The Power to Bind and Harmonize: The Hierophant in the Tarot

(Based on the representations found on the Rider-Waite-Smith deck.)

In ancient Greece, the Hierophant guarded the secret rites of the cult of Demeter and Persephone. Known as the Eleusinian Mysteries, the annual initiation celebrated the descent of Demeter into the underworld, as well as her return. The powerful symbolic union between mother and daughter was said to have “provided initiates with a vision of the afterlife so powerful that it changed the way they saw the world and their place in it.” Greeks and Romans traveled to Eleusis hoping to be permitted initiation. Of its mysteries, Cicero wrote: “Nothing is higher…they have not only shown us how to live joyfully but they have taught us how to die with a better hope.”

Just as the Emperor and the Empress form a pair, the Hierophant’s counterpart is said to be the High Priestess. In the Eleusinian Mystery cult, both figures, viewed as equals, held their respective elected positions for life, playing different and yet significant roles in the secret rituals. While the Hierophant on the Rider-Waite-Smith card looks more like the Bishop of Constantinople or Rome, he is nevertheless situated between twin pillars, like the High Priestess, and invites the two initiates at his feet into the mysteries of the religion that he represents.