Our unusual, authoritative Hierophant has strict rules – and splendid whiskers!

The Hierophant is a card with which many readers have an awkward relationship. Traditionally, this card depicted the Pope and signified established religion and institutions. Arthur Waite, in The Pictorial Key to the Tarot, described this card as “The ruling power of external religion.”  In times when many of us are suspicious of organised religion that seeks to assert the right to lay down rules, this means that The Hierophant is often a card that we are at best ambivalent about.

This being the case, we decided that we wanted to avoid any overt reference to religion – particularly as this is, after all, a cat deck! – and instead show this figure as someone in authority. But our imposing figure bears a scroll that reads, “Felis Sum, Ergo Regno” – so he is saying that his right to tell others what to do lies simply in the fact that he is a cat! Everyone who lives with a cat can probably, with a wry smile, relate to this.