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The High Priestess (II) is the secondMajor Arcana card in cartomanticTarot decks. It is based on the 2nd trump ofTarot card packs. In the first Tarot pack with inscriptions, the 18th-centurywoodcutTarot de Marseilles, this figure is crowned with thePapal tiara and labelledLa Papesse, thePopess, a possible reference to the legend ofPope Joan.
In the creation of theRider–Waite Tarot deck, the Popess of the playing card packs was changed into The High Priestess of cartomantic cards. She wears a crown similar to the one used by the goddessHathor, and is depicted withMarian imagery.A. E. Waite, the co-creator of the Rider–Waite deck, speculated that the card was connected to the ancient cult ofAstarte or Mary as a representation of theMother goddess.[1]
This Tarot card was originally calledLa Papesse, or "The Popess". Some of the cards directly linked the woman on the cards to the papacy by showing the woman wearing atriregnum orPapal Tiara. There are also some modern versions of theTarot of Marseilles which include the keys to the kingdom that are a traditional symbol of the papacy.[2] InProtestant post-reformation countries, Tarot cards in particular used images of the legendaryPope Joan,[3] linking in to the mythology of how Joan, disguised as a man, was elected to the papacy and was only supposedly discovered to be a woman when she gave birth.[4]
In theRider–Waite Tarot, illustrated byPamela Coleman Smith, the Popess was changed into The High Priestess sitting between the pillars ofBoaz and Jachin (which has a particular meaning toFreemasonry). She wears a crown similar to the Egyptian goddessHathor and is depicted with theMarian imagery of a blue mantle and themoon at her feet.A. E. Waite, the co-creator of the Rider–Waite deck, dismissed the idea that the card originally depictedPope Joan and speculated that it was instead connected to the ancient cult ofAstarte.[1]
Other variants that came after Rider–Waite are theVirgin Mary,Isis, themetaphoricalBride of Christ orHoly Mother Church. In Swiss Troccas decks, she is calledJunon ("Juno"), the Roman Queen of the Gods. The "Flemish Deck" by Vandenborre (c. 1750-1760) refers to this card asLe Espagnol Capitano Eracasse ("The Spanish Captain Fracasse"), after a version ofIl Capitano, a character fromCommedia dell'Arte.[citation needed]
La Papessa in theVisconti-Sforza Tarot has been identified as a depiction of Sister Manfreda, an Umiliata nun and a relative of theVisconti family who was elected Pope by the hereticalGuglielmite sect ofLombardy. InThe Tarot Cards Painted by Bonifacio Bembo,Gertrude Moakley writes:
Their leader, Guglielma of Bohemia, had died in Milan in 1281. The most enthusiastic of her followers believed that she was the incarnation of the Holy Spirit, sent to inaugurate the new age of the Spirit prophesied by Joachim of Flora. They believed that Guglielma would return to earth on the Feast of Pentecost in the year 1300, and that the male dominated Papacy would then pass away, yielding to a line of female Popes. In preparation for this event they elected Sister Manfreda the first of the Popesses, and several wealthy families of Lombardy provided at great cost the sacred vessels they expected her to use when she said Mass in Rome at the Church of Santa Maria Maggiore. Naturally, the Inquisition exterminated this new sect, and the "Popess" was burned at the stake in the autumn of 1300. Later the Inquisition proceeded againstMatteo Visconti, the first Duke of Milan [sic], for his very slight connections with the sect.[5]
This identification has been supported by other Tarot historians, such as Michael Dummett in his bookThe Visconti-Sforza Tarot Cards.[citation needed]
In the Rider–Waite–Smith tarot, the basis for many modern tarot decks, The High Priestess is identified with theShekhinah, the female indwelling presence of the divine.[6] She wears plain blue robes and sits with her hands in her lap. She has alunar crescent at her feet, "a horneddiadem on her head, with a globe in the middle place"[7] similar to the crown of the ancient Egyptian goddessHathor, but with the horns having a shape more like half-crescents, and a large cross on her breast, the balance between the four elements: fire, water, earth, and air. The scroll in her hands, partly covered by her mantle, bears the letters TORA (meaning "divine law"), that symbolizes the memory we carry inside about the past, present and future, namedAkasha. She is seated between the white and black pillars—'J' and 'B' forJachin and Boaz—of the mysticTemple of Solomon. The veil of the Temple is behind her: it is embroidered with palm leaves (male) andpomegranates (female),[8] growing on a tree shaped like theTree of Life.
The motif that hangs behind the High Priestess’s throne, veiling whatever mysteries she guards, is suggested in the pattern ofThe Empress' gown. The two are sisters, one bringing life into the world, the other inviting the living to the esoteric mysteries. Further behind appears a body of water, likely the sea, with water flowing through most cards of the Rider–Waite–Smith tarot.[citation needed]
In theTarot of Marseilles it is noticeable that she wears a blue cape and red robe, in contrast toThe Pope, wearing a red cape and blue robe.[citation needed]
The modern interpretation of the High Priestess represents the unknown, mystery, intuition, spiritual knowledge, and the subconscious mind. She is an esoteric figure, unlikeThe Hierophant. Reversed, the High Priestess can be interpreted as secrecy and disconnection from your intuition.[citation needed]
According toA. E. Waite's 1910 bookThe Pictorial Key to the Tarot, the High Priestess card is associated with:
Secrets, mystery, the future as yet unrevealed; the woman who interests the Querent, if male; the Querent herself, if female; silence, tenacity; mystery, wisdom, science. Reversed: Passion, moral or physical ardor, conceit, surface knowledge.[9]
Inastrology, the High Priestess's primary correspondence is to the Moon.[3] On the Tree of Life, she is on the path leading from Kether to Tiphareth.[10]
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