Tarot card meanings › Major Arcana
The Hierophant Tarot Card Meaning
The Hierophant tarot card means tradition, teaching and belonging. Tradition, teachers and shared rules.
Upright
- Tradition
- teaching
- belonging
Reversed
- Rebellion
- empty ritual
- going your own way
Yes or no
Maybe
The Hierophant is card V of the 22 major arcana.
What the card shows
A religious teacher sits between two grey pillars wearing a triple crown. He raises one hand in blessing and holds a triple cross in the other. Two monks kneel before him and a pair of crossed keys lies at his feet.
This is the card as drawn by Pamela Colman Smith for the 1909 Rider-Waite-Smith deck, which is in the public domain.
Upright meaning
The Hierophant is read as tradition and the institutions that carry it: school, faith, marriage, a mentor, the usual way of doing things. It can point to learning from someone who has done it before.
The Hierophant reversed
Reversed, it is read as breaking with convention, questioning a rule you were handed, or going through the motions of a tradition that no longer means anything to you.
Yes or no?
In a yes or no question, The Hierophant is usually read as a maybe: the answer depends on something not settled yet. Readers differ on some cards, so treat this as one common reading. You can ask a yes or no question and draw a card for it.
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More Major Arcana cards
The FoolThe MagicianThe High PriestessThe EmpressThe EmperorThe LoversThe ChariotStrengthThe HermitWheel of FortuneJusticeThe Hanged ManDeathTemperanceThe DevilThe TowerThe StarThe MoonThe SunJudgementThe World
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