The warm morning sun on his face awakened him. He opened his eyes and slowly stretched his body, breathing in the cool spring air. But something wasn’t quite right.

He suddenly realized he was stark naked. All his clothes had disappeared and his bag was not where he left it last night. Someone must have robbed him and, incredibly enough, he had just slept through it.

He was scared, really really frightened. Maybe it was the bully he met last night; maybe he decided to teach him a lesson and had his men track him; maybe they were still around; maybe they would come out from behind those trees and beat him senseless; maybe they were going to do even worse things to him.

He knew he was being paranoid but he couldn’t help it — there could be thugs watching him right now. He felt panic rising in his chest and his heart began to beat faster. He needed to get out of this place. He began to run.

He kept on running until he saw a small cabin ahead. He slowed down, breathing a little easier now, cautiously opened the door and stepped inside.

He was surprised by the sight of his father, calmly watching him with a serene expression on his face. He felt tears welling up in his eyes and told him in a quivering voice that he had lost everything. He was ashamed.

His father began to speak to him, his voice full of compassion and understanding. He did not have to worry so much, he said, because no matter how messy things got, everything he lived through would teach him something and every experience would benefit him in some way. He had to keep going, no matter what, and he would never walk alone for he was always going to be by his side.

He woke up with a shudder. He was fully dressed and his bag was lying next to him where he put it last night — everything was exactly the way it was when he went to sleep. It was only a dream, he realized, with a great sense of relief.

>> NEXT STORY

At number 5, the wise Hierophant will raise your awareness of belonging to a community and sharing common values.

Even if everything seems fine theoretically, the Fool begins to develop suspicions. He is trying to take control of his life [hold on to the reins of his life] and he knows, more or less, how and why to do this- but what if he fails, what if he loses his grip? Who will support him then, who will protect him? What if his family, his friends and his loved ones, or in other words, his past, turn their backs on him?

Whenever you make or think you have made a mistake, you want someone to take charge of the situation, and accept you unconditionally. As his name reveals, the Hierophant is an exalted figure. You can also imagine him as the other half of the High Priestess; he is a spiritual leader, perhaps a yogi, a priest or a tribe leader.

His wise gaze will remind you that fear holds no rule over fate. You may give up progressing with the timidity brought on by fear, or with the prior knowledge that every experience is a gain, continue. In this sense, your worries are unwarranted, because there is no loss in any case. Whether it ends in happiness or not, every experience is needed.

Besides, to have a past, a community, shared values and beliefs will protect you under any circumstances and make you feel valuable. The Hierophant, too, is firmly attached to his past and traditions. He reminds you that the most important condition of survival is attachment to a tradition, culture, belief or community. The status quo is important and necessary. The awareness of taking sides will reduce your fears and concerns and provide you with a lap to seek shelter in, however difficult the circumstances may be.

The Hierophant card tells the person who draws the card that it is necessary to belong to a group to shed fears of loneliness, defeat and failure. It may also symbolize a spiritual teacher whose ideas and actions are trusted and traditional roots are strong. The ruling zodiac sign of the card is the determined and trustworthy Taurus who possesses strong value judgements and a high level of tolerance although occasionally verging on the puritanical.

The Hierophant represents the counterpart in the material world of the sense of “belonging”. It advises you to unite with those who are similar to you to protect your belief and ethics, to never forget where you came from and to transmit this knowledge to future generations.

Nevertheless, the Hierophant is sometimes prescriptive and formalistic, persistent and rigid to the point of conservatism. This might pose an obstacle to your individual actions and reactions. He might suffocate you among dogma, and force you, at times, to remain loyal to beliefs you find irrational. He may instigate new fears to save you from your existing fears. It is clear that you must keep your distance to such negative attributes of the Hierophant, and prefer to learn from his modest and peaceful aspect that fosters peace, trust and harmony in society.

>> NEXT CARD