NightWing
Christian Mystery Religion
I suppose to us today, churches seem rather non-exclusive and there generally is no great difficulty nor complexity to being admitted as a full member. It was not always so. There was a time when neophytes, postulants, catechumens, and novices had to endure and succeed at various "tests" over a lengthy period of time to at last be admitted as a fully baptised christian (often at Eastertime) or religious Order member. These initiations were presided over by the Bishop, or in Rome by the Pope. They transmitted the "Apostolic Tradition" (the revealed faith outside of scripture) to the "chosen ones" that we might term the People of God. Not everyone qualified, and some were thrown out (banished) of the Church for various sins.
Even today in Eastern Orthodox worship, the cry goes up, "Holy things are for the holy ones!"
In these ways and more, the Pope of history is connected to the Hierophant of the esoteric Tarot.
Of course, the Tarot originated in a time when there was only one Church in western Europe, and the Protestant Reformation lay many years ahead. The Pope was the "divinely appointed Hierarch" of that Church, and saintly or not, believers saw his teachings as the path to heaven.
Waite knew all this and more. He may well have been of two minds about using the Papal image in his deck, but the image had such a weight of history and tradition behind it that he probably concluded that he could not toss it and substitute another. In short, over the many centuries leading up to the 20th century, the image of the Pope had long since become a European archetype, with both positive and negative spiritual connotations.
Even today, what image could we use instead that would be so easily recognized in the western cultures wherein Tarot is used?
I suppose to us today, churches seem rather non-exclusive and there generally is no great difficulty nor complexity to being admitted as a full member. It was not always so. There was a time when neophytes, postulants, catechumens, and novices had to endure and succeed at various "tests" over a lengthy period of time to at last be admitted as a fully baptised christian (often at Eastertime) or religious Order member. These initiations were presided over by the Bishop, or in Rome by the Pope. They transmitted the "Apostolic Tradition" (the revealed faith outside of scripture) to the "chosen ones" that we might term the People of God. Not everyone qualified, and some were thrown out (banished) of the Church for various sins.
Even today in Eastern Orthodox worship, the cry goes up, "Holy things are for the holy ones!"
In these ways and more, the Pope of history is connected to the Hierophant of the esoteric Tarot.
Of course, the Tarot originated in a time when there was only one Church in western Europe, and the Protestant Reformation lay many years ahead. The Pope was the "divinely appointed Hierarch" of that Church, and saintly or not, believers saw his teachings as the path to heaven.
Waite knew all this and more. He may well have been of two minds about using the Papal image in his deck, but the image had such a weight of history and tradition behind it that he probably concluded that he could not toss it and substitute another. In short, over the many centuries leading up to the 20th century, the image of the Pope had long since become a European archetype, with both positive and negative spiritual connotations.
Even today, what image could we use instead that would be so easily recognized in the western cultures wherein Tarot is used?
