The Hierophant card, number five in the Tarot's Major Arcana, is often associated with religion, teachers, and membership in a group, club, or clique. Most versions of this card depict a high priest of some sort (in fact, this card used to be called "The Pope") seated on a throne with two acolytes or initiates kneeling before him in an attitude of supplication. In many decks, two keys -- usually one silver and one gold -- rest prominently at his feet, and a phrase that I associate with this card is "keys to understanding." It is important, though, to realize where these keys to understanding come from and what they represent.
On one level, this card refers to tradition and religion, both of which provide us with keys to understanding ourselves, our cultural environment, and our relationship with the Divine. There is a great deal of accumulated wisdom there, but just as keys can both lock and unlock a door, tradition and religion can be used to confine our awareness as well as to expand and liberate it, depending on the intent of the people (symbolized by the Hierophant) who teach and enforce orthodox rules and conventions.
However, it also lies within the power and responsibility of those who are being taught (and who are symbolized by the initiates on this card) to ensure that they are enlightened by tradition and religion rather than enslaved or subjugated by them, since spiritual growth requires more than blind faith and unquestioning acceptance.
Certainly we should pay heed to the wisdom that tradition and religion have accumulated over the centuries, but the motives of our teachers may be impure and their abilities imperfect, and sometimes changing circumstances require new and unorthodox approaches. Thus, as implied by the fact that one key on this card is gold while the other is silver, there are some lessons we can learn from external sources, but others are learned from listening to the wise counsel of an inner source.
This is not to say that there inevitably comes a time when we must reject the beliefs and mores with which we were raised, but if we never question them, we will, by default, merely end up with someone else's beliefs, which can be as ill-fi tting as a hand-me-down coat. Perhaps this is why many people become so shrill and irrational while defending their religious beliefs. How can they reasonably deal with other people's questioning when they have never resolved their own doubts and uncertainties, either conscious or repressed?
Consequently, an important consideration of this card lies in our interpretation of where its priest exists -- within us or in the world outside of us. As noted above, a conventional interpretation is that the Hierophant represents an established religion (along with its priests and teachers) and its general answers to our spiritual needs. However, he also may represent our higher self or the spiritual guides with whom we may commune in our hearts. In that case, the Hierophant's teaching is tailored to our own unique spiritual journey.
So which Hierophant should we listen to? The answer, of course, lies in the fact that there is both a silver key and a gold key on this card, which says that both internal and external teachers have their own wisdom to impart; they each have their own domain and time. There are gates along our spiritual path that require the golden key of an external teacher, but others must be unlocked with a silver key of the guides that we access within. Keeping in touch with both aff ords us the smoothest journey along our path.
James Ricklef is a Los Angeles based Tarot reader, teacher, and freelance 
writer. His new book, Tarot Tells the Tale: Explore Three Card Readings Through Familiar Stories, features sample readings for well-known historical, mythical, and fictional characters.