La Papessa
The High Priestess
Intuizione, Subconscio
Risposta rapida
Il significato principale di La Papessa è Saggezza interiore e intuizione. Al dritto, solitamente indica Intuizione, subconscio, mistero, saggezza interiore. Simboleggia l'osservazione ; rovesciata, potrebbe suggerire Segreti rivelati, intuizione repressa, superficialità, instabilità emotiva. Può .
Immagini della carta
Una donna solenne siede tra due pilastri, uno nero e uno bianco (segnati B e J), davanti a un velo ricamato con melograni e palme. Tiene in mano un rotolo (TORA) e una falce di luna riposa ai suoi piedi.
Significato al dritto
Intuizione, subconscio, mistero, saggezza interiore. Simboleggia l'osservazione silenziosa e l'ascolto della voce interiore, trovando risposte attraverso l'intuizione piuttosto che la logica.
Significato invertito
Segreti rivelati, intuizione repressa, superficialità, instabilità emotiva. Può indicare che si ignora la voce interiore o che si diventa ritirati e distanti.
Amore, carriera, denaro e crescita
Amore
Innamorato, La Papessa indica Saggezza interiore e intuizione. Rileggilo confrontandolo con il modo in cui si comporta effettivamente la relazione e con ciò che scegliete entrambi.
Carriera
In materia di carriera, La Papessa indica Saggezza interiore e intuizione. Inizia individuando quali risorse controlli e quale sarà la tua prossima mossa.
Soldi
In materia di soldi, La Papessa indica Saggezza interiore e intuizione. Non considerare una lettura simbolica come una conclusione di investimento: segui i fatti, il budget e la tua tolleranza al rischio.
Crescita personale
Per la crescita personale, La Papessa indica Saggezza interiore e intuizione. Annota la domanda che solleva, quindi trasformala in un'azione che puoi effettivamente verificare.
Sì o no
Diritto
Forse
Rovesciata
No
Questa è la nostra lettura veloce, basata sulla direzione in cui tende il significato della carta. Le tradizioni non sono d'accordo sulle singole carte, e un "Forse" deve essere valutato rispetto alla posizione nello spread e alla situazione reale piuttosto che essere preso come una risposta di una sola parola.
Testo originale di Waite (1911)
Simbolismo interiore (originale)
She has the lunar crescent at her feet, a horned diadem on her head, with a globe in the middle place, and a large solar cross on her breast. The scroll in her hands is inscribed with the word Tora, signifying the Greater Law, the Secret Law and the second sense of the Word. It is partly covered by her mantle, to show that some things are implied and some spoken. She is seated between the white and black pillars—J. and B.—of the mystic Temple and the veil of the Temple is behind her: it is embroidered with palms and pomegranates. The vestments are flowing and gauzy, and the mantle suggests light—a shimmering radiance. She has been called Occult Science on the threshhold of the Sanctuary of Isis, but she is really the Secret Church, the House which is of God (Nature) and man. She represents also the Second Marriage of the Prince who is no longer of this world; she is the spiritual Bride and Mother, the daughter of the stars and the Higher Garden of Eden. She is, in fine, the Queen of the borrowed light, but this is the light of all. She is the Moon nourished by the milk of the Supernal Mother.
In a manner, she is also the Supernal Mother herself—that is to say, she is the bright reflection. It is in this sense of reflection that her truest and highest name in symbolism is Shekinah—the co-habiting glory. According to Kabalism, there is a Shekinah both above and below. In the superior world it is called Binah, the Supernal Understanding which reflects to the emanations that are beneath. In the lower world it is Malkuth—that world being, for this purpose, understood as a blessed Kingdom—that with which it is made blessed being the Indwelling Glory. Mystically speaking, the Shekinah is the Spiritual Bride of the just man, and when he reads the Law she gives the Divine meaning. There are some respects in which this card is the highest and holiest of the Greater Arcana.
Significato originale al dritto
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.
Significato originale invertito
Passion, moral or physical ardor, conceit, surface knowledge.
Citato da A. E. Waite, The Pictorial Key to the Tarot (1911), illustrato da Pamela Colman Smith. Il testo è di pubblico dominio.
Origini del mito e dei simboli
Early Italian decks called her the Popess. Waite moved her between the two pillars of Solomon's Temple.
Documented imagery
Attested by surviving objects or texts
She was originally the Popess
In early Italian decks this card is La Papessa, the Popess. The figure on the Visconti-Sforza deck wears a nun's habit and a papal triple crown. One scholarly conjecture identifies her as Manfreda Visconti, a relative of the Visconti family who was elected "papess" by the Guglielmite sect and burned as a heretic around 1300. Another links her to the legendary Pope Joan. Both remain conjecture — but that the card began as an ecclesiastical figure is attested by the surviving decks.
Fonte Visconti-Sforza deck (mid-15th century); the Manfreda identification is scholarly conjecture
The pillars B and J come from 1 Kings
The black and white pillars behind her, lettered B and J, are Boaz and Jachin, the two bronze pillars of the porch of Solomon's Temple. The veil hung between them is embroidered with palms and pomegranates — both standard decorative motifs of that same Temple, palms carved on the walls and pomegranates on the capitals, all described in 1 Kings. The entire stage set of this card, in other words, is Hebrew scripture, not a Greek sanctuary.
Fonte 1 Kings 7:21 (the pillars), 6:29 (carved palms), 7:18 (pomegranates on the capitals); Waite 1911 names the pillars J. and B.
Esoteric correspondence
A sourced traditional claim, but constructed inside an occult system
Isis: Waite mentions her, and then disagrees
It is often said that Waite drew the High Priestess as Isis. The text says close to the opposite. Waite writes that she "has been called Occult Science on the threshold of the Sanctuary of Isis," and immediately corrects it: "but she is really the Secret Church." He did give her the horned diadem and lunar globe, which is the Isis iconography, and he did inscribe the scroll on her lap Tora, the Law. But on the equation "she is Isis," the author himself hedged. Worth remembering: reading the primary source beats inheriting someone's summary of it.
Fonte Waite, The Pictorial Key to the Tarot, 1911, High Priestess (compare the original in the source panel on this page)
Three faces of the moon
The Golden Dawn assigns the High Priestess to the Moon (Hebrew letter Gimel). Classical myth has more than one lunar goddess: Selene is the moon itself, Artemis governs the hunt and maidenhood, and Hecate governs crossroads, thresholds and the passage to the underworld. A priestess seated on a threshold with a veil behind her fits Hecate's remit best. But this is a correspondence made inside an occult system — in classical antiquity these were three goddesses, not three phases of one.
Fonte Golden Dawn Book T planetary attributions; classical sources for the goddesses themselves
Modern reading
Popular only since the twentieth century; unrelated to where the card came from
Pomegranate equals Persephone? Check the nearer source first
The pomegranates on the veil are widely read as Persephone, who ate the seeds in the underworld and so must return there every year. The myth is real enough (Homeric Hymn to Demeter), but attaching it to this card is a modern reading. Waite wrote only that the veil is "embroidered with palms and pomegranates," with no underworld gloss attached — and palms plus pomegranates is precisely the Temple decorative pairing. The nearer source is already at hand; no need to detour through Greece. The maiden-mother-crone triple goddess frame is likewise modern, from Robert Graves' The White Goddess (1948).
Fonte Modern popular reading; the Persephone myth is in the Homeric Hymn to Demeter; the triple goddess frame is Robert Graves, The White Goddess, 1948
Scritto da BESTAROT, non citato da fonti storiche. Ogni affermazione è contrassegnata da quanto bene è dimostrata; gli strati interpretativi moderni sono utili per la lettura, ma non costituiscono l’origine storica della carta.
Studia il tema: Mito e origini dei simboli (Accademia capitolo 6)