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Both The Nontraditional Thoth Tarot and the Traditional Tarot of Medieval art, display a Pontiff- like personage, which in Tarot is the universal principle of learning and teaching. This universal principle was well explained in the publication of The-Course in Miracles:

"As you teach so will you learn." If that is true, and it is true indeed, do not forget that what you teach is teaching you." The Thoth Tarot Hierophant is an image of a Sumerian Priest rather than a Pope.

The Tarot-Key 5: The Hierophant, refers to the Hebrew letter Vau which when translated to English means Nail. The Hebrew letter Vau is displayed on the Thoth Tarot Card at the lower left hand bottom corner. Here, the Hierophant is a Sumerian Priest who works with the Matriarch Isis/Innana. On the Thoth Tarot, nine nails, reinforcing this meaning, appear at the top of this card, fixing the oriel behind the main figure. The Oriel is a window in a Cathedral, which is built over the altar and represents the Virgin Mary and/or the Goddess. This is not a universe of male dominance, but rather a Universe of Birth and Expression: Of She and He. He, being the "other", not so much the limited idea of gender, but rather the actions of energy as expression (he) and receptive enclosure (she).

The zodiacal reference to the Hierophant is Taurus, whose very nature is that of elephants, thus the corresponding figures of the pachyderm are shown behind the main Thoth Tarot figure, who is also seated on a Bull, a western representation of Taurus. The Bull of Taurus and the Papal Bull are both cleverly displayed on this card.

Around The Thoth Hierophant, at the four corners of the card, are the four Kerubs or beasts, which are the guardians to every shrine. But no matter how many symbols one sees on this card, the uniting of the Macrocosm with the Microcosm, the nails, is the main reference and principal business of this card's occult mystery.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

An oriel window is a form of bay window which projects from the main wall of a building but does not reach to the ground. Supported by corbels, brackets or similar, an oriel window is most found projecting from an upper floor but is also sometimes used on the ground floor.

Oriel windows are seen in Arab architecture in the form of mashrabiya. In Islamic culture these windows and balconies project from the street front of houses, providing an area in which women could peer out and see the activities below while remaining invisible.

On the Thoth Tarot-Hierophant, the oriel is diaphanous; looking closely, you can see before the Manifester of the Mystery (Arcanum= mystery) a Hexagram which represents the Macrocosm.

• In the Thoth Card's center, looking as if part of the Hierophant's robe, is a pentagram, representing a dancing male child. 
• The Dancing Child represents the New Aeon of the child Horus that has supplanted the Aeon of the "Dying God", and/or Age of Osiris and the Archon's patriarchy, which has governed the world for two thousand years.
• Before The Thoth Hierophant is a female figure, girdled with a sword, who not only represents the "Dark Isis", or Scarlet Woman (Death Goddess with her sickle) or as Crowley called her "The Militant Venus". She is the Ereshkigal of the Sumerian myth of Inanna and her sister Ereshkigal.

The Scarlet Woman is another name for this "Blood Goddess", or the Militant Venus (the Feminine Mars) and was a major interest of Crowley's magical pursuits, and a great deal of study is needed just to begin understanding this Macrocosmic phenomenon. The book by Peter Gray, THE RED GODDESS, will assist the serious student in their research.

• On the Thoth Tarot, The Scarlet Woman symbolism is further carried out by the image of a 5 petaled rose behind the phallic headdress of the Hierophant. 
• The images of the Serpent and Dove refer to Crowley's [Book of Law--chap.1, verse 57]: "there are love and love. There is the dove and there is the serpent." Again, more study is advised.
• She is of the Hierarchy of the new Aeon but also that of the sign of Venus, the ruler of the sign of Taurus.

However, to truly know this Underworld Goddess, is to let her consume what you think is male or female. Something the Sumerian myth of Inanna and Ereshkigal is all about. I would, therefore, recommend HIGHLY the book:

The Dark Indigo starry sky of Nuit (the Egyptian goddess-womb of all phenomena) forms the background of the Thoth Tarot card. Since this card represents the sign of Taurus, the\Bull Kerub (Cherub) represents Earth in its strongest and most balanced form.

The letter Vau or Vav not only has the meaning of nail or hook but is also the simple letter meaning, hearing. The Hebrew story that Vau represents is:

When a man or woman who commits any of man's sins, by committing treachery toward God and that person shall become guilty-they shall confess the sin that they committed he shall make restitution for his guilt in its principal amount and add unto it a fifth and give it to the one to whom he is indebted.

Numbers 5:6-7

This Jewish concept of atonement and confession, in which a person is dishonest regarding financial issues---as an affront to both the victim and God and where God requires the abuser to repent, confess and pay back the money he's stolen with interest before forgiveness is given, seems rather odd in this placement on the Tree of Life ( Vau leads from Chesed to Chokmah and is the uppermost Path on the Pillar of Mercy). But consider this----earthly abuses and their thoughts of another (survival mind errors) block our perceptions so that we cannot expand and liberate our self-conscious to that of our Soul/Psyche. However, this expansion and liberation is not an ascension, rather it is a descension into the deep recesses of self.

The fact that the Golden Dawn documents describe this path as, "The Zodiac acting through Taurus upon Jupiter," may shed some light on this word/letter Vau, as Taurus is an earth sign and jupiter is the benevolent god. Esoterically, this is the action of Chokmah, as the spermatozoa potential of the manifest universe, upon the first manifestation; Chokmah as Chesed (mercy) is the Father in manifestation and/or demiurge. The Word Mercy gives us a clue to this path's inner access.

Hence, to "walk the Path of Vau", can only be done with a "clean slate" and this requires self-honesty and trusting the mercy of your creator which is best done by recognizing our short comings and confessing them to our Higher Self and/or "Holy Guardian Angel". This gets the blocks out of the way, opening up the "River of Mercy" so that it may flow and revive us as the First Sensual Person of the Macrocosm, who has entered into the Microcosm (Chesed is the Yod of the Microcosm--Yod being the Intelligence of Will.

What may come as a surprise to most of us, is that We are Spirit/the Energy of Life---who makes bodies alive! We have sought "Enfleshenment" but to do so we have had to "Walk down the Tree of Life", ever becoming a more condensed form of light, to arrive in the realm of Malkuth (Kingdom), the place of physical manifestation. All for Sensual Reasons!

As immortal and infinite consciousness, we must do the laborious task of "Expanding and Liberating" the "earthly mortal consciousness" of the microcosm by remembering our Macrocosmic Conscious-Self, while still empowering a living form on Earth with experienced understanding of death. You see, the goal has been reached, the whole of the Tree of Life, has condensed into the realm of Malkuth. We are not here for a specific purpose; we are the Purpose!

 This is a tough job, when you remember that the "animal mind" is a survival mind and therefore a "slave mind"---all based on good and bad ("what doesn't hurt and what does hurt") right and wrong ("what will get me punished and what won't get me punished"). To walk back up through the various conscious states of our Psyche, we must divorce ourselves of our mental knowing of Self and surrender to the experience of the body self, and then accept mortality as a legitimate lover and friend. In other words, to experience the deep dark She and to release ourselves from the comfortable mental control of thought and emotion as He and/or "enlightenment".

To expand perspectives is to "open the mind" to vulnerability and we need to understand and/or atone for our actions and resulting guilt for "preying on each other" to avoid pain. Fear of vulnerability is the "Kingdom" from which we direct our physical lives....and emotional discomfort is feelings of vulnerability and is often experienced as emotional pain. To confront our "fear of pain", to reach atonement ((at-one-ment) is to "sit down" with our fears in the depth of our internal dark catacombs and " to correct these fears as neither good nor bad, but by the love and understandable Mercy of Chesed/Jupiter.

As a Mind, I ask much of my body, and often ignore its cries of mortal fear in the repressed darkness made by my immortal conscious light. I must learn to embrace those cries and hear its need for its spirit to witness its vulnerability. This is where the Hierophant begins.

The Qabalistic Path of Vau---The Hierophant Tarot card, is the Pontifex, the "bridge-maker" who provides a connecting link between outer experience and interior illumination---i.e., enlightenment is to bring love and understanding into our darkest places: it is descent rather than ascent. 

We combine the self-conscious of "enfleshenment" with the Self Conscious of Enlightenment by nailing them together on this Path of Atonement/confession. Our Willful Spirit needs to shed the illusion of immortal thinking, so that it can claim its mortal Inheritance of sensuality, all this while keeping a body as the "other way" to be me!

Here, we not only unite the "As above and so Below", symbolized by the Pentagram, which is also the symbol for the "Ascended Human"----i.e., the fleshy conscious united with the "light" conscious forming a complete Self-Conscious! Not as easy as it sounds, and a lot of self-examination is required.

Hence, in order to remember ourselves as the "The Child of Divine Parents" (The "Spermatozoa Word" of the Father Impregnated the Egg of the Mother Binah--and we are the "The Child of the Divine Creative-The Horus--The living Suns) is one reason we take the mortal- subconscious on a "walk up" the Paths of the Tree of Life, one step at a time. We are taught by the Patriarchy to shame the body, for being a mortal, vulnerable naked being and thereby, reject the very part of ourselves we came to be! This is a clever and evil divisionism that is the required "divide and conquer" paradigm of Patriarchal rule! Here, the most beloved of Spirit, the human body, is torn away from its very life so that "an outside will" can now rule the body.

I have given you a lot to think about here, so do your research, meditations and be diligent in "seeing your error of self-condemnation and correcting that error" for only then can we become "Wisdom". We expand and liberate self-by releasing confining perspectives and we can do this to the point of regaining "Greater Self" which is Whole Self and/or Spirit-Mind-Body as "I AM Me".

The Hierophant card reminds us to have faith in ourselves; "above all things know thyself" is often forgotten in family situations and in the mundane world of survival. The family situations are represented in the Thoth card by the images of Isis, Osiris, and Horus. In ancient Egypt, Isis was the image of knowledge, Intuition, the Unconsciousness, and the Soul, and Osiris, the image of wisdom and spiritual will, the symbols of which can be seen as the scepter of wisdom and the staff of moon. The Staff of the Moon was also known as representing instinct, which is the survival mind- subconscious aspect of the unconsciousness. Our wholeness in mental and is therefore, a collective of "mindscapes". What many of us are unable to see, is that the Body, is another way to be Mind!

The resurrected Osiris became Horus who represented Perception and Vision, as a child born of Intuition and Wisdom and in the new Aeon- represents us. We are the children of Intuition. knowledge, and Wisdom who are to be the purveyors of perception. sensation, and vision. We must have faith in following our childlike abilities of innocence and curiosity (the child in the star). We are to walk the mystical path with the practical feet of the Mercury/ Magus, for as a Mercury, messenger of the gods, our personality must receive from the Sephira the knowledge and power we need to overcome the limitations of Malkuth by being at one with them!

Therefore, the Hierophant is that inner part of ourselves that knows how to express our divinity into the outer world.

In the Qabalistic Tarot and the Tree of Life, between the Macrocosm [Macroprosopus] and the Microcosm [Microprosopus] stands the Hierophant Key 5-which is the Eternal Intelligence.

To reiterate: The Hebrew word Vau, that is attributed to the Hierophant, means nail or hook, which is appropriate as the Eternal Intelligence fixes the process of absolute revelation; it is the foundation, the base of experience between the Supreme Spiritual Self and the Ego of Tiphareth, of which memory is considered as one aspect. Hence the nine nails shown above the Hierophant image of the Thoth Tarot.

The Traditional tarot art of the Hierophant has always shown two figures in supplication to the Pontiff image, seeking the revelation of some sort of knowledge. This tradition is being reflected upon in the B.O.T.A. tarot (above), Rider-Waite, Golden Dawn, and most of the Medieval Tarot's traditional Hierophant. This is not done on the Thoth Tarot simply because the Hierophant is not to be completely trusted. He is considered as one among the lower powers, known as the Demiurge or Cosmo-crater or maker of the visible world which is illusion.

The Gnostics recognized him as the Jehovah god of the Old Testament. Hence, he was regarded as an evil power, whose wanton creation of flesh bound the spark of spirit in a kind of "sensual bondage". Just as the Pope has sinister undertones, so the Demiurge was considered the inventor of Organized Fundamental religion, making up rules and laws so he could keep mankind enslaved to him by inducing and enforcing, them to worship and obey his law's. Hence, the body is to be shunned as an evil creation.

However, Crowley has depicted his Hierophant as a Babylonian High Priest. Therefore, not a Pontiff and not worshiped by pasty celebrate sycophants. He is a sexual and sensual being, as the scarlet woman supporting him proves, (She is the Now Militant Venus rather than a compliant Venus). Their Child is shown on the Chest of the Hierophant, encased in a pentagram (5-pointed star symbol for man) and is known as Horus. The human body completes spirit and thereby, expands its knowledge and Wisdom!

Indeed, the Natural laws of Malkuth, do not rule us, for we are of the Quanta-Spooky Chaos universe side of the Photon Sun God, the Galactic Core and are called "Spirits" and/or intelligent spiral energy. We did not come to earth to be encased in flesh, but rather to release flesh from the limits of "survival thinking" and expand it into the Spiritual realm of "I AM". Thereby, expanding and liberating the "enfleshed intelligence" bound by fear to the enlightened sensual intelligence founded on love, something an intimate creator needs.

As Spirit, we do not need to know the laws of Spirit, for they are uncertain...as in The Uncertainty Principle! For as Quanta intelligence, we have freedom of choice...to be anything we want to be and achieve that anyway we can conceive of it. Hence, we are the Will and Way of creation.

In the Atomic Realm of the Demiurge, Flesh is governed by rules of punishment and reward and instincts; rules, and instincts we need to know and understand, so we can take flesh beyond them, without destroying the flesh in the process of enlightenment. Understanding the Law is to do as you will, Love is the Law, Love under will; will keep you in the mind of Spirit.

It may be enough to know that all that we are is forever woven into the Divine Spirit (The Spirit/Psyche of The Universal Divine Collective Unconscious) by the binding Eternal Intelligence that is the Hierophant to the mortal intelligence that is creation. The Hierophant links the "As above, so below", the Sun and the Moon, the Soul, and the human.

The texts of the Golden Dawn Lodge of the Hermetic Qabalah, describes the Hierophant as "The Zodiac acting through Taurus upon Jupiter", thus making this card a powerfully masculine Path upon which the Chariot, which carries the soul across the abyss, travels this celestial rode that is the Path of Vau. However, the Soul is the Animus, described by Carl Jung as "She".

As all of you who follow my blog know, I have mentioned and examined the Thoth Deck Tarot in many ways. Not because of confusion, but because of the Multidimensional nature of the Energy Intelligence their images represent. The Hierophant links the Great Universe with manifestation which alone requires many texts of explanation. The 78 Tarot Cards are the illustrations of these texts or rather the "flash cards" of Whole Self who is but a collective of many that all are the 0=2.

What surprises many students is the knowledge that the Hierophant is not just a teacher but the only inner teacher! He is the "Magus of the Eternal" (The "Inner Teacher"). The Thoth Deck Hierophant does great justice to this concept as it is so full of symbols that students will author essays for centuries.

You will notice that in the Crowley/Harris representation of this card, there is a pentagram on the Hierophant's chest that encloses a Child.

1. The Pentagram is the symbol of the "ascended man", it represents the union of Air, Earth, Fire, Water, and the Spirit. 
2. The Child within represents the Child Horus, the enlightened human persona of the future Psyche of the Divine Hermaphrodite. 
3. The figure of the Hierophant is that of a Pontiff.
4.  And below him is the feminine figure of "The Scarlet Woman"--the Red/Dark Moon. Helps to remember that Black is really the Darkest of Reds. 
5. Around him are the corners of this card are the Elemental Kerubim who symbolize the primordial elements of Kether which pass down to Chokmah as the Spheres of the Zodiac that is now grounded in manifestation. 
6. The three ringed Key in his hand represents the Aeon of Isis, Osiris, and Horus.

There is so much meaning here that great study is required. Leave it to say, that the Hierophant is the administrator of the duality (shown by the traditional 2 supplicant figures) which emerges with Chokmah as it is structured by Binah, and which begins as manifestation below the Abyss as Chesed and is thus related to Tiphareth (The Child Horus- The new Aeon) who is the midway point of manifestation. The Hierophant is The Great Teacher who also learns by teaching, therefore teaching is part of the study here: However, since we are not limited to the Visible world, we go beyond his Understanding of manifestation. Hence, he is not to be worshiped but listened to when it comes to the understanding the Visible world and Invisible world connection, Hence, the Hierophant is not the Patriarchy, but rather the inner Buddha.

THE HIEROPHANT is related to teaching, which relates Higher ideas into Lower organisms that is often called, "As above so below". The Hierophant is a state of conscious energy that is the Only source for our understanding of the inner Spirit/Spiral energy conscious and animal instinctual flesh consciousness union. This "Magus of the Eternal" is stated by Paul Foster Case in his text," THE THIRTY-TWO PATHS OF WISDOM: as being the," .... Pontifex the 'bridge maker' who provides a connecting link between outer experience and interior illumination." Thus, the Hierophant gets the discriminating experience of the Body-operating-Personality, while teaching that very same Personality it's inherited Divinity. Thus, The Hierophant can be said to "Learn by Teaching". Therefore, the Eternal Intelligence can be called "Life" and the Reasoning behind manifestation and implies that a teacher who learns from his students, is a great teacher, i.e. Life learns from the "alive".

To Recap: Crowley's main concept was the "grounding" of the Fifth- Key-, using the corner symbols of the Four Kerubim (Guiding collective intelligence of the Four Elements) as the tentative expressions of the primordial Elements of Kether (Crown) that are passed down to Chokmah, as the Sphere of the Zodiac. Interestingly, we think of the Zodiac as 12 signs, but it is really four ternaries, where each element is broken down to three signs. To the Qabalist, this relates to Yod (hand) Heh (Window) and Vau (Nail).

The Administrator to the emerging duality that is Chokmah (Phallus -Womb, male-female, electric-magnetic) is the Hierophant and it given form or structure by Binah (Great Mother) which begins as manifestation below the Abyss of Dark Energy and Dark Matter, in Chesed (Mercy) as structured Light. Thus, relating to Tiphareth (Beauty-Synchronicity-Androgyne), the midway point of manifestation and is the Sun/Son god.

This relationship is shown in two ways, first as the letter Vau, which is related to "The Son/Sun" (Androgynous Child of the Divine Creative), and Tetragrammaton; The second is the number six itself is related to Tiphareth as shown by the Hexagram. Crowley also shows the combination of the 5 elements, by the Pentagram on the chest of the Hierophant as the four elements are combined under the fifth element-Spirit, thus forming the 5-pointed star. The Pentagram image confirms the Great Work known as "As above, so Below", a process in which the symbolic Moon always is a key part. For the Moon is both above and below the Sun on the Tree of Life, as it is both implied as Yesod (Foundation) and is the Path of the Priestess and is exalted in Taurus.

Let us not forget that Taurus is also ruled by Venus, referring us to the Empress, the Path of Daleth, between Chokmah and Binah. THE EMPRESS is Mother Nature, and/or the fertilized Universal Consciousness that is the foundation of the HIEROPHANT'S teaching.

THE HIEROPHANT'S teaching is intuitive, as it is on the "feeling" side of the Tree of Life ( Venus-Netzach side), applying intuition to concepts collected by reason, and built up by memory.

Illustrated on the Thoth Tarot, the Hierophant's wand is composed of three circles which may be considered as the three Aeons of Isis, Osiris, and Horus, interlocking their magical formula.

The fact that the Hierophant is the path of Vau, meaning nail, also relates to memory; memory binds together, as does the nail.

The Hierophant is the Triumphal or Eternal Intelligence and is the solid base of experience between the Supreme Spiritual Self and the Soul-Ego of Tiphareth. Memory is one aspect of this; however, the purpose of The Hierophant is to link the Macrocosm and the Microcosm, and the binding nature of this consciousness is described in many ways; one is linking the Sun and the Moon, another is that The Hierophant links together the Collective Unconscious and the Conscious to the Son. Therefore, The Hierophant ties together the Above and the Below.

Let us not forget the fact that it is related to teaching, not only the action of teaching but also the reaction of learning by teaching! The Hierophant is the only source for our understanding of the inner spirit, as he is the intelligent energy which binds inner spirit to the outer aspects of manifestation.

["A circle is the reflection of eternity. It has no beginning, and it has no end - and if you put several circles over each other, then you get a spiral". - Maynard James Keenan]
Read more at: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/spiral.html

Albert Einstein, has also described the Hierophantic Path of Vau, to a "tee":

“A human being is a part of the whole called by us universe, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feeling as something separated from the rest, a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.”
― Albert Einstein

When the Hierophant card is thrown:

• The querent is experiencing divine wisdom. 
• Manifestation and explanation.
• Teaching in occult wisdom and/or seeking guidance in that area. 
• There is also a choice implied here, of self-alignment to a particular philosophy, religion, or a set of beliefs to which a great deal of loyalty is felt.
• There is a marriage occurring between the Anima (Spirit) and Animus (Soul). 

Now if ill defined, this card implies:

• Patriarchy and the resulting oppressive law of orthodoxy. 
• Someone acting as judge and jury, telling the querent how to morally be. 
• In general, conforming to cultural indoctrination and surrendering responsibility to social codes of behavior.
• The desire for self-teaching and learning.
• The need to make things tangible and practical.  

Thank you for your interest, comments, and supportive donations. May you live long and prosper!