5 - The Hierophant Tarot Card
The Hierophant is tarot card number 5, although it is the 6th card of the Major Arcana because the 1st of the 22 Major Arcana cards is number 0 (The Fool).
The Hierophant is often depicted as a person in the office of an establish religion.
For example, the Robin Wood Tarot Deck clearly depicts the Hierophant as a christian
bishop. In some tarot decks, "The Hierophant" card is called
"The Pope" card.
Regardless of the religion, faith, or philosophy illustrated on the card (if any), the Tarot Hierophant is generally considered to be a protector of ancient cultures, traditions, and established practices concerning faith, spirituality, and wisdom.
In some tarot decks, the Hierophant on card number 5 of the major arcana is portrayed harshly and interpreted by some readers as representing "rigid dogma" and the authoritarian aspects of organized religion. However, to others such interpretation would be a gross over-simplification because the Hierophant can also refer to our ability to balance the physical and spiritual aspects of life, and to develop moral codes.
The presence of the Hierophant tarot card in a spread can indicate various concepts, including for example:
- tradition
- servitude
- ritual
- mythology
- dogma
- the interaction of the physical world with that of spirit
- metaphysics
The relevant meaning of the hierophant card depends on its position in the spead and the reader's intuition in that particular case.
More about the Major Arcana
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