The Greek god Zeus is a clear example of Uranian hierophany.
The etymological root of hierophany is found in the Greek words hierós (which refers to "divine origin" ) and pháneia (translatable as "manifestation") . A hierophany is an expression of the sacred in a profane environment .
The transcendent in the earthly
The person responsible for coining the term was the Romanian philosopher Mircea Eliade ( 1907 – 1986 ), who referred to hierophany as the manifestation of something transcendent in an everyday or earthly phenomenon . There is, in this framework, an awareness about the presence of the sacred at the level of the habitual.
Hierophany is classified as simple when the manifestation is produced through objects . Instead, complex hierophany is the result of an extensive process .
Hierophany is understood, in short, as a revelation of the sacred . Through hierophany, the human being becomes aware of the sacred as it is shown, presenting itself as something different from the profane.
The individual
It is important to mention that the individual in whom the sacred is expressed is also called hierophany. An example of this kind of hierophany is the Dalai Lama , who is considered a manifestation of Buddha .
He who holds the title of Dalai Lama is taken as a reincarnation or emanation of Siddharta Gautama ( Buddha ). Today, the Dalai Lama is Tenzin Gyatso : therefore, it can be stated that Tenzin Gyatso is a hierophany of Buddha .
For Christians, the supreme hierophany is Jesus Christ , who is the incarnation of God . Or, put another way, God made man (the divine person manifested in a divine body).
Uranian hierophany
The sacred manifestation of a supreme, divine, creative entity, fertilizer of the soil and celestial through rain, is known as Uranic hierophany . In general, beings that have these traits have certain elements in common, such as the following: the representation of infinity; the elevated location, as if in the sky; They are found on another plane , one that human beings cannot access; They are omniscient , that is, they know everything about our plane, they see our past, present and future at the same time.
The Greek god Zeus , who represents the sky, the storm and also the fertilization of the soil using rain to improve the sowing processes, is one of the best examples of this type of hierophany. This can be seen especially through the stories of Europa (the Phoenician princess whom Zeus kidnaps) and Danae (the Argive princess who fathers Perseus with Zeus), in which she becomes a bull and a shower of gold, two fundamental symbols of the Uranian hierophany.
The Moon is the symbol of the Selenic hierophany.
solar hierophany
Gods belonging to this category of hierophany are leaders of an autocracy , a form of government characterized by the supremacy of a single ruler, but are not creators. They usually respond to another divinity , although they can also supplant it. It is associated with closed and almost exclusive cults for elite individuals, usually royalty. The sun god Amun-Ra , of ancient Egypt, is a clear example of this type of hierophany; The pharaohs were believed to be their descendants.
Selenic hierophany
Unlike the Sun, the Moon (referred to by the word selenic ), changes all the time from our perspective: it changes its apparent size and becomes partially covered to different degrees. This made it a symbol of cycles , something that in our lives we can find in fundamental issues such as birth and death. The cults of these deities were less closed than the solar ones; for example, women could also follow them.