hierophant in a more positive light

So I thought this was interesting tidbit. See, I'm not usually such a big fan of the Hierophant card, conceptually. Funny enough, but I don't have much trouble with the Emperor, perhaps because often as not I see myself in that card, directions for what I need to do, rather than an outside authority. With the Hierophant though, I definitely do perceive that as external, and it has kind of blah religious authority associations for me much of the time on some level, and yeah...

Anyway, in spite of my best efforts, I wasn't quite able to finish my Cyber paper in time for the class, given that I had to simultaneously work on a presentation for the same class, and...yeah. Not meeting deadlines is a *thing* that I really try to avoid because it gets me so annoyed with myself when it happens. I don't like the idea of making excuses, giving explanations. I knew when the deadline was, I should have made sure that I met it, and the fact that I didn't, regardless of circumstances...

In any case, it is what it is, and in this case it left me in the position of needing to ask my professor for an extra day to get it in to him. So I was sitting on a bus on my way to the class, shuffling my deck, asking for some guidance on how best to approach that conversation. This was one of a three card draw, but it was really the crux of the reading. It was interesting too in that I didn't have my usual keyword book that I like to consult when reading with the Thoth to better familiarize myself with the esoteric symbolism aspects, so it was all just intuitive.

But yeah, seeing this card, I immediately saw it as representing my professor. He's the authority figure, the one with the knowledge, and a guide for us...and yes, he is operating under certain set constraints, given his position, given the circumstances of the classroom, certain set immovable boundaries - the taurus influence - but fundamentally...he is there to teach, to guide, to direct, to impart knowledge, to make these obscure concepts clear. Assignments are assigned to teach you something, to challenge and motivate you to do the work you need to do to learn. It's not to make you miserable, and he's not teaching with the intention of being some mean unreasonable person. There to guide us, to impart the expertise garnered from his own career, experiences. And so, as long as its clear that I am doing the work, and taking things seriously...asking him for that extra day would be ok, would not challenge or contradict his fundamental motives and approach in the class.

So I did. Apologized, took responsibility for not having it done, politely asked if it would be alright if I emailed it the next day instead. He was fine with with my request, perfectly nice about it. And so here I am, finishing up  what needs to still be done and yeah. I liked the reassuring feeling of this card in that reading...it's not really one that comes up very often for me, but the insight was both helpful in getting a better perspective on that particular situation and in being able to see the idea of the Hierophant in general from a more positive viewpoint.