THE HIEROPHANT AND THE MONSTER
(Original images courtesy of Wikipedia)
CAN WE KEEP THE ART?
We need to talk about the monsters who make the magic.
If you spend any time engaging with pop culture, you eventually hit the wall. The creator behind the art you love turns out to be deeply flawed, cruel, or just a complete garbage person. Suddenly, you are staring at your bookshelf or your DVD collection, wondering if you are complicit just by owning it.
This brings us directly to The Hierophant.
In tarot, The Hierophant represents the institution, the teacher, and the ultimate authority. It is the gatekeeper of the sacred text. But what happens when The Hierophant is exposed as corrupt? Do we have to burn down the entire temple, or can we just kick the teacher out and keep the books?
Let us get brutally honest about where the lines are drawn, because they are not identical.
The Whedon Exception
I will never stop loving Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The show is foundational to who I am. Joss Whedon, by all accounts, was an abusive tyrant behind the scenes. Finding that out was a massive disappointment. But Buffy belongs to the fans now. It belongs to the actors who bled for it and the writers who shaped it. The art outgrew the architect. I can acknowledge that Whedon is terrible while still recognizing that the magic he helped create saved a lot of people. I am keeping the art.
The Rowling Line
Then we have J.K. Rowling. This is where The Hierophant completely falls apart.
There is a stark difference between a creator who is a jerk behind closed doors and a creator who uses their massive platform and wealth to cause active, ongoing harm to a marginalized community. Rowling is a complete garbage person. Purchasing her books, playing the video games, or supporting this awful-looking Harry Potter television reboot puts money directly into her pockets. It fuels the machine she uses to hurt people. That is not just separating art from the artist. That is funding the villain. There is no reason anyone should be supporting her work. The temple burns.
The Outrage Machine
The internet hates this kind of nuance. We see it constantly in comic book circles and fandoms. The Knight of Swords energy takes over. People love to grab their swords and lead a righteous crusade against a creator for a poorly worded comment or a past mistake. They want to cancel everything immediately to prove their own purity.
Think about the podcasters who made it their entire mission to attack legendary creators like Peter David, farming engagement off their outrage. They were incredibly loud when they had a target, but they got awfully quiet when he passed away in 2025. The internet outrage machine loves a witch hunt, but it has absolutely no idea how to handle actual human mortality or the messy reality of a complicated legacy.
The Judgment Card
So how do we navigate this? You pull the Judgment card.
Judgment is about accountability, but it is also about deep, personal evaluation. You have to look at the art, look at the creator, and make a choice you can actually live with. Is the creator actively causing harm today? Are you financially supporting their cruelty? Or are you just holding onto a piece of media that shaped you, created by a flawed human being?
There are no perfectly clean answers. You have to do the work, weigh the scales, and decide what gets to stay in your library.
