What do you think of the word "hierophant"?

[rachelcat]

"Hierophant" was the word of the day on Sunday. (I get a daily email.)

Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Day May 18

hierophant
\HYE-uh-ruh-fant\
noun

Meaning
1 : a priest in ancient Greece; specifically : the chief priest of the Eleusinian mysteries
2 *a : a person who explains : commentator b : a person who defends or maintains a cause or proposal : advocate

Example Sentence
“Very few women can be coerced into spending $4,000 for green leather trousers embroidered with silver petals … simply because some fashion hierophant declares it a trend.” (Cathy Horyn, The New York Times, March 30, 1999)

Did you know?
"Hierophant," "hieroglyphics," and "hierarch" have a common root: "hieros," a Greek word meaning "sacred." "Hieroglyphics" joins “hieros” with a derivative of "glyphein," the Greek verb for "carve." "Hierarch," a word that can refer to a religious leader in a position of authority, joins "hieros" with a derivative of "archein," meaning "to rule." "Hierophant" itself joins the root with a derivative of "phainein," which means "to show." The original hierophants were priests of the ancient Greek city of Eleusis who performed sacred rites. In the 17th century, when the word was first documented in English, it referred to these priests. By the 19th century, English speakers were using the term in a broader sense. A "hierophant" can now be a spokesperson, a commentator, an interpreter, or a leading advocate.

I was always kind of uncomfortable with this as a tarot card name. And it's my birthday card, too. It seemed kind of phony and pretentiously, self-conciously "magicKal" to me. (That's because I thought it was made up by the Golden Dawners.) But the alternatives are problematic, too: Pope? Pape? Priest? High Priest? None of them sound great . . .

But now that I see it is an actual Greek word, it looks better to me. I also like definition 2b: "a person who defends or maintains a cause or proposal : advocate." My mind is changing, slowly but surely!

What is your relationship to the word?

 

[Lillie]

Mainly that I can't spell it.

It's better than Pope.

For me Pope just stinks of christianity, which always irritates me.

If someone could think of a third word, without the christian connotations of pope, and with out the pretention of heirophant, then it would be nice.

High priest???
How would that do?

 

[berrieh]

If someone could think of a third word, without the christian connotations of pope, and with out the pretention of heirophant, then it would be nice.

Sometimes I think it should just be called Teacher or Guide. That's what I really think of when I see this card.

I mean, he's got Taurus energy, which while having the romanticism of Venus, does mean he's an earthy guy at heart, trying to bring these spiritual solutions down to earth.

Shaman works in limited capacity. Advocate, I can see as well. But teaching and guiding (for better or worse) is really what he's about. Simple enough. So, I always wonder how he got so fancy.

 

[poivre]

hierophant...someone with some kind of knowledge

I wish they would give this card a new name also!

ros

 

[elvenstar]

I like it. It means he who reveals/shows the sacred and I have no problem with that. It doesn't have bossy and manipulative connotations, like the Pope does for me, it brings to mind the better aspects of the card.

 

[GryffinSong]

I like advocate or guide better. Hierophant sounds so formal, and it rhymes with elephant, which just sounds silly. So many folks have no clue what it means that in a contemporary deck it seems a little bizarre. I don't mind it in the context of historical decks.

 

[moderndayruth]

High priest???
How would that do?

Sounds better to me
I've been thinking when my book is published with Em's (Sidhe Ra) Tarot of Black Mountains, shall i leave the names in English, leave the traditional interpretations into Serbian or try to come up with something better?
Pope and Hermit are my major concerns, the Pope for all the reasons Lillie posted and especially that Catholicism is not not spread here and most of the people have no relation to the symbolysm at all... (Apart that the first association usually is 'oh, that's the guy we don't recognise
in our traditon' )
Than Hermit in Serbian is 'Pustinjak', wich literally means 'desert ascetic' and has pejorative conotations in the spoken language denoting someone weird ... I don't think it's a good name interpretation at all - we don't have deserts anywhere close, this kind of ascetism is associated with Eastern traditions and i think under this 'title' it's difficult to integrate it into local frame of mind...
Maybe 'Seeker' or related synonym would be an option?
(Sorry if bit off-toppic )

 

[Aladdin]

Hierophant -

The boss, the "Godfather" and controler of hidden and very powerful syndicates who makes things happen when the right questions are asked after an agreed amount of cash or other compensation has been delivered.
I also believe this card has higher meanings but one way or another, the former appears to me more than the latter.

 

[Maelin]

I've grown to like the Heirophant, mostly as I've gotten older . Not that I'm any wiser, but I've been burned enough to appreciate the insight of the guy who knows the way things really work - the rules and secrets. That's the Heirophant. He isn't in charge, not the boss the way the Emporer is, but the fellow at the office who knows which forms are necessary, and which you can skip, and who gets the meeting time because he knows that teh schedule is really run by the CEO's admin - he has the sacred knowledge, whatever the context.

I like the term Heirophant precisely because it isn't well known, and doesn't have the automatically positive connotations of a Shaman or Mentor. After all, what do you do when the card is reversed? The Heirophant knows the rules, whether he passes them to you for your benefit, or uses them against you for his or someone else's depends on the other cards in the reading.

 

[Alamaris]

I love the word "hierophant" and all the images it calls forth. For me, "Pope" or "Priest" is quite religious enough, if I was so inclined, but I don't like the terms as much as "hierophant". "Mentor" is too friendly; "shaman" calls up images of so-called 'modern' or 'self initated' white shamans; "teacher" is too broad; and "high priest" seems too ritualistic (for example, Mayan and Incan High Priests presiding over sacrificial ceremonies).

A "Hierophant", in the context of a tarot deck, is another species entirely, which seems to have been tailored especially for the symbolism of divination. He is not a priest or pope, nor a monk; he is not a teacher or a tutor; he is not a saint or a devil. He is the archetype of priestly wisdom, perhaps, and a symbol of the chains with which religion can bind us, but he is not a religious figure.

Just my thoughts.