the last ten years due to deceptive behavior by his management, to the point that he almost walked out.
 

Nemia

That's fascinating, thank you. As Taurus I'm interested in this card ;-)

I actually like the Hierophant and often read it as tradition and how to find a mature attitude. Neither mindless imitation nor mindless rejection and rebellion. The Hierophant always reminds me a bit of Goethe who said "was du ererbt von deinen Vätern, erwirb es, um es zu besitzen" - "make your heritage your own by earning it" or something like that.

Today, I take this card as encouragement to approach the Hierophant, any Hierophant with healthy critical sense, even if by doing so I myself leave tradition behind. This is the result of an ongoing dialogue I have with this card. I give my loyalty to the Hierophant by knowing WHY I'm loyal.

The aspect of moral courage or cowardice is interesting. I didn't think about that before. It fits into my concept quite well. Thank you.
 

Bonny

Yes, Barleywine, this is great!

I can't tell you how many times I have heard 'hierophant = marriage' and things be reduced to a very skewed perspective of what was really there. It was very confusing because that was a very simplistic but widely adhered to download of the cards meaning.

This makes so much more sense and I will remember it!

Thank-you for passing it on.

Bonny :)
 

Barleywine

Yes, Barleywine, this is great!

I can't tell you how many times I have heard 'hierophant = marriage' and things be reduced to a very skewed perspective of what was really there. It was very confusing because that was a very simplistic but widely adhered to download of the cards meaning.

This makes so much more sense and I will remember it!

Thank-you for passing it on.

Bonny :)

I was thinking about the visual similarities between the Hierophant and the Devil along with the "marriage" meaning of the former, and had the idea maybe not all of the unions the Hierophant officiates over are "matches made in heaven" (which is usually apparent sooner or later).
 

Bonny

I was thinking about the visual similarities between the Hierophant and the Devil along with the "marriage" meaning of the former, and had the idea maybe not all of the unions the Hierophant officiates over are "matches made in heaven" (which is usually apparent sooner or later).

Lol!
So true!

Yes, I have been bridesmaid at a few of those weddings... matches made in some kind of addiction centre where the light of day never brightened their minds as the 'attachment' (more like entrapment) of the intending bride and groom took place.

You are right, lots of similarities there.

...sooner or later
 

Ruby Jewel

In a recent blog post on Auntietarot, author Tony Willis gave some of his views on the Hierophant. After going over the usual religious connotations (and making the interesting comment that he only sees the Hierophant as a "teacher" in an initiatory setting, not in a general sense), he mentioned that "continental gypsies" (who according to Willis had little use for the Catholic liturgical trappings of the card) neatly resolved the often conflicting meanings A.E. Waite cobbled together in The Pictorial Key to the Tarot by simply saying that the Hierophant upright shows "the courage to resist temptation," while reversed it can mean "beware of deceivers and intriguers."

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. In fact, I just had the two paired (Devil upright, Hierophant rx) in a career reading for my son, who is going through a difficult time with his job of the last ten years due to deceptive behavior by his management, to the point that he almost walked out.

Since we moved beyond the Age of Christianity aka, the Age of Pisces, in the middle of the past century, and our collective consciousness is now well into the new Age of Aquarius, the tenet that temptation is something we are obliged to disdain might present an interesting challenge for a tarot reader trying to convince their client of the dire consequences of temptation. If I pull the Hierophant in a client's reading, and attempt to convince them they are being advised to resist all temptation, I'm afraid they'll suggest I commit myself to a nunnery and stay there. Seriously, though, I would love to know a way to interpret this card in a way that it becomes functional in a reading. So far, I draw a blank. I can see the Devil as an archetype of the unconscious, but somehow, the Hierophant makes me think of a simulacrum....form, but no content....neither good nor bad nor indifferent. One thought I have had is to turn the Hierophant into a therapist...
 

Barleywine

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.")
 

DDwarks

How about heritage upright and baggage reversed for 2 sides of the same coin?
 

Barleywine

How about heritage upright and baggage reversed for 2 sides of the same coin?

I kind of like "misplaced sense of superiority" for upright and pontificating "head up arse" for reversed. But that's just my religious disenchantment talking. I'm sure any humble "true believer" would refrain from either flaw. (Now where's Diogenes when I need him . . .)
 

barefootlife

As a Taurus, this appeals to me - I always winced a bit at the association. (Taurus kinda gets a bad rep, man.) Not being of a religious or particularly institutional bent, myself, in my readings it's sort of come around to mean the need to 'go to the source' of traditional learning, so to speak, or to find people one wants to learn from and learn from them, whoever they may be.

Putting it as being contrary to the Devil makes a lot of sense, even from the perspective of my particular definition, since a lot of aspects of the Devil revolve around some element of remaining in a bad situation that one could free themselves from.

In short, I like it.