Understanding Tarot’s Acolyte Cards
Part 1: The Hierophant, The Lovers & The Chariot
Psst! This quarter’s class in Tarot in Community is Understanding and Undoing Tarot’s Acolytes. Learn more and join here.
image: two black people wearing jackets embrace. The one in denim kisses the one in a camel coat on the forehead.
The acolyte cards are the images in Smith-Rider-Waite derived tarot decks that show two figures beholden to another, dominant figure.
Tarot’s acolyte cards are The Hierophant, The Lovers, The Chariot, The Devil, The Tower and Six of Pentacles.
Some also include The Moon in this category, which I understand, but think is slightly different.
The true meanings of The Lovers card are often misunderstood. This is true in excess of Death or even The Tower.
Those cards have more or less straightforward meanings. People may fear or dislike them, but they generally understand what’s going on.
The Lovers sits in the center of the first sequence of acolyte cards.
Its meaning is framed by its neighbors: The Hierophant preceding it and The Chariot following in its wake.
The acolytes are special because they illustrate power and control in tarot. This early sequence of acolyte cards deals with naturalized power and control.
On The Hierophant, two priests bow to the authority of the Pope. The power on The Hierophant comes from God. It’s a power that establishes the order of society around a supposed divine order.
The Hierophant’s acolytes are receiving the word of God. We see one of them again in the minor arcana. They’re on the Three of Pentacles, building a church.
Naturally, a spiritual marriage, as shown by The Lovers would follow. The family in Christian tradition flows from this divine law.
The Lovers are beholden to the will of God in the form of the angel above them. They are God’s acolytes.
They have been brought together by fate, and joined divinely. What they may feel about each other barely matters. They have done as they must, as they were instructed.
The Lovers, to Pollack, indicated the ultimate separation from childhood and the natal family through carnal love. The move from The Hierophant to The Lovers is the jump from innocence to experience.
Psst! This quarter’s class in Tarot in Community is Understanding and Undoing Tarot’s Acolytes. Learn more and join here.
The final acolyte card in this first series is The Chariot.
The two sphinx that pull the chariot symbolize the positive and negative sides of human nature. The rider is pulled towards their destiny.
They have to decide for themselves if the task is worth it. Will they find fortune, force, or favor? The results are immediately favorable. Whether the luck will stick has yet to be seen.
I like to think the sphinx are more in control than the rider, regardless of what they may think. After all, they are an otherworldly mystery themselves, while the rider is only human.
They could buck the rider, or worse, at any time, but the rider’s ego and hubris tells them otherwise.
At base, the acolyte cards demystify a power struggle.
On The Hierophant, the struggle is between divine power (the pope) and its application on earth (the priests).
On The Lovers, it’s spiritual love (the angel) versus physical love (the human figures).
On The Chariot, the question is fate versus the will.
In all these cards, there is “as above” and “so below.” The figures in this line, particularly The Lovers and The Chariot, may believe themselves to have great influence.
Yet these are situations where the divine is makes itself known.
This is what the priests of The Hierophant know. The first acolytes of tarot, those of The Hierophant, know that they are beholden to the Pope.
What to make of this as a someone who uses tarot for divination? Some key take aways:
Control is central to all acolyte cards, whether it’s having control, losing control, being control, or in the case of the Lovers, allowing God/Fate/The Universe to have control so that the human can find an internal balance.
All three of these cards are learning or being informed by a master, whether a master teacher like The Hierophant, the master of the universe like in The Lovers or The Chariot.
All of these cards limit free will. They are fated, exacting, tradition based cards.
There is a correct choice to make and an incorrect choice with tarot’s acolyte cards. You don’t wanna fuck up the choice presented by an acolyte card, because it isn’t so much a choice as it is a test.
The next acolytes, The Devil, The Tower, and the Six of Pentacles coming next week!
Psst! This quarter’s class in Tarot in Community is Understanding and Undoing Tarot’s Acolytes. Learn more and join here.
Further Thoughts
hey, i'm cyree jarelle. I run Collective Cartomancy. I help queers, feminists, and leftists connect with their intuition using tarot and cartomancy. More on me.
