The Papess Art and Meaning
About the Deck
A modern digital cartoon deck featuring traditional symbolism in a whimsical stick-figure style.
Provenance
Damian Cugley. Web, 2002. Used with permission of the artist.
Meaning of The Papess from the Alleged Tarot Deck Deck
Upright
intuition, dreams, anima
Reversed
suppressed feelings, unrecognized potential
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.