The Hierophant
In Tarot, the direction assigned to this letter VAV and the color of THE
HIEROPHANT's robe tell you the two important parts that Reason plays in
the process of getting an Intuition and in carrying it out afterwards.
The direction of HEH is northeast, and the direction of VAV is southeast.
East, you see, is common to both. Wherever you see east, it always presupposes
THE EMPEROR, because THE EMPEROR always impresses THE EMPRESS (East).
Northeast is a combination of North (Reason) and East (Imagination). THE
HIEROPHANT's color is RED-ORANGE, and Red is the color of Reason mixed
with YELLOW to make Red-Orange. North is the sex-power in the head. When
it wakes in the head, it is called Reason, and east is THE EMPRESS after
her husband, THE EMPEROR, has impressed her. Therefore, when you say northeast,
you mean THE EMPRESS having been impressed by Reason, THE EMPEROR.
Now the Robe of THE HIEROPHANT is Red-Orange. Red is the color of THE
EMPEROR's robe, and Red is the color of the sex-power Reason, the sex-power
functioning in the head.
The symbol of Taurus is a half-circle over a full circle. These symbols
have a great many meanings. One of the meanings is this: the full circle
is the circle of your entire past experience. You have the same thing
when you speak your affirmations about THE EMPRESS:
"I am the luminous intelligence enlightening all experiences with
the wisdom of the ages."
The other is the Pattern on the Trestle board and refers to the Waterfall
in THE EMPRESS card:
"I am guided moment by moment along the path of liberation, filled
with the understanding of its perfect Law."
Liberation from what? The imperfect body to which you have condemned THE
EMPRESS.
Liberation into what? The body, which can function on all four planes
and possess the 15 extensions of consciousness depicted by the TIARA of
THE HIEROPHANT.
The sign Taurus rules the ears and the throat. The throat is the link
between the head and the body. In astrology, Taurus is ruled by Venus,
and the Moon is exalted in Taurus, meaning that the moon comes to her
highest activity in Taurus. Your body is governed by your mental images.
The highest use of the memory in us is "recollection of the state
from which we came, and back to which we are going." This recollection
is what is meant by Intuition. The highest capacity of the memory is reached
in Intuition. We remember something that we think we have forgotten and
the Higher Self reminds us of it.
Occultism teaches us that what we call discoveries are really "recoveries,"
Intuitions that state to us facts which we or the world knew long ago.
That is the teaching of Plato in regard to "ideas." "Ideas,"
he said, "are really the things that we see on a higher plane if
we have the Spiritual perception." So when we have mental recollection
down here of things we once saw on the higher planes, we have a memory,
an idea. It is the same which is expressed in the Bible: "what is
to be has been already." The creative powers search out what is past.
In other words, people invent by reason of their memories, by reason of
their Intuitions.
The occultist knows that even with the tremendous increase in scientific
discovery in the last hundred years, we have not, as yet, come abreast
of scientific perfection that we enjoyed in the past, in the Atlantean
Age, for instance. We have forgotten all about them. We shall come abreast
of those discoveries, and then we will go on a little further, that is
to say, we will remember still further back.
SYMBOLISM
You have an Enthroned Figure like the Pope sitting between two pillars
and giving instructions to two tonsured monks. The PILLARS are alike and
they are made of stone. They stand for the union of the personality with
the Higher Self, the body with the soul. The two Pillars bear the symbol
of the principle of gender, two opposite forces working harmoniously and
creatively together. That is the design of the two Pillars that we call,
in architecture, "the bell and the clapper" design. This design
illustrates the action of a nail when it is driven down into some other
body. The Higher Self cannot work alone to this extent and we cannot work
alone without the Higher Self. The bowl of the bell is useless without
the clapper and the clapper is useless without the bowl. They must work
together in order to make sound. A nail is useless unless you have something
to drive it into. Unless a nail is driven into wood or a board, it cannot
be attached to whatever you want to attach it to.
The two designs on the Pillars are set in deep semicircles, again representing
the two forms of the subconscious in you. One semi-circle is for the one
listener, and the other semi-circle is for the other listener. Who are
these listeners? They are not the self-conscious and subconscious as you
would naturally suppose. Their robes tell you who they are. Who is the
one with the Roses? Who is the one with the Lilies? The one with the Roses
is your intellectual subconscious, your body with your five senses. The
one with the Lilies is your Cosmic subconscious kneeling at the feet of
THE HIEROPHANT, who is instructing them. They have tonsured heads and
Yokes of YELLOW to show they are like monks, entirely abandoned and dedicated
to the Higher Self, the source of all Intuitions. The YELLOW YOKES show
the yoke of the Higher Self. One of them has Black Dots on it. It can
be impressed by the mind. The other cannot be impressed by your mind (the
Cosmic subconscious, the Holy Ghost in you), it can only be impressed
by His Mind, the Mind of the Higher Self.
The YOKE of the BLUE Figure should be LIGHT YELLOW, and it indicates the
cosmic subconscious of the personality. The Yoke of the figure with the
Red Roses should be deepest YELLOW. The two YELLOWs indicate different
thoughts. The LIGHT YELLOW indicates the Mind of the Higher Self. The
DEEP YELLOW indicates the mind of the lower self in these two phases,
that of the self-conscious and that of the subconscious. The BLUE
Figure represents THE HIGH PRIESTESS. The self-conscious of the personality
cannot impress her with his images. Only THE HIEROPHANT can do this, but
the self-conscious of the personality can impress THE EMPRESS, the intellectual
subconscious, which is the other figure.
Let us think on the teaching of the Higher Self. We are going later to
transfer it to the self-conscious. The teaching is both the concrete and
the abstract; it concerns the Eternal Principles. They are abstract. It
shows your application of the Eternal Principles to your own troubles;
that is, the concrete.
THE HIEROPHANT is enthroned on a PINK CARPET. Pink is Red-on-White. Red
means the Mars force and White means the Spirit. Red-on-White, which
is Pink, means the divine use of the Mars force, the Mars vibration.
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