Tarot Of The Day June 25 2018 - Day 7: The Raven’s Prophecy Deck - The Hierophant

Tarot Of The Day June 25 2018 - Day 7: The Raven’s Prophecy Deck - The Hierophant

I have begun the creation of an 89 day tarot course in a group I am a member of on Facebook ('A Kaleidoscope of Magical Perceptions' is the name of the group, please feel free to request membership - it is full of fun people and really great posts about all manner of topics) and I thought I would cross post the information here to this blog as well. Once the initial 89 days of the course have passed, it will start over using a different tarot deck. The text of the seventh session follows.

The Hierophant  in the Rider-Waite deck is another enthroned man, and visually looks very much like the previous card, the Emperor. He sits in a stone throne, flanked by two pillars, but this time is inside a building - probably a Church - and not out in nature. Before him, as he holds his scepter, and raises two fingers above his head, two followers with bald pates appear to kneel. One of them wears a robe embellishes with roses, the other with lilies., and between them are two crossed keys.  If this looks familiar, know that the Hierophant card was once known as The Pope card!

The Rider Waite booklet listes the following keywords for the Hierophant: marriage alliance, captivity, servitude, mercy and goodness, inspiration, the man to whom the querent has recourse (upright,) society, good understanding, concord, over-kindness, and weakness (reversed.)

Maggie Stiefvater depicts the Hierophant as a lit lantern with 7 lights surrounding it in the darkness. Before I look at her description, I feel that perhaps the reason she chose a lantern to depict  the Hierophant is because the Hierophant, once the Pope, is the guiding light, morally and spiritually.

Let’s see what she said:

“It seems strange that religion - structure, rules, tradition - is the external manifestation of something as nebulous as spirituality, but perhaps that’s the only way we humans can cope with the possibility of something too big and too other to contain inside ourselves. The Hierophant is the external form of the High Priestess, and so, as expected, often represents religion or a person positioned as a religious authority. He is all about upholding the conventional establishment. Not just upholding, but growing it. The art on the card shows the spiritual glow of the soul safely contained in a lantern, safely contained in a way that makes it easier to pass from hand to hand. “

Maggie’s keywords for the Hierophant are teacher, religion, and conformity.

Tomorrow - The Lovers

***TOTD will cover the entire 78 card Raven’s Prophecy Deck alongside the Rider-Waite deck for comparison. In order to not completely burn out, this course of lessons will be 89 days long, so that every Saturday I can break the lessons up by doing a practicum lesson. Practicum lessons will take the form of a layout or spread that I will walk you through the steps of interpretation for. After the first 89 day session ends, we will start over with a one day break for a poll to be done to see what deck everyone wants to see next round. ***