The Hierophant

Upright

The fifth term reflects the second: knowledge, now transmitted. He is the letter of breath — of what passes out of one being and into another. Papus's Pope is the channel: doctrine, tradition, the means by which what is known reaches someone who does not yet know it. He is not the source and does not claim to be; his authority is entirely in the fidelity of the transmission. Divinatory sense: inspiration.

Reversed

Transmission with the content gone — form scrupulously kept, meaning long since lost. Or teaching that binds rather than frees, the channel taking itself for the source. Reversed can equally mark the opposite error: everything received refused on principle, so nothing is inherited and every lesson has to be paid for twice.

Correspondences

Papus's number

5

Hebrew letter

He (ה)

Hieroglyph

Breath — the respiration of man

Septenary

First septenary (1–7), the Divine world — fifth term, reflecting the High Priestess: knowledge turned outward

Divinatory sense

Inspiration

In a Spread

At the commencement the matter begins with something taught, advised or inherited. In opposition, orthodoxy — the received way of doing it, which is in the way. At equilibrium he is the mediator, and the situation holds because someone is translating between two parties. As the result: the answer comes from outside the querent, through a channel rather than a revelation.