Tarotscope

The Tarot’s representative for the sign of Taurus and for Taurus season is the Hierophant, the 5th macrocosmic card.

The word “hierophant” is likely not one we use on the daily (unless we are into Tarot that way), so it’s important to note that this same card was (and is sometimes still) known as “The Pope,” until it was changed to “The Hierophant” in the late 18th century. The very famous Smith-Rider-Waite Tarot deck, which was first published in England in 1909, uses the title “Hierophant”, a Greek word meaning priest, and sometimes this card is also known as the High Priest, as a counterpart to the 2nd macrocosmic card, the High Priestess.

A more specific translation of hierophant is “revealer of the holy,” or “revealer of the sacred”, as in one who translates sacred texts, or one who interprets mystery.  Hierophants show us how to apply spiritual wisdom to our everyday experiences, guiding us through difficult times and celebrating with us at seasonal shifts, holidays, and milestones. Over time this card has come to be associated with teaching and learning, particularly the transmission of sacred wisdom from one generation to the next. For me, this card is about the relationship between ancestors and descendants, and about branching, diverging, and evolving through not only the interpretation and transmission of sacred rites and principles, but through their continual reinterpretation with each transmission.

The shape of the Roman numeral V demonstrates this perfectly. At the base, we are together, we agree. We are taught a certain way to interpret a mystery, to comfort ourselves through struggle and suffering, to remember and reconnect to our people, and at first we simply repeat what we are taught. We color eggs at Easter. We say this prayer when someone dies. We follow these rules when we come together to discuss a difficult topic. For some of us, the ways of our ancestors and elders will work well throughout our lives, providing us with a measure of comfort and ease in the face of the unknown, traditions to mark the time and to track our changes. But for some of us, we will reach a point where the old ways won’t totally work or fit with our views, our values, our realities. Some of them will, but some of them won’t. So, we will critically engage with the ways we have been taught (conditioned) to (re)act, and we will reinterpret sacred concepts for ourselves, in the context of our time and place.

We will continue to repeat what we have been taught as long as it works, but if it doesn’t we are going to diverge, branch off in a new direction. We will carry some of the traditions forward, change some, and also create new traditions for ourselves that we will offer to our descendants. And as we become hierophants to the next generation, we must remember and respect their right to evolve the traditions we hand them. They will not carry all of what we teach them forward (thank goodness for that!). They will reinterpret what we have taught them, they will take what works and change what doesn’t, and they will create new traditions, rituals, and ceremonies to meet their needs and the needs they anticipate for those who come next.

In western Astrology, Taurus is ruled by the planet Venus, corresponding to The Empress, the Tarot’s 3rd macrocosmic card. Libra is also ruled by Venus, and I wrote about The Empress during Libra season, back in September-October, 2024: 

The Empress is primarily concerned with concepts like nourishment, abundance, and care. The Empress teaches that in order to receive physical health, material security, and a sense of belonging (being cared for), it is right and good for us to shield ourselves from anything toxic in our food and our medicine, our homes, and our environments.

The Empress cares a lot about what we receive, what we ingest, what we internalize. This card wants us to eat food that tastes good AND helps us feel stronger. She wants us to meet our basic (and not-so-basic) needs so that we can turn our attention to the parts of the world that bring us pleasure, joy, and beauty.

The name of this card needs to change because we know our real-life Empresses don’t tend to act this way. It doesn’t quite align with the Astrological association of Venus, but my best idea so far is to rename this card The Earth, or perhaps The Land, because I believe the most important edge of this card is the one that reminds us that there is nothing intrinsically good or bad about the Earth, or any of the resources available to us through the Earth’s body, but there are things that are good or bad for us in any given moment or place. What is good and right for us today, here and now, might be toxic on another day, or in another place.

There is a reminder here in this card about presence, about relationship to resources, about the dynamic, changing nature of nature itself, ourselves included. Even with the strong message of protection and shielding from anything toxic or harmful, this card does not ask us to go on the offensive. Instead, she asks us to create steadiness through practices, rituals, and relationships that help us notice and honor the needs and wants of our bodies, our communities, our lands and natural resources. By tending our relationships with the sources of abundance in our lives, by navigating their challenges and committing to meeting our needs with fewer and fewer compromises, we simultaneously and by default open ourselves to the abundant nourishment, pleasure, and beauty available to us, if we know where to look.

Both the Ace and Page of Pentacles cover the quadrant of the sky centered on fixed Earth, or the sign of Taurus. The cards’ reach extends one sign in each direction, spanning Aries – Taurus – Gemini (T. S. Chang).

Aces are the phase of a change process when we open ourselves to the very idea that change is even possible. If the Tarot “pips” (the Ace – 10 cards of each Minor Arcana, or microcosmic suit) signify transformative processes, then the Ace is the moment at which we first open ourselves to whatever change we are hoping to make.

The Ace of Pentacles, the Ace of Earth energy is a point at which we open ourselves to new material realities, new relationship to resources, community, safety, and abundance. When this card turns up in a random pull, it can indicate a new offering, a gift we are being invited to notice and receive. This is usually something like a new job opportunity, a new pathway toward better health, a new home or place or land to explore.

In a non-random reading, like this one, I like thinking of the Ace of Pentacles as a seed, full of promise and potential, but also just one seed. The Ace of Pentacles tugs gently at my sleeve, asking me to strike a balance between taking myself seriously enough to notice that every single move I make has a material impact on the world around me, but not so seriously as to become overwhelmed by an outsized sense of responsibility, which could lead me to not act at all, becoming dormant.

Both the Ace and Page of Pentacles cover the quadrant of the sky centered on fixed Earth, or the sign of Taurus. The cards’ reach extends one sign in each direction, spanning Aries – Taurus – Gemini (T. S. Chang).

The Page of Pentacles represents the relationship between microcosmic earth energy (maybe the body) and macrocosmic earth energy (as in, the Land). There is an exchange of energy here, whereby material resources (like home, security, nourishment, and health) are offered from the macro to the micro and vice versa. The Page of Pentacles teaches us about reciprocity, that if I have taken something offered to me by the macrocosm, the macrocosm will need to recover that energy, some way or another.

This is less about “owing” in a 1:1, tit-for-tat version of reciprocity (though sometimes it is about repair, return, or accountability to the collective) and more of an unbreakable, natural law.

For example, in this era of climate injustice and catastrophe, the Page of Pentacles would ask us to consider: what if the heating earth is settling a score, not out of revenge but as part of a realignment process, whereby macrocosmic life, collectively, is working to return to equilibrium?