{"id":29893,"date":"2010-10-17T10:38:44","date_gmt":"2010-10-17T15:38:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/?p=29893"},"modified":"2010-10-17T10:43:10","modified_gmt":"2010-10-17T15:43:10","slug":"the-weekend-tarot-reading-the-hierophant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/daily-astrology\/the-weekend-tarot-reading-the-hierophant\/","title":{"rendered":"The Weekend Tarot Reading: The Hierophant"},"content":{"rendered":"

Editor’s Note: If you want to experiment with tarot cards and don’t have any, we provide a free tarot spread generator<\/a> using the Celtic Wings spread, which is based on the traditional Celtic Cross spread. This article<\/a> tells you how to use the spread<\/em>. You can visit Sarah’s website here<\/a>. –efc<\/em><\/p>\n

By Sarah Taylor<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
The Hierophant from the Rider-Waite Smith Tarot deck. The Hierophant is the fifth card of the major arcana.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

However, while The High Priestess “is an outsider by virtue of the fact that she is not completely of this world<\/a>“, 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’).<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

When The Hierophant comes up in our lives as an archetype in balance, he speaks of holding to one’s principles; of discipline and commitment to a particular cause — perhaps one of learning, of service to something or someone — and of course to a spiritual path. We live The Hierophant in balance when we put aside personal desires to pursue something that demands more from us than we are perhaps used to or are comfortable with. We embody it when our actions, thoughts and words are aligned with the principles to which we commit ourselves.<\/p>\n

The shadow Hierophant is the wayward guru or religious leader who fails to live up to the divine standards to which he or she holds his followers, or who takes advantage of their devotees’ faith in some form or other. We express the shadow when we show outward allegiance to a cause or a belief, but in doing so we suppress aspects of ourselves that we find unacceptable, resorting to empty ritual to stave off fear and anxiety or projecting our fears and anxieties onto others. Another way that the shadow Hierophant takes form is when we forget our station, step out of our role as intermediary or caretaker and ‘play God’. At these moments, we forget that our true power is drawn from something separate from our egos. We usurp the godly throne. Various cult leaders through history embody the shadow Hierophant.<\/p>\n

I look at The Hierophant today and I wonder what he is telling me. My thoughts jump immediately to his more religious connotations, and how that is playing out in the news with the cases of abuse that the Roman Catholic church is finally starting to own up to. But that is not his whole story. When I cast my net further, I can perhaps begin to recognise The Hierophant in its myriad forms, whether shadow or light, as devotion to a cause.<\/p>\n

More personally, it is perhaps my own devotion to a path that requires more of me than simply a voiced agreement, blind acceptance, half-baked action. It invites my full participation and the alignment of my inner and outer worlds — in the words of one organisation, “a searching and fearless moral inventory.” It is a daunting card; but perhaps it is daunting because the figure, like the ideal, is uncompromising. Am I ready to commit? Am I up to what is being asked of me? They are questions worth asking.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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 … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":470,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"generate_page_header":""},"categories":[1,183],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29893"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/470"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29893"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29893\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29893"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29893"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29893"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}