Happy Easter! 🐰🪺✝️

The Hierophant is the bridge between heaven and the faithful. The teacher, the tradition-keeper, the voice of established wisdom transmitting sacred knowledge through lineage and ritual. He signifies marriage alliance, captivity, servitude, mercy and goodness, inspiration. He could also be the man to whom the Querent has recourse, or the one to whom the seeker turns in need. Reversed: Society, good understanding, concord, but also over-kindness and weakness.

UPRIGHT: Marriage alliance, Mercy, Inspiration, Servitude

REVERSED: Good understanding, Concord, Over-kindness, Weakness

The Hierophant is the Summa Totius Theologiæ, or Sum of All Theology, according to A.E. Waite. He is religious expression, the guide into the supernal realms for all of mankind. He is seated in the church, overlooking the holy, scepter and mudra ready to show the way. The Hierophant must represent the priest’s role in the community (almsgiving x doctrine x ritual). His ceremonies bring people together and provide families with succor in times of crisis or confusion. It is vital that a priest be a conduit and not an ego in and of themselves; read enough religious literature and one begins to see that Mercy x Inspiration x Servitude are the necessary preconditions to maintain a divine link. 

On the journey, the hero sees God, begins to scribe a private Gospel, or contends with one of His messengers…

Bottom Line: When you draw the Hierophant, consider your connection (or beliefs) unto the higher realms or the men that purport to carry the word of God.

Tree of Life Path: Chokmah to Chesed -- Wisdom transported into the condition of Lovingkindness; the true man of god must reflect his high power via consistently compassionate behavior, acting like a shepherd unto the meek.

A.E. Waite quote: “He wears the triple crown and is seated between two pillars, but they are not those of the Temple which is guarded by the High Priestess. In his left hand he holds a sceptre terminating in the triple cross, and with his right hand he gives the well-known ecclesiastical sign which is called that of esotericism, distinguishing between the manifest and concealed part of doctrine. It is noticeable in this connexion that the High Priestess makes no sign.”

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