Tarot Divination Key 2 the High Priestess

The High Priestess, Key 2 of the Major Arcana, is the combination of several myths and stories. The earliest version of the card, created around 1450, invokes the question: "Why include a heretic image among the Tarot cards?"

The High Priestess may be the remembrance of the heresy of the Gugilielmites. They elected Sister Manfreda as their papess, the spiritual leader of their sect. Sister Manfreda, who was a distant relative of Bianca Maria Visconti, was burnt at the stake in 1300, effectively putting an end to the Gugilielmites. Sister Manfreda's memory and image lived on a century and a half later in the Tarot deck painted for her relative.

Another layer of the basis of this card can be found in medieval myth, in the legend of Saint Joan. While easily proven false today with the use of a timeline listing the rulership dates of the Popes, the myth has proven to be resistant to debunking. There is also a chance that Arabic fairy tales were added to this mix, according to Bill Butler, author of the Dictionary of the Tarot.

The esoteric Orders, inheriting the Tarot, considered this card to be representative of the High Priestess of the Eleusinian Mysteries. The Golden Dawn brought a new layer to this card, by having one of their Temple officers, the Hegemon, ideally be a woman.

Today, the Wiccan movement has built upon this previous symbolism, and considers the High Priestess to be an icon of the feminine leader of the coven.

No matter why the High Priestess was included, she touches upon the needs of many to have a feminine touch to the divine. She may have started out as a reminder of a heresy, one that the Church thought was a folly, but today the High Priestess is a respected force among those who study the Major Arcana.

The A. E. Waite/Pamela Colman Smith version of the second key of the Major Arcana depicts the High Priestess as a woman robed in blue, with a lunar crown on her head and a cross upon her breast, sitting in front of two pillars. She holds a scroll with the word TORA on it, and has a lunar crescent at her feet. The two pillars are colored black (with a B on the left-hand pillar) and white (with a J on the right-hand pillar). Between the pillars is a veil concealing what is behind the throne of the High Priestess. The veil has a Tree of Life painted on it, with pomegranates representing the sephiroth.

The High Priestess in a reading represents the feminine half of the divine, the revealer and receiver of the secret wisdom. She represents the purity of silence, and the value of mediation.

When ill-aspected, she represents conceit, misunderstanding, and a shallow grasp of the matters at hand.

Overall, the High Priestess represents the receiving of the divine influx of creative energy though the sun and moon and their application.