Tarot – The Hierophant (V)

The Hierophant: Mother of Initiation or The Vestal Virgin Returns

The main business of the Hierophant and of all Magick is the uniting of the microcosm with the macrocosm. This results in the initiation of the adept. The magickal formula by which this is achieved in the present stage of human evolution is ‘love under will’ as suggested in our analysis of the Empress.

The rhythm of the Hierophant is a vibration that intervals from crest to trough to crest in the spans of two thousand years and is referred to as an aeon. We have just passed from the previous patriarchal aeon of Osiris (which was preceded by the matriarchal aeon of Isis) to the present aeon of Horus (the Child). In two thousand years hence we will enter the aeon of Maat or the age of justice of which this aeon is a preparation.

Venus’ rulership of Taurus, attributed to this card, indicates that in this new aeon woman is the initiator and man is the fulfillment thereof. Such a change or adjustment in the direction of human evolution supplants the old aeon of the ‘Dying God’ and its Piscean idea of sacrifice as the act of surrender.

Instead, the woman is girt with a sword as an equal in the conspiracy of evolution. The focal point of the directed energy no longer aims at dissolution into that which is greater but into the act of creation itself. There is a dissolution, but this is the annihilation of opposites into a new and more potent substance. No longer is She the passive participant in the continuity of existence. Now She casts herself as equally eager and indeed militant about her participation in the creative process.