Lo Ierofante

Risposta rapida

Il significato principale di Lo Ierofante è Guida spirituale. Al dritto, solitamente indica Tradizione, fede, educazione, guida spirituale, appartenenza. Simboleggia il ris; rovesciata, potrebbe suggerire Tradizione sfidante, credenze non convenzionali, consigli ipocriti, ribellione. .

Immagini della carta

Il Gerofante, vestito di tre paramenti, siede tra due pilastri di pietra e porta una tripla corona. La sua mano sinistra tiene un bastone a tripla croce, la sua destra è alzata in segno di benedizione. Due chiavi incrociate giacciono ai suoi piedi e due accoliti si inginocchiano davanti a lui.

Significato al dritto

Tradizione, fede, educazione, guida spirituale, appartenenza. Simboleggia il rispetto delle convenzioni sociali stabilite o la ricerca dell'aiuto della saggezza tradizionale.

Significato invertito

Tradizione sfidante, credenze non convenzionali, consigli ipocriti, ribellione. Può indicare la rottura con le convenzioni o il sentirsi vincolati dai dogmi.

Amore, carriera, denaro e crescita

Amore

Innamorato, Lo Ierofante indica Guida spirituale. Rileggilo confrontandolo con il modo in cui si comporta effettivamente la relazione e con ciò che scegliete entrambi.

Carriera

In materia di carriera, Lo Ierofante indica Guida spirituale. Inizia individuando quali risorse controlli e quale sarà la tua prossima mossa.

Soldi

In materia di soldi, Lo Ierofante indica Guida spirituale. Non considerare una lettura simbolica come una conclusione di investimento: segui i fatti, il budget e la tua tolleranza al rischio.

Crescita personale

Per la crescita personale, Lo Ierofante indica Guida spirituale. Annota la domanda che solleva, quindi trasformala in un'azione che puoi effettivamente verificare.

Sì o no

Diritto

Sì

Rovesciata

Forse

Questa è la nostra lettura veloce, basata sulla direzione in cui tende il significato della carta. Le tradizioni non sono d'accordo sulle singole carte, e un "Forse" deve essere valutato rispetto alla posizione nello spread e alla situazione reale piuttosto che essere preso come una risposta di una sola parola.

Testo originale di Waite (1911)

Simbolismo interiore (originale)

He wears the triple crown and is seated between two pillars, but they are not those of the Temple which is guarded by the High Priestess. In his left hand he holds a scepter terminating in the triple cross, and with his right hand he gives the well-known ecclesiastical sign which is called that of esotericism, distinguishing between the manifest and concealed part of doctrine. It is noticeable in this connection that the High Priestess makes no sign. At his feet are the crossed keys, and two priestly ministers in albs kneel before him. He has been usually called the Pope, which is a particular application of the more general office that he symbolizes. He is the ruling power of external religion, as the High Priestess is the prevailing genius of the esoteric, withdrawn power. The proper meanings of this card have suffered woeful admixture from nearly all hands. Grand Orient says truly that the Hierophant is the power of the keys, exoteric orthodox doctrine, and the outer side of the life which leads to the doctrine; but he is certainly not the prince of occult doctrine, as another commentator has suggested.

He is rather the summa totius theologiæ, when it has passed into the utmost rigidity of expression; but he symbolizes also 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 show 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.

Significato originale al dritto

Marriage, alliance, captivity, servitude; by another account, mercy and goodness; inspiration; the man to whom the Querent has recourse.

Significato originale invertito

Society, good understanding, concord, over-kindness, weakness.

Citato da A. E. Waite, The Pictorial Key to the Tarot (1911), illustrato da Pamela Colman Smith. Il testo è di pubblico dominio.

Origini del mito e dei simboli

The picture is a pope; the name is the title of the presiding priest of the Greek Eleusinian Mysteries. It was Waite who changed it.

Documented imagery

Attested by surviving objects or texts

The picture is simply a pope

In early Italian decks this card is Il Papa, the Pope, paired with the Popess. Every element on the card is standard Catholic institutional equipment: the triple crown, the triple cross sceptre, the crossed keys at his feet — and the keys come from Matthew 16:19, the keys of the kingdom of heaven given to Peter. Waite writes it himself: he has usually been called the Pope.

Fonte The early Italian card name Il Papa; Matthew 16:19 (the keys of the kingdom); Waite 1911

The word Hierophant is Greek

Renaming the Pope as the Hierophant was the practice of Waite's generation. The word is Greek, ἱεροφάντης, literally "one who shows sacred things," and it was the formal title of the presiding priest of the Eleusinian Mysteries — whose central myth is that of Demeter and Persephone. So there is a genuine Greek thread on this card. It is just not in the image; it is in the name, and it was attached only at the end of the nineteenth century.

Fonte ἱεροφάντης is the title of the presiding priest at Eleusis; the renaming is in Waite 1911

Esoteric correspondence

A sourced traditional claim, but constructed inside an occult system

Taurus and the weight of the institution

The Golden Dawn assigns the Hierophant to Taurus (Hebrew letter Vau). The register of stability, of bearing weight, of moving slowly and not changing comes from there, and it sits well with a card defined as the ruling power of established religion.

Fonte Golden Dawn Book T zodiacal attributions

Modern reading

Popular only since the twentieth century; unrelated to where the card came from

Reading him as a spiritual teacher runs backwards

The contemporary habit is to read this card as the guru, the spiritual teacher, inner authority. Waite's text defines it as precisely the opposite: the Hierophant is "the ruling power of external religion," set against the esoteric, withdrawn power the High Priestess stands for, and he explicitly denies the claim that he is the prince of occult doctrine. Which is to say: this card governs institutions, public doctrine and procedure, not a private spiritual guide.

Fonte Modern popular reading; Waite 1911 denies the "prince of occult doctrine" reading in this same entry

Scritto da BESTAROT, non citato da fonti storiche. Ogni affermazione è contrassegnata da quanto bene è dimostrata; gli strati interpretativi moderni sono utili per la lettura, ma non costituiscono l’origine storica della carta.

Studia il tema: Mito e origini dei simboli (Accademia capitolo 6)