Revealing what’s sacred with The Hierophant

The Hierophant is one of the most mysterious cards in tarot.

It’s easy to get in the weeds with this one. What is a hierophant anyway? What’s with this pope imagery? Is this person a hero or a villain? What does its number (Five) have to do with anything?

The Hierophant card was once called “the Pope,” and it is usually depicted with a powerful, persuasive person carrying a staff, two keys at their feet and a crown on their head.

Some expressions of this card show two figures sitting in their audience, but this deck from Tarot of the Holy Spectrum, the figures are whispering in the center figure’s ears.

I think this card asks us to question the spiritual gatekeepers in our lives, and it encourages us to find our own doctrine, our own church, our own set of values and principles that we use to fight fair and to fight for fairness.

This figure — and this fellowship — can be used for good, but if used nefariously, those values and principles can be used to control others and to amass power.

We can’t look at this card without considering the contraction of the Five. Every Five in the tarot involves a loss, a mistake, some kind of grief.

The word “hieros” is Greek for “sacred,” and “phant” comes from “phainein” or “show, reveal.”

One who reveals that which is sacred.

When I pull this card, I ask myself:

To whom have we given this power in my life?

What is the structure or framework that I have built my life around?

Where can I question that authority?

How is it serving me? What is my part?

And finally:

How can I reveal my own holiness and my own sacred self?

Taurus season is starting later this month. Like the month of May, it is associated with the Hierophant, so don’t be surprised if this energy feels especially pressing over the next few weeks.