Rosetta Tarot - The Hierophant V

[GoldenWolf]

The Hierophant wears a red hat with a green cobra around it. Since the cobra is around the third eye and rearing up as if to strike, I'm going to hazard a guess that it means that the brow chakra is open and active here. He holds a black and gold/yellow striped crook and flail, which are crossed before him like the keys in other versions of this card. The LWB says that these represent Mercy and Justice. Behind him is a light and darker pillar on either side of him like the ones in The Priestess card.

There is a pentagram behind him and a hexagram in this card. I know these symbols are in in the Crowley-Harris Thoth deck and they represent the initiation of the knowledge and conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel so I assume it means the same thing here.

I get a bit lost with the Kerubic beasts here. I know that Crowley reordered them at least in this card. The lion (Leo/fixed fire) is in the lower right-hand corner. The bull (Taurus/fixed earth) is in the lower left-hand corner. I know he designated Scorpio (fixed water) with an angel or a man. Is that the Hierophant himself? So then is the white bird that he is looking at the eagle that Crowley assigned to Aquarius (fixed air)? I'd be glad to hear any input or clarification on this.

[Babalon Jones]

Here is a picture for the thread.

There is some purposeful ambiguity going on with the Kerubic beasts.

Scorpio is represented as the Serpent entwining his headdress.

The white bird which the man gazes at is Aquarius, but it is a dove.

The man himself is which? That is the question.

"There is the dove, and there is the serpent. Choose ye well!"