The High Priestess

Upright

The passive pole answering the Magician's will. Beth is the mouth of man — and by extension the house, that which receives and contains. Papus reads La Papesse as knowledge held rather than exercised: the book on her knee is closed or half-veiled, and that is not concealment for its own sake but the condition of the passive term. She is what is known before it is spoken, the reflective principle that makes the active one intelligible. Divinatory sense: science, knowledge.

Reversed

Knowledge withheld past the point where withholding serves anything, or receptivity slackened into mere passivity — waiting mistaken for wisdom. Reversed it can equally mark learning that never went past the surface: the book carried everywhere and never opened, authority borrowed from a subject not actually studied.

Correspondences

Papus's number

2

Hebrew letter

Beth (ב)

Hieroglyph

The mouth of man; the house, that which contains

Septenary

First septenary (1–7), the Divine world — second term, the absolute passive (He)

Divinatory sense

Science; knowledge; the hidden thing that is nonetheless present

In a Spread

At the commencement the matter starts in something known but unspoken, usually by one party only. In opposition she is information the querent does not have and cannot get by pressing for it. At equilibrium the whole situation is being held in place by a silence. As the result, the answer Papus gives is knowledge rather than action: the thing to be gained here is understanding, and acting before it arrives will spoil it.