The Heirophant card is about turning your attention towards the source of wisdom. Most cards depict a papal-like figure, with two disciples turned toward him. I like to imagine a big fat Buddha-like being, grounded in an Earth-based wisdom. The truth is that this being is you. You are your own teacher, and you learn from yourself through your own life experience. That is the meaning of the Heirophant. The Emperor is the determination and discrimination needed to take new actions and see in new ways. The Heirophant naturally follows as the gatherer of information from this life experiment that you have set in motion. It helps you to see how you are embodying your own truth in each moment.
In Vedic astrology, the Heirophant card is the sign of Taurus. Taurus is a fixed earth sign ruled by the planet Venus. It shows the earthy side of the planet of love and beauty. It is about a heart-centered wisdom that comes from opening the senses and receiving all the information from the physical world. Taurus loves all the comforts of the world, including sex, food, and sleep. There is a very grounded wisdom to Taurus that does not look to high concepts for truth. Instead, this sign is about learning to trust your perceptions and accepting what is so.
In the Toltec shamanistic path, we are still in the mastery of awareness. The Heirophant card is the awareness of the wisdom within you. It shows the great truths and compassionate understanding that can come through opening your perceptions and practicing awareness on a daily basis. Your awareness is where wisdom starts. The two disciples depicted in the card are your false personalities, the two hemispheres of your brain when they operate on their own without integration. Don Miguel Ruiz calls these personalities the judge and the victim. The judge insists that everything about your experience is wrong, and the victim feels victimized by these judgements and powerless to change. With this card, you have an opportunity to gently guide these two false personalities towards the source of wisdom, your own authentic self. You do this by becoming aware how your judge and victim operate, and then by extending your awareness beyond their limited point of views.
This card offers you a chance to hear the voices in your head, and compare them to your direct experience of life. In truth, life is neutral. But our intellects tend to interpret life as good or bad. We create stories around our direct experience to justify emotions we feel. But we are not our emotions, and emotions move through us in a constant flow of change. With this card, be willing to draw your attention back to your senses, your direct perception of life, without needing to interpret it. Begin to see this process as a way to access deeper wisdom.
Pull the Heirophant card from your Tarot deck and place it somewhere you will see it. Meditate on the image in the card. Imagine that you are the Heirophant, a wise Buddhaic being eminating an earthy, grounded wisdom. Bring this energy into all areas of your life, especially places where there are a lot of extraneous stories, mental constructs, and interpretations of reality.
Next: The Lovers
(c) 2004 by David Ray
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