The Fool entered a vast city made of towers and domes with symbols at the tops of each one. The city was made of stone. Some spires were made of wood or gold, but others were stone domes. It was hot in the city, even when he chose to walk on the shady side of the street. The city seemed to slope up to a large building in the middle. All the roads seem to lead there, so the Fool went there.
He found that building was the church, the bank, the government, and a university. He found a very well dressed man standing at a lectern with a large book open. He is dressed as a pope, minister of the treasury, vizier, and dean of the colleges. He has a cross tucked under his arm and his other hand on an ornate sword. At his side is two keys. He wears a crown with religious idolatry on it.
I am Institution, the Hierophant said as the Fool walked in. People can not stay safe without me and my laws and my rules. The Hierophant seems almost defensive of his existence. The room opened up over the city and the Fool could see the whole city from up there. White fabric whipped around in the hot wind that blew over the room. The room was full of books, scrolls, and instruments of learning. He saw telescopes and a sextant. He saw a skull.
I am the bridge between the heavens and earth. I am the boundary between the gods and men. I am a shaman, but cities and civilization has asked more from me. It also has asked less of my original purposes. The Hierophant waved his arm over his books of law and theology. I have been asked to make sense of god from the direction of what man has written.
The Fool could see jail cells across the way from where they stood. He thought he could see men in there. The sun beat down on his neck, so he moved back into the shade of the walls. The Hierophant followed over and offered a seat and drink of wine from a silver chalice. The Hierophant seemed angry about his position, but he was materialistically very well off. His clothes were nice. His buttons were made of whalebone and gold, and he had rings on most of his fingers with jewels in them. His scarf was pure silk. His fork and knife were silver, and his plates were gold. Running institutions was making this poor shaman rich.
The Fool understood this archetype the most. This is what his world is like. He was having the same reaction to the Hierophant as he had with the Magician and his pentacle. He was trying to leave all of this behind, but the journey has lead him here, so there must be a lesson to learn.
The next day the subjects who had visited the Emperor were coming in and the Hierophant was to take the king’s decision or advice and implement it. Sometimes it was very easy, and the Hierophant just made new laws on paper and filed it. It was written so it is so. Other times the Hierophant had to interpret the Emperor’s wishes and had to study a subject to make the wish come true. The Fool saw the Hierophant a student of many subjects, so it wasn’t hard for the Hierophant to find the answer he was looking for.
The Hierophant studied theology, philosophy, math, biology, history, chemistry, psychology, esoterism, astronomy, geology, political science, physics, art, alchemy, rhetoric, and many more subjects to stay on top of implementing the will of the Emperor and the people. When the Fool first arrived, he thought the Hierophant the ruler, but now saw he was the servant of the land.
A Hierophant can also be corrupt with absolute power and money, but I am the archetype of the profession and idea, so I am merely a tool. You can’t rely on other people’s knowledge, the Hierophant continued, but to be a student yourself.
The Hierophant tried to get the Fool to study some of the subjects, but the Fool just couldn’t pay attention. The Hierophant remembered teaching the Fool these things before, and sometimes the Fool would seem to get it, but then the Fool would return empty-headed. The Fool wanted to be smart. He wanted to absorb the knowledge the Hierophant was passing on to him, but when a question was asked, the Fool couldn’t even regurgitate any information for an answer.
Decades passed, or maybe it was a few hours.
The Fool got frustrated and bored. He didn’t want to sit at a desk doing math equations or reading about Aristotle. He wanted to wander. The Hierophant didn’t try to persuade the Fool to stay, and in fact, he supported the Fool’s need to journey on. It would be good for the Fool to experience things instead of just reading about them. Some things in life can only be taught through participation.
So as the sun rose from the east – or maybe it’s the west, the Fool left the city on the hill. He wandered down the boulevard with the hanging flower baskets. He walked by the dusty buildings with old ladies standing in the doorway sweeping – forever sweeping. Men sat in squares around fountains playing chess and backgammon and smoking cigarettes. He didn’t see any children, but maybe they were in school.
He walked out a gate and into a forest on a dirt road. The trees grew thick and almost formed a wall on either side of the road. The Hierophant watched the Fool walk out of the city and into the wood. He hoped the Fool found something to hold on to. He was there when they made the Fool. He was the foreman of the operation. There was so much potential that they had put into the Fool.
He sighed and went back to writing policy.