Week 5 The Emperor
Welcome to Week 6. Our card for this week is The Hierophant.
This is an interesting week. This week you're going to meet the Three Spiritual Teachers in the Tarot Deck. The Hierophant is one of them. Which one are you going to be?
But first, let's look at some of the aspects of The Hierophant. I'll begin asking you some questions.
How did your family define you? What did you hear about "Your Peeps"? People like us don't do things like that. We're hard working people. We're above that sort of thing. Things are stacked against us so we have to try harder. Stick with your own kind. Don't mix with them, they'll never accept you. Please think of three things you were told about your kind of people when you were growing up. (Or more.) You can Journal with them if you like.
How Did Your Heritage Define You? You're probably less conscious at this level. Do you know anything about your genealogy or a couple of generations back? Do you know more about your mother's side of the family or your father's?
How Does Your Culture Define You? You're even more unconscious at this level. You're a human being within a context that you hardly notice until you step outside its bounds. One of the symbols for the #4 is a square. When we get to #5, we see that the square of the #4 is a box we're inside of.
That box is our culture, the rules its imposes, the set of expectations we are born into and the ways our parents and society define us.
This week we will explore the boxes that you share with another group of people. -- your family, your heritage (relatives and ancestors) or your culture.
This week, we're going to find ourselves within that box and then step out of it! Scarey for some. Exciting for others.
If you haven't thought much about this, maybe you'll be surprised.
A lot of the #5 is about getting out of the box. But first you have to realize that you are in one.
And there are boxes within boxes. Part of being enlightened or individuated is to discover what boxes you're in and not trade them for other boxes.
I used to be a black and white bunny
No, silly bunny. You just traded one box for another.
Which kind of bunny are you right now? I'm an excited bunny. I'm a scared bunny. I'm a busy bunny so this week I'm just gonna skip to the card, the meaning and the symbolism if that's okay with you. (sure, go for it!!)
The boxes don't go anywhere. It's just for yourself to notice. So please check one or the other or all three and we'll move forward with this week's good information.
The Hierophant The Revealer of Sacred Things Within
"In The Hierophant card, for the first time, humanity confronts the archetype [of the higher power]. A dialogue is taking place between the consciousness and the instinctual powers of the psyche. To be sure, the kneeling figures have not yet the strength to stand up to the suprapersonal power; but they have sought him out with their questions and problems." from Jung and the Tarot by Sallie Nichols.
This is not an outer event. This is an inner event. You play every part in the card.
The Hierophant represents the Spiritual Parent. The card is associated with hearing in both the ordinary physical sense and the superphysical sense of clairaudience, hearing the still, small voice within, the voice of your own guidance within.
Here's a real life Hierophant, the patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church in Moscow. These people used to have to bless the Tsar before he could begin his reign.
King Tut and other Egyptian rulers combined temporal and spiritual power. They were considered immortal. The beard is a sign of power and fertility. The headdress is a variation of the crown. The ornament over the third eye indicates supernatural powers.
In this frontal view, notice the simliarity in the Hierophants and Patriarch's ear pieces.
The Pharoahs of Egypt like the Patriarchs of Moscow had immense power.
Here's another powerful spiritual leader today. Well, anyway, he used to be. Times change!!
As the Class Journal progresses, I want you to get in touch with the tremendous power these people have. I don't mean spiritual power although hopefully they are powerful spiritually. That's a matter of conscience.
But what I want you to notice for this week is the temporal power, the earthly power. The money and resources. Look at the quality of the vestments and the pomp and circumstance that surround these figures. It takes a lot of resources to put together The Vatican Dog and Pony. We know, too, that the Roman Catholic Church was a tremendous political force throughout history. We also know that things are not always as they seem. We'll look at the Shadow Side of the Hierophant this week too -- hypocrisy!
With The Hierophant, we're going back to a time in our collective conscious when the spiritual and temporal powers were combined and that is an awesome amount of power. Because of this, it's difficult for us to extricate ourselves from this archetype and become conscious but that is what we're going to do this week.
In Catholic doctrine, when the Pope speaks ex cathedra, his word is infallible.
More generally speaking, The Hierophant is ... the Law Giver ... but the law giver when this role was combined with religious authority. The Archetype harks back to the time when the Supreme Law Giver gave the laws because he was divinely chosen to do so. He spoke for God when he gave the laws.
In the time in civilization of The Emperor, man has imposed order on civilization. What has happened now is that man, Hammurabi, proposes to speak for Bel or God in so doing.
Hammurabi
In this Hammurabi educational but friendly site, you get to practice being Hammurabi and then decide, would the Supreme God be pleased with your decisions?
 2-year-old Wendy Flores, from Bolivia, is dunked into the Jordan river in Qasr Al Yahud, West Bank, by a Palestinian man October 28, 1999 during a yearly baptism ceremony held by Catholics. According to tradition, Jesus was baptized here by John the Baptist. (photo by Evelyn Hockstein)
The Shadow Sides of the Hierophant Taboos and Relative Morality Portuguese and Greek: It's okay to have sex with anyone in your family -- the taboo is against strangers (For example, I read for a middle aged Greek woman who had had sex with her father and grandmother on a regular basis.)
American: The incidence of incest is so high -- I think it may be up around 30% -- you might consider that the behavior is not necessarily taboo, but talking about it is.
Mexican: Not okay to be single; not okay to remain childless for either sex -- trapping a man into marriage is the cultural norm; that IS the courtship dance
American: Not okay to be an introvert
American South: There are slaves and there are masters and these families have very big, bad, dark and sickening secrets (Faulkner being the most noticeable tip of this iceberg)
Catholic: If you have sex with the person you have to marry them
Cultural Relativity When I owned the Tragic Bookstore, I read regularly for people from every culture and religious/ethno/spiritual background. California is noted for diversity and National City is a drop-off point for refugees and immigrants from all over the world. I read for these people, just like I read for you. I became their good friend, many of them scared and lonely in a foreign country with noone else to talk to or explain things to them. Perhaps I was actually more the Mother archetype. You know how you can tell your mother anything but who else can you tell those things too? At any rate, in the privacy of a reading, they confided to me their innermost feelings, within the dictates of their cultural mores.
What Did I Find Out? I found out that every culture considers itself morally superior to every other culture.
Born Again - Self Baptism In metaphysics, you baptize yourself so to speak. You give yourself second birth. That is to say, you take responsibility for correcting the things that you want to correct about yourself and as you do so you are born again in the spirit. This is because you become the Creator of YourNewSelf.
The Hierophant's Shadow - Blasphemy If the thought even crosses your mind that this is blasphemous, you're stuck in The Hierophant's Shadow. There is no such thing as blasphemy but "it is done unto you as you believe". If you say something negative about "God", you're saying something negative about an aspect of youself and disempowering yourself, most likely.
Never Trust a Man Who Quotes the Bible My father, a thoughtful, experienced, kind and generally tolerant man made this statement to me one day near the end of his life and I have found it to be true, "Never trust a man who quotes the Bible."
The Hierophant Can Help When you feel like you don't know what is the correct (morally correct) thing to do in a situation, meditate on The Hierophant Card. If you can't tell the difference between right and wrong, meditate on The Hierophant Card.
Suggested Activities During the week, when you have choices to make, ask yourself what rules you're following. Yield at the intersection: California state. Holding the door open for another person: ?? Getting to work at 8 sharp: the boss's. Smiling and saying good morning when you come into the office: ?? Ignoring someone who is peeing at the bus stop: ?? Helping someone across the street: the Boy Scouts' code. Taking off your shoes when you come in the houseL: your paranoid mother's. Not putting your head back in the movie theater: your grandmother told you you could catch lice that way (this is the 21st Century.)
Other Nancy Hierophant pages to visit: Bull from Heaven
to be continued next week ...
Good Luck on Your Journey.
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Which kind of bunny are you? A Chinese bunny? 
An American bunny? A Protestant bunny? A Roman Catholic bunny? 
A New Age bunny? Hmmmm. 
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