Upright
Someone has done this before you. The Hierophant points at the established way — a mentor, an institution, a tradition — and suggests that the shortcut here might be inheritance rather than invention. It's also a card about belonging to something larger than your own opinion.
Reversed
Reversed, the inherited way tends not to fit, and following it is costing you something. This is often where you stop asking permission from an authority that was never quite yours, and work out what you actually believe.
If this is your card this month
Whose approval are you still working for, and do you want it?
A card is a prompt rather than a forecast. It doesn't know what will happen, and the useful part is what you do with the question it hands you. We make that case at more length in not a prediction, a mirror.