The Hierophant
To make cider is to listen. Listening is both an active and passive exercise. Actively, we turn towards something in order to passively receive its teaching. Facing nature demands from us that we embark on an attitude and awareness that does not reveal totalities to us but rather sensory impressions—smells, tastes, memories, feelings, and even images. Facing nature this way is not a one-time-deal; this attitude of listening is a constant fostering of a relationship through one's soul, like an emotional ear, to the world at large.
In the major arcana of the Tarot, The Hierophant card was once known as The Pope card. On behalf of the institutions of the divine, The Pope acts as a mercurial messenger. A go-between, the pope listens and translates messages obscured to the untrained ear. In more esoteric practices, the middle-person is cut out and the adept listens on their own, without the need of an institution. The Hierophant is a symbol for this act of listening; both an active and passive attitude, it is a symbol of having your finger plugged directly into the socket.
As stated on the “symbolism” page of tarot history:
The 22 Major Arcana of the Tarot are a coded description of the journey through life, from incarnation to liberation, of an individual soul. It is a geographical map that describes the inner itinerary of a being.
Each arcanum represents a stage along the way, a level of achievement. By examining them in order, one after the other, each of us can feel the particular energy that emanates from these images. One may "play at remembering", and find oneself saying, "I, too, have experienced this...." In the end, perhaps he will realize that the Tarot is telling the story of his own life.
This is the teaching which the Ancients, master builders of the Medieval cathedrals, chose to entrust to a game of cards. Because of its modest form, because the game was a way to make money, because it spoke through images and not in words, and for doubtless other reasons as well, the message has come down to us.
It is easier said than done: to listen. Rarely are we able to encounter an experience in the world with our ear authentically atuned. Instead, a voice, in most cases, interferes and quickly contextualized an experience to be of this or that kind and to fit into this or that category. That is not listening. Much of our life is missed in the clamor or these voices, not paying attention to the caprice and/or depth always already at hand. Our cider is an attempt to confront nature and listen as best we can, sometimes against the gossip of our better judgment. What is judgment anyway? —boring rules, and weren’t rules made to be broken?
