Understanding Tarot’s Acolyte Cards
image: a Black gay couple. The one in the denim jacket is kissing the one in a camel coat on the forehead. The background is black and gray.
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.
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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 in 78 Degrees of Wisdom, 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.
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.
Ah, The Devil.
It’s one of the only cards that really spooks me, because it points to a serious (often internal) problem that hides from view.
It has the potential to offer the most trouble of the feared tarot cards: Death, The Tower, The Devil, Ten of Swords, Three of Swords. As an acolyte card, once The Devil digs in its heels, it can be difficult, although rarely impossible, to uproot.
That’s because everybody’s Devil is unique. It points to the things that specifically keep us chained. We are the acolytes on the card, bound in service to what no longer serves us.
The Devil and The Tower come back to back in the sequence of the Major Arcana.
It’s the tension between hopelessly believing you cannot change and being catapulted out of those thoughts. Both the bondage and the escape have the potential to be traumatic.
The difference between the two stances is that if the course prescribed by The Tower is followed to the letter, one need never be bound to the same Devil twice.
The Tower’s relationship to the acolyte cards is less straightforward than the previous entries, but no less dominating a force.
The Tower shows a king and another figure propelled into the sea from the cracks in a flaming building.
The Tower has been struck by lightning. It was an act of God. What was can no longer be.
The figures have no time to think before they are in the water, faced with the reality of drowning or floating, but with only the barest control over which fate will befall them.
The Tower marks those times in life where God, The Universe, pure force, all that is, has total control over human life.
Resistance is completely futile, embarrassing even.
If what’s happening could be prevented, delayed, or otherwise controlled, The Tower would not have shown up.
This is pure fate—the whirlwind, the brushfire, the eviction, the accident, the attack, the merger—and it’s up to you to figure out what’s next. It will take a while to pick up the apple cart and reassemble your life.
Nothing about The Tower can be avoided, only postponed. You have to take the leap or burn up with the ghost of the life you imagined as it is completely destroyed.
You can see how The Devil and The Tower act as a pair. The Devil is ruled by Capricorn, and as such is avaricious, calculating, and mercenary.
The Tower is Mars ruled; it strikes without a second thought, every move an act of war.
Together they can point to violence, something that requires both control of someone else and generally some surprising act.
When they roll together, whatever is hidden will make itself known in a dramatic and undeniable fashion.
This is true regardless of what acolyte they join up with. I remember one summer I pulled The Lovers and The Devil. The effects were unforgettable.
That level of romance, fate, and unhealed trauma was intoxicating, unpredictable, and ultimately, completely unsustainable. It pointed to every wound and flaw in me.
It glazed my view of the other person’s truths. It was a doozy and twelve years later I’m still processing those lessons.
The acolyte cards are strong medicine.
They all concern fate in some way, if only as an idea, and limit our personal power to dispense their wisdom.
The final acolyte card, the Minor Arcana’s Six of Pentacles, is the most literal about those lessons.
It’s a financial card, pointing to philanthropy and charity, but it can also talk about give and take in a business or personal relationship.
When the Six of Pentacles comes around, you are less controlled by capital “F” fate, and more by an individual or circumstance.
The Six of Pentacles shows a wealthy man giving alms to the poor. You could be the wealthy man, in which case you should think of the ways you could stand to be more generous with the people around you.
If you show up as one of the people in need, this card should be thought of with its neighbor, the Five of Pentacles.
The Five of Pentacles is a scene where someone suffers despite help being close at hand. The people on the card are walking by a church, but they don’t seek shelter or food.
Theirs is an embarrassed silence; they could go in and ask for help, but they do not, regardless of their needs.
The Six of Pentacles shows them finally ready for help.
This is often in the form of financial help, whether it be awards, medicaid, WIC, mutual aid, or a microgrant.
It can also be a sign that the conditions are right for deepening a relationship, because they will help you with practical matters or conditions are secure to begin a love affair.
All considered, the acolyte cards remove any ambiguous thinking about how power shows up in a particular question.
These cards can demystify who’s in charge in a situation, and forces the querent to think about where they are in control or being controlled.
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Hey, I’m Cyrée
I’m a rootworker, diviner, and clinical herbalist. I believe that spirit work is an essential part of all movements for justice. I hope you’ll take a look around, there are plenty of opportunities here to deepen your connection with your gifts (with my guidance.)
Most of tarot advice focuses on card meanings. And, like, duh! Card meanings are important!
Yet in my 24 years of reading, and 14 years of professional practice, I have not found card meanings to be the deciding factor in a safe and accurate reading.