The History of the Hierophant (Pope) Card

 As with the High Priestess card, "Hierophant" is a relative new title, introduced by the occultists. In early decks, such as the Guala Tarocco Piemontese shown here, the card is the Pope, unless an entirely different subject is substituted, as happened very frequently! The word "hierophant" was intended to evoke the image of the Greek mystery religions, with the hierophant as initiator. Strangely, though, the impression given by the card remains quite papal, even in occult decks. The trappings of the papacy are usually still present in the picture, and the card is associated with conventional religion and dogma, rather than the private, magical experiences of the mystery religions.

Today, of course, we tend to regard the pope as the head of the Roman Catholic church, and thus associate him with the positions of that institution, in contrast with those of other faiths or philosophies. Modern tarot enthusiasts sometimes bristle at the idea of a Hierophant who is explicitly the Pope, seeing that title and image as a symbol of a particular religion which they reject or oppose. When the tarot was first created, though, the Reformation had not yet occurred, and there was little recognition or understanding of religious traditions outside of Christendom. Thus, for the Medieval or Renaissance European, the pope was religious rulership personified. His domain, like that of the Emperor, was in theory the entire world.

As was true of the Emperor, the ideal and the reality of the papacy were often starkly different. The papacy was not just a religious force, but was thoroughly political, even military. When the tarot was invented, the Pope controlled a large portion of central Italy, and allied himself opportunistically with rival kingdoms in order to secure political advantage.

Furthermore, the tarot was invented at just about the time that the Great Schism ended. For decades, Christendom had had two (sometimes even three) rival popes, each claiming absolute authority! There was a Pope in Avingnon and a Pope in Rome, each with his own hierarchy of cardinals, judges, and officials. The different kingdoms of Europe picked sides in the controversy, and the matter was heavily entangled with political corruption of all sorts. Interestingly, duke Filippo Maria Visconti of Milan, for whom the oldest surviving tarot cards were made, was instrumental in ending the schism and reuniting the church under a single pope.

But whatever cynical thoughts one might have of a particular pope or his policies, Renaissance culture did not question the abstract ideal of the Pope as God's human representative on Earth, the highest pinnacle of worldly authority. In the tarot, the Pope is invariably the highest of the cards depicting the ranks of human society. After the Pope come allegories such as Love, Fortune, and the virtues--not actual human authority figures. The Pope thus assumes a natural and conventional place among the trumps.

Bacus replaces the Pope in the Belgian Tarot (1770)

Jupiter replaces the Pope in the Tarot de Besançon (1818)

A Moor replaces the Pope in the Tarocco Bolognese (modern)

The Eastern Emperor replaces the Pope in the Florentine Minchiate (c.1725)

Constancy replaces the Pope in the Tarocco Siciliano (modern)

After the Reformation got underway, the church of Rome became less accepting of elements of the popular culture that might be taken as undermining the solemnity of the church. A picture of the Pope on a pack of playing cards, to be the butt of off-color jokes by gamblers in taverns, was deemed quite inappropriate! In 1725, the church insisted that the cardmakers in Bologna remove the Pope and Papess from the tarot deck. The cardmakers replaced Empress, Emperor, Papess, and Pope, with four moors. Similar "censorship" had probably occurred much earlier with the Florentine Tarot and Minchiate, in which the Pope is replaced by an "Eastern Emperor". In the Tarocco Siciliano, we see the virtue of Constancy (a lady with a banner) in place of the Pope. The Belgian Tarot, once popular throughout the whole of northern France, substitutes the god Bacchus for the Pope. He is shown naked, straddling a wine barrel, and gulping wine from a bottle. Finally, in Besançon in eastern France, the Pope was replaced by Jupiter, king of the gods, which gave rise to the image still found on the Swiss 1JJ Tarot today.

There are few subjects quite as touchy as religion. The Hierophant card in modern decks often arouses very strong opinions and ambivalent feelings. Looking back through the history of the tarot, we see that it has always been so.

 

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Copyright 1999 Tom Tadfor Little