The Heirophant

I have been looking through and studying my old tarot cards lately. A big help has been from my friend Silver Crow's book called "The Metaphysical Tarot Workbook."

I recently came across a card called The Heirophant and started delving into the meaning of what this card represents. To quote Silver Crow, in his workbook, The Heirophant "represents all the stubborn traits and mindless adherence to outworn ideas that human consciousness seems to need to bog itself down with...our obsession with putting limits and boundaries on The Spirit of God that resides within us."

This is interesting and important to me on this journey into Human Adulthood. Realizing my stubbornness, realizing my tendency towards self-congratulation, my "intelligence."  Thinking about my own intelligence kinda makes me laugh. I guess I have always considered myself "smart" but now I am realizing how dumb I actually am. What is being smart anyway? The only thing that I can claim maybe is a good memory and the ability to string words together that "sound" intelligent. Is that what we consider smart? What seems more and more clear is that the only smart thing is realizing how ignorant I am. How I think that I can put labels on things or know what a person should do to improve her life. I used to enjoy dispensing advice, but now I don't feel qualified. Or if I do, it's coming from somewhere else and I just need to get out of the way.

I can't lay claim to my clever ideas, inspirations, talents because they aren't mine and never were. Artists talk about a "muse" but what that really is happening is they have sufficiently opened themselves up to something much bigger. To claim that you are actually the source of talent and intelligence is what The Heirophant so cleverly does. Putting limits, acting puny in something called "individualism." Seems so gross now. So old-fashioned and boring.

The Heirophant also symbolizes our collective resistance to change. Why do we resist the one thing that can actually give our life some pizazz, something fresh? Oh yeah, thats right: fear. Boring old, worn to the bone, fear. Puke, puke, puke.