The Hierophant
The Hierophant
Number 5 Earth Taurus
A major arcana card: the big weather rather than the daily forecast.
Upright
traditionteachinginstitutionsthe done thing
The established way exists because it worked for a great many people before you, and it is worth trying before you invent something better. The Hierophant is teachers, mentors, qualifications, religion, the conventional route, marriage as an institution rather than a feeling. Unfashionable, and often right.
Reversed
going your own waydogma questionedleaving the fold
The conventional answer does not fit you and you have known that for a while. Reversed, this card is leaving the church, the family business, the career track everyone assumed. It can also be a warning about a belief you have never examined because it came with the furniture.
What is in the picture
Two keys crossed at his feet, two acolytes below him, three tiers to his crown. Everything about the picture is hierarchy, and the keys are being handed down rather than found.
What it says about…
The line a reading leads with, depending on what you said you were asking about.
A bit of everything
Upright: the ordinary route, the established advice, the thing everybody says. Try it first.
Reversed: the standard answer is not your answer and you are allowed to say so.
Love and relationships
Upright: commitment in its formal sense: meeting the family, moving in, the paperwork.
Reversed: a relationship that does not look like the ones you were shown, and is fine.
Work and direction
Upright: a mentor, a qualification, doing it the way the profession does it.
Reversed: an organisation whose rules have outlived their reasons. You may be the one who says so.
Money and security
Upright: boring, orthodox financial advice. Pensions. Index funds. It is boring because it works.
Reversed: a financial path nobody in your family took. That is not a reason against it.
Me, honestly
Upright: you would benefit from being taught rather than working it out alone.
Reversed: a belief you inherited is due an examination.
A decision I am stuck on
Upright: do what a sensible person in your position usually does. It is usually right.
Reversed: the unconventional option, if you can explain to yourself why.
If this card leads
Learn the rule properly before deciding you are the exception to it.
As a yes or no
Upright, it reads as maybe. Reversed, yes.
“There is no shame in being taught.”
Draw it in a reading
The meaning above, applied to something you are actually asking about.
