Heirophant,both beast and priest

mystic mal

Chiron,the centaur,represented as half man half horse is symbolic of the beast and the priest within us all.. The horse lower half contains our bestial,animal instincts,our earthy passions,lust,addictions etc (like the DEVIL) card but the Heirophant or Pope has risen above the "sins of the flesh"has disowned his shadow side and has bridged that gap between man and "God". People at this stage when getting this card in a reading could have become vegetarian,given up smoking,drinking or a lustful relationship and found the lighter part of them raising their concious awareness,they may have started studying philosophy or a spiritual subject where the "priest" in them is awakened. On Palm Sunday when Jesus rides an ass its symbolic of riding above the beast and being "on top of the Devil" or the "beast" Even donkeys today still bare the sign of the cross on their backs,its all there in symbolic form even in the Bible
 

Isarma

chiron is also a healer, he cures himself healing others...
 

Grizabella

How interesting mystic mal. I'll cut and paste and save your post. :)
 

Sophie

The point about Chiron is that he rose above the other Centaurs - usually potrayed as rather bestial creatures in mythology - because he was wounded, and could not heal himself, though he was a gifted healer. That experience of enduring pain transformed him - he became wise, selfless, a gifted seer and mage. This might mean that a true Hierophant must have known such pain in some way - to his body, to his ego, to his mind, to his spirit . For many on the spiritual path, it is the passage though the dark night of the soul, loss of hope and faith that is incredibly painful and bewildering. It strips the would-be Hierophant of his ego and his pretensions, which are forms of bestiality, until he is ready to be a spiritual guide to others.

This is also reproduced in most initiatory rituals of the priesthood, or of adepts, the world round - the idea being that through such painful encounter, you will re-emerge cleansed and wiser, as Chiron did.
 

Isarma

yes fudugazy, you resume the myth very well, altough i've never associated chiron to the hierophant but you have a point!
 

Sophie

Isarma said:
yes fudugazy, you resume the myth very well, altough i've never associated chiron to the hierophant but you have a point!
Ah - in the Mythic Tarot, the Hierophant is Chiron. Very good card, that, very layered.

Thanks Mystic Mal for starting this thread, btw. I agree with what you wrote absolutely, but I would still say that for many at that stage, an experience of pain - even ritualised like initiation - is what will have brought them there.

I remember years ago a boyfriend telling me how he'd become vegetarian. He saw a sheep's brain in a lab. He suddenly realised just how close it was to a human's. And he literally felt his insides melt in pain, at the thought that he'd been eating something so close to him, as though he'd been eating his own flesh. He was a vegetarian from that moment. He was also a bit of a Hierophant about it - in that he tried to disseminate vegetarianism (he failed miserably with me...)
 

Isarma

he was a bit of Death too, a paiinfull experience that transforms you and then you reborn!
 

mystic mal

Once again I go back to symbology in the Bible..The wounded healer yes and didnt Jesus have a spear in his side like the myth of Chiron? Didnt he rise above the Devils temptations and rise again? The Hierophant PALM SUNDAY as THE HANGED MAN is GOOD FRIDAY. All messages are there in the Major Arcana as they are in the Bible.
 

Sophie

Ah well - that's hardly surprising, Mystic Mal, given the Tarot was originally a Christian-inspired artefact.

Isarma - that's an interesting take! I wonder if a good Hierophant must have known at least one Death experience? Well, I suppose all good humans must! Or we can't be compassionate.

Chiron's experience - and Jesus's - were what we'd call today Near Death Experiences - that is, they died, and came back (except Jesus was dead 3 days, not 3 minutes ;)) - is that also a link?