Editor’s Note: If you want to experiment with tarot cards and don’t have any, we provide a free tarot spread generator using the Celtic Wings spread, which is based on the traditional Celtic Cross spread. This article tells you how to use the spread. You can visit Sarah’s website here. –efc
By Sarah Taylor
In tarot, The Hierophant is a natural counterpart to The High Priestess in that they both have access to spiritual knowledge and hold the ability to mediate between the non-incarnate and incarnate realms.
However, while The High Priestess “is an outsider by virtue of the fact that she is not completely of this world“, The Hierophant is spirit’s representative on Earth. He is very much grounded here. This is further reflected in both cards’ astrological associations. The High Priestess represents The Moon, governing emotions and the unconscious, and which waxes and wanes with the passing days. The Hierophant, on the other hand, is associated with the earth sign Taurus and denotes strength, courage, sensuality (literally ‘of the senses’).
The Hierophant on the Rider-Waite Smith card, which I’m using today, cuts a striking figure, which takes up a sizeable chunk of the card. The background is a uniform grey, as if irrelevant. What holds my gaze are his robes and authoritative expression.
He is clothed in red (a potent religious colour, possibly referring to the blood of martyrs), with white trim on which are embroidered three crosses — with two further crosses on his white slippers. In his left hand he carries a papal cross, his right hand held as if he is performing a blessing. On his head is set the papal tiara. At his feet lie the crossed keys of Simon Peter. The image is replete with religious imagery — notably papal.
However, I don’t believe that this card necessarily represents a particular religion. I believe that the imagery is being used in another way: to emphasise that the spirituality that The Hierophant embodies is one that is very much tied to the physical and to the everyday. It is not ethereal, intuitive, mystical. It is the spirituality of learning, devotion, ritual, discipline.
The High Priestess card has the Priestess as its sole figure. In this card, there are two figures at The Hierophant’s feet. The human aspect is further expressed in their presence: this is not ‘personal spirituality’, but rather where individuality is set aside in service to a higher principle. The two figures are symmetrical, dressed in their own vestments, each bearing the colour of a part of The Hierophant’s robes. They are a part of him. They do not act independently. Individual will is subject to the will of the divine. When we are followers of a particular religion, we are bound to that religion’s rules and codes as part of that membership — in the same way that some spiritual disciplines require the relinquishment of individuality for a time so as to acquire knowledge and experience.