The High Priestess Tarot Card Meaning

The High Priestess began her existence in the tarot not as an abstract principle of intuition, but as a controversial historical or legendary figure: *La Papessa* (The Popess). In the Visconti-Sforza decks of 15th-century Milan, she is depicted as a woman wearing the triple tiara of the Pope, holding a book and a staff. This imagery strongly suggests a link to the medieval legend of Pope Joan, a woman who supposedly disguised herself as a man and was elected Pope in the 9th century before being exposed. Alternatively, some scholars link the figure to Sister Manfreda, a relative of the Visconti family who was elected 'Popess' by the heretical Guglielmite sect in the late 13th century. In either case, the card originally represented a challenge to established patriarchal authority or a specific historical curiosity rather than a metaphysical concept. In the Tarot de Marseille, *La Papesse* retained her papal gear, sitting stoically with a book in her lap. She was the counterpart to The Pope (The Hierophant), representing the hidden, interior, or female aspect of religious authority, contrasting with the Pope's public, exterior, and male authority. However, as the tarot moved into the hands of 19th-century occultists, the Christian imagery became problematic. They sought to de-Christianize the deck and link it to ancient pagan mysteries. Arthur Edward Waite and Pamela Colman Smith completed this pagan transformation in the Rider-Waite-Smith deck (1909). Waite renamed the card 'The High Priestess,' severing the link to the Papacy. He repositioned her as the guardian of the ancient mysteries, seated between the black and white pillars of Solomon's Temple, marked 'B' (Boaz) and 'J' (Jachin). These pillars represent the duality of nature (active/passive, severity/mercy) which she balances. Behind her hangs a veil embroidered with pomegranates and palms, symbols of the feminine and male principles respectively, and referencing the veil of the Temple that hides the Holy of Holies. In her lap, the book has become a scroll of the Torah (spelled TORA), partially hidden, signifying that the sacred law is not for the uninitiated. At her feet lies the crescent moon, linking her to the Egyptian goddess Isis and the divine feminine principle of intuition and the subconscious. In the Thoth Tarot, Crowley emphasizes the lunar and elemental aspects even more. His Priestess is a luminous figure, almost dissolving into light, draped in a net of light which he associates with Artemis. He links the card to the path of *Gimel* on the Tree of Life, the path that crosses the Abyss, connecting the Supernal triangle to the ethical triangle. She is the 'Soul of Light,' the pure, virgin essence of intuition that exists before the solidification of thought.