Hierophant in Outcome

GoddessArtemis

I've been getting the Hierophant in my own relationship spreads as the outcome card quite a few times, and I've been struggling with what it may mean.

For some time, I've felt it meant that we need to go to a counselor--couple's counseling. Hierophant does mean counselor, advisor...at times. But lately, that didn't fit. After reading all your posts here and working with the Fey deck, I suddenly had a thought....

Healing. In the Fey deck (my current fave), The Wisest (RWS Hierophant) is sitting on an hourglass. That obviously represents time, and it's slow time..sands of time can take a while. A red dragon is wrapped around the hourglass, and in my particular relationship...the dragon might represents the inner fires--inner turmoil--in the relationship. In this card (The Wisest), the dragon is calm...laying low, and old man Fey is carefully and methodically (as I see him) taking notes, studying the situation, in a "wise" fashion..not rushing. So there is a sense of time here..and taking a long time, nothing too speedy. Add that to the concept of Hierophant (in RWS) as the wise counselor..with the following conclusion:

In a relationship outcome situation where, as WhiteRaven has depicted, the couple are separated but still in love...the card may mean, "Take time to heal". Heal yourselves...and then, the Hierophant (or the Fey, Wisest) might lead to a re-joining of the couple, after they've healed...to either lead to the next level...marriage...or to be wiser as people, perhaps separately. I think the Hierophant can't necessarily give you the full outcome picture because unless you take time to heal...well, you can't know where things will go next. You can always clarify the card, but the interpretation will be mostly 'iffy'....IF you take time to heal and no other element is changed or introduced into the scenario, THEN...whatever clarification card. However, since the tarot is only a snapshot of time, and any number of things could be introduced into the scenario, and since time is of essence with the Hierophant...you can't really say how something might turn out with this card as an outcome. But take the advice..take time to heal, and then see where things go.

I know it helped ME out to figure this out. Otherwise, seeing the Hierophant as strictly a marriage card--as some literature suggests--wouldn't make sense for me. For instance, if me and my ex are separated but still in love, we can't get married...we're separated! But we both do need to take time to heal and calm the "inner dragon," then see where things go. So, that's what The Wisest (Hierophant) means to me, in that particular case.

Hope that helps!

GA
 

doreen

It Seems

The Hierophant in this case would seem to me to be telling you to take back your personal power and take control of your life.
Maybe you have let someone or something dominate you in some way. I could go on about the different interpretations of this card but in this case I feel I need to say this to you, take back control.
Doreen.
 

Red Emma

Heirophant

When I started reading this thread, I'd forgotten that I had posted to it. It's interesting that the last few posts kind of turned the meaning away from wisdom and like that to traditional -- traditional thinking, traditional mores, traditional roles for everyone. Which is where I'd put the guy. The heirophant.

Kind of a bureaucrat whose job is to keep people in line, keep the old rules, keep doing your life in the ways of your mother, grandmother, great-great, etc. I must have been burned at the stake by a heirophant in a former life -- always lived a witchy life, it seems -- because when ever that card comes up in my readings, I diligently search for any part of the message I may have missed. Any part which would encourage me to strike out on my own. Forget the past, or is Christ is said have said, "Let the dead bury the dead."

As Doreen wrote, "perhaps some one or something may be dominating your life ... take back your power."

I wish I knew the other cards, because my mind keeps telling me that perhaps you love each other, but perhaps being with this person will put you back in a situation in which you are required to live your life in the outdated roles of former generations? 'Like Leave it to Beaver' kind of expectations?

Best wishes on however things turn out for you.

Emma
 

Teheuti

BlueLotus said:
I have noticed that it shows up in readings that have to do with Pensions, i.e. governmental hand outs, salaries ( through the state ), marriages in a love spread, law suits, and anything that deals with the role of government/state in any given situation
Very interesting. I've had it come up a couple of times where it referred to building inspectors - those who acted as an intermediatary and interpreter of a 'big book' of 'must-dos' and the general public who need to understand and follow the rules. Glad to know I'm not the only one with this pov.

Mary
 

Teheuti

WhiteRaven said:
I would like member's thoughts and interpretations when the Hierophant lands in an Outcome in a relationship spread. <snip> Does it really mean marriage for the most part?
It can suggest that teaching/learning will be a part of the outcome. I would ask the querent where he or she is in the card. This would tend to point up which aspect of the teacher/learner theme applies to him or her.

Mary
 

Moongold

I had a reading in January (my first real face to face reading) where the Hierophant came up as the central card in a reading using only majors. The reader was looking at the archetypal influences in my life.

Hierophant was central, flanked by the Empress on the left and the Devil on the right. The reader saw it as representing work for me at that time, and I think she was correct. Later events proved it to be so.

The reader used the very interesting technique of doing the archetypal energies reading first, and then doing a Celtic Cross to get more specific information. This further drew out the essence of the archetypal energies reading.

She also drew cards for each CC card, to tell us more about the prime card. I know I digress.

In this case, Hierophant represented a particular institution - the place and context of work.

In WR's reading (I too wish you had kept note of the surrounding cards!), Hierophant could mean institutionalizing or formalising the relationship in some way. Could that possibly be on the horizon?

I also see Hierophant as being a bridge between one (external) dimension and another (internal), and in this position it could be saying that that you may leave the old "institution" of your feelings and pass on to something different but more internally important.
 

Teheuti

Moongold said:
I also see Hierophant as being a bridge between one (external) dimension and another (internal), and in this position it could be saying that that you may leave the old "institution" of your feelings and pass on to something different but more internally important.
I like the idea of Hierophant as bridge between external and internal, but why would the outcome card be read as advice to leave and old institution for a new one? Couldn't it equally suggest remaining or adhering or even crossing a bridge toward an old, established institution? I'm truly interested in why one interpretation and not the other.

Mary
 

Moongold

Teheuti said:
I like the idea of Hierophant as bridge between external and internal, but why would the outcome card be read as advice to leave an old institution for a new one? Couldn't it equally suggest remaining or adhering or even crossing a bridge toward an old, established institution? I'm truly interested in why one interpretation and not the other.

Mary

Good question. I know a little of WR's relationship (or I used to - things may have changed) and I saw the card as suggesting that the two may need to put their relationship on a different emotional/spiritual footing. In other words leaving their own "institutionalized" manner of relating and moving on to something else.

This could happen on two levels. Firstly, that they might live together again, and secondly they might change the spiritual basis of their old relationship.

Sometimes people institutionalize their own relationships and then feel trapped.
 

wizzle

I believe that besides being a Pontifex, the Hierophant can signify both the inner and outter marriage/union. This would be in relationship to the card's

- attribution to Vav (nail)
- path between Chesad and Chockma (crossing the abyss)
- his function as inner guide/Holy Guardian Angel

Dion Fortune has said that it is actually 4 people who unite, not just two when there is a true union because we are each 2 people, the inner and the outter. So then the Hierophant could signify either the actualization of a soul union or the couple's aspiration toward such a union in addition to the legalized or physical union. Pretty obscure logic, I'm afraid. But it's easier to appreciate, if you take the sequence of steps in the cards with the higher numbered cards being lower on the paths

1. Devil - purely physical union/lust
2. Lovers - committment or legal obligations
3. Hierophant - soul union or marriage as sacrament

I'm not a member of any religious group myself, but have been giving a good deal of thought lately to the traditional sacraments and the part they play in our lives.

I find the Hierophant easier to understand and get along with if I remove the notion of dogma, i.e. his role as a simple authority figure who says do this or do that. Instead, I've come to see him as a symbol of what used to be called natural law by philosophers. He holds the key to this natural order and can impart it in his role as teacher/pontifex.
 

Teheuti

wizzle said:
3. Hierophant - soul union or marriage as sacrament
There's something called "solemnization" - which I know about because Florence Farr (of Golden Dawn fame) wrote a novel called _The Solemnization of Jacklin_. By definition it is "the public performance of a sacrament or solemn ceremony with all appropriate ritual; "the celebration of marriage." It invokes the force of religion & the sacred, and also indicates something is serious, grave or impressive. It also implies officialness.

So, one possibility for the Hierophant card is that it can point to the solemnization of something - which, at its deepest level, would be "making sacred."

Mary