Soul Card: The Heirophant

[loveheartlight]

When I first read Mary K. Greer's Tarot for your Self and calculated using numerology my Soul card, I was appalled. I got the Heirophant. I grew up religious, afraid of hell, and working my ass off to earn a mansion in heaven. I was hurt by the Church and did not want any part of it anymore. It was at the point of rejecting Religion when Tarot entered my life. Why is this card haunting me? Is this truly the lesson I have for this lifetime?

 

I am not a teacher by profession, but I have functioned as one. I teach workshops in acting (I'm an actor) and creative writing (I'm a novelist, too), and also am a volunteer as a Sunday School teacher. I did not finish college, but there are professors I cherish for the life lessons they have taught me. They have become friends.

 

Mostly, my teachers are books. The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron. The Second Circle by Patsy Rodenburg. Writing Down the Bones by Natalie Goldberg. The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle. I've had periods of utter adulation for what they taught, which then oscillate into inexplicable rebellion.

 

What I am realizing at this point is that I must address my own cynicism towards the teachers in my life. I must admit that as someone who suffers from depression, who was sexually abused as a child, who has addictions to self-destructive behavior, who longs for creative expression and fulfillment, who realized religion won't save me, that I am the best candidate to learn from all of these Heirophants that the Universe sent me to learn from. Humility is the best antidote to cynicism.

 

What is your Soul card? How has it showed itself significant in your life? If you care to share, please do.

 

Thanks for listening.

[Arch]

Yeah I have the Hierophant as soul card too, I also grew up religious.

So when I found out the Hierophant was my soulcard, I found it almost ironic.

 

For me it has come to represent my individual nature, and my constant love hate relationship with established structures.

The Hierophant is the keeper of structure, that tries to save it from a chaotic world after the Emperor has made it.

In the process it can be argued that as much evil as good is created.

The soul number of five also pulls in the four suits of fives for me, and the constant strife that they reflect.

 

I have covered some of the symbolism of the five in an article series I made in the article section here not long ago.

Check it out if you wish to know more about how I see this issue.

[loveheartlight]

Oh, yeah, having the 5s for the pips is no fun. A bit discouraging really. But I guess from strife we learn.

[zedekiel]

Thank you so much for your insightful view of your soul card @loveheartlight! The way you portray your journey with this card is really powerful and I'm glad you shared this topic on soul cards since I have only dabbled a bit with them.

My soul card is The Lovers which means that my Shadow card is The Devil. Just looking at the lovers, it's a very extremist card to have. Months ago my mom said to me "ever since you were young, you were never in the middle. You were always too much or too little, feeling a lot or feeling nothing." That felt a little profound to hear because I didn't know my tendencies in that regard went that far back. The Lovers card scares me a bit, as I have not had a good run with romance in my 24 years of being alive (although I know the card leans heavily towards choice and duality rather than love in the romantic category) so I've strayed a bit from focusing on it. I always feel like I'll become too wishful if I think about it too often but I just drew it as my "hopes/fears" position in a Celtic Cross and it very much is both a "hope" and "fearful" card for me. Strange how The Devil also made an appearance in this spread at this moment? I feel as though I was supposed to delve a little into these cards through this soul card discussion after getting a spread like this!

[loveheartlight]

Hi there, zedekiel! As I thought about it I realize that yes, the Lovers card can be very extremist, and not just mean duality and choices, as is commonly held traditional interpretation. The Devil then seems to show what happens when you become shackled to one "extreme" choice. And that's also why "Temperance" becomes a wonderful quality to learn. How synchronous that it showed up as your ninth card in your Celtic Cross spread. I think that makes total sense for most of us. Our individual Soul cards will feel at home in the hopes/fears position. Thanks for sharing.

 

 

Edited September 27, 2019 by loveheartlight

[zedekiel]

3 hours ago, loveheartlight said:

Hi there, zedekiel! As I thought about it I realize that yes, the Lovers card can be very extremist, and not just mean duality and choices, as is commonly held traditional interpretation. The Devil then seems to show what happens when you become shackled to one "extreme" choice. And that's also why "Temperance" becomes a wonderful quality to learn. How synchronous that it showed up as your ninth card in your Celtic Cross spread. I think that makes total sense for most of us. Our individual Soul cards will feel at home in the hopes/fears position. Thanks for sharing.

 

 

It's funny that you say that as Temperance is a card I've found myself very drawn to in the Majors. It's one of my 2 favourites! Unexpectedly so since in the past I haven't usually been interested in the themes that Temperance provokes. I wonder if I've matured in the past few years to get to a point where my Lovers' tendencies understand the value of Temperance, when before I was more prone to indulging in the Lovers traits unfiltered, which probably resulted in the Devil gaining control numerous times aha

[loveheartlight]

Ahahaha! Perhaps you have indeed matured some, and often when we do something good for our souls we are the last people to recognize and acknowledge that in ourselves. We don't celebrate or give ourselves a pat in the back for strides we make, however big or small. Why that is, I don't know.

[zedekiel]

13 hours ago, loveheartlight said:

Ahahaha! Perhaps you have indeed matured some, and often when we do something good for our souls we are the last people to recognize and acknowledge that in ourselves. We don't celebrate or give ourselves a pat in the back for strides we make, however big or small. Why that is, I don't know.

Well, that sounds about as good enough a reason as any to give myself a pat on the back ahaha!

Do you think there's a card in your case that would help bring down the heirophant's extreme traits, or the traits of that card that cause a person to struggle in life? maybe you've mastered some a bit as well by this point!

[loveheartlight]

I honestly can't think of any. Perhaps the Temperance can help me there, too. Or perhaps I just need to dive deep enough into the Heirophant and make my peace with him. I'd like to send you Heirophants from my favorite decks, Tarot Illuminati and the Patch Tarot by Spirit Science.

 

Edited September 28, 2019 by loveheartlight

[loveheartlight]

This one is by Patch Tarot, my favorite deck of all time.

 

Edited September 28, 2019 by loveheartlight

[Guest libra]

One aspect of The Hierophant that I don't see resulted about quite so much is them as a curator of information. Once upon a time, we didn't have smartphones in our pocket, many people may not have been able to read, and even if they could, important information was often in Latin. An average person would be reliant on their religious leader to have learned that information and share it. What did get shared would be curated through this version of a Hierophant, based on what they felt needed to be known by their followers. 

 

These days, we can suffer from information overload. It can be hard to know where to dig to get the knowledge we need and to know what information is good and what may have just been made to look legit. A Hierophant these days could be a podcaster or blogger or author or teacher or even just a parent who curate that information and shares it in a concise and relatable way. 

 

Maybe adding a view like this to your understanding of Hierophant might help you see it as a bigger thing than the religious box you've left in your past! 

[zedekiel]

@loveheartlight Those are great versons of the Hierophant! The Illuminati one is interesting with the child turning into the adult. That's a really neat way of viewing the connection between ourselves and higher selves and what happens when we embrace the higher self and grow into it. The Patch Tarot one is really beautiful as well, with all the colours, light, and the figure holding the Ankh for Life. Thank you for sharing!

On 9/28/2019 at 10:59 AM, libra said:

These days, we can suffer from information overload. It can be hard to know where to dig to get the knowledge we need and to know what information is good and what may have just been made to look legit. A Hierophant these days could be a podcaster or blogger or author or teacher or even just a parent who curate that information and shares it in a concise and relatable way.

That's such an interesting and cool way of looking at it! You're right, as time passes we are going to have new versions of the social positions we had before, and seeing the Hierophant as a podcaster, blogger, or other personality that we trust to filter the information of the world through their personhood and give to us is incredibly accurate to the original meaning! That's such an awesome observation, thank you!

[loveheartlight]

Thanks for pointing that out! Yes, the Heirophant is a repository of information available for the asking. Perhaps the High Priestess holds esoteric knowledge, but the Heirophant has knowledge and is more readily available for consultation.

 

My mom called me up a few days ago. She lives on the other side of the world from where I am and we communicate via Viber. We talked about her favorite preachers and authors (she's a Christian) and I found our conversation refreshing. I thought, why yes, my mom is sort of a Heirophant to me, as well as the radio shows and authors she listens and reads.