Hierophant

For the album, see Hierophant (album).

A hierophant (Ancient Greek: ἱεροφάντης) is a person who brings religious congregants into the presence of that which is deemed holy. The word comes from Ancient Greece, where it was constructed from the combination of ta hiera, "the holy," and phainein, "to show." In Attica it was the title of the chief priest at the Eleusinian Mysteries. A hierophant is an interpreter of sacred mysteries and arcane principles.

Rider Waite Tarot

In the Rider Waite Tarot deck and similar decks, "The Hierophant" (sometimes called "The Pope") is one of the twenty-two trump cards comprising the "Major Arcana", and represents conformity to social standards, or a deference to the established social moral order. As the guide towards knowledge, insight, and wisdom, in a tarot reading it might, for example, represent a priest, scholar, therapist, or teacher although these individuals are more definitively represented by the Hermit, or suggested by the traits attributed to the King of Cups. "He symbolizing 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 shew 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."

Notable hierophants

• Eunapius
• Vettius Agorius Praetextatus
• Nestorius
• Priskus

See also

• Hierophany
• Daduchos
• Mystagogue
• Pontifex, "bridge-builder" between heaven and earth or between the spiritual world and the temporal one
• Patriarchate
• Sacred Mysteries

References

• Britannica article
• The last hierophant at Eleusis
• Dictionary definition
• Definition from alt religion

Occult tarot

• Explanation
• Hierophant or Pope Tarot card