Thirteen
Well, you had me thinking on this all morning, thank you very much Here's what I came up with: There are a lot of cards in the Tarot deck that tell us to trust our instincts, be ourselves, stand our ground, find our own way, etc. But, personally, I don't think the Hierophant is one of those.Surja76 said:We must stick to our positions and our values in spite of the conflicting opinions of other people, do not we?
It might be why the Hierophant is so hard a card to identify with for a lot of us who were raised on books and movies where the hero is a rebel and an individualist. The Hierophant, I believe, represents the humble servant of a greater, institutionalized power, whether that's cultural tradition or spiritual tradition. His message is that we should bow our heads and surrender our will to that higher power--which he feels is giving us some wisdom that trumps personal positions or values (i.e. those positions or values that go against such traditions or spiritual laws).
Putting it another way, I do not think the Hierophant is Martin Luther who tells the Catholic Church: "I can't reconcile what you're doing with my beliefs and values. Change or I'm leaving." I do think that the Hierophant is St. Francis who did his own thing, but asked for the blessing of the church, and who likely would not have been able to continue doing what he wanted to do without that blessing.
Let me give you another example: In the Bible, god says "Don't eat pork." And there are those that follow this law. No pork. They don't follow it because there's any moral or ethical value to it; I don't think they see pigs as evil creatures, or creatures that shouldn't be slaughtered. They believe god told them to do this, and they don't question it. They obey the law.
Now imagine these people are put in a dire position: eat pork or starve. The person who sticks to their values will decide to eat or not eat it for themselves and not care what anyone else does. But the Hierophant is someone who can't do that because people look to him for guidance in these matters. They ask him "What should we do?" If he is a "negative" Hierophant, he will say, "god says no pork, so no pork. That's it. No argument. Starve." The "positive" Hierophant, by compare, won't consider his own position or values--what he will consider are other things that have been written in the holy book, things said by holy people, similar situations and what god's lessons were. So he might answer, "Not eating pork is important, especially if you have a choice. But god values your lives more. So let's eat it and stay alive. god does forgive."
This is getting long, so let me continue in another post.