The Hierophant

Quick answer

The core meaning of The Hierophant is Spiritual guidance. Upright, it usually points to Tradition, faith, education, spiritual guidance, belonging. Symbolizes following; reversed, it may suggest Challenging tradition, unconventional beliefs, hypocritical advice, rebellion. M.

Card imagery

The Hierophant, robed in three vestments, sits between two stone pillars wearing a triple crown. His left hand holds a triple-cross staff, his right is raised in blessing. Two crossed keys lie at his feet, and two acolytes kneel before him.

Upright meaning

Tradition, faith, education, spiritual guidance, belonging. Symbolizes following established social conventions or seeking the help of traditional wisdom.

Reversed meaning

Challenging tradition, unconventional beliefs, hypocritical advice, rebellion. May indicate breaking with convention, or feeling constrained by dogma.

Love, Career, Money and Growth

Love

In love, The Hierophant points to Spiritual guidance. Read it back against how the relationship actually behaves and what you are both choosing.

Career

In career matters, The Hierophant points to Spiritual guidance. Start by working out which resources you control and what your next move is.

Money

In money matters, The Hierophant points to Spiritual guidance. Do not treat a symbolic reading as an investment conclusion — go by facts, budget and your own risk tolerance.

Personal growth

For personal growth, The Hierophant points to Spiritual guidance. Write down the question it raises, then turn that into an action you can actually check.

Yes or No

Upright

Yes

Reversed

Undecided

This is our own quick read, based on which way the card’s meaning leans. Traditions disagree about individual cards, and an "Undecided" needs to be weighed against the position in the spread and your actual situation rather than taken as a one-word answer.

Waite’s Original Text (1911)

Inner Symbolism (original)

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. In his left hand he holds a scepter terminating in the triple cross, and with his right hand he gives the well-known ecclesiastical sign which is called that of esotericism, distinguishing between the manifest and concealed part of doctrine. It is noticeable in this connection that the High Priestess makes no sign. At his feet are the crossed keys, and two priestly ministers in albs kneel before him. He has been usually called the Pope, which is a particular application of the more general office that he symbolizes. He is the ruling power of external religion, as the High Priestess is the prevailing genius of the esoteric, withdrawn power. The proper meanings of this card have suffered woeful admixture from nearly all hands. Grand Orient says truly that the Hierophant is the power of the keys, exoteric orthodox doctrine, and the outer side of the life which leads to the doctrine; but he is certainly not the prince of occult doctrine, as another commentator has suggested.

He is rather the summa totius theologiæ, when it has passed into the utmost rigidity of expression; but he symbolizes also all things that are righteous and sacred on the manifest side. As such, he is the channel of grace belonging to the world of institution as distinct from that of Nature, and he is the leader of salvation for the human race at large. He is the order and the head of the recognized hierarchy, which is the reflection of another and greater hierarchic order; but it may so happen that the pontiff forgets the significance of this his symbolic state and acts as if he contained within his proper measures all that his sign signifies or his symbol seeks to show forth. He is not, as it has been thought, philosophy—except on the theological side; he is not inspiration; and he is not religion, although he is a mode of its expression.

Original Upright Meaning

Marriage, alliance, captivity, servitude; by another account, mercy and goodness; inspiration; the man to whom the Querent has recourse.

Original Reversed Meaning

Society, good understanding, concord, over-kindness, weakness.

Quoted from A. E. Waite, The Pictorial Key to the Tarot (1911), illustrated by Pamela Colman Smith. The text is in the public domain.