Hierophant

From the Greek "Hierophantes" : literally, "One who ex|)lains sacred things". The discloser of sacred learning and the Chief of the Initiates. A title belonging to the highest Adepts in the temples of antiquity, who were the teachers and expounders of the Mysteries and the Initiators into the final great Mysteries. The Hierophant represented the Demiurge, and explained to the postulants for Initiation the various phenomena of Creation tiiat were produced for their tuition. "He was the sole exi)oun(ler of the esoteric .secrets and doctrines. It was forbidden even to pronounce his name before an uninitiated person. He sat in the East, and wore as a symbol of authority a golden globe suspended from the neck. He was also called Mi/stagogus" (Kenneth R. H. Mackenzie, ix., F. T. S., in Thr Roijal Moso)ii<' CyclociLossAin' 131 pa-dia). In Hebrew and Clialdaic tlic ttrni was I'litr, the opener, discloser; hence (the Pope as the successor of the hierophant of the ancient Mysteries, sits in the Pagan cliair of St. Peter.)