The Hierophant

  • Arcana Major
  • Number V
  • Figure on this site Forseti, keeper of justice
Historical evidence

In the earliest decks

Tarot began in northern Italy in the first half of the fifteenth century, first as a card game with extra picture cards called trumps. The fifth trump is known in the Italian tradition as the Pope (Il Papa), a figure of church authority, not a magician or a priest of any ancient mystery religion. In the Tarot de Marseille, the standard French pattern, the card is likewise called the Pope, and it is numbered V.

The surviving early decks do not all agree on which trumps they contain or in what order. The best known group, the Visconti-Sforza decks associated with Milan, dates from roughly the 1450s to the 1460s. The Pierpont Morgan-Bergamo deck, dated to about 1451, has 20 trumps, but two of them (the Devil and the Tower) are missing, and the other surviving sets are far less complete. Because of these gaps, and because early trumps were often unnumbered and their order was not fixed, this site does not claim that every fifteenth-century deck showed the Pope as card five or in the same form.

The Pope in the Marseille tradition appears as a robed, crowned churchman, shown beside the Papess (later the High Priestess), who wears a different colour scheme.

Historical evidence

The Rider-Waite-Smith card

The Rider-Waite-Smith deck was first published in December 1909 by William Rider & Son in London, with a larger printing in 1910. Pamela Colman Smith drew it following instructions from A. E. Waite. Here the fifth trump is called the Hierophant instead of the Pope. In his companion book Waite describes a figure in a triple crown, seated between two pillars, which he says are not the pillars of the Temple shown with the High Priestess. The figure holds a sceptre topped with a triple cross and makes a hand sign, with crossed keys at his feet and two kneeling priests in front of him. Waite says the card is usually called the Pope, but presents it as the ruler of outward, institutional religion, in contrast to the High Priestess, who stands for the hidden side.

Myth and literature · Quotation

Waite’s description

He wears the triple crown and is seated between two pillars, but they are not those of the Temple which is guarded by the High Priestess. In his left hand he holds a sceptre terminating in the triple cross, and with his right hand he gives the well-known ecclesiastical sign which is called that of esotericism, distinguishing between the manifest and concealed part of doctrine. It is noticeable in this connexion that the High Priestess makes no sign. At his feet are the crossed keys, and two priestly ministers in albs kneel before him. He has been usually called the Pope, which is a particular application of the more general office that he symbolizes. He is the ruling power of external religion, as the High Priestess is the prevailing genius of the esoteric, withdrawn power. The proper meanings of this card have suffered woeful admixture from nearly all hands. Grand Orient says truly that the Hierophant is the power of the keys, exoteric orthodox doctrine, and the outer side of the life which leads to the doctrine; but he is certainly not the prince of occult doctrine, as another commentator has suggested. […]

Myth and literature · Context

Later meanings

The name Hierophant is a later addition. It was popularised in occult circles by the French writer Antoine Court de Gébelin in the eighteenth century. He wanted to remove the Christian look of the Marseille cards, and he wrongly believed the tarot came from ancient Egypt. He took the word from the chief priest of the Eleusinian Mysteries in ancient Greece. Historical evidence places the invention of tarot in Italy.

In the nineteenth century Éliphas Lévi tied the trumps to the letters of the Hebrew alphabet, and the Golden Dawn later revised that scheme and added astrological correspondences. Secondary sources say the Golden Dawn linked the Hierophant to the letter Vau and the sign Taurus. These are modern occult systems, not part of the card's origin.

Modern interpretation

As read on this site

This is the meaning used for readings here. Using the tarot to divine is a modern practice, and the Norse figure shown for each card is this site’s own association; the tarot began as an Italian card game. A short history is on the Tarot page.

Upright

Keywords: tradition, fairness, established wisdom, mentorship, precedent

Forseti settled disputes not by inventing new rules but by knowing the old ones cold enough to apply them fairly. This card honors tradition — not blind adherence, but the accumulated wisdom of people who solved this exact kind of problem before you were born. There's something here worth learning from precedent: a mentor, an established practice, a structure that's survived this long because it actually works. You don't have to reinvent everything from scratch.

In general: An old method, rule, or piece of advice has more to offer than its age suggests. Respect what's already been figured out.

In love: A relationship that benefits from honoring tradition or convention — a shared ritual, a structure that's worked for others before you and might work for you too.

In work: Following established process pays off here. The system exists because someone already made the mistakes you're trying to avoid.

Reversed

Keywords: rigid tradition, outdated rules, conformity for its own sake, stagnation

Doctrine has an expiration date that nobody writes on the label. What was once wise counsel curdles into dead weight the moment it stops fitting the actual situation in front of you — when 'this is how it's always been done' becomes the whole argument, with no room for what's actually true now. Forseti's gift was judgment, not just memory. If the old rule and the present reality have stopped agreeing, trust the present reality.

In general: A rule, habit, or convention you're following has stopped serving the purpose it was built for. Following it anyway isn't loyalty, it's inertia.

In love: Clinging to 'how relationships are supposed to work' instead of noticing how this one actually does. The map isn't the territory.

In work: Process that exists to be followed rather than to serve the outcome. Question the rule that everyone follows but nobody can explain.

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