The Hierophant

You walk the path of wisdom, guided by tradition and knowledge. The lessons of the past shape your future—will you follow or forge your own way?

Standard: Teaching or guiding others. Searching for the truth. Asking for guidance from a higher power. Acknowledging the wisdom and experience of others. Taking vows. Engaging in heartfelt rituals. Volunteering.

Reversed: Using experience as a means of manipulating or misguiding others. Being dogmatic. Favoring tradition over what is expedient or necessary. Going through the motions of empty rituals. Concealing wisdom. Restricting access to spiritual truths or the gods.

Keywords

Guidance Knowledge Revelation Belief

Questions to Ask

What role might tradition or religion play in this situation?
Who authored the rules? Who enforces them? Why?
How might an experienced guide impact this situation?

A. E. Waite's Pictorial Key to the Tarot

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.