What does a tomato have to do with The Hierophant, the 5th card of the tarot’s Major Arcana? Absolutely nothing. (Except now I can’t help but think of the horrible ruler that was Denethor, whose mind was poisoned by his hoarded plantír*, a “seeing stone” that connected him to the Dark Lord Sauron…you know, the asshole steward of Gondor who worshiped one son and sent the other to his death, all whilst making a completely disgusting mess of a tomato…no? Sorry, if I have a chance to digress into anything Lord of the Rings, I will…)
When you begin to learn tarot, you soon realize that certain cards correlate to specific keys, or guides, for your life. A Basque anthropologist created a method for using your birthdate to deduce the individual cards that guide and outline your personality and soul, act as your teacher, provide a “hidden factor” for you to ruminate, and so on. I was so excited to learn my own, until I realized that the stodgy-old Hierophant was both my personality AND my soul card.
As a Hierophant is literally a holy leader traditionally connected with Christianity—many decks call this card The Pope—I could literally hear the wind-raspberry blow out of my sails at this discovery.
Listen, I tried the whole church thing. As a youngster, I attended youth groups and church camps. (Okay, that was mostly about the boys.) I resisted balking at my husband, who thought it was important to take our kids to church when they were younger. I agreed that knowledge and some kind of spiritual/community connection were good. And even though I truly admired my very liberal and inclusive pastor, try as I might, I found myself questioning—and eventually bristling— at the very idea that conventional religion tries to teach: you must accept this one Lord in order to obtain your key into heaven. Ick. Don’t even get me started on the Old Testament.
Now, if you are all in and find comfort in these things, by all means, you do you. (as long as your thoughts and actions actually align with your faith…if they don’t, the back button is your doorway out…) This isn’t about bashing a form of religion or spirituality. I’m talking about perspective, and how we should hold our very own authentic perspectives—and the right to have one—nearly and oh-so-dearly to our hearts.
So, back to The Hierophant. Keywords for this card include tradition, conformity, and convention, and the RWS depiction seems to follow those pretty darn closely.
Then, there is this one.
Emily Lubanko, the creator and artist of this incredibly dynamic deck, holds nothing back in their interpretation of the holy leader. Behind the stoic, all-knowing mask lies the truth of his identity—deceitful and dark, a skull-like abyss that wants to swallow your identity, using fear to bring you to your knees. To me, this is the mask of so much that is now twisting and poisoning the idea of spirituality, and unfortunately, that’s nothing new. Power-hungry demons, clothed in hypocrisy and false enlightenment, have existed since the dawn of time. Sadly, Emily’s depiction aligns more closely with my view on the subject.
Recently, my friend Dani introduced me to a cool and unique deck called The Infinite Door by Pamela Love and Krys Manieck. Imagine my surprise when I came upon this Hierophant in all of his purple splendor…
There is nothing stodgy—or particularly scary—about this holy leader. He is sporting some serious purple reign. Even his shoes blend into the carpet-blend into his robes-blend into his gloves. The pink ruff around his neck blends into the frame of his chair, which brings to my mind visions of a stockade. This Hierophant, with a face of cosmic knowledge, does not want to be imprisoned by conventional thoughts and archaic rules. I mean, even the crossed keys that are typically at his feet lie suggestively in his lap. (Or, is that just me?!)
Now this card can be my personality and soul card, thankyouverymuch. Because a most important aspect of The Hierophant, conventional or not, is that of a teacher. In my mind, a good teacher encourages you to follow your heart and convictions, challenges your thinking, and supports you as you make stupid mistakes that lead to growth. A great teacher accepts they don’t know everything, because that’s impossible. Being open to the impossible, along with the universe’s chaos, is the best lesson. In my humble opinion, we aren’t supposed to know it all. That’s not for us measly human beings. Why do we so arrogantly think we need to??
Perspective, my friends. The same card, all three offering a different perspective on the same idea: a keeper of sacred wisdom and knowledge. You get to decide whether you feel safer letting your soul teacher keep it to themselves, rejecting the idea of anyone attempting to pass off any knowledge entirely, or welcoming someone who invites you to learn along with them. Tradition and ritual are wonderful, and so is convention, when you are heeding your elemental self. I’m curious—what do you feel when you see each of these cards? Which one are you drawn to? There are no wrong answers.
*And back to the asterisk…THIS IS WHERE I RANT ABOUT THE FACT THAT THE RETURN OF THE KING FILM NEVER SHOWED DENETHOR WITH HIS PALANTÍR, WHICH IS THE ENTIRE REASON HE ACTS THE WAY HE DOES. Ok, I’m done yelling now. But it’s kind of important…!
Blessed F’in’ Be, XOSusie
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