The Hierophant, V: the teaching that is handed down

Meaning

Smith's Hierophant sits between two grey pillars in a triple crown and red robes, his right hand raised in blessing and his left holding a staff that ends in a triple cross. Crossed keys lie at his feet and two ministers with shaven crowns kneel before him. The card was the Pope in the old decks; Waite keeps the office but widens it to the ruling power of outward religion, the teaching handed down through institutions, as against the High Priestess's knowledge held in silence.

The Golden Dawn gave the card Vav, a simple letter glossed as nail or hook, and the sign Taurus, and titled it the Magus of the Eternal. On the order's tree the Hierophant is path 16.

We read the card as teaching and tradition: what is learned from those who came before, with the comfort and the rigidity of received forms. Waite's fortune-telling list for it begins with marriage and alliance and moves on to captivity; we quote it below as history.

In the birth cards

The Hierophant is the root of Greer's fifth constellation, which has only two cards, the Hierophant and Temperance, 14; there is no 23rd trump to complete it. He is the Soul card of everyone whose total is 14 and both cards for a total of exactly 5, together 11.1 percent of the days from 1900 to 2030; the single 5 alone accounts for 7.6 percent, one of the most common results of the sum.

A 14-5 is the first of what Greer calls the night-time chains, 14-5 to 18-9, which reach every card of their constellation and so have no Hidden Factor. A single 5 leaves Temperance unreached.

As a natal-chart card the Hierophant is the Sun-sign card of Taurus, and the Moon or Rising card for a Moon or rising degree there. As a year card it comes 13 times in the 201 years from 1900 to 2100 for a 15 June birthday, as often as the Lovers and more than any other card.

History and names

In the Marseille decks the card is Le Pape, the Pope. Book T calls it the Hierophant, a Greek word for a priest who shows the sacred things, and Smith's card keeps that name. The Milanese cards of the 1450s carry no number or title.

Correspondences

Each item with how it stands: “sourced” is in the work cited, “our construction” is EsoTerrier’s own, and “disputed” means the sources disagree.

Golden Dawn title (Book T)

“The Magus of the Eternal” sourced

Waite's fortune-telling list (1911), upright

“Marriage, alliance, captivity, servitude; by another account, mercy and goodness; inspiration; the man to whom the Querent has recourse”, quoted as history; Waite called such meanings artificial and arbitrary sourced

Greer's name for the constellation

Teaching and Learning (1987, 2021) sourced

Our line for the birth-card chain

5: Learning that becomes teaching; 14-5: Tradition tested by experience our construction

Sun-sign card

For the Sun in Taurus; also the Moon card and the Rising card for Taurus sourced

Older name

Le Pape, the Pope sourced

How the schools read it

Game decks (15th to 18th century)

Le Pape, the Pope, in a papal tiara, blessing two kneeling figures.

Golden Dawn, Book T

Vav, the nail, a simple letter, and the sign Taurus; path 16. Book T titles it the Magus of the Eternal.

Waite and Smith (1909 to 1911)

The ruling power of outward religion, the teaching passed on through institutions, against the High Priestess's hidden knowledge.

Mary K. Greer (1984 to 2021)

The root of the constellation of 5, with Temperance: the Soul card of every total of 14, and both cards for a single 5.

EsoTerrier

Read here as teaching and tradition: what is learned from those who came before, with the comfort and the rigidity of received forms.

Claims about it

• The Hierophant foretells a marriage.

  false

  What the record shows: Marriage heads Waite's fortune-telling list for the card, which he called arbitrary. We quote the list as history.

• Vav and Taurus are the Hierophant's ancient correspondences.

  disputed

  What the record shows: They are the Golden Dawn's, from about 1888, following the order of the simple letters.

• Temperance, as the Hierophant's Hidden Factor, shows what a single 5 hides.

  unverified

  What the record shows: Greer's reading of her own construct. We name the card a single 5 does not reach and give her reading as hers.

Elsewhere on EsoTerrier

• Temperance the Personality card of the chain 14-5
• The High Priestess the hidden side of religion Waite set against him
• The Lovers the next simple letter and sign, Gemini
• Path 16, Chokmah to Chesed this trump's path on the Tree of Life
• Natal Chart where a Sun, Moon or rising degree in Taurus is found