La Papesse as Book, Wisdom, and Initiator

Since 2020, Phil and JF have been creating an on-again, off-again series on the major trumps, or "arcana," of the tarot. In this episode, they continue the series with a discussion of the second arcanum: the High Priestess, also known as la Papesse, the female pope. One of the most enigmatic and powerful cards in the deck, the High Priestess symbolizes duality, contemplation, and manifestation.

• Support Weird Studies on ⁠⁠Patreon⁠⁠.
• Buy the Weird Studies soundtrack, volumes ⁠⁠1⁠⁠ and ⁠⁠2⁠⁠, on Pierre-Yves Martel's ⁠⁠Bandcamp⁠⁠ page.
• Visit the Weird Studies ⁠⁠⁠Bookshop⁠⁠⁠
• Find us on ⁠⁠⁠Discord⁠⁠⁠
• Get the T-shirt design from ⁠⁠⁠Cotton Bureau⁠⁠⁠.
• Listen to Meredith Michael and Gabriel Lubell's podcast, ⁠⁠Cosmophonia⁠⁠.

REFERENCES

Our Known Friend, Meditations on the Tarot

Plancia Magna, Roman priestess

Aleister Crowley, The Book of Thoth

Leigh McCloskey, The Tarot Revisioned

Henri Bergson, Matter and Memory

Moina Mathers, French occultist

Sallie Nichols, Tarot and the Archetypal Journey

Rachel Pollack, Seventy-Eight Degrees of Wisdom

Yoav Ben-Dov, The Marseille Tarot Revealed

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices