Llewellyn's Complete Book of the Rider-Waite-Smith Tarot

by Sasha Graham

  Symbolic

  Esoteric Functions: Peace and War

  Hebrew Letter: Gimel

  Astrological Association: Moon

  Waite infuses meaning into her cloak, which partially hides a scroll. He mentions the scroll: “It is partly covered by her mantle, to show that some things are implied and some spoken.” Waite describes the essence of his text, The Pictorial Key, in this sentence. Waite is bound by oath to uphold the secrets of the Golden Dawn. He can only imply certain secrets of his rectified tarot. The reader can garner secret information through personal observation.

  Waite describes the High Priestess’s pillars: “She is seated between the white and black pillars—J. and B.” Her placement is of paramount importance. The High Priestess’s body becomes the center pillar of the Tree of Life. The dual flanking pillars, one black and one white, align with the Chariot card’s black and white sphinxes, with the charioteer as center point. The color contrast between black and white reflects the oppositional nature of masculine and feminine qualities. Masculine and feminine qualities integrate at the center pillar. This idea is exemplified in the highest arcana, the World card. Occult circles consider the final card to be a gender-fluid hermaphrodite containing an ideal integration of masculine and feminine qualities inside a single body.

  The letters J and B stand for Jachin and Boaz, the names of the two pillars standing at the front of King Solomon’s temple in Jerusalem. All references to King Solomon are additional links from tarot to Freemasonry. Masons use the construction of Solomon’s Temple for rituals, stories, and lessons. The pillars are described as 27 feet tall. This would make the High Priestess a megalith, a massive 25-foot-tall figure. Lilies adorn the top of the pillar (recall the Magician’s lilies). It was said Solomon’s Temple contained a netting embroidered with pomegranates between the pillars, just as the High Priestess sits before similar fabric. Waite tells us that “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.” The fruits on the High Priestess’s veil form the graphic symbol of the Tree of Life. The veil is a widely used symbol of a threshold that makes the space between two realities and the place where two worlds meet.

  The High Priestess’s dress reflects celestial fluidity, lunar qualities, and the moon’s effect on tidal waters. Her dress is the font of water flowing through the entire tarot deck. Tarot waters follow the direction of the Magician’s channeled energy. Waite describes the “lunar crescent at her feet,” another lunar symbol. He points out “a horned diadem on her head, with a globe in the middle place.” The High Priestess’s crown reflects the three phases of the moon: waxing, full, and waning. The graphic structure of her crown connects the moon to the symbol of Pisces, two crescents joined by a single line.

  Waite says the High Priestess’s scroll is “signifying the Greater Law, the Secret Law and the second sense of the Word.” It is the “word” of divinity. Waite says “she is also the Supernal Mother herself—that is to say, she is the bright reflection.” The High Priestess as the reflection of the Supernal Mother is the highest, holiest, and top triad of the Tree of Life. A scroll is a symbol of secret information and ancient wisdom.

  The Hebrew word Tora inscribed upon the scroll means “teachings,” “interactions,” and “doctrines.” Waite’s High Priestess holds his beloved secret doctrine, aligning with Waite’s intellectual and esoteric knowledge. Waite, who considered himself the occult keeper of secrets, dispelled information only to those he deemed worthy. Her secret book contains the mysteries of our lives. She is the key to who we are as individuals and sentient beings.

  A cross is placed across her chest and heart chakra, denoting religion and spirituality. The symbol of a cross is a celestial pole, marking the exact location of the body in relation to the universe. The High Priestess, as acute intuition and the blueprint of the soul, marks the point at which the soul animates the body. The High Priestess is where the unseen self inhabits the physical form and our borrowed body.

  Profane

  Inner knowledge. Silence. Secrets. Intuition. Subtlety. Knowing who you are. Personal authenticity. In a yes-no question, the answer is yes; it always was and always will be.

  Waite’s Divinatory Meanings: 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.

  Reversed: Passion, moral or physical ardour, conceit, surface knowledge.

  Asana

  The High Priestess aligns with intention setting and the opening chants or mantras in a yoga practice. The yogi quiets the mind, settles into their practice, focuses on their breath, and begins devotion to their practice. These actions align the yogi with the interior self and their true purpose. Yoga’s powerful metaphor is that physical alignment breeds spiritual alignment and truth. Intentions brings acute attention to our actions, on and off the yoga mat, to aid us in stripping away the false layers, confusion, fears, and blockages so we can arrive at our true self. The authentic, deep soul self is exemplified by the High Priestess. We embrace her every time we take stock, set an intention, and begin the yoga practice.

  The Empress

  Beauty. Beauty of thought first, beauty of feeling, beauty of form, beauty of color, beauty of sound, appreciation, joy, and the power of showing it to others.

  Pamela Colman Smith35

  Sacred

  The Empress is Mother Nature, the driving force of all creation and the archetypal Mother who cares for all things. She seeks to nourish all. With a stroke of her finger and a single glance and thought, she infuses life, vibrancy, and fecundity. The Empress contains all sensate qualities of earth and gifts them to us. She tastes of chocolate spice, her touch is velvet silk, she smells of lavender and mint, she sees all colors, she conducts symphonies of evening crickets and sends the wind whistling through the trees. The Empress colors, crafts, and infuses the spirit once the High Priestess evokes the soul’s design.

  The Empress reflects the creative process and pure femininity. She sets everything free and unlocks hidden potentials of beauty in the world. She is the vine shoot seeking sunlight, the artist meeting the canvas, the poet meeting language. The Empress is pure desire. Her expression is passion. She is love and instinct. Her eyes reflect golden morning sunshine and her voice murmurs purple twilight evening.

  The Empress surrounds you at all times. She feeds the soul with her brilliance and beauty of the night sky. Mountain landscapes, rolling hills, and ocean waves rise like the curve of her hips. Her breath is the warm air of summer, her cool palms are the willow tree’s shade. She is the peace of mind of a walking meditation. The Empress fills you with the entirety of the world’s beauty if you let her in. She shows you, in no uncertain terms, that you are never, ever alone. You are part and parcel of the glistening, pulsating world of energetic and beatific connection. You are her and she is you. She is everything and everything is you.

  Waite begins his description of the Empress with “a stately figure, seated, having rich vestments and royal aspect, as of a daughter of heaven and earth.” Stately figures are heads of state, political and royal. The the royal right to rule is tied the idea of being ordained or chosen by the Divine. The crown is a direct symbol of divine connection. “Daughter of heaven and earth” suggests a male heaven and a female earth. The Empress is the child of the ecstatic sexual union of heaven and earth, the offspring of the spiritual and physical union. The Empress is conceived as heaven and earth collide. She exists in the physical and material world. The Empress is everything you can touch, taste, feel, and hear, while the High Priestess operates in unseen realms.

  Waite says, “She is the inferior Garden of Eden,” meaning she reflects the state of the garden after the fall. She is “the Earthly Paradise, all that is symbolized by the visible house of man.” Wai
te suggests she is the imperfect world. She contains holistic forms of beauty including faults, sins, dark and light, all sides of the human condition. She is humankind and all its messiness. Waite continues, “She is not regina cilia.” The Latin translation of regina cilia is the “Queen of Heaven,” an ancient Latin hymn typically sung during vespers or evening prayers. Waite stresses explicitly that the Empress is not to be understood as the “Holy Mother” or a perfect, unattainable goddess. Instead, she is everything human. She is, in his own words, “the fruitful mother of thousands.” He also states, “She is above all things universal fecundity,” which is fertility. The Empress is the pregnant doorway into the earthly world. She is “the door or gate by which an entrance is obtained into this life.”

  The Empress’s gate swings both ways, into both the physical and invisible world, but Waite says that “the way which leads out therefrom, into that which is beyond, is the secret known to the High Priestess.” It is the High Priestess who guards the secret of all things. The Empress births these secrets into the earthly world. She gives birth to children, brimming with potentialities and talents so they might grow, evolve, and become aware of themselves in the dance of life, only to return someday from whence they came. It is the give and take, yin and yang, birth and death cycle by which the universe expands, unfolds, and becomes aware of itself.

  Symbolic

  Esoteric Functions: Wisdom and Folly

  Hebrew Letter: Daleth

  Astrological Association: Venus

  Waite moves through the symbols of the cards, noting “the scepter which she bears is surmounted by the globe of this world.” This is no ordinary scepter. It is the world in her hands. She actively holds it as if to show, bless, or demonstrate to the reader her power over the material world. “Her diadem is of twelve stars” reflects the twelve signs of the zodiac. “The symbol of Venus is on the shield,” connecting her to the implicit beauty and sensuality of Venus. The string of white pearls around her neck, pillows, and robes all contain symbols of Venus, goddess of love and pleasure.

  The Empress’s wheat sheaves are sacred to ancient corn goddess and Greek grain mother Demeter. The silent reaping of an ear of corn was a central symbol to the ancient cult of Eleusinian mysteries. Cultures dependent on grain as a staple food source typically viewed wheat as a symbol of life. The goddess Ceres, the Greek embodiment of Venus, held sheaves of grain. Pamela Colman Smith’s self-published magazine was titled The Green Sheaf. Her magazine title is grounded in the allegory of creative fertility.

  It is often assumed the Empress displays a pregnant belly beneath her dress because she is the archetypal mother. Her pregnancy can be construed as literal or metaphorical when interpreting the card. All creative acts—from bearing babies to building a life to reading tarot cards—reflect the core and essence of creation. The waterfall to her right denotes energetic fusion from above to the space below. The Empress is wild creativity unleashed in the material world.

  Profane

  Soft and gentle touch. Femininity. Sensuality. Fertility and birth. Creativity. Reinvention. Expansion. Love and adoration. Physical beauty and grace. Motherhood. If a yes-no question: yes, no one could do it better.

  Waite’s Divinatory Meanings: Fruitfulness, action, initiative, length of days; the unknown, clandestine; also difficulty, doubt, ignorance.

  Reversed: Light, truth, the unravelling of involved matters, public rejoicings; according to another reading, vacillation.

  Asana

  The Empress aligns with yoga’s triangle pose, or trikonasana. The Empress bears the number three, which is the numeral of creativity, and the triangle contains three points. This aligns the highest triangle on the Tree of Life, the supernal triad, while additionally aligning with the sacred trinity pattern found in cross-cultural religions. Triangle pose offers a physical expansion, inviting in the nectar of life to enter the body of the yogi. The body opens like a flower, soaking in creative rays of solar energy from above. The heart expands, stretching its muscles wide open for deeper love, expansive compassion, and unbound creativity. The feet remain grounded to remain perfectly still and solid while the body expands outward into possibility and freedom. It is a pose of trust, devotion, and ecstatic love, asking the yogi to reveal themselves as they are to the world. These are the endearing and essential qualities of the Empress.

  The Emperor

  But how shall I find it?

  Look for it.

  Pamela Colman Smith36

  Sacred

  The Emperor gives form and shape to the Empress’s world. The Empress is the archetypal Mother who explodes life and color. The Emperor is the archetypal Father who orders everything into its proper and rightful place. The Emperor is the Empress’s four-cornered canvas and the structural glue holding the physical world together. He provides form and shape. The Emperor reflects Newton’s rules, Einstein’s physics, and atomic molecules. He is the weather system forming around you. He is the bubble of atmosphere that hugs the planet, making human life possible. Life would be a continual series of never-ending big bangs without the Emperor. He places limits on human consciousness and creativity so they don’t spin out of control. Limits are essential for existence. It is impossible to process every sensation entering our body, impossible to follow every creative impulse. Life as we know it, physics and manifestation, all require limits. This is how the Emperor maintains the physical structure of the universe.

  The universe carries a mathematical and physical structure that makes it livable for human beings. The Emperor reflects this need and becomes the place where habits are formed and broken. He is the boundary of duality that keeps things moving forward amidst containment. He reflects the narrative structure inherent to the human mind. The Emperor creates beginning, middle, and end. He is the binding force of tarot, archetype, and habit.

  Waite tells us “he is executive and realization, the power of this world.” Waite is describing the organizing power of the material world. It is only through structure and organization that the material world is possible. This is where laws of physics, sacred geometry, and numbers organize those things. Therefore, the Emperor is the very act of organization. Waite offers a sensual metaphor, saying, “He is the virile power, to which the Empress responds.” The metaphor suggests the Emperor opens the Empress’s gate—that she responds to his forceful energy like silk flower petals opening to the sun.

  Waite illuminates the Emperor and Empress’s relationship by describing him as “he who seeks to remove the Veil of Isis; yet she remains virgo intacta.” The Veil of Isis covers nature’s secrets. Virgo intacta is the Latin translation for a virgin whose hymen is intact. He paints the Emperor as the constant suitor who exists in a perpetual state of seduction yet who never fully gains what he seeks from the Empress. Were the Empress to succumb, her actions would unhinge the natural order of the physical world. The Emperor and Empress dance, flirt, and court one another. Their courtship brings the world into being. Their mutual desire is never fully satisfied, their love is never satiated. The Empress remains virginal, just out of his reach. The Emperor keeps courting and calling her. The material world evolves through their dance.

  Waite says the Emperor and Empress “do not precisely represent the condition of married life, though this state is implied.” They could be husband and wife, mother and father. Waite’s reading suggests they stand for “mundane royalty.” He suggests the Emperor is “the intellectual throne” and “the lordship of thought.” In this light, the Emperor acts as our logical brain making sense out of the creative and sensorial world as it flies into our perception.

  Symbolic

  Esoteric Function: Sight

  Hebrew Letter: Heh

  Astrological Association: Aries

  The Emperor’s gleaming armor implies a history of battles waged and won. Waite describes the “crux ansata for his scepter and a globe in his left hand.” Crux ansat
a is the Latin word for a cross with a handle at the top. This is the symbol of the ankh and the talisman of gods and pharaohs. The globe in his left hand reflects dominion over the natural world. The Emperor holds an ankh in his right hand to represent immortality. This Egyptian symbol for soul can be understood as the sun rising (the circle at the top of the cross) or the union of the male and female energies and the union of opposites, two halves becoming whole. The ankh is a legendary symbol of esoteric knowledge.

  The Emperor carries the astrological association of Aries, the powerful ram. Four rams decorate the Emperor’s throne. The rams sit on the top left and right corners and also below the Emperor’s hands on his armrests. The image of ram horns is embroidered upon the Emperor’s left shoulder. The Emperor’s crown reveals ram horns sprouting from the top.

  The Emperor’s robes are vibrant red. The Golden Dawn assigns red to the sign of Aries as well as to Aries’s ruling planet, Mars. Red is the alchemical color of transformation. Massive cliffs and mountain peaks reflect the Emperor’s domain and the safe harbor he has created. These epic chasms protect him from the dangers of the outside world.