The Papess Tarot Card Meaning and Art Visconti B Tarot Deck Fragment
Designation
About the Deck
Visconti B Tarot Deck Fragment
(aka Pierpont Morgan Bergamo Tarot Deck) One of the earliest Tarot Decks, the Pierpont Morgan Deck is entirely gilded, with fine paintings upon it.
It is estimated to have been produced around 1451 or 1452, possibly for a triumphal event in 1453.
Provenance
Italy, c. 1452.
Tags
According to Many Schools of Thought
A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings
The High Priestess, the Pope Joan, or Female Pontiff; early expositors have sought to term this card the Mother, or Pope's Wife, which is opposed to the symbolism. It is sometimes held to represent the Divine Law and the Gnosis, in which case the Priestess corresponds to the idea of the Shekinah. She is the Secret Tradition and the higher sense of the instituted Mysteries.
S. L. MacGregor Mathers's Divinatory Meanings
Upright
Science, Wisdom, Knowledge, Education
Reversed
Conceit, Ignorance, Unskilfulness, Superficial Knowledge.
Papus's Divinatory Meanings
Female Inquirer.
