The Hierophant and the Psychopomp
A Journey Between Worlds
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The shaman has long served as a bridge between the mundane and the divine, guiding initiates on mystical journeys of death and rebirth. In many cultures, the shaman performs two archetypal roles vital to these transformations - that of the psychopomp and the hierophant. As psychopomp, the shaman escorts souls of the dead to the afterlife. As hierophant, the shaman leads the living through initiatory rites of passage. Both roles suggest a liminality, an existence on the threshold between two worlds. For the psychopomp, this threshold is between life and death. For the hierophant, it is between ignorance and enlightenment. To fully understand these archetypes is to understand the shaman's mastery of the perilous territories of the soul.
The term "psychopomp" derives from the Greek word psychopompos, meaning "guide of souls." The psychopomp assists in the transition from the earthly realm to the afterlife. Traditions around the world incorporate the symbolism of a supernatural guide accompanying the dead on their journey of the soul. The ferryman Charon transported souls across the river Styx in Greek mythology. Valkyries chose who lived and died in battle before escorting worthy heroes to Valhalla in Norse lore. Anubis weighed the hearts of the deceased before leading them into the afterlife in ancient Egypt. The grim reaper remains a prevalent psychopompic figure in modern Western culture.
Shamans often take on the psychopomp role, given their ability to mediate between worlds and communicate with spirits. They provide comfort and guidance to the dying, helping them prepare for and accept their deaths. Funerary rituals may invoke shamanic aid to direct souls to the proper afterlife destination. The living also seek shamans to contact deceased loved ones or gain insight into the afterlife. The shaman traverses the boundary between life and death, bringing back otherwise inaccessible knowledge to serve both the living and the dead.
The psychopomp role relates intrinsically to death, but the hierophant deals instead with symbolic death and rebirth during initiation rites of passage. The term hierophant derives from the Greek hierophantēs, meaning "one who reveals sacred things." A hierophant initiates candidates into the mysteries of the Divine, guiding them through ritual transformations to achieve enlightenment.
In ancient Greece, hierophants supervised the Eleusinian Mysteries, secret ceremonies for initiates seeking a connection to the goddesses Demeter and Persephone. The Mysteries reenacted Persephone's journey into the underworld, allowing participants to symbolically experience death and rebirth into a new spiritual awareness. Hierophants presided over the rituals, revealing their mystical secrets to initiates who proved themselves spiritually ready.
Various esoteric traditions carry on the role of the hierophant. In the occult tarot, which emerged in the 18th century as a fusion of European and Egyptian esotericism, the fifth trump was known as the Psychopomp, the Pope, or the Hierophant, a holy man initiating two acolytes into secret teachings.
Court de Gébelin, an early tarot scholar, connected the Hierophant to the practice of high magic among priests. De Gébelin associated the card with the Catholic Pope, viewed as God's representative on earth. Now called the Pope or Hierophant, the card came to represent an authorized mentor who confers spiritual wisdom.
This reinterpretation fit with tarot's growing appeal as a divination tool. The Hierophant embodied an established system of esoteric knowledge and its structured transmission to acolytes. While still arcane, the card's emphasis was now on conformity rather than psychopompic revelation.
The Hierophant further solidified as a symbol of traditional instruction in the early 20th century Rider-Waite-Smith deck. Illustrator Pamela Colman Smith depicted a religious teacher in formal vestments blessing two followers kneeling before him. The backdrop includes the symbols of the Catholic faith: a church, crosses, and a papal crown.
Author Arthur Waite described the Hierophant as representing "divine wisdom" and "explanation of mysteries." For Waite, the card stood for institutional education and knowledge that conforms to the existing order. This orthodoxy contrasts with the iconoclastic creativity of the Magician.
This high priest figure was linked to Hermes Trismegistus, the legendary founder of alchemy, astrology, and theurgy. Hermes was seen as a psychopomp, a guide who escorted souls into the afterlife. The Hierophant card was therefore viewed as a portal between worlds.
Later occult writers like Aleister Crowley and Paul Foster Case kept the Hierophant's psychopomp function in their teachings. Yet the dominant modern view of the card is as a guardian of tradition, conformity, and education by established systems. This reflects prevailing societal attitudes that favor orthodoxy.
Freemasonry contains a hierarchy of degrees through which masons symbolically ascend towards illumination. A hierophant guides new initiates through each rite of passage. The legacy of the Hierophant as a mystical guide remains, however, in contemporary traditions like Hermeticism and certain tarot practices. Some interpret the card as signifying initiation into higher states of consciousness or communication with one's inner guru. Many modern magical and neopagan groups still rely upon shamans acting as hierophants to anchor rituals and bestow blessings upon new members.
Shamanic initiations across cultures typically share common features that imitate the archetypal journey depicted in the Mysteries. Through fasting, meditation, isolation, or psychedelics, the initiate undergoes a symbolic death, disconnecting from ordinary consciousness. The initiate enters a liminal period where they encounter visions and trials. With the hierophant's guidance, they face their fears, letting go of the ego and old patterns. This stage represents a descent into the underworld.
The initiate then undergoes a rebirth and renewal, gaining insight about life's great mysteries. Their emergence represents the soul's return from the underworld, transformed. The hierophant helps the initiate interpret and integrate these powerful rites of passage. By revealing sacred teachings, the hierophant provides a map to navigate non-ordinary states of awareness. The initiate emerges with a profound connection to the Divine, prepared to live with expanded awareness.
Psychopomp and hierophant both facilitate journeys into non-ordinary reality, but with different aims - one eschatological, the other initiatory. The psychopomp's domain is death; the hierophant's is rebirth. Yet their sacred roles also overlap and intertwine. The hierophant's underworld mirrors the realm of the dead. Lessons from beyond still serve a pedagogical purpose for the living seeker.
Some shamanic traditions fuse the two roles entirely. Siberian shamans perform rituals to escort the souls of the deceased to the afterlife. But they also rely on spirits of the dead for divination and healing of the living. Trances and initiations bring Siberian shamans into direct contact with their ancestral spirits. Their mystical knowledge derives from this ongoing dialogue between worlds.
This interplay between psychopomp and hierophant suggests continuity between death and initiation. One contains the seeds of the other, hinting at cyclical patterns underpinning existence. The hierophant tells an allegorical story reflecting the psychopomp's reality. Life, death, and rebirth weave together in an endless dance of the soul, with shamans as the choreographers. The mystical journey prepares an initiate to meet death gracefully, while death itself represents the ultimate initiation into what lies beyond.
Ultimately, the Hierophant reminds us that knowledge is useless without inner realization. We must look past exoteric interpretations to see the archetype's real psychopompic message: self-transcendence arises from courageously probing our own depths. The mysteries reveal themselves when we are ready. The Hierophant awaits within.
Viewing the Earth as a living being provides another perspective on how these archetypes interact. As hierophant, the shaman midwives the initiate to a more harmonious relationship with the Earth. But as psychopomp, the shaman also helps the dying Earth soul navigate cataclysmic changes occurring in the planet's life cycle. In this light, the hierophant awakens humanity to restore Earth's balance during this critical turn in a larger cosmic initiation. The two roles work in symbiosis - the hierophant preserves Earth's life, while the psychopomp guides Earth's transition.
The hierophant and psychopomp are complex, multilayered archetypes that have shaped shamanic practice for millennia. Their resonance endures because they speak to two great mysteries at the heart of human existence – how to live meaningfully, and how to die peacefully. Both offer a path to wholeness and connection with the sacred.
As the cultural tides shift in the modern world, the importance of these archetypes comes into focus once again. Alienation and environmental devastation are symptoms of a society profoundly out of touch with its roots. Yet there are also glimmers of a spiritual awakening on the horizon. The rise of alternative healing modalities, environmental activism, and interest in shamanism reveal a resurgent yearning for meaning and interconnection.
The iconic psychopomp and hierophant figures still dwell in the collective imagination, waiting to be called upon. People long for guides to escort them through these chaotic, uncharted times. The psychopomp can help ease the anguish and fear surrounding death. The hierophant provides orientation to the living seeking initiation into expanded states of consciousness. Their ancient wisdom offers tools to nurture our frayed relationship with self, community and planet.
In the tumult of the 21st century, as humanity faces its greatest trial of death and rebirth, the roles of psychopomp and hierophant hold profound relevance. May we open to their sacred teachings - for our own enrichment, and for the healing of the Earth. If called upon sincerely today, perhaps the initiated shamans of old may offer their guidance again.
Soulidarity…….Soularity……Soular……Souldier…..Soulosopher…..Soulosophy……Soularian……Soulist…..
Soulogist……Soulverse….
Great article Starfire!
had no idea that I’d end up with Psychopomp chops who I first got sober on 10-18-85.
Spirits who have crossed over and have not been to the Light come to me because I’m not afraid or judgmental about their darkness which keeps them in isolated self-judgment.
I invite them to hang around, sometime we connect. I ask them if they want to go into The Light. The best part is when they go in - usually with Jesus and/or Mary, they always turn around and thank me.
There are more things in Heaven and Earth than than are Dreamt of in your philosophy, Horatio.