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Offering the sixth; the Hierophant  The Hierophant is a card about authority, but more than that, it's a card about teaching and learning. It emphasizes the group over the individual, the truth over the pretty deception, and the value of community and society over anarchism. The Hierophant, like the Hermit seeks a deeper, greater understanding of the world around him...but where the Hermit seeks that understanding alone, the Hierophant seeks that understanding within the group, within the places of structure. University professors, teachers, lawyers, doctors, librarians, even book-store owners--all can easily fit the basic description of this card as well as clergy and church officials. The Hierophant is interested in all forms of knowledge, not simply religious. The card as usually depicted features a robed bishop holding a crossed staff, one hand upheld to two novice priests, eager to learn. It reflects in many ways the later Devil card, and couldn't be a better parallel: where the Hierophant card emphasizes the mind over the body (the mental, or 'Apollonian' approach to learning), the Devil card emphasizes flesh over mentation (the purely physical, or more 'Dionysian' approach). But the Hierophant, as usual, is broader and deeper than the initial card's image. Just as most learning was confined to the Roman Catholic church when the Tarot cards again became popular, so that learning should be the understanding today, not the overtly religious trappings of the card as usually seen. Faith, discipline, training, orthodoxy, established conventions: these are all the trademark tools of the Hierophant. This card can represent what is good as well as what is bad about pure social order: both the restrictive and the freeing. It can also represent commitment to a cause or belief, working as part of a team, working towards a larger goal (such as, a group of artists working on a statue, a group of authors putting together a short-story collection, a group of students defining the terms of the experiment to come), working for the good of all over the good of one. Learning Tarot says about this card, "Except in rare cases, every human grows and develops within a culture. We learn by living with others." Our behavior is representative of what we see, hear, feel and touch every day. We are patterners; we learn by observing; we learn by doing what we see and seeing how it works in us. There is value in the individual, the Hierophant says, but there is greater strength in the group as a whole. If the Hierophant turns up in a reading, he could represent a teacher that already exists in the querent's life, or indicate a teacher to come. Conversely, he could indicate the stifling restrictions of institutional thought, and that the querent needs to break free of such societally-approved constructs and think for themselves. It depends entirely on where the card appears in the reading, and to which other cards it falls closest. Never forget the twin powers of the Hierophant: conformity and education. One lifts up the segment of the group; the other frees the individual mind. It's a delicate balance that the Hierophant struggles to preserve. Post a comment in response: |
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