Major Arcana
The Hierophant
tradition, commitment, mentors, rules
Upright
Alliance, mercy and inspiration appear in Waite's notes, along with captivity and servitude. A robed teacher raises a hand over two kneeling followers, with crossed keys below. The card is about belonging to an institution or tradition, and the price of it.
Considering a formal step such as a marriage, a contract or joining a professional body, ask what you gain from its rules and what they would stop you doing. A good mentor helps here. Choose one who welcomes your questions.
Reversed
Concord and good understanding can tip into over-kindness and weakness, as Waite notes. Getting along has become the only goal.
You may be nodding through meetings or family dinners to keep the peace. Decide which disagreement matters enough to voice, and say it politely once. A group worth belonging to can survive one honest objection.
A card is a prompt for reflection. It cannot promise a result, and it is no substitute for medical, legal or financial advice.
In Waite's words
Upright: Marriage, alliance, captivity, servitude; by another account, mercy and goodness; inspiration; the man to whom the Querent has recourse.
Reversed: Society, good understanding, concord, over-kindness, weakness.
From A. E. Waite, The Pictorial Key to the Tarot (1910), Part 3, on Wikisource. The meanings above are by Cast & Chart.
Card art by Pamela Colman Smith, 1909, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.