The Hierophant is the (5th) card of the tarot deck (Major Arcana). He represents Your Higher Self (Inner-Teacher) and is your personal connection (bridge) with GOD and the Wisdom of The Universe. The Ancients chose to characterize the Omnipotent Power and Perfected Magnificence of your Higher Self by picturing it as a Pope or Holy Pontiff. In Latin the word for bridge is "Pont" so he serves as your link or bridge to the unseen worlds of Divinity and your personal channel to the voice and will of GOD.

Throughout the entirety of the Major Arcana (the first 22 cards of the tarot) the Ancients are striving to instruct us in the procedures necessary to recreate and transform our physical being (thoughts, body and emotion) into one of high spiritual quality. Most of us are far from this goal. We live and exist primarily as creatures of habit and appetite... beings in search of the ultimate physical pleasure and emotional gratification. Our desires and urges have, for the most part, taken over control of our choices and motivations as they unrelentingly compel us to seek the comforts and luxuries that will yield the highest sensual animal pleasures. Don't get me wrong, there's nothing negative in seeking human comfort and satisfaction, but many of us have become totally immersed in them, without constraint and maxed-out within their extremes and over-indulgences. It's this very human tendency that the HIEROPHANT seeks to help you balance and control. He is your teacher, protector and dedicated spiritual mentor. His lessons, suggestions and the spiritual transformative path he will illustrate and recommend, will not be easy assignments. They will require your highest commitment and sincere desire... if he determines that you are pretentious and your intentions insincere, you will be tuned out like a radio and allowed to follow your own path of never-ending confusion.

Look closely at the HIEROPHANT card... do you notice the (2) priests or prelates kneeling before your Higher Self. Well, they are his devoted followers and are representative of the two (2) operational, but completely separate aspects of your subconscious mind. You have a higher (Cosmic) subconscious and a lower (Intellectual) subconscious mind. Your Cosmic component (as you look at the picture) is on the right, with the (Intellectual) to the left. When your Higher Self (The HIEROPHANT) speaks to you, his voice is heard as your intuition and comes through your (Cosmic) subconscious. In his teaching, Carl Jung points out that your (Cosmic) subconscious is The High Priestess card (your pituitary gland). It is her task and sacred duty (working within the pituitary) to convey his words and directions to the thinking lobe of your brain where it will then register as the voice of your intuition or the "small voice within". We've all heard it, but don't always follow its guidance. Pinocchio heard it numerous times (his Jimeny Cricket) and suffered the consequences when he decided not to follow Jimeny's advice.

When your self-conscious mind (The Magician) receives this spiritual instruction sent by (The HIEROPHANT), conveyed through the pituitary (The High Priestess), it must decide (just like Pinocchio) whether it will follow or ignore the advice. If accepted, the etheric mind-waves it generates are transmitted through your neural pathways and emotions to your (Intellectual) subconscious mind (The Empress). It is (the Empress) who then begins to carry out the orders of your self-conscious to create and recreate the body physical. Remember, you have two (2) separate operational units within your subconscious and each does its own thing. The High Priestess on the right side of the picture and The Empress to the left. The Empress (Intellectual Subconscious) is a kind of Cinderella who never directly receives the Hierophant's teaching. His directives are highly classified and encrypted (coded) General Orders. They are transmitted only to the pituitary (The High Priestess) and then relayed to the self-conscious (The Magician). If he heeds the advice and approves the plan, it will be relayed to the Empress. It is at this point the High Priestess supplies the ways and means (blueprints and procedures) that will allow the Empress to work with the body chemistry to develop manifest and reshape the body physical.

Now what about our self-conscious role as the Magician... if we are overeating and following our sexual passions to detrimental extremes, do we need the words and encouragement of The HIEROPHANT to inspire our rehab ? No... not really, that is, if the subconscious urges and cravings of the body haven't already enslaved us. It's easier said then done to end a lifelong smoking, overeating, sex abuse or drug habit, but if your desire is deep enough and your pain has bottomed-out for the 30th time, The Hierophant's suggestions become one's only hope.

The goal of the self-conscious mind is to achieve union with the Higher Self. This is accomplished through meditation and visualization. After you have affirmed your desire to eliminate and remove yourself from the urges, hang-ups and temptations of your problem, you must tune into the energy of our Higher Being. Meditate and concentrate on The HIEROPHANT card... become one with The High Priestess, feel The Hierophant's Light Force streaming through you as you mentally receive the warmth of His Solar Light frequencies. This act of visualization will actually begin to stimulate your nerve endings and (as the pituitary activates) will initiate some miraculous changes within your cellular makeup. You will have to perform this meditation regularly, each day, as you affirm and recommit that you are whole, new and desirous of creating a "New Heaven and a New Earth". Your body physical, its emotions and your rededicated mind are that "New Earth".

copyright 2003-2004, Joe Ivory, all rights reserved