The Hierophant (High Priest) embodies the deep confidence in the world of faith and religious certainty. This interpretation is favorable in many respects because the power of trust it expresses applies to our own self-confidence, our belief in the deeper meaning of our lives, and our consequent belief in the future. The card is also a guide to ethics and virtue, as well as personal intentions derived from our moral values. The High Priest is one of the moral teachings of the tarot. Although not after the High Priestess, he still represents a similar line of thought. The High Priest is the mediator of spiritual content that moves away from the earthly life, and the High Priest represents a spiritual, abstract search for the great questions of life.

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V. THE HIEROPHANT

This card is referred to the letter Vau, which means a Nail; of this instrument nine appear at the top of the card; they serve to fix the oriel behind the main figure of the picture.

The card is referred to Taurus; therefore the Throne of the Hierophant is surrounded by elephants, which are of the nature of Taurus; and he is actually seated upon a bull. Around him are the four beasts or Kerubs, one in each corner of the card; for these are the guardians of every shrine. But the main reference is to the particular arcanum which is the principal business, the essential, of all magical work; the uniting of the microcosm with the macrocosm.

Accordingly, the oriel is diaphanous; before the Manifestor of the Mystery is a hexagram representing the macrocosm. In its centre is a pentagram, representing a dancing male child. This symbolizes the law of the new Aeon of the Child Horns, which has supplanted that Aeon of the “Dying God” which governed the world for two thousand years. Before him is the woman girt with a sword; she represents the Scarlet Woman in the hierarchy of the new Aeon. This symbolism is further carried out in the oriel where, behind the phallic headdress, the rose of five petals is in blossom.

The symbolism of the snake and dove refers to this verse of the Book of the Law — chap. I, verse 57:

“there are love and love. There is the dove, and there is the serpent”.

This symbol recurs in the trump numbered XVI.

The background of the whole card is the dark blue of the starry night of Nuit, from whose womb all phenomena are born.

Taurus, the sign of the Zodiac represented by this card, is itself the Bull Kerub; that is, Earth in its strongest and most balanced form.

The ruler of this sign is Venus; she is represented by the woman standing before the hierophant.

Chapter III of the Book of the Law, verse xi, reads:

“Let the woman be girt with a sword before me.”


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I get some of my info from searching thoth tarot then the card and use the first page that comes up.

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