V The Heirophant

2021 as a Five/V The Heirophant Year

Numerologically, 2021 is a 5 year, which means lots of change.  Last year, we had a 4 year with a lot of limitation.  We should see some loosening of the limitations, but not all at once and not in anything like a linear way.  5 is a transition year, so it is a bridge.  Usually it’s not a very stable bridge.  It’s more like hopscotching from one partial span to another and then changing direction because the other shore isn’t where you thought it was going to be.

When 5 is being used well, the energy is of constructive freedom.  We can change what we want, explore where our curiosity takes us and then bring useful information back to what we’re transitioning.  When 5 is being over or under-used, we’re likely to scatter our energies and waste what hindsight shows to be opportunities.

Remember that yearly energies don’t clang into place at the changing of the calendar.  We’ll see the instability and, hopefully, freedom of the year crest and recede, as the energy shifts from 2021 to the responsible, stable, community-minded 6 energy of 2022. 

Waite Smith Tarot

In Tarot, we have V The Heirophant (Greek, “interpreter of the sacred”) corresponding to the energies of 2021.  It points to the central importance of our communal traditions and beliefs.  Education and the sacred figure in this year.  In the positive, V The Heirophant guards what societies or tribes – or countries or cultures or families or religions – value.  It sets up institutions to put those values into action and to educate members of the society in its values.  I love the connection to old traditions in the Enchanted Forest Old One.  There are rings within rings of these traditions for all of us, from our personal lives out through family traditions to our local culture, our country and, perhaps, our global connections.  Used as a positive, it gives us landmarks and guideposts in our lives.  Used as a negative, it leads to theocratic intolerance and bigotry.

V The Heirophant can be a huge help in the transition of 5 times.  When we’re betwixt and between, it’s helpful to have markers to keep us from falling completely off the beam.  Institutions that keep us tethered to our values can be that beam. 

It can also exacerbate one of the negative tendencies when people don’t recognize the landscape: clinging to beliefs out of fear, which can lead to refusal to make changes or to allow others their own beliefs.  It’s a very big deal to have beliefs questioned at any point in time – rather like pulling the carpet out from under one’s entire life – but especially so in uncertain times, which is definitely the case in our 5 year.

Tarot de Marseilles

Looking deeper into the numbers, the 5 is built from 2 2s, a 0, and a 1.  We’ll need to proceed through those numbers in reverse order: 1, then 2, then 0, then 2 again, at a deeper level of understanding.

1 speaks to the individual, as always, for better and worse.  With a healthy sense of ourselves, we set boundaries, know our strengths – and weaknesses – and can lead from those strengths when called on.  If we’re refusing to use our one-ness, we are passive/aggressive babies who are most effective at creating change through temper tantrums (cringing as I imagine it!).  If we get so into being number one that we can’t see others, we’re selfish despots steamrolling over everyone else as we bully them into submission. 

The healthy 2 is sensitive to others and seeks to bond, based on emotional connections.  The unhealthy 2 is either co-dependent and hyper-sensitive or on lockdown, refusing to open up to others.

0 is the “God” number.  0 indicates Divine intervention – opportunities and challenges over which we have little control.  We can either be responsive or reactive.  Big events like pandemics or global recessions, even if there are traceable human causes, are considered to be “0” events. 

So, as we meet events this year, we’ll need to make sure that we’re owning up to our own part and to our own responsibilities first.  Then, we need to make the important first step toward cooperation: connecting to others as individuals.  When the unexpected shows up, as it will with the 0, we need to move most strongly toward cooperative energies.  The ultimate responsibility is to connection, to intuition, to respect of other individuals, without sacrificing our own individuality.

Since we’re still early in the 2000s, we’re very young learners as a species when it comes to cooperation and sensitivity.  It will take time for all of us to get over the individualism as ultimate lesson that was part of our evolution through the last millennium.  This decade is actually a big boost in our education since the 2 repeats throughout the 2020s.  None of us will see the next opportunity, which comes in the 2200s, for an entire 100 years.

We can all up our one-on-one relationship skills through this year.  Our biggest strength through the changes this year will be in our connections to others, both as members of an institution, faith or tradition, and as individuals connecting with other individuals. 

Weekly Card The Captivating Fool

150604 0 The Fool Bellydancers
Tarot of the Bellydancers

We’ve all met 0 The Fool in our lives. And we’ve all been 0 The Fool at least once or twice. (One of my favourite expressions is, “Mama didn’t raise no small fool”.) And, with a little less embarrassment, we’ve met 0 The Fool here a couple of times.

So let’s finesse 0 The Fool with 3 different images.

150604 0 The Fool Yoga
Yoga Tarot

First, from Tarot of the Bellydancers (yes, really!) we have this smiling beauty offering us a pure white lotus with the promise of a dance. The lotus – and her little dog – are pure, unsullied by the journey. Is this dancer at the start or end of her dance? Is the red bag waiting for gifts or full of the gifts from her performance? 0 The Fool is sometimes placed at the beginning of the cycle of the Majors and sometimes at the end. Does the unopened lotus necessarily mean this 0 The Fool can’t be at the end of the cycle?

The leaping 0 The Fool from the Yoga Tarot has a monkey face, the reflection of his chattering monkey mind. And the outside world is no help, with another monkey pulling at him. Here we have an unrefined 0 The Fool, pulled here and there by the multitude of distractions in life and in his mind. Any banana will do to entice him on his journey.

150604 0 The Fool Renaissance Williams
Brian Williams’ Renaissance Tarot

0 The Fool from Brian Williams’ Renaissance Tarot is a more serious contender. This Jester is dressed for court and ready to entertain the aristocracy. He alone can criticize the ruling class with impunity. With his staff of grapes, he brings Dionysian wildness with him. The skull of mortality tops the staff, acknowledging that the journey of life has an end. Live life while ye may . . . .

What if V The Heirophant meets our mysterious bellydancer 0 The Fool? Will the meeting be the same as with the monkeymind 0 The Fool? Or the Renaissance Jester 0 The Fool?

How about the rational King of Swords? How will the Sky Kitty get on with the bellydancer and her dog? With the monkey? Anyone else hearing a whole lot of yowling and scratched noses, so far? The Jester may have more of a place in the court of the King of Swords.

Or put the various aspects of 0 The Fool through a 3 of Cups experience. How do they colour the situation?

You can see that comparisons of multiple images can bring to light various points on the spectrum of a card’s energy. Do you relate more to one of the 0 The Fools that we’ve seen so far than to the others? How do you think of 0 The Fool? What can you add to provide depth to the character?

Get out there and dare to be a Big Fool this week!

Weekly Card The Tribal Conscience of V The Heirophant

150527 V The Heirophant Renaissance Lyle
The Renaissance Tarot

When was the last time you ran into someone wearing a woolly, horned headdress? It probably wasn’t at any of the places you’d imagine meeting V The Heirophant.

So what’s going on here, in Helen Jones and Jane Lyle’s Renaissance Tarot image?

For starters, it can be helpful to step outside of our culture to explore spiritual traditions from other times and places. Where there are groups of humans, it’s natural that structures grow up to addresse the non-visible aspects of our existence. This isn’t an element of “high civilization” or “asphalt world”.

The fur and horns bring to mind animals of the natural world. There’s our physical nature right up there at the top of V The Heirophant. So we’ve got spirituality in the natural world, not in some abstract or ideal construct. This is our guide to the non-visible within visible life. Those horns can operate as antenna for messages from the divine, direct to the natural self of our guide.

It also brings up some of the elements of life that will return again and again in our journey through the Major Arcana. We may have developed a spiritual approach within an existing tradition, or designed one of our own. But we’ve still got those parts of ourselves that are wild and unknown, out of control. We’ll get lots of opportunities to come to terms with our wild selves in any lifetime.

Recently, we looked at VII The Chariot. We saw another hint of internal conflict there. What if we bring this wild and woolly V The Heirophant into one of our VII The Chariot situations? How much impact do you think V The Heirophant has had on building our various societies?

What happens when V The Heirophant is in the room with the King of Swords? We’ve got earthly authority meeting spiritual authority. What is the ultimate authority in your life? Does it vary from situation to situation? What cultures have given V The Heirophant domination over the King of Swords?

How does V The Heirophant relate to the celebratory occasions of the 3 of Cups? What are some of the small-scale ceremonies and rituals in place in the celebrations and joyful social structures of your life? Is there room for the wildness of a woolly headdress?

This week, look for the ways your traditions and rituals honour your natural, untamed self.

Weekly Card V The Heirophant as Sage

150115 V Heirophant High Priest Herbal
The Herbal Tarot

Let’s add another layer to what we learned about V The High Priest (also called the Heirophant) when we looked at him before. You’ll remember from Tarot . . . It’s Easier Than You Think that V The Heirophant is the Major, with all its depths, that connects to education.

I love the riches that the Herbal Tarot image has for us. The figure has the salt and pepper beard of age, reminding us that the wisdom of the High Priest comes from experience. His white turban signifies the purity of his thought and that little bit of red, the colour of the earth or root chakra, connects his thoughts to daily life. Grounded red interwoven with white also trims his robe, showing us a purified life. The spiritual purple lets us know what he holds most important. It covers the blue of thought and communication. So we have communication of spiritual truths that come from purified or sanctified life experience.

He’s holding an ankh, the symbol for eternal life. The ankh is often called the Key to Life. It unlocks the door to meaning. Our finite lives here on planet Earth are viewed from within a larger context, the eternal nature of the spirit. Our lives are just a chapter in a much longer story; the full meaning of what we’re doing here is only known through that bigger story. And there’s purification associated with the ankh, as well.

The High Priest is standing squarely between a light and a dark pillar. And the light pillar has some darkness in it, while the dark pillar has light in its capstone. Sounds rather like the yin within the yang and the yang within the yin, doesn’t it? It takes the full spectrum of experience to make a rich and spirit-filled life. Wisdom balances the extremes.

Sage is just the perfect herb for V The High Priest! Sage is another word for the wise. It also comes from the Latin for “to save”. That brings in the education aspect; this is a wise one who saves others by passing on his wisdom. Sage is notorious as a purifying agent. We’ve mentioned purification in connection with the ankh, and the High Priest’s white turban and the white weaving in his robe. Here it shows up again to remind us we’re not just taking experience at its face value; we’re distilling it to its essence, in that big-picture context of the ankh.

How can you connect this deep and meaningful energy to your life this week? Where do you turn for spiritual wisdom that you can apply in the real world?   Do you need a pause to connect with your own wisdom as you process life experience, purifying it to essential meaning in the context of your spiritual journey?

Open your life to spiritual guidance!

 


Tarot is a wonderful tradition for providing real world guidance. When you’re ready to look more deeply at your own spiritual journey, you know where to find me.

Weekly Card V The Heirophant Revisited

140925 V The Heirophant Enchanted
The Enchanted Tarot

The Enchanted Tarot version of V The Heirophant always makes me think of the Sermon on the Mount. That’s a perfect example of the spiritual education that this card indicates (your key word from Tarot . . . It’s Easier Than You Think).

We’ve met him before, so let’s look at the specifics of this beautiful image.

The Heirophant has an expanded headdress. It’s like his crown chakra has met the heat and opened fully (anyone else thinking Jiffy Pop?). And it’s not a cold spirituality, by any means: a pure white heart is up there in the centre of the headdress. This is someone whose heart is in his beliefs. His headdress bursts into petals up at the top. I always think that his mind is flowering. Ideas that bring fragrant beauty to the world.

His robes are white, the colour of purity. He’s fully clothed in white – someone who lives a purified life.

He’s standing on purple ground. Purple being the colour of the spiritual, could it be that he’s on sacred ground? Is it the ground that’s sacred, or does any ground he walks on become sacred? That same purple is in his flowering headdress, along with the blue of water and emotional involvement (again, the path with heart).

He holds the book of the Law, which connects him to tradition. He dispenses his tradition with an open gesture, a benediction.

What of the two people in front of him? Could that be our masculine and feminine sides in daily life? Notice that the man is reaching out to the woman, beseeching the involvement of the feminine.

Who do you go to for spiritual guidance? And when are you in a position to dispense that guidance, from within your own traditions?

Learn it, live it, and pass it on!

 

 

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We’ve had another look at V The Heirophant here.

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