Tarot: The Hierophant (5)
Written by Kevin J McKee for the SoJournal and Personal Guide 2026. Reprinted with permission.
As our friend, Everyman moves away from the Emperor having learnt to fully manifest and manage the physical realm, he meets with the Hierophant or Pope.
The Hierophant represents the physical expression of the spiritual aspects of the divine masculine energy. It is an uncomfortable fit but he is doing the best he can. This often results in expressions of moral superiority and control though, seeing himself as “better” than “common people” who need to worship at his feet.
He warns us not to allow the physical expressions of fear and judgement to control our path and turn us into monsters.
In terms of the Journey of the Fool. The Hierophant or Pope teaches Everyman the spiritual aspects of the Divine Masculine, and the balance between spirit and ego. The High Priestess represents the spiritual aspects of the divine and the Hierophant the physical manifestation of the divine in our reality. He reminds us to listen to our conscience and to uphold our moral responsibilities.
Meditation
Read through the instructions below, don’t be scared to open your eyes and check something rather than hope you are doing it right. The answer to the questions; “Am I doing this right?” and “Am I meditating?” is always no. If you are thinking, you are not meditating. Meditation is a heart-based process, not an intellectual one.
Trust yourself just a little bit, you can do this. Everyone meditates in their own way, don’t panic, do the best you can right now and surrender to the process.
- Prepare as you normally would for meditation if you are an experienced meditator. If you haven’t meditated for a while, or ever, use a place you can be undisturbed, maybe light a candle (white would be good for this purpose), light your favourite incense, put on some instrumental music, lyrics will disturb your concentration. Sit comfortably on the floor or on a chair, wear loose clothing or at least loosen belts etc.
- Take a few slow, deep breaths focussing on relaxing, releasing the thoughts in your head, your mind will start running around a bit, that’s ok, acknowledge the thought, let it go and focus back on your breathing. Meditation is an exercise and like any exercise it takes a bit of practice to “get it right”.
- An important thing to remember about meditation is that it takes place in the inner planes of your mind, so release your expectations of what is going to happen, release your expectations about what is correct or right and relax into the process.
- If you try to control the meditation you are not meditating, you are just breathing deeply. Be open to receive, even if what you receive is not what you expect or hope for.
- If your attention “skips”, that’s ok, take another deep breath and focus again. It will get easier with practice.
- If you have already done a meditation to create a meditation temple or inner temple etc. you can use it for this process, if you haven’t created an inner temple or something similar, you can imagine your mind and awareness moving down from your head into your heart (PS – apparently your physical heart has brain cells in it too – called the heart brain – more about the heart space in the article on (0) or the blank page).
- Once you are in the heart space, hold the card in front of you, you can open your eyes, then once you think you can visualise the image, close your eyes again. Don’t panic about getting it 100%, go with what you can do.
- Imagine stepping through the border of the card and speak to The Hierophant. Ask him what he is trying to tell you. Ask him to help you identify aspects of moral superiority and control in your experience, are you judging others as more or less worthy than you?
- Just listen and let the thoughts flow and when you are ready continue.
- When you feel you have absorbed everything you can for the moment, focus again on your breathing, you may feel disconnected from your body, that’s ok, take some more breathes focussing on balancing your mind with your body, rub your fingers and thumb on both hands together until you feel centred, calm and grounded.
- Take a massive breath in, blow yourself up like a balloon, then exhale in a rush allowing all the air to rush out of your lungs, then breathe normally and when you feel ready open your eyes.
- Remember to make notes in your journal/mediation journal.