The Hierophant
The Magus of the Eternal
The teacher and the tradition: inner meaning handed on through form, patiently.
| Trump | V of the 22 (Atu) |
|---|---|
| Letter | ו Vau, “nail”, value 6, Simple letter |
| Path | Path 16, Chokmah to Chesed |
| Astrology | ♉︎ Taurus, fixed Earth, Apr 21 – May 20 |
| Old title | The Magus of the Eternal |
| Rider-Waite | The Hierophant |
| Colour | Red orange (King scale) |
In a reading
Teaching, tradition, initiation, the transmission of a lineage; help from an established institution or teacher; the inner voice that speaks with authority. Badly placed: dogma, false piety, the form kept after the spirit has gone.
Working with the card
| Do | Learn from what has lasted; teach what you have actually lived. |
|---|---|
| Bring | Patience, endurance, respect for the method. |
| Beware | Dogma, obedience without understanding, the guru pose. |
| Ask | Whose voice am I treating as law, and has it earned that? |
Correspondences
On the card
A hooded pontiff enthroned on a bull holds a wand of three interlaced rings, with the four kerubic beasts (bull, lion, eagle, man) at the corners. Before him stands a woman girt with a sword, the Scarlet Woman; a child in a pentagram shines on his breast; an elephant stands beneath the throne; a serpent and a dove flank the nine nails above.
Kabbalah
Vau, the nail, on path 16 from Chokmah to Chesed: the nail that fastens the wisdom of the Father to the mercy of the King, the link between the supernal and the world of order. Vau is also the Son in the Tetragrammaton, the mediating power.
Astrology
Taurus, fixed Earth, ruled by Venus with the Moon exalted: endurance, fertility, the pleasure of stable things. The decans of Taurus are the Five, Six and Seven of Disks.
Number
Five, and Vau's value 6. Five is Motion, the pentagram, the microcosm entering matter; six is the hexagram and the Son. The card joins them as the initiator who brings the macrocosm into the human.
Depth psychology
The Wise Old Man in his institutional dress, and the persona of religious and social authority. Jungian readers ask whether the Hierophant is a genuine mediator of the Self or a collective mask; the child in the pentagram suggests the former.
Thoth and Rider-Waite
Waite's pope blesses two tonsured monks; Crowley replaces them with the Scarlet Woman and the child, making the card an image of the New Aeon's initiation rather than the Old Aeon's church.
The sign in depth
| Dates | Apr 21 – May 20 |
|---|---|
| Type | Fixed Earth |
| Ruler | Venus |
| Exalts | Moon |
| Weakens | Mars (detriment) |
| Motto | “I have” |
| Body | Throat, neck |
| Opposite | Scorpio, Death |
| Gifts | Patience, loyalty, sensuality, steadiness, practical skill, love of beauty |
| Shadow | Stubbornness, possessiveness, laziness, materialism, resistance to change |
More in the astrology chapters: Taurus.
Related cards
Pairs with
The decans of Taurus
- ☿︎Five of Disks WorryMercury, Apr 21–30
- ☽︎Six of Disks SuccessThe Moon, May 1–10
- ♄︎Seven of Disks FailureSaturn, May 11–20
Courts ruling Taurus
Other paths touching Chokmah
Other paths touching Chesed
Correspondences follow the Golden Dawn system as used in Crowley's Book of Thoth and Liber 777. Paintings by Lady Frieda Harris, © Ordo Templi Orientis. Where sources differ.