Tarot card meanings · Major Arcana 5
What does The Hierophant mean in tarot?
In A. E. Waite's Pictorial Key to the Tarot (1910), the Hierophant upright means “mercy and goodness; inspiration”, and reversed “Society, good understanding, concord, over-kindness, weakness”.
Upright
Mercy and goodness; inspiration.Waite, The Pictorial Key to the Tarot, Part 3
Reversed
Society, good understanding, concord, over-kindness, weakness.Waite, The Pictorial Key to the Tarot, Part 3
What does the picture show?
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.Waite, The Pictorial Key to the Tarot, Part 2
Where does the Hierophant fall in a reading?
The Hierophant belongs to the Major Arcana. On this site you draw three cards, which take three of the places in the ten-card method Waite describes: “This covers him”, “This crosses him”, “This is before him”. The same card reads differently in each place, and the I Ching cast beside it may agree or disagree.
Ask one question. Draw three cards, and cast an I Ching hexagram beside them to see where East and West agree. Free.
Draw three cardsWaite's words are quoted as printed, and left out where they speak of money, law, illness or disaster. The pictures are the 1909 deck drawn by Pamela Colman Smith. For entertainment and self-reflection.