17/7 The Hierophant #5

TEMPLE artefact #28

#5 The Hierophant final version, art by Rian Hughes 2024

V. THE HIEROPHANT

KEY WORDS –

The HIEROPHANT is Trump 5 in the tarot deck.

A tall, looming, and austere figure stands in a grand theatrically illuminated set – ancient desert with dramatic Hollywood lighting - the smell of spice and ancient dust on the wind…

The HIEROPHANT or High Priest represents the highest male spiritual authority (the Emperor represents its highest material authority) male counterpart of the High Priestess. The Guru. The Master or Enlightened One. Often depicted as the Pope, His is a power derived from scripture and doctrine, unlike the High Priestess’ ‘natural’ wisdom and inner power.

Our POV is chest height so we’re looking up at this man from a child’s height. It resembles a statue, memorial of a powerful older man. Some kind of priest, philosopher, or teacher from the Age of Osiris, the Lawmaker, and religious authority of the dying Patriarchy.

We can imagine a hollow desert wind lifting the tattered robes on some hieratic, abandoned statue representing the attitudes of a gone time – an ‘Ozymandias’ as in Shelley’s poem ‘Look on my works ye mighty and despair… ‘.

Behind him stand two PILLARS – vast and broken ‘trunkless legs of stone) that evoke the ‘11’ of the Abyss and the WTC towers and other central symbols of this deck. Beyond is a deep blue sky.

He wears RED robes, with a breastplate/lamen on a chain around his neck. The plate is shaped like a stylized BULL HEAD (the astrological attribution for the card is Taurus). Upon the lamen is the Hebrew letter VAU, ‘nail’. The robes are gently blown in an uncanny breeze from left to right across the card – and they are tattered, ragged and torn with holes.

His arms are broken like those of a plaster statue, with the interior steels supporting rods visible between the crumbled sections. The right hand is raised to make a benediction gesture with two upraised fingers. The left-hand points downwards, echoing the Magician and the Devil by creating a circuit – uniting Heaven and Earth as the bridge or ‘pontiff’.

In his left arm he supports a tall a ceremonial staff shaped like a key – with three CIRCLES at the top and the lock part out of shot at the bottom.

This figure often wears a ‘triple crown’. Our Hierophant wears a triangular hat or head dress with the point upward. It recalls a teachers’ mortar board, which hints at a deeper Masonic element to this figure, as well as the educational aspect of the Hierophant role. Extending the vectors from the apex of the triangle to make a larger triangle enclosing the figure. An equal sized inverted triangle creates a virtual 6-pointed star frame around the Hierophant.

He wears an oval visor like a scuba mask shining out from the shadow under his hat that covers his face. The effect is to create an ‘eye in the pyramid’ design.

FINALLY, a small female figure is standing in front of the statue. The top of her head at the Hierophant’s crotch. She lifts a glowing tablet to DRAW the letter VAU. Her red hair is blown by the same desert wind that lifts her gauzy blue starry shift.