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The Thoth -ATU 5- The Hierophant
represents the universal Key of learning and teaching.
This Trump or principle was well explained in the publication of the-Course in Miracles which states:-"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." Therefore, the great teacher, learns from his students as well.
The Hierophant is also the High Priest in many tarot decks. In the Manara Deck, just the wordpriest is used. However, one chooses to name key 5, this card requires 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 this card by the images of Isis and Osiris and Horus.
In pre-Christian times, Isis was the image of Intuition and her husband, Osiris, the image of wisdom (In the above hieroglyph, Isis is the Hawk carrying the Ankh, creating Osiris) which can be seen as the scepter of wisdom, and the staff of moon, Isis; The symbols of which can be seen as the 3 ringed scepter of wisdom, and the staff of moon of Isis, that is shown as a wooden staff on the Hierophant's right. The Staff of Isis is also known to represent instinct.
In the center of the Hierophants chest is a Pentagram with the child Horus representing Perception and Vision, as a child born of Intuition and Wisdom. This child Horus is the Adam Khadmond of Qabalah and represents the "Heavenly Human". Our Psyche is that child of Intuition and Wisdom who is to be the purveyor of perception and vision. However, we have a blockage that keeps us from communicating with out Psyche/Soul. This blockage is our indoctrinated and dogmatic data programing created by the "babble" of propaganda. To bypass the Earthly Hierophants dogma (Group Soul), we must have faith in following our childlike abilities of innocence and curiosity (the child Horus in the star); we are to walk the mystical path with the practical feet of the Magus/Will. We are the All Potential of Daath-Knowledge, the Birthplace of our Souls/Solar Psyche, known as Horus in the Egyptian Tarot of Thoth.
The Hierophant is that inner part of ourselves that knows how to express our divinity into the outer world. Our "inner religion" is distributed by the Hierophant. Therefore, the Inner Hierophant states that one must be "True to thine own Self".
When thrown during a reading, this card indicates the desire for self-teaching and learning. The need to make things tangible and practical. The HIEROPHANT is considered the administrator of the Yin Yang (Osiris Isis) duality which emerges with Chokmah who is formed by Binah, and which begins as manifestation below the Abyss in Chesed.
Crowley's Thothcard is considered one of the most important in Tarot, containing many traditional elements intermingled with Crowley's own discoveries and philosophies. For instance, the image of a child in the Pentagram that is within a larger Hexagram, is explained as. "This symbolizes the law of the new Aeon of the Child of Horus, which has supplanted that Aeon of the 'Dying God' which governed the world for two thousand years". Crowley believed that the rhythm of the HIEROPHANT is such that he moves at 2,000 year intervals. Remembering that this is a Spiral Universe, made of multiple frequencies and dimensions (harmonies) of One Energy, and that there are rhythmic movements in the multiple States of Conscious Energy, of which the HIEROPHANT is a major state, making this cyclic movement seem plausible. It is also nice to know that within our own infinity (inner self) resides our Librarian of Universal Tomes who will not hesitate to instruct the diligent student, on his way to the "Heavenly Mind". But until we are no longer satisfied with the ludicrous fantasy of our own cultural "Group Soul", we will never be able to achieve the mental velocity to escape our imprisonment of Time- created perspectives and consciously enter the infinite depths of Our Spiral Energetic Self.
Each of us is represented in our own Tree of Life /Collective Mind, and each of us makes his/her own Qabalah (receiving). When there is a shift in the 2,000 year Group Soul from the Patriarch/Osiris to that of, Horus/"Heavenly Human", those who can't behold the more advanced perspective of Self, will have to live in a lesser intelligent fantasy of their own making on the past "astral planes". In the spiraling flow of Time, there is always a place in the past, a place in the now and a place in the future.
Luckily the HIEROPHANT that is a Higher State of Conscious Energy within our Tree of Life (our Spiral Pattern of Force and Form) resides in the library of our "dimensionally shedding of memories" as our Persona's became more and more condensed. These discarded memory bites are stored in the Akashic Records--- which I call the collective library of Self, of which the Hierophant also the Librarian. Obviously, to get to this point of inner-journey, we have to experience the "Dark Night of the Soul", a shedding of all that we are trained to believe as identity, achieving an emptiness of perspective so that we can be refilled or as I like to say, where we can claim our inheritance as the Divine Self of the I AM. The HIEROPHANT awaits us all, and will fill to capacity, the thirsty student!
As a Divine Child, you are denied nothing that "ever was or will be"; However, you have the freedom to deny yourself and the resulting wealth of knowledge, just as the prodigal son did in the bible parable! Before you think that this state of intelligence that is called the Hierophant must be worshiped, it should be understood that the HIEROPHANT does not have authority over the Soul. Even your personality's freedom of choice is still intact. Your True Inherited Name is "I AM " which constructs, by self- perspective, your objective self-called "ME". You are the one I (eye) of your Am and by understanding the difference you form a "me". I-is the all seeing eye of Horus. Am is the vessel that holds identity and creates "existence". Me is the in-form-action (information) of the I AM.
Upon examining this card, the HIEROPHANT who sits on a Bull between 2 elephants, holding a wand of three interlocking rings (scepter of wisdom), symbolizing the Aeons of Isis, Osiris and Horus (the Child in the Pentagram). Beneath is the dark and veiled "Scarlet Woman" (Crowley's Isis), who is shown riding the Lion Serpent on the Lust card of Thoth Tarot. She is unveiled on the Lust card, depicting purity. The 9 nails above, symbolize Vau of Yod Heh Vau Heh, the linking of the above and the below (the 9 Sephiroth below the 1 that is Kether, who is Fiery-Darkness/unlimited Light.) The Manifested Spirit, passes along the "Window" ; the triangular ray of Light that radiates from the Scarlet woman upward from the Microcosm to the Macrocosm. One must understand that visible light dazzles the sight and veils the truth. For we are ideas, made into image by veils of light. Hence, the Isis symbol is veiled by the light image of the Hierophant. Therefore, he represents her authority over material things, while above and behind his head is an Oriel* (window) into the Macrocosm. The English dictionary definition of oriel. n. A bay window projecting from an upper floor, often supported from below with corbels or brackets.
Because of this knowledge , we begin to see that all is not "sweetness and light" in the HIEROPHANT sphere and most authorities on tarot agree that there are some unpleasant aspects to this Key. I would recommend that the serious student read the book by Richard Cavendish: THE TAROT, where the implications of this State of Energy Consciousness are very cleverly related to Gnosticism. He points out that the Demiurge, the Lesser Creator/The Hierophant which rules over manifestation, was also known by the Gnostics as the "Great Deceiver", and initiates of the Valentinian Gnostics were taught to ignore the authority of this one (Yahweh) who is a type of staunch librarian and only has authority over its library rules. Truth is, there is only one authority over us, and that is our own "Will " and/or Freedom to Choose and we get to experience freely the consequences there of. As one inwardly travels up the Tree of Life/Mind, it behooves one to remember;Only slaves need saviors!
THE HIEROPHANT- ATU 5, is the Path of Vau (Nail or Hook), is the 16th path, on the Tree of Life. Leading from Chesed (mercy) to Chokmah (wisdom) and is known as the Eternal Intelligence. The Path of Vau is the uppermost path on the Pillar of Mercy (Right hand Path). In the Golden Dawn texts, this path is described as, “The Zodiac acting through Taurus upon Jupiter". Here, Chokma is Jupiter, and his action is the spermatic potential of the Manifested Universe- Chesed, the Yod (hand) of Microcosm (Microprosopus), is the Father in Manifestation, while Chokmah (the Yod of the Macrocosm (Microprosopus) is the Supernal Father.
Therefore, the Path of the Hierophant is a powerfully masculine one (Electric Force), to which the Bull-Taurus is applied and image definitively applied to this card. Being "Fixed Earth", this is a stable foundation; a stabilizing extreme that sets the rules of measurement for manifestation. This is the absolute foundation of the process of revelation.... where the inherited Knowing of the Creator, where THE Great Father, is expressing Its experience through the Supreme Spiritual Self to the Personality or Ego of Tiphareth (The Sun/Son of Beauty). Thus memory is involved and the solid foundation of "Above all things, know thyself" is established as a Universal Inheritance for the Divine Child. In Qabalah, a metaphysical philosophy, the Personality is the Ego* of the Soul and/or Solar Psyche/Self.
*ego
[ˈēɡō]
NOUN
a person's sense of self-esteem or self-importance.
"a boost to my ego"
synonyms:
self-esteem · self-importance · self-worth · self-respect · self-conceit · self-image · self-confidence · amour propre
psychoanalysis
the part of the mind that mediates between the conscious and the unconscious and is responsible for reality testing and a sense of personal identity.Compare with id and superego.
synonyms:
subconscious mind · subconscious · unconscious mind · psyche · superego · id · inner self · innermost self · self · inner man/woman
philosophy
(in metaphysics) a conscious thinking subject.
The meaning of the Hebrew word Vau, is nail or hook, implying a nailing together, or binding, and links the Macrocosm (The Great Universe) and Microcosm (Manifestation), and/or The Greater Self to the lesser Self of matter, forever linking us to the Divine Spirit. 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. This "Magus of the Eternal" is stated by Dr. Paul Foster Case in his text," THE THIRTY-TWO PATHS OF WISDOM, as being the," .... Pontifix, the 'bridge maker' who provides a connecting link between outer experience and interior illumination." Thus, the Hierophant receives the discriminating experience of the Body-operating-Personality, while teaching that very same Personality its inherited Divinity. Therefore, The Hierophant can be said to "Learn by Teaching" and the Eternal Intelligence can be called "Life" and/or the Reasoning behind manifestation, implying that a teacher who learns from his students, is a great teacher. However, the Traditional Tarot art of the Hierophant is usually the image of the Pope/Pontifex/Patriarch of Roman Catholic religion. Therefore, the Patriarch/Hierophant on earth, is not a true representative of this state of intelligence that connects the microcom and macrocosmic levels of the Mind. All he represents is the ambitious rules of definition supplied by those who wish to rule the many. The definition of a "ruler", is "one who controls definition", that definition is supplied by religion, indoctrination, and dogma. All of which are now media controlled. By enlisting the belief of thousands, a "group soul" and/or culture of many is created, that is ruled by a few. Hence, our personality is not of our Souls, but that of man-made propaganda campaign. Therefore, for you to operate as an impeccable Solar Self-identity, you must exorcise the Hierophant in your brain so that you can regain your true identity of Horus, from the knowledge of the Inner Hierophant of the One Mind. That is the objective of Qabalah, which means "receiving" and/or "to receive". Here, we are acknowledged as the Prodigal personality of the Sun/Soul, who must return to our Original Wealthy Divine Creative Psyche, to get back our inheritance.
Crowley's main concept was the "grounding" of the 5th- Key-, using the corner symbols of the 4- Kerubim (Guiding intelligences 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 4 ternaries... Where each element is broken down to three signs. To the Qabalist, this relates to Yod (hand) Heh (Window) and Vau (Nail).
The Administratorto the emerging duality that is Chokmah (Phallus -Womb, male-female, electric-magnetic) is the Hierophant and it is given form or structure by Binah (Great Mother) which begins as manifestation below the Abyss (Dark Energy and Dark Matter) in Chesed (Mercy) and is therefore shown on the Thoth Card as a shadow within the Hierophant. Her "hidden" union with Chesed, relates to Tiphareth (Beauty-Synchronicity), the central point of manifestation. This relationship is shown in 2 ways, first as the letter Vau, which is related to "The Son" (Child of God), and the "god name" of Tetragrammaton and the second is the number 6 itself is related to Tiphareth. Crowley shows this by the Pentagram on the chest of the Hierophant as the 4 universal elements are combined under the 5th 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 as 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. I would recommend you meditated on the Thoth Deck Key 5 card, to open the doorway of Self-Understanding and to attain the Window of "I" sight that is shown as the Oreal above the Hierophant's head.
The Tarot of The Spirit, depicts the Hierophant as a High Priest, but he looks like "Pope Joan", a traditional medieval figure of the Pontiflex. However, the interpretation of image, the Hierophant is the "inner teacher". The imagery of this card, begins with the Hierophant seated on a blue throne, supported by 2 pillars, one black and one white, this dark and light motif continues in the black and white checkered floor tiles that illustrate the stream of consciousness that is the Priestess. The White pillar is the pillar of mercy and the black pillar is the pillar of severity. Blue is the traditional color for healing and purification. On the back of the throne of "higher learning" are 2 glyphs for the sign of Taurus, representing the Hierophants connection to the earthly plane. His head is cocked to the side, as if listening. The Hebrew letter Vau, which is linked to "listening" in the Qabalistic Text- Sepher Yetzirah, is emblazoned on his/her right shoulder.
Interestingly, the veil of the head covering is shown as a crescent moon as it hangs down below the chin of the Hierophant. This is the Moon at his throat that insinuates that one must travel through the dark subconsciousness to gain access to the Higher Knowledge of the Universal Collective Unconsciousness and/or Superconscious. Upon the Hierophant's crown are 15 spheres, implying the connection between the Lover's (key 6) and the Devil (key 15). The numerology/Gematria of this connection is that of 5+1=6 as the Hierophant is the 6th value, as the Fool-0 is the first value. This shows that the Hierophant's connection to the Lover's and the Devil, pertains to the connection to the simultaneous exhilaration and bondage of experiencing the Radiant Light of Spirit in the flesh. Therefore, his/her garment is white, suggesting purity of thought while it is robed with the red of desire. The 3 x's down the center of his garments, represents the Hierophant, Lovers and Devil and therefore, representing the crossing of the material plane into the subtle planes of Spirit. Barefooted, the Hierophant is showing that he/she is grounded.
The downward pointing fingers, signify that the Hierophant is channeling the above downward. While the anima and animus are kneeling before him/her. She (anima) is yoked by the moon, he (animus) is yoked by the sun, symbolizing that thought they are manifesting on earth, they are still linked to Higher Self. Their task is to discover this yoke within, and with it harness the Power of the One. Much the same imagery as the Nails in the Thoth Card.
Hence, the divinatory meanings of both Cards are the same.
When the HIEROPHANT card is thrown during a reading:
- The querent is experiencing the Principle of learning and teaching which is a desire for making things tangible.
- The querent may be seeking guidance from a counselor who has knowledge and authority or is wishing to.
- There is a choice here, of aligning oneself to a philosophy, religion and/or set of beliefs to which one feels a sense of loyalty.
- Being free to disentangle oneself from any belief system, the querent still chooses to be involved.
- There is an espousing of moral, ethical, and spiritual values which may attribute to oppressing others, especially when espousing orthodoxy.
- There can be an inner sense of obedience to authority, imagined or otherwise, contributing to gullibility.
- Occult Wisdom.
- Knowledge and enlightenment independent of science and dogmatic religion.
When ill dignified by surrounding cards:
- Intolerance.
- Presumption.
- Esoteric arrogance.
- Dogmatic religion.
Thank you for your interest, comments and supportive donations. May you live long and prosper!
