Thirteen
Day-to-day life
The Hierophant is there at births and confirmations and weddings and when you get sick or when you have trouble with the kids or disagreements with your neighbors. He's there to help you spiritually in the day-to-day. And he's the only holy person in the deck who does that. The HPS is apart from people and not involved with their day-to-day lives. The Hanged-Man is on his own vision quest and might bring back something important to everyone, but he's out of the picture till then. And the Hermit is...well, a hermit.
So if we make the Hierophant an archetype that doesn't do that--if we make him an archetype that is unique and strange and is only seen when you need spiritual liberating....then we're taking away from the Hierophant an essential key to what he is. My point being, that the Hierophant as a member of an organized religion isn't as important as his being a spiritual leader who is there for his flock 24/7--there to help the kids put on a religious play, or give counseling to a newly married couple, or hand out food every evening to the poor. He can't just be there for the twice a year mystery orgies
Well, even religions with drunken orgies have some traditional rituals leading up to them. Meaning some organization. But I think the problem here is that religions wth wild partying (drugs, drink, sex, etc.) or just rites that involve the weird, subversive or unusual, don't do such rituals all that often.When we think of a religiously motivated bacchanal, it's a special occasion. That, I think, is key to why Dionysus doesn't make convincing Hierophant. Because whatever else the Hierophant is in regards to religion and spirituality, he is a part of a community and involved in the day to day life of his flock. That's really, really, important to his archetype. So, an androgynous holy man you see twice a year for that wild mystery rite (the very definition of Dionysus) can't be the Hierophant.If the HP is formal, organized religion, wild drunken cannibalism doesn't seem to fit.
The Hierophant is there at births and confirmations and weddings and when you get sick or when you have trouble with the kids or disagreements with your neighbors. He's there to help you spiritually in the day-to-day. And he's the only holy person in the deck who does that. The HPS is apart from people and not involved with their day-to-day lives. The Hanged-Man is on his own vision quest and might bring back something important to everyone, but he's out of the picture till then. And the Hermit is...well, a hermit.
So if we make the Hierophant an archetype that doesn't do that--if we make him an archetype that is unique and strange and is only seen when you need spiritual liberating....then we're taking away from the Hierophant an essential key to what he is. My point being, that the Hierophant as a member of an organized religion isn't as important as his being a spiritual leader who is there for his flock 24/7--there to help the kids put on a religious play, or give counseling to a newly married couple, or hand out food every evening to the poor. He can't just be there for the twice a year mystery orgies