The High Priestess

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The High Priestess or The Popess (II) in the Rider-Waite-Smith deck

The High Priestess (II) is a trump card in the tarot deck. In the first tarots with inscriptions, the 18th-century woodcut Marseille Tarot, this figure is crowned with the Papal tiara and labelled "La Papesse", the Popess. For historians or heresiologists, such a figure suggests the female equality practiced among the Cathar perfect, who had been extirpated from Northern Italy and Southern France, where the Tarot first appeared.

Description and symbolism

A. E. Waite was a key figure in the developement of modern Tarot interpretaions. Wood, 1998 However not all interpretations follow his theology. Please remember that all Tarot decks used for divination are interpreted up to personal experience and standards.

Some frequent keywords used by tarot readers are:

• Intuition ----- Nonaction ----- Mystery ----- Calmness ----- Silence

• Inner voice ----- Deep understanding ----- Discretion ----- Sensitivity

• Distance ----- Stability ----- Wisdom ----- Unconscious knowledge

• Patience ----- Looking inward ----- Contemplation ----- Subjective mind

In the modern Rider-Waite-Smith Tarot deck many occultist symbols have been applied to The High Priestess (illustration). She now has the lunar crescent at her feet, a horned diadem centering a globe on her head, and a large cross on her breast. The scroll in her hands is inscribed with the word Tora, signifying the Greater Law, the Secret Law and the second sense of the Word. It is partly covered by her mantle, to show that some things are implied and some spoken. She is seated between the white and black pillars—'J' and 'B' for Jachin and Boaz—of the mystic Temple of Solomon, and the veil of the Temple is behind her: it is embroidered with palms and pomegranates. The style is influenced by Art Nouveau.

Divination Usage

The High Priestess is the guardian of the unconscious. She sits in front of the thin veil of unawareness which is all that separates us from our inner landscape. She contains within herself the secrets of these realms and offers us the silent invitation, "Be still and know that I am God."

The High Priestess is the feminine principle that balances the masculine force of the Magician. The feminine archetype in the tarot is split between the High Priestess and the Empress. The High Priestess is the mysterious unknown that women often represent, especially in cultures that focus on the tangible and known. The Empress represents woman's role as the crucible of life.

In readings, the High Priestess poses a challenge to you to go deeper - to look beyond the obvious, surface situation to what is hidden and obscure. She also asks you to recall the vastness of your potential and to remember the unlimited possibilities you hold within yourself. The High Priestess can represent a time of waiting and allowing. It is not always necessary to act to achieve your goals. Sometimes they can be realized through a stillness that gives desire a chance to flower within the fullness of time.

Interpretation

Kabbalistic Approach

She has been called occult Science on the threshold of the Sanctuary of Isis, but she is really the Secret Church, the House which is of God and man. She represents also the Second Marriage of the Prince who is no longer of this world; she is the spiritual Bride and Mother, the daughter of the stars and the Higher Garden of Eden. She is, in fine, the Queen of the borrowed light, but this is the light of all. She is the Moon nourished by the milk of the Supernal Mother.

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La Papesse in the Marseille Tarot: the originals were coloured by hand

In a manner, she is also the Supernal Mother herself—that is to say, she is the bright reflection. It is in this sense of reflection that her truest and highest name in bolism is Shekinah—the co-habiting glory. According to Kabalism, there is a Shekinah both above and below. In the superior world it is called Binah, the Supernal Understanding which reflects to the emanations that are beneath. In the lower world it is MaIkuth—that world being, for this purpose, understood as a blessed Kingdom that with which it is made blessed being the Indwelling Glory. Mystically speaking, the Shekinah is the Spiritual Bride of the just man, and when he reads the Law she gives the Divine meaning. There are some respects in which this card is the highest and holiest of the Major Arcana.

(Binah and MaIkuth are two of the sephiroth in the gnostic belief.)

On a more mundane level, the High Priestess is a figure who has passed through most of life. She started as a novice when a child. Now She has grown and governs the convent which is Spiritual Reality. She knows God. She knows what we go through because She has been through it Herself. But She is also very strict. Laws are in place to stop the new set of novices from hurting themselves.

Mythopoetic Approach

Other schools of thought associate the High Priestess with intuitive knowledge. The water that flows from her gown is the collective unconscious, and flows through most of the cards of the Pamela Coleman Smith Tarot.

The bow at her feet explicitly evokes with Artemis. Artemis is not merely the Moon, twin sister of Apollo, the Sun; she may be one of the oldest goddesses in Europe. Her name comes from a root word meaning “bear,” and may be linked to the divinity on the oldest cave paintings we have. It is also connected to Arthur, King of the Britains, the once and future king, marking her as another consort of the divine king.

She is often shown wearing the crown of Isis and Hathor; the waxing, full, and waning moon. This demonstrates one of the ways life survives death; through taking on new forms.

She is often shown sitting between two columns, one black, one white. This represents all dualities, light and dark, good and evil day night, summer and winter. She knows that dualities are useful abstractions but can blind us to the underlying wholeness of reality and the need to integrate them.

In some decks, the columns are labeled “B” and “J.” These letters were inscribed on two columns of Solomon’s Temple. The original meaning is controversial, though there are some who say that on the tarot card, they represent Baal and Jehovah; two paths to wisdom. If that is true, Baal may bring back in the Moon, as he was the spouse of Astarte, the Queen of Heaven, and a moon goddess. Jehovah was a god of light; Baal a lord of the night, another duality the High Priestess stands athwart.

As mentioned above, the High Priestess is Shekhinah, the female indwelling presence of the divine.

The High Priestess is associated with Key 11, Justice and Key 20 Judgement through their cross sums (the sum of the digits). There are those who say that the columns represent Justice and Mercy, reminding us that justice is not merely the imposition of the judgment of the powerful onto conflicts, but must be levied with mercy to deserve the title of Justice.

Typically, the High Priestess holds the Torah on her lap. She is not merely the mistress of hidden wisdom, she has read the words and knows their deeper meaning. Generally, unlike The Magician, she does not explore the world in order to master it, but in order to understand it. That understanding often leads to the temptation of mastery.

She is also associated thematically with The Moon. She can lead to deep wisdom, but can also lead to madness.

The pomegranates associate her with Persephone, the Queen of the Underworld and another example of the Dying God whose annual rebirth renews the world. From time to time, Persephone intercedes on the part of visitors to the Underworld, embodying Mercy.

Note that the motif that hangs behind the High Priestess’s throne, veiling what ever mysteries she guards, is suggested in the pattern of The Empress’ gown. The two are sisters, one bringing life into the world, the other inviting the living to the esoteric mysteries.

When she appears in a spread, she typically counsels the Querent to seek new paths and hidden paths to wisdom. She can also be a warning to interrogate the lessons of the unconscious. It does not always lead us to wisdom.

She also warns the Querent to question how he or she has divided up the world; to test the judgments made in the past against the world as we have come to know it.

Alternative decks

In the Vikings Tarot the High Priestess is Frigg, the wife of Odin. She is sitting on a throne in a swamp, with her golden slippers omitting a blinding light from the hem of her dress.

In the Golden Tarot the High Priestess is portrayed as Pope Joan with reference to the older tradition of the card being called The Papess (The Female Pope).

In the Mythic Tarot, created by Juliet Sharman-Burke and Liz Greene, the High Priestess is portrayed by Persephone, descending a staircase into the Underworld, with the Earth behind her, dressed in white, and holding falling, white flowers. She holds up a pomegranate, both seen in her most famous myth and the Rider-Waite deck. The pillars beside her are the standard black (left) and white (right), and she also wears a crown, being the Queen of the Underworld.

The Osho Tarot calls this card Inner Voice and depicts it as a quiet person with a circle face in her center, holding a crystal in both hands and surrounded by two dolphins, a crescent-moon crown, and water.

Trivia

• In the X/1999 Tarot version made by CLAMP, The High Priestess is Princess Hinoto.
• In Live and Let Die (film), the Tarot card representing Solitaire is the High Priestess.

References

• A. E. Waite's 1910 Pictorial Key to the Tarot
• Hajo Banzhaf, Tarot and the Journey of the Hero (2000)
• Most works by Joseph Campbell
• G. Ronald Murphy, S.J., The Owl, The Raven, and The Dove: Religious Meaning of the Grimm's Magic Fairy Tales (2000)
• Riane Eisler, The Chalice and the Blade (1987)
• Mary Greer, The Women of the Golden Dawn
• Merlin Stone, When God Was A Woman
• Robert Graves, Greek Mythology
• Harold Bloom, Jesus and Yahweh: The Names Divine (2005)
• Juliette Wood, Folklore 109 (1998):15-24, The Celtic Tarot and the Secret Tradition: A Study in Modern Legend Making (1998)

External links

• "Popess" cards from many decks and articles to "Popess" iconography
• The History of the High Priestess (Papess) Card from The Hermitage
• "The Priestess," Movie Armenian film by director, Vigen Chaldranian

This article incorporates text from the public domain 1910 book The Pictorial Key to the Tarot by Arthur Edward Waite. Please feel free to update the text.

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