The Hierophant Tarot Meanings Upright and Reversed Blog
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The Hierophant Tarot Card Meaning: Upright and Reversed Meanings & Breakdowns

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The Hierophant Tarot Card Keywords

Upright Keywords

Faith, Trust, Tradition, Morality, Belief systems, Commitment

Jump to upright meanings

Reversed Keywords

Rebellion, Freedom, Unconventional, Non-committal, Pesimism 

Jump to reversed meanings

The Hierophant Tarot Meaning

The Hierophant traditionally is a holy man or spiritual teacher. Today, we see this energy as the authority of the spirit, the personification of our beliefs, ideals and morals. Where The Emperor acts as a channel for our desires and human emotions to manifest physically, The Hierophant acts as a channel to help bring our spiritual selves down and out into the world. 

Often, The Hierophant’s meanings refer to spiritual teachings, and many people will interpret this as an external spiritual teacher, but it can also represent opening yourself up to spiritual development. This may involve challenging ignorance, increasing self-awareness and even challenging long-standing beliefs. 

The beauty of The Hierophant is that it’s a deeply holistic energy. It is able to take both the spiritual and physical into equal consideration. For example, The Hierophant is an energy that can help us rise above the material and take a bird’s eye view of a problem, so we can remove prejudice and see things for what they are, allowing us greater clarity and understanding. 

The Hierophant Upright Meaning

The Hierophant upright meanings ask us to pay attention to the self as a whole. To be able to balance your material world and spiritual/emotional world as one entity. When we are faced with The Hierophant upright, a great way to honour it is to make time for meditation or gentle movement. Something that grounds you in the present moment and allows for stillness. 

It’s in this stillness and by practising mindfulness that we find the clarity we are looking for. When thinking of The Hierophant, I find it helps to think of religious leaders we see out in the world. Whether it be the Pope or the Monks of Tibet, they may worship in different ways to different gods or no gods at all, but they all have an air of stillness about them. There is a peace that comes with spiritual learning, and that is what The Hierophant is encouraging us to seek out.

The Hierophant Card Upright - Pagan Otherworlds Deck

To embody The Hierophant, you can also work on self-development and building self-awareness. As well as meditation, reading self-help books or books that feed the spirit (for me, reading nature writing is a great tool for feeding the spirit) can be an excellent way to do some Hierophant upright work in your own time. Journaling is also another great tool, because it mirrors The Hierophant’s ability to take the intangible and make it tangible.

Journal Prompts for The Hierophant, Upright

In what areas could you work on building more self-awareness and understanding about the self?

How can you introduce more stillness into your life, and what effect might it have on your overall well-being?

How do you currently live in accordance with your core values and morals, and how could you expand this even further?

“…the mage of the psyche, who can understand matters of the human and spirit worlds, who delves into the distinctions between the psychic this and that in the unconscious.” – Clarissa Pinkola Estés

The Hierophant Upright Meanings | Love, Career & Finances

The Hierophant in a love reading may suggest a need for more ease and forgiveness for the flaws of others. It can be an invitation to be more like The Hierophant, taking a position that gives people more space to simply be human, make mistakes and not live to a strict ideal.

It can also suggest a more conservative or conventional approach to love or even the expectation of love. You may expect to find love in all the most obvious places, or through the traditional process of going on a date, then a few more, then commitment, etc. You may feel like in order for a relationship to ‘count’ it has to fit this classic narrative, but The Hierophant can also ask you to be open to things that don’t fit neatly into that framework.

In a career, reading The Hierophant upright may indicate a desire or need for a career that better balances your well-being and career goals. It’s a suggestion to review the balance you have currently and decide if you are prioritising one over the other too much.

It can also be a sign of a career in a spiritual or religious field. It may also be someone who offers advice or counsel to others. Perhaps you’ve always wanted to work in a role that allowed you to be yourself more or to have more people-centred experiences. You may find yourself drawn to jobs or work that allow you to feel a greater connection with the self or the lives of others.

In a financial reading, The Hierophant in the upright position could suggest a need to be less attached to material possessions and to analyse your connection between possessions and personal value. It asks you to look at the things that bring you joy and ask yourself, if everything else in the world fell away, what do you hope is the one thing left standing?

This card in a financial reading can also refer to more traditional forms of income. For example, you might get income from a 9-5 job or a job such as a doctor, nurse, firefighter, baker, the jobs that have been around for centuries and have a clear history and purpose to them.

In a self-development reading, The Hierophant upright asks us to spend time with the self, no distractions, no multi-tasking, just sitting with the self and having an inner dialogue. Check in with how you’re feeling and what is and isn’t working in your life. Where does the disharmony live, and what can be done about it?

You might find yourself asking more questions around what it is you feel you should want, and what it is you really do want. You may find yourself facing family trauma or generational trauma, or even facing beliefs that have been passed down from generation to generation. For example, there may be a belief in your family that a creative career can never pay for a full life. But if you really want to pursue a career in the arts, this passed-down belief could have a huge impact on you. Take time to review these ideas of what your life should be or should look like, and work on where they might be coming from.

The Hierophant Reversed Meaning

The Hierophant Tarot Card Reversed - Pagan Otherworlds Deck

The Hierophant reversed turns the balance and harmony of the card on its head. Instead of conforming and living in alignment with your morals and core values, you might rebel in order to fit into an ideal that you have for yourself. Maybe you’re going against your core beliefs because you want to fit into a specific group, or maybe you want to succeed in a way that doesn’t leave any room for authenticity or a moral compass. 

Of course, it could simply be that you’re looking for a more unconventional route, one that tests your boundaries and calls for experimentation when it comes to self-expression.

Maybe you’re not sure what your core values are right now, and so The Hierophant reversed is on hand to support you as you explore different avenues and hold you through things that may feel uncomfortable while you try and find the things that fit best. 

In the reversed position, The Hierophant holds a lot more uncertainty than its upright counterpart. This can easily feel overwhelming and unstable, but it’s also worth noting that instability isn’t always a bad thing, and sometimes we need to experience it in order to grow stronger and more self-assured.

Journal Prompts for The Hierophant, Reversed

What beliefs do you hold that don’t feel fully formed yet and need more time and attention?

How might you be living in a way that goes against who you feel you are at your core?

How could embracing instability help you to grow and develop as a person right now?

“There is a saying that when the student is ready, the teacher appears.” – Clarissa Pinkola Estés

The Hierophant Reversed Meanings | Love, Career & Finances

In a love reading, The Hierophant reversed can suggest a new romance that needs more time and patience to really settle. Maybe you’re even unsure about your compatibility, but only time will tell and trying to force it to be something it isn’t won’t help you find clarity any faster.

This card reversed can also suggest a less-than-traditional or conservative relationship. Maybe you are part of LGBTQIA+ or maybe you want to explore a non-monogamous relationship for a while? The timeline of your relationship may even seem back-to-front to those with more conservative views. You may find yourself having a baby with a partner before marriage, or you might decide to have a committed long-term relationship where marriage isn’t on the table.

If you’re single, it may be that The Hierophant reversed wants you to push your boundaries and explore partners you might not have usually chosen. Take your ‘type’ and throw it out the window to see what other kinds of people are out there that might be a better fit for you.

In a career reading, The Hierophant in the reversed position could be asking you to experiment more with your job role. Maybe you want a career change, but you’re not sure what to do? Being open to voluntary or internship work could help you make that final decision.

This card in reverse can also suggest a desire to a less conventional job. It may be that you don’t want to be tied to just one thing, you might want to have multiple income streams, whether it be from writing, painting, a side business, life coaching, whatever it may be that you feel you want to pursue, but others may see as being unusual or even risky.

In the reversed position, The Hierophant in a financial reading could suggest a need to explore what you spend your money on and your relationship to it. It may be that you’re leaning on financial abundance as a marker of success, in which case, how can you place this marker with something you have greater control over?

As mentioned in the career reading, this can also be a card that represents unconventional sources of income. It might be a surprise money prize, inheritance or even a tax rebate that you didn’t see coming. It can often feel like a blessing or come just in the nick of time, as something breaks at home or a surprise bill comes through your letterbox.

In a self-development reading, The Hierophant in reverse can point you to a need to explore your inner world more deeply. Perhaps there are deep desires and dreams you’ve had that you’ve been pushing away? Think about how you could make these a reality or bring them into existence.

There can be a great amount of conflict that comes with The Hierophant reversed, because it can mark a point where we want to challenge the status quo. We might find fault with “how things are done” and want to take up the mantle of rebel or disruptor. You might find that you’ve been put in a box up until this point and feel an overwhelming need to break out and forge your own path. In a lot of ways, this card can be a transitional point for forming a unique sense of self.

The Hierophant as the mage of the psyche 

As the earlier quote by Clarissa Pinkola Esté says, “the mage of the psyche” is the wise energy that straddles the world of the spiritual and the material.

Although a ‘mage’ is also called a Magician, The Hierophant embodies this archetype alongside the tarot card The Magician, because of its ability to incite change at a deep level. When working on the self, The Hierophant uses its deep level of understanding as a way to guide us towards expansion and moving into the next version of ourselves.

The Hierophant | Esoteric Correspondences

Astrological Sign

The Hierophant Tarot Meanings Taurus

Taurus

The sign of Taurus is one that showcases a great amount of strength and resilience. Just like The Hierophant, Taurus has a level of patience that can only come from a deep wisdom and grounded presence. 

Elemental Energy

Pentacles Meanings Earth

Elemental Earth

Due to its relation to Taurus, The Hierophant aligns with the elemental energy of earth. It’s this deeply rooted earth energy that gives The Hierophant the stillness and sense of peace that is needed for spiritual work.

Numerology

The Number Five Numerology Meanings

Number Five

In numerology, the number five often represents the number of humanity. It is the four classical elements (earth, wind, fire and water) working in perfect harmony with the final fifth element – Spirit.

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