Tarot Journey with Leisa ReFalo

05. The Hierophant

Number: 5
Card Title: The Hierophant
Esoteric Title: Magus of the Eternal Gods
Astrological Atttribution: Taurus
Elemental Attribution: Earth (cold, dry)
Dates & Timing: April 20 to May 20
Hebrew Letter: Vau Hook 6
Color: Red-Orange or Coral
Intelligence: Triumphant Intelligence
Esoteric Function: Hearing
Qabalistic Path: Path 16: 2 Chokmah to 4 Chesed
Translation of Path: The Wisdom of Mercy

Keywords: Divine Wisdom, Explanation, Teaching, Desire + Knowledge (rose and lily), Inner Guide, Spiritual Master, Education, Belief Systems, Spiritual Father, Teacher, Advisor, Establishments, Organizations, Groups, Religion, Teaching, Structures, Groups

Ill-Dignified: Inventive, Originality, Non-conformist, Youth, Inventor, Free Spirit, Open Mind, New Adventures, Foolish exercise of generosity. Susceptibility. Impotence. Vulnerability. Frailty. Unorthodoxy. Renunciation.

Interpretation:
To be ruled by convention. Continuing the process, Ancient Grace. Manifestation of Knowledge. Priest of Mystery School. Spiritual Discipline. Organized Religion. Societies Rules. Wisdom with structure. Search for truth and understanding. Conforms and diligently searches for truth. Position that serves society. The Hierophant (or High Priest) deals with worldly problems. He strives to create harmony and peace in the midst of a crisis. At his best, he is wise and soothing, at his worst, he is an unbending traditionalist.

Reversed Interpretation: Breaking out of convention. Heading in a new direction. Question and grow. New Ventures. Speak your mind. Go with your convictions. New and Refreshing Vibration. Explore new ways of thinking or working. Donâ€™t distort facts to fit beliefs. Delayed ambitions. Break out of old habits. In the negative, societal or group pressure. A run in with authorities. Conflict with a parent or critical figure. A know-it-all. Repressive aspects of a too rigid orthodoxy. Self-righteous morality. Persecutor. Skilled manipulator. Religious prejudice. Religious oppression. A cult leader. Open to new ideas and thought. Do not become overly superstitious. Unconventional. A need to be socially approved and accepted. An extreme conservative person.

Rider-Waite Imagery

A man sits between two gray pillars on a gray throne. He is wearing a red garment and a three tiered papal crown. He his right hand is raised in the symbol of benediction. At his feet are a pair of keys. These are the keys to heaven & hell. The Hierophant is one of the teacher cards (the hermit is the other). The Hierophant is a mentor & guru. He sets up a way and a process for his students to follow. He is the keeper and teacher of oral traditions. The tonsures on the heads of his students show that they have renounced materialist ideals. They are wearing roses & lilies. These represents the two main paths of spirituality. The Rose is the path of passion & devotion to a teacher. The Lily is the path of renunciation and is solitary.

The Pictorial Key to the Tarot by Arthur Edward Waite (1911)

Part I: The Veil and its Symbols

5. The High Priest or Hierophant, called also Spiritual Father, and more commonly and obviously the Pope. It seems even to have been named the Abbot, and then its correspondence, the High Priestess, was the Abbess or Mother of the Convent. Both are arbitrary names. The insignia of the figures are papal, and in such case the High Priestess is and can be only the Church, to whom Pope and priests are married by the spiritual rite of ordination. I think, however, that in its primitive form this card did not represent the Roman Pontiff.
Part II: The Doctrine Behind the Veil

He wears the triple crown and is seated between two pillars, but they are not those of the Temple which is guarded by the High Priestess. In his left hand he holds a sceptre terminating in the triple cross, and with his right hand he gives the well-known ecclesiastical sign which is called that of esotericism, distinguishing between the manifest and concealed part of doctrine. It is noticeable in this connexion that the High Priestess makes no sign. At his feet are the crossed keys, and two priestly ministers in albs kneel before him. He has been usually called the Pope, which is a particular application of the more general office that he symbolizes. He is the ruling power of external religion, as the High Priestess is the prevailing genius of the esoteric, withdrawn power. The proper meanings of this card have suffered woeful admixture from nearly all hands. Grand Orient says truly that the Hierophant is the power of the keys, exoteric orthodox doctrine, and the outer side of the life which leads to the doctrine; but he is certainly not the prince of occult doctrine, as another commentator has suggested.

He is rather the summa totius theologiÃ¦, when it has passed into the utmost rigidity of expression; but he symbolizes also all things that are righteous and sacred on the manifest side. As such, he is the channel of grace belonging to the world of institution as distinct from that of Nature, and he is the leader of salvation for the human race at large. He is the order and the head of the recognized hierarchy, which is the reflection of another and greater hierarchic order; but it may so happen that the pontiff forgets the significance of this his symbolic state and acts as if he contained within his proper measures all that his sign signifies or his symbol seeks to shew forth. He is not, as it has been thought, philosophy-except on the theological side; he is not inspiration; and he is not religion, although he is a mode of its expression.

The Tarot of the Bohemians by Papus; tr. A. P Morton, [1896]

Chapter X. The Symbolical Tarot

5. 5th Hebrew letter (He).

ORIGIN OF THE SYMBOLISM OF THE FIFTH CARD OF THE TAROT.

The hieroglyphic meaning of He is aspiration, breath. It is by aspiration that life is incessantly maintained and created. Hence springs the idea of all that animates attributed to He.

But life specializes the being, by rendering it different from any other; hence the idea of the being itself attributed to this letter.

However, the action of life does not stop here. It is also the mediating principle, which attaches the material body to the divine spirit, in the same way that man unites God and Nature; life is to the man (aleph) what man is to the universe, pre-eminently the mediate principle. Here we find the origin of the ideas of bond, of the reunion of opposing principles, of religion, attributed to He.

This letter is simple; astronomically it corresponds with the igneous sign of the Ram, which it explains.

THE FIFTH CARD OF THE TAROT. The Pope.

This symbol expresses the following ideasâ€“

(1st) Idea of Life, of animation,

(2nd) Idea of Being,
(3rd) Idea of Reunion.

The Initiate of the mysteries of Isis is seated between the two columns of the sanctuary. He leans upon a triple cross, and makes the sign of Esoterism with his left hand.

The triple Cross represents the triple Lingam of Indian theogony; that is to say, the penetration of the creative power throughout the Divine, the Intellectual, and the Physical Worlds, which causes all the manifestations of universal life to appear (first idea).

The two columns symbolize: on the right, the Law; on the left, the Liberty to obey and to disobey, the essence of Being, (second idea).

The Initiate wears a tiara. Two crowned men kneel at his feet, one clothed in red, the other in black.

Here we find the active form of the symbolism expressed in passive form by the second card. The same idea of Esoterism, of secret Instruction, reappears; but the Tuition is now practical and oral, it no longer requires a book (third idea),

As we see, this card is the complement of the second; the same rule applies to all the cards, when the total of their number makes 7. Thusâ€“

3
The Empress
is completed by

4+ 3 = 7
7 = 28 = 10 = 1
4
The Emperor

2
The High Priestess
is completed by

2 + 5 = 7
5
The Pope

1
The Juggler
is completed by

1 + 6 = 7.
6
The Lovers

The fifth card of the Tarot corresponds with the letter he of the sacred word. It is the direct reflection of the 4th arcanum, and the indirect reflection of the 2nd arcanum. It therefore signifiesâ€“

In the Divine. Reflex of the Willâ€“ INTELLIGENCE (characteristic of God the Son).
In the Human. Reflex of the Powerâ€“AUTHORITY (characteristic of the Woman). Religion. Faith.
In Nature. Reflex of the Soul of the World, or of the Universal creative fluid â€” THE UNIVERSAL LIFE (characteristic of Natura naturata).

5. The Pope.

Affinities

Primitive Hieroglyphic: Breath
Kabbalah: PECHAD
Astronomy: The Ram
Month: March
Hebrew letter: He (simple)

Significations

Reflex of the Will INTELLIGENCE
Reflex of Power AUTHORITY
RELIGIONâ€“FAITH
Reflex of the soul of the world THE UNIVERSAL LIFE

Universal life is the negative part of the vivifying universal fluid. Their reciprocal action will give rise to the universal attraction or universal Love represented by the 6th arcanum.

Major Arcana Signification from the Divining Point of View

5. The Pope signifies INSPIRATION.

The Tarot by S.L. MacGregor Mathers [1888]

Symbolism of Each Key

5. The Hierophant or Pope. He is crowned with the papal tiara, and seated between the two pillars of Hermes and of Solomon, with his right hand he makes the sign of esotericism, and with his left he leans upon a staff surmounted by a triple cross. (Before him kneel two ministers.) He is the symbol of Mercy and Beneficence.

Meanings of the Cards

5. The Hierophant or Pope. Mercy, Beneficence Kindness, Goodness; R. Over-kindness, weakness, Foolish exercise of generosity.

The Symbolism of the Tarot by P. D. Ouspensky [1913]

What is the Tarot? Card VII.â€“”The Hierophant”.

Mysticism. Theosophy. Esoteric side of all religions.

CARD VII.THE HIEROPHANT.

I saw the great Master in the Temple. He was siting on a golden throne set upon a purple platform, and he wore the robe of a high priest with a golden tiara. He held a golden eight-pointed cross, and lying at his feet were two crossed keys. Two initiates bowed before him and to them he spoke:â€“

“Seek the Path, do not seek attainment, Seek for the Path within yourself.

“Do not expect to hear the truth from others, nor to see it, or read it in books. Look for the truth in yourself, not without yourself.

“Aspire only after the impossible and inaccessible. Expect only that which shall not be.

“Do not hope for Me,â€“do not look for Me,â€“do not believeâ€“that I am outside yourself.

“Within your soul build a lefty tower by which you may ascend to Heaven. Do not believe in external miracles, expect miracles only within you. Beware of believing in a mystery of the earth, in a mystery guarded by men; for treasuries which must be guardedare empty. Do not search for a mystery that can be hidden by men. Seek the Mystery within yourself.

“Above all, avoid those towers built in order to preserve the mysteries and to make an ascent to Heaven by stone stairways. And remember that as soon as men build such a tower they begin to dispute about the summit.

“The Path is in yourself, and Truth is in yourself and Mystery is in yourself.”

The Tarot Trumps by G. H. Soror, Q.L.

V. THE HIEROPHANT
The High Priest is the counterpart of the High Priestess. As Aries is the house of Mars and the exaltation of the Sun, so Taurus is the house of Venus and the exaltation of the Moon. He is the reflective or mystical aspect of the masculine. He is the thinker as the Emperor is the doer.

His colors unlike those of the Emperor, vary considerably. Red, orange, maroon, deep brown, and chestnut brown, suggest veiled thought, interior power, endurance, contemplation and reconciliation. This card frequently indicates the hidden guardianship of the Masters.