The Cathedral (The Hierophant)

In a reading

• Inner ethics and morals. Trusted knowledge, wanting to understand the rules and the way things are done.
• Looking for a spiritual path. Growing up by taking in other people’s experience and learning.
• Relationships: a traditional or official relationship, marriage, a church wedding — built on shared values, respect and trust. Loyalty to tradition. It also points to an advisor or mentor who can help a couple through a crisis.
• Career: success in teaching and consulting. Following the law.
• Money: steady, calls for an honest, ethical approach.

Shadow side

Being a bore. Pushing your values and morals on others. Blindly following rules that no longer work. Or deceit, quackery.

From the wider tradition

Not Tahmina’s own words: meanings common among other tarot readers, which she has reviewed and approved.

• The two acolytes at his feet — passing on knowledge, a mentor and students, initiation.
• The crossed keys — access to mysteries, spiritual authority, “the keys to the gates.”
• An official institution: the church, marriage and a church wedding, a diploma, a license, the government system, ritual.
• Conformity — going along with what’s accepted, belonging to a group (on the negative side — the pressure of “that’s how it’s done”).

Stage of the journey

The Hierophant is card V, the fifth step on the path from the Fool to the World. A person has already gone through the first stages of standing on their own and is now moving on to knowledge, a system of values and looking for meaning.

What a person has already been through. Before the Hierophant they went through the Fool — dared to walk into the unknown; the Magician — discovered their abilities and learned to act; the High Priestess — learned to hear their inner knowing; the Empress — started to create and make things real; the Emperor — learned to build structure, set boundaries and take responsibility. By now a person can do a lot on their own. But a new question comes up: “What am I actually basing my life on?”

The Hierophant is knowledge, learning, mentors, traditions, a worldview, spiritual and moral guideposts. It’s the moment when a person starts not just living and acting, but looking for a system that explains life to them.

Where the Hierophant leads — next come the Lovers, card VI. And it’s a shift from other people’s values, or ones you’ve absorbed, to your own choice. The Hierophant says: “Here are the knowledge, rules, traditions and values that exist.” And the Lovers ask: “Fine. But which of these do I actually choose?”

So the first six cards can be seen as step-by-step growth:

• The Fool: “I go.”
• The Magician: “I can.”
• The High Priestess: “I know.”
• The Empress: “I create.”
• The Emperor: “I’m responsible.”
• The Hierophant: “I understand what I believe in.”
• The Lovers: “And now I choose.”

The section above is the shadow side of the upright card — every card has one. I don’t read cards upside down — here is why.