I want start 2024 by showing off the happiest tarot decks in my collection. Let’s face it, some of the people in our pre-20th century decks can be rather grumpy, if not downright mean looking. I must have at least 100 facsimiles of historic decks (I haven’t actually counted them), but I could only find a handful of decks where the figures had consistently pleasant faces. The characters in the decks discussed below look friendly and optimistic, and seem to actually enjoy life. I wouldn’t hesitate to start up a conversation with any of them.
If you have a historic facsimile with happy faces, please share it in the comment section below.
My five choices are all 18th-century decks, from five different countries, made by four contemporary card makers. I’ve listed them in the order they were originally published.
The Devil was a powerful presence in medieval and renaissance Christian Europe; so it’s not surprising he made his way into the tarot deck. The Bible mentions the Devil numerous times, but never describes his physical appearance; so medieval artists, inspired by classical art and local folklore, were free to fill in the details themselves. Our concept of the Devil is very much a product of the medieval Christian imagination. Let’s take a look at European Christian stories about the Devil, how they were illustrated, and how those images influenced the tarot Devil.
ADAM & EVE 15th CENTURY
The first and last books of the Bible present the Devil as a snake or dragon. Chapter 3:1-5 of the book of Genesis tells the familiar story of the snake in the Garden of Eden tempting Eve to disobey God. The snake is not called evil, nor is it identified with the Devil. The Bible says only that “the serpent was more subtle than any beast.” But an evil snake-like creature features prominently in the last book of the Bible.
SAINT MICHAEL & THE DRAGON 15th CENTURY
The book of Revelations tells the story of Saint Michael fighting the dragon and casting him out of heaven. Chapter 12 relates that “Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; … And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, who deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out upon the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.” The Archangel Michael spearing a dragon was a very popular theme in medieval art which culminated in Renaissance masterpieces by Raphael, Pollaiuolo, and Dürer.
Snakes and dragons appear in several Italian Devil cards. About 1665, Giuseppe Mitelli created a unique tarot deck for the Bentivoglio family of Bologna. His Devil sits among the flames of Hell, the claws of one foot resting on a demonic snake. The Minchiate deck, a tarot with extra trump cards invented in Florence, shows the Devil wearing live snakes around his waist. Carlo Dellarocca’s 1835 Soprafino deck may have been inspired by Mitelli. This dramatic woodcut version of Dellarocca’s design shows the Devil with snakes in his hair being pulled into the flames by green dragon-like monsters.
Devil as Monster
LAST JUDGMENT, GIOTTO 1303
The story of Archangel Michael casting the dragon out of heaven brings us to the angel Lucifer experiencing the same fate. In medieval folklore, Lucifer is identical to Satan, and often depicted as a King Kong monster, the ruler of Hell, tormenting and eating the sinners God sends him at the Last Judgment. The Devil as a giant gorilla culminated in the Last Judgment frescos of the early Renaissance. Giotto’s Satan is typical: Satan dominates Hell as he gobbles down sinners with two mouths, one located in his lower belly. His face is hairy and animal-like, with goat horns on his head and talons for feet, but his body is smooth and nearly human. The dragons chomping on sinners remind us of the dragon cast into Hell by Saint Michael.
ROTHSCHILD SHEET c. 1500
AGNOLO HEBREO 16th CENTURY
The Devil as man-eating monster appears in some older Bolognese cards. These Devils have goat horns and ears. Their goat-like legs terminate in bird claws, and they have a large face in their lower abdomen, which appears in French and Belgian decks centuries later.
B. BEMBO, 1446
VISCONTI HOURS, c, 1425
The Devil does not appear in 15th century hand-painted decks. There’s speculation these cards were omitted in courtly, custom-made decks because they were too unpleasant. But numerous cards are missing in all these early decks, so it may not be significant. It’s notable that the Milanese Visconti-Sforza deck is nearly complete except for the Devil and Tower. I believe these cards were in the original deck, but were removed later for some reason. Shown here are two examples of what the Devil card of the Visconti-Sforza deck might have looked like.
A few years before Francesco Sforza and his wife Bianca Maria Visconti commissioned their deck from the Bembo workshop, Bonifacio Bembo illustrated a book based on the legend of Sir Lancelot. A Devil with two hairy, animal-like faces and giant wings is rendered in the fluid graceful lines that epitomize the International Gothic style. But the figures in the Visconti-Sforza deck usually face front in a static posture. The Visconti-Sforza Devil may have looked more like the hairy fellow from the Visconti Hours. In the 1420s, Bianca’s father, Duke Filippo Maria Visconti, ordered the completion of a Book of Hours that had been interrupted a quarter century earlier by the death of the artist. This Devil, rendered by Belbello da Pavia, resembles the typical late medieval Devil: hairy body, goat horns, talons for feet, and holding a two-pronged flail, a favorite torture instrument of the Inquisition.
POPE SYLVESTER II & DEVIL 15th CENTURY
DE HAUTOT TAROT 18th CENTURY
A Devil covered with eyes and faces is preserved in the 18th-century Rouen-Bruxelles tarot pattern, as well as the Jacques Vieville tarot printed in Paris about 1650. This fire-breathing Devil strides forward in profile, sporting a long tail with a tuft at the end. Faces emerge from his knees, stomach and chest. He has a furry body and bird claw feet. Two quotes from the Bible may have inspired the extra face in the stomach: Romans 16:18 advises Christians to avoid people who cause dissension because.”…they that are such serve not our Lord, but their own belly”. Philippians 3:19 lists people who are enemies of Christ, including those “whose god is their belly”.
The Folklore Devil
TEMPTATION OF CHRIST, 1120-1145
The most common Devil in medieval art, as well as tarot, is a human-animal hybrid with a hairy body, goat horns or animal ears. and bird claws for feet. Many of these characteristics appear in later Tarot decks. This Devil is not the fallen angel Lucifer, nor the monster in Hell. He’s the mundane, trouble-making demon who leads you astray with temptations, and torments you with petty annoyances. When he’s mentioned in the New Testament of the Bible, he’s described as a liar, deceiver, tempter, rebel against God, and the antagonist of Jesus.
Some of the earliest depictions of the Devil as tempter and tormentor are from illuminated manuscripts depicting the Temptation of Christ. The Devil in the St Albans manuscript at left has human posture, but fur on his legs, a tail, talons for feet, and animal ears rather than goat horns. His colorful wings remind us that the Devil is a fallen angel.
DEVIL FRESCO, FRANCE 1492
CARY SHEET, c. 1500
The Devil herding people into the mouth of Hell, often in a wheelbarrow or basket, was a popular scene in medieval theater. The Devil carrying people in a basket on his back made its way into at least one tarot deck. Unfortunately, this deck only exists as an uncut sheet of cards.
COMPENDIUM MALEFICARUM, 1608
During the Protestant Reformation of the 16th century and the Church’s reactionary Counter-Reformation, religious wars consumed Europe, with both sides demonizing the other. The obsession with heresy on both sides of the religious divide increased the public’s enthusiasm for witch hunts. The newly emerging middle class devoured inexpensive, mass-produced prints depicting witch’s sabbaths, orgies, and witch burnings. In the print shown here, a witch kneels to kiss the Devil’s hindquarters, a practice believed to be a standard part of the witch’s sabbath. A crowd of god-fearing townsfolk approach with torches, ready to hang the witch. This Devil has most of the characteristics of standard European tarot Devils: a human-like body, bat wings, long tail, talons, and an animalistic face with horns and animal ears.
BUDAPEST TAROT LATE 15th CENTURY
ROSENWALD TAROT LATE 15th CENTURY
The earliest printed tarot cards depict Devils that seem mischievous rather than threatening. The face on the belly of the Budapest Devil with red angel wings might be strapped on and could be a theater costume. The Rosenwald Devil seems to be wearing a costume of leaves or badly drawn fur. Both Devils have talons and goat horns and seem rather playful and nonchalant. The Inquisition’s two-pronged flail evolved into a trident later in the century.
Tarot de Marseille
JEAN DODAL TAROT, 1701
JOSEPH FEAUTRIER TAROT, 1762
The standard Tarot de Marseille Devil has a human body without the fur and other details found in early Italian cards. Rather than goat horns, antlers seem to be attached to a cap, and the cap’s brim is folded to look like animal ears. The Devil’s tongue sticks out. The extravagantly large wings of the earlier TdM become graceful bat wings in later decks. The genitals are exposed making it clear this is a hermaphrodite with female breasts.
In the earlier Dodal tarot, the extra face in the belly and the eyes in the knees are a holdover from Italian cards. The two red bands across the midsection might be a clue that the face is strapped on, like the Budapest Tarot Devil shown above. In later TdM decks, the feet are rendered as bird claws. The Devil stands on a podium of three colors, usually red, black, and yellow, a possible reference to stages in the alchemical process. The Devil’s trident, or two-pronged flail, looks like rabbit ears in the earlier TdM, perhaps because the block carver misread some details. The trident evolved into a torch in later decks.
The biggest change from Italian decks is the addition of the two minions attached by their necks to the Devil’s podium. Their antlers and animal ears, like the Devil’s, seem to be attached to a cap. Both appear female. Their hands are tied behind their backs, and both have long tails.
Some see the Devil card as a parody of the Pope card. Both figures raise their right hands; and both have subordinates in front of them. The Pope’s triple cross is mirrored by the Devil’s torch. But it’s more likely the Devil card is a sinister version of the Lovers, where a man stands between two women who are reaching for him, as they both desire him. In the Lovers card, all three figures are the same size. In the fifteenth trump, the Devil looms over two female figures who are bound to him. The women aren’t free to leave, but they aren’t in distress, and may even be enjoying their rather degrading situation.
Traditional divinatory interpretations of the Devil card include: Bondage, violence, and evil. Being a slave to one’s emotions and desires; compulsions, addictions, and nightmares. But it’s also about animal magnetism and wielding hypnotic power over others; as well as the ability to manifest your desires and magnetically attract money. This card in a spread may make the surrounding cards negative; but it’s a good card to get when reading about financial matters.
CLASSICO TAROCCO DI MARSIGLIA, 19th CENTURY
BESANCON TAROT 1784
When French and Swiss tarot decks were exported to Italy in the 18th century, Italian printers copied the Devil from Besançon-style decks. Italian Devils became more goat-like, with hooves and furry goat legs. The trident that evolved into a torch in France becomes a tulip in this card.
Classical Influences
PAN, ROMAN SARCOPHAGUSSATYRS, GREEK VASE, 530 bceCHARUN, ETRUSCAN VASE, c. 300 bce
As we move into the 19th century and occult modifications to the Devil card, the Devil acquires more goat-like features, inspired by the god Pan and the Satyrs in classical art. Pan was the god of forests and wilderness. Satyrs spent their days in the forest drinking, dancing and chasing nymphs. They were paragons of sensuality and self-indulgence whose habits horrified good Christians. Pan and the Satyrs were related to the Etruscan god of the underworld, Charun, depicted at various times with a goatish or monster-like face, angel wings, tusks, pointed ears, and serpents in his hair. All of these attributes can be found in tarot Devils.
HARPY, MANUSCRIPT, 15th CENTURY
If the Devil has furry goat legs, why does he have bird talons for feet? The bird claws were inspired by the Greek Harpies, the Snatchers. These spirits, who personified wind gusts, snatched people and made them disappear suddenly. Harpies were depicted as humans with wings and bird-like lower bodies. They were known to medieval artists due to their dramatic appearance in Virgil’s Aeneid. Depictions of Harpies in medieval manuscripts, like the one shown here, closely resemble their counterparts from classical mythology.
Baphomet
BAPHOMET, ELIPHAS LEVI, 1865
While the standard Tarot de Marseille Devil has remained unchanged since the 17th century, Eliphas Levi’s drawing of Baphomet injected a radically new look into occult tarot.
In his 1856 book Transcendental Magic, Levi explained the symbolism of this figure. The white and black moons represent the correspondence between good and evil as well as mercy and justice. Solve and Coagula on his arms refer to the alchemical distillation process; while his hands make the sign of esotericism above and below. The torch that the TdM Devil holds becomes a flame on top of this Devil’s head, indicating the equilibrating intelligence of the triad. The horns are extravagantly long and his face is very goatish, with a pentagram on his forehead. This Devil has hooves rather than talons. Levi tells us that the caduceus over the genitals expresses the mysteries of universal generation. At one point, he refers to this figure as “The heaven of Mercury, occult science, magic, commerce, eloquence, mystery and moral force.”
With the emphasis on goat-like characteristics, we can assume Baphomet has furry animal legs and male genitals, making Levi’s Devil a hermaphrodite like the TdM Devil. Levi doesn’t mention the black angel wings, but they could refer to the Devil as the fallen angel Lucifer.
The word Baphomet first appears in a letter written in 1098 during First Crusade, and may be a misunderstood Arabic word. Baphomet became notorious in Europe when the Templars were slandered and destroyed. The Knights Templar was a religious order of knights formed in 1120 to protect Christian pilgrims in the Holy Land. Thanks to lavish donations of money and land, the Templars became fabulously rich and powerful, possessing extensive land holdings throughout Europe and serving as bankers to the aristocracy. In 1307, King Philip IV of France destroyed the Templars and confiscated their property. The King justified mass tortures and executions by accusing the Templars of various heresies, including the worship of Baphomet, described as the head of a bearded man that had great power. The goat-like Baphomet was a creation of 19th-century occultists. In Chapter 15 of Transcendental Magic, Eliphas Levi embellished the Templars’ story by saying that the Templars confused Baphomet with the god Pan, who is “the god of philosophers, Neoplatonists, Spinoza, Plato, Gnostics and others.” According to Levi, the Templars didn’t realize they were actually worshipping the Devil.
The French Occult Devil
OSWALD WIRTH TAROT, 1887
The Devil card designed by Swiss occultist Oswald Wirth in the late 19th century combines Levi’s Baphomet with the Tarot de Besançon. The Devil has Baphomet’s goat head and hooves, but stands on a small podium with two attached minions like the TdM Devil. The two little figures are very goatish, with horns and ears, hooves, and furry legs, as in the Besançon-style tarot. This contrasts with the TdM minions with their smooth bodies, antlers, and talons. Wirth designed his card to depict energy circulation. The red minion/satyr raises his arm to draw energy down from the Devil, while the green minion returns the energy to the Devil via his hand on the Devil’s hoof. Other details indicating energy polarity and circulation are the minions’ red and green colors, the yoni/lingam in the Devil’s left hand, and Solve and Coagula on the Devil’s arms. Wirth says this figure is a hermaphrodite who embodies the union of conscious and unconscious. According to Wirth, the universal life force circulates through all things equally, but it’s human nature to hoard this energy. Individuality emerges when we gather this energy around ourselves, as if we were the center of the universe. The Devil personifies the urge to construct a unique personality by magnetically attracting things to ourselves.
Wirth’s divinatory meanings for this card include: magic, sorcery, the power of suggestion, and the demagogue’s ability to hypnotize and dominate the masses. The Devil has the power to manifest miracles in the physical world. Since the Middle Ages, people have invoked the Devil, rather than saints, when praying for material possessions or the success of an illicit love affair. Wirth’s negative meanings for this card include greed, lust, perversion, anything illicit, as well as hysteria and lack of moderation.
The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn
THE GOLDEN DAWN TAROT, 1977
The founders of the London-based Golden Dawn were well-acquainted with French occultism, so their Devil closely resembles Wirth’s design. The Devil’s goat-like head is enclosed in an inverted pentagram. This configuration was invented by Wirth in the late 19th century, and is the official logo of the Church of Satan, founded in 1966 by Anton LaVey. While Wirth hints at fur on the Devil’s legs, the Golden Dawn’s Devil is very shaggy. In spite of its pronounced goatish characteristics, the Golden Dawn Devil has bird talons, not hooves. The flames emanating from the top of Baphomet’s head have been returned to the torch, which is now inverted. The male and female minions are attached to the podium by their wrists rather than necks, and wear furry skirts.
The Golden Dawn’s title for this card is Lord of the Gates of Matter. Their interpretations include sex, reproduction, the powers of nature, illusion, distorted perceptions, temptation, and obsession.
The Waite Smith Devil
THE WAITE SMITH TAROT, 1909
The card designed by A. E. Waite and P. C. Smith combines influences from Levi, Wirth, and the Golden Dawn. The Devil crouches like Baphomet rather than standing erect. The reversed pentagram floats above his head rather than enclosing it. Although Waite’s Devil has a furry lower body and thighs like Wirth’s Devil, the legs terminate in bird talons.
Waite turned the two anonymous female minions into Adam and Eve after the Fall. They have human faces, but goat horns and tails to indicate their animal nature. The chains around their necks are loose. They could easily slip out of them, but they choose to remain in bondage.
Waite’s Lovers card depicts Adam and Eve in a state of innocence before eating the apple and introducing sin into the world. Eve stands in front of the Tree of Knowledge with its snake and apples. In the Devil card, her tail terminates in a bunch of grapes. Adam in the Lovers card stands in front of the Tree of Life with twelve fruits that look like flames. In the Devil card, his tail ends in a flame.
By the time Waite designed this deck, he had renounced ceremonial magic and was identifying as a Christian mystic. He tells us that Levi and the French occultists were wrong to associate this card with magic and the occult. In fact, he believed those who dabble in magic suffer from the illusion that the material world is all there is, and they will be punished. For Waite, the Devil is the “Dweller on the Threshold” who guards the entrance to the Garden of Eden after Adam and Eve were driven out.
The contemporary view of this card is rather ambivalent. On one hand, the Devil is about succumbing to the lure of addictions, whether drugs, shopping, or chasing after fame. But on the flip side, throwing off repressions and occasionally indulging in forbidden pleasures can feel like liberation. The Jungian Devil is an upwelling of one’s dark side from deep in the unconscious, resulting in irrational and destructive behavior. But there’s treasure buried deep in the psyche—repressed creative energy that wants to burst free into the light of consciousness. Many decks created in the past few decades show a dark side of human nature: people gripped by unconscious forces that rob them of autonomy.
In the Light Seer’s Tarot, a hypnotic Devil binds a powerless person with puppet strings. This Devil is the drug that makes you feel powerful until you lose control of your life. He can be the abusive partner who keeps drawing you back, like a moth circling a flame. He is the lure of celebrity and easy money that inspires you to become a TikTok influencer, substituting authenticity for a shiny façade that ends up consuming you.
The Robin Wood Devil card is about greed and bondage to one’s appetites. Greed is the flip-side of Temperance, the previous card in the trump series. The treasure chest is open. The two people bound to it could take an armful of treasure and just walk away. But they want all of it; so they remain trapped in a dark tunnel, struggling to drag an impossibly heavy chest. The chains binding them form Baphomet’s inverted pentagram.
The Trippin’ Waite deck is an homage to the psychedelic ’60s. Those times were not all peace, love, and flower power. The Viet Nam War, justified by egregious government lies, was a polarizing evil that infected everyone. The Vietnamese people were demonized as subhuman communists; while young people who protested the war were demonized as America-hating communist sympathizers. Just as medieval Inquisitors justified killing witches because their association with the Devil threatened Christian society, so killing Vietnamese people and clubbing anti-war protestors was justified because it protected American society from Communism.
Summary
Demonizing those we see as “other” than ourselves is a continuous thread running through our dealings with the Devil.
For Medieval and Renaissance Christians, anyone who was different, non-conformist, or not a Christian—Jews, Muslims, Cathars and other heretics, old women—aroused fear and suspicion because they were undoubtedly controlled by the Devil. Demonic possession was a handy tool for justifying witch burnings, crusades, and persecutions. Today, we usually don’t invoke the Devil, but demonizing people we see as “other” hasn’t gone out of fashion.
In Medieval society, the Devil was the enemy of God; an outside force who lured people into disobeying the Church’s laws. These days, our demons are internal. Succumbing to temptation and indulging in too much of anything, from chocolate to heroin, is often seen as a character flaw, a weakness that one should be able to overcome. Those who can’t control their inner demons are literally “demonized” and cast out from society to live on the streets.
When we do something that undermines our idealized self-image, revealing a side of ourselves we’d rather not acknowledge, we blame it on a disowned part of our consciousness (the Devil made me do it). Thus, we avoid ownership of the deed and excuse ourselves from taking responsibility.
Carte Fine Al Mondo. Bologna, mid 18th Facsimile produced by Marco Cesare Benedetti, 2020. Collection of the British Museum.
Adam, Eve and the Serpent. Chromolithograph after Masolino, early 15th Wellcome Library collection.
Saint Michael and the Dragon. 15th century, Spanish.
Tarocchi Mitelli. Giuseppe Mitelli, c. 1660. Reproduction by Giordano Berti, 2017. Collection of Bibliothèque Nationale Française, Paris
Minchiate, 18th Reproduced by Lo Scarabeo, 2011
Ancient Italian Tarot, Lo Scarabeo. Avondo Brothers, Serra Valle-Sesia, 1880.
Last Judgment Fresco, Scrovegni Chapel, Padua, Italy. Giotto da Bondone, 1303.
Rothschild Sheet, c. 1500. Collection of Edmond de Rothschild, The Louvre, Paris.
Agnolo Hebreo Tarot Card. Bologna, 16th century. Collection of the British Museum.
Historia di Lancillotto del Lago (La Tavola Ritonda). Text by Giuliano de’ Anzoli, illustrations attributed to Bonifacio Bembo, 1446. Collection of National Library, Florence, Italy.
The Visconti Hours (Libro d’Ore Visconti). Plague of the First Born, LF 95. Belbello da Pavia, c. 1425. Collection of National Library, Florence, Italy
Pope Sylvester II and the Devil. From Lives of the Popes, Martin the Pole, 15th century
Adam C. De Hautot Tarot, 18th Recreated by Sullivan Hismans, Tarot Sheet Revival, 2020.
Temptation of Christ. St. Alban’s Psalter. England, 1120-1145. Collection of the Church of St. Godehard, Hildesheim, Germany.
Devil Leading the Damned to Hell, fresco in La Chapelle des Penitents, Chapel of the White Penitents, La Tour France, 1492
Cary Sheet. Uncut sheet of tarot cards, c. 1500. Yale University, New Haven, CT.
Compendium Maleficarum, a handbook for witch finders. Wood engraving, Francesco Maria Guazzo, Milan, 1608.
Budapest Tarot, late 15th Recreated by Sullivan Hismans, Tarot Sheet Revival, 2017. Collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City
The Rosenwald Tarot, c. 1475. Re-created by Sullivan Hismans, Tarot Sheet Revival, 2017. Collection of National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.
Jean Dodali Tarot. Lyon, 1701. Reproduced by Sullivan Hismans, Tarot Sheet Revival, 2019.
Tarot of Joseph Feautrier. Marseille, 1762. Reproduced by Yves Reynaud, 2022.
Classico Tarocco di Marsiglia. Il Meneghello, Milan, 1988, 1996.
Bernard Schaer Besancon Tarot. Solutrean Suisse 1784.
Pan. Roman era sarcophagus.
Satyrs. Greek vase, c. 530 bce. Niarchos Collection, Athens
Charun, Etruscan deity of the Underworld. Etruscan vase painting, c. 300 bce
Harpy. Medieval illuminated manuscript.
Baphomet. Illustration in Levi, Eliphas, Transcendental Magic. Translated by A. E. Waite. London: Rider & Co, 1896, 1984.
Oswald Wirth Tarot, 1887. Collection of the Bibliothèque Nationale Française, Paris.
The Golden Dawn Tarot. Robert Wang and Israel Regardie. U.S. Games, Systems Inc., Stamford, CT, 1977.
The Centennial Waite Smith Tarot Deck. London, 1909. U.S. Games System, Inc., Stamford, CT, 2009.
The Light Seer’s Tarot. Chris-Anne. Hay House, Inc., 2019.
The Robin Wood Tarot. Robin Wood. Llewellyn Publications, 1991.
Trippin’ Waite Tarot. James Abrams, 2019. Tarotcollectibles.com
References:
Link, Luther. The Devil: The Archfiend in Art from the Sixth to the Sixteenth Century. New York: Harry Abrams Publishers, 1996.
Levi, Eliphas. Transcendental Magic: Its Doctrine and Ritual. Arthur Edward Waite, translator. London: Rider Pocket Edition, 1984.
Obedience and tradition are fundamental for the Tarot Pope’s authority. Just as the papacy as an institution has been in place, basically unchanged, for nearly two thousand years, the image and the interpretation of the Tarot Pope has remained remarkably stable for at least five hundred years. It wasn’t until the late twentieth century that the name and depiction of the Pope shifted in response to popular culture.
Certain Tarot cards like the Devil and Emperor are easy to interpret because devils and emperors are still part of our world. We have plenty of images in art and popular culture to give these cards a context. But some cards, like the Hanged Man and the Female Pope, are remnants of a lost medieval world with no contemporary examples to help us decipher their meaning. Without this historical perspective, we find ourselves projecting modern interpretations onto the cards with no reference to their historic roots.
La Papessa (her original Italian title) is a mysterious figure—a woman draped in ecclesiastical robes and wearing the pope’s triple crown. In the earliest Italian decks, she holds a book in one hand and the keys of Saint Peter, a bishop’s crook, or a staff in the other hand. La Papessa has been on a wild ride since the fifteenth century, going from a traditional allegory of the established Church, to a heretic, high priestess of an occult lodge and, most recently, a neo-pagan witch.
We moderns seem to need a subversive, even dangerous Popess. But is that how she was seen by the good Catholics who played Tarocchi with these cards in the 15th and 16th centuries? These early Tarocchi players were familiar with images of a female pope from the art of their time. Just as the Pope in the Tarot deck depicts a conventional, non-controversial religious figure, so the Popess was a conventional embodiment of the Church.
The Popess as an Allegory of the Church
The Popess may seem like an exotic figure to us, but a woman in papal regalia made many appearances in late-Medieval and Renaissance art. Allegories are usually rendered as a seated or standing woman holding symbolic objects, like the figure of Justice with her scales, or the Statue of Liberty. A woman with symbolic objects associated with the papacy did not seem at all strange or subversive until very recently, after the original meaning of the allegory had been forgotten. St. Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican, the very center of the Catholic Church, has a marble statue of a female Pope wearing the papal crown and holding a book and keys. She represents the Church itself and is obviously not a heretical figure. The medieval woodcut above shows a straightforward allegory of the Church used to illustrate Pope Joan. The curtain floating behind her became standard in the Tarot de Marseille pattern 150 years later.
The Popess as Pope Joan
POPE JOAN 1545
If you’re casting about for a heretical figure to associate with this card, the legendary Pope Joan would be an obvious, but incorrect, choice.
The legend of Pope Joan first appears in Cologne, Germany in the 11th century. The story was repeated and embroidered by German monks throughout the high middle ages, and gained traction during the Protestant Reformation. The bare bones of the legend describes a 9th-century English woman who disguised herself as a man to pursue an education in the capital cities of Europe. After becoming known for his/her erudition and wisdom, (s)he was rewarded by being elected Pope. The Pope’s true identity was discovered while giving birth in the street during a religious procession. He/she died instantly and was buried on the spot.
It’s doubtful those early Tarocchi players would have seen Pope Joan in the Tarot card. Pope Joan is usually portrayed nursing a baby or with a baby tumbling out from under her robes. Most depictions are rather lurid and designed to create a shudder of revulsion. If the creator of the Tarot deck intended to portray Pope Joan, I think he would designed this card very differently.
The Visconti-Sforza Heretical Popess
VISCONTI-SFORZA TAROCCHI c. 1450
When the Duke and Duchess of Milan commissioned a luxurious Trionfi deck shortly after assuming rulership of Milan in 1450, they may have inserted family history into many of the cards. Some historians believe La Papessa depicts a Visconti relative, Maifreda da Pirovano, who was burnt at the stake in 1300.
The story of the heretic Maifreda begins with Guglielma, a charismatic holy woman who appeared in Milan in the 1260s accompanied by a young son. Everyone assumed she was a widow, but nothing seems to have been known about her family or place of origin. After her death in 1282, her tomb at the Cistercian monastery of Chiaravalle near Milan became a pilgrimage site associated with miracles and visions. A cult quickly formed that was similar to many mainstream religious societies of the time.
Sister Maifreda and a priest, Andrea Saramita, both members of the Umiliati religious order, promoted the idea that Guglielma was the incarnation of a feminine, Christ-like, Holy Spirit. In 1300, several people associated with this cult, including Saramita and Maifreda, were burnt at the stake. A decade later, while investigating the head of the ruling Visconti family for heresy, Church authorities emphasized that the notorious heretic Maifreda was a Visconti cousin.
POOR CLARES
Gertrude Moakley was the first modern researcher to connect the Tarot card with the heretic Sister Maifreda. Moakley stated that the Visconti-Sforza Popess is dressed as a sister of the Umiliati order, therefore, she must be Maifreda. Moakley’s theory has one huge hole: The Visconti-Sforza Popess is dressed in the brown habit of the Franciscan Poor Clares with its distinctive knotted rope belt, not in the simple white habit of the Umiliati.
Why would a Poor Clare sister appear on a Visconti-Sforza tarocchi deck? A legend had been circulating around Lombardy since the early 1300s that Guglielma was actually Vilemina, the daughter of the king and queen of Bohemia. The real Vilemina had a younger sister who became Saint Agnes after establishing an order of Poor Clares in Prague with the help of Saint Clare of Assisi. Could the Visconti-Sforza card portray Guglielma’s supposed sister Agnes? There’s evidence that the Duchess of Milan was aware of the cult of Guglielma, which was still thriving in the vicinity of Milan in the 15th century. Perhaps this was the duchess’s way of referencing Guglielma in her deck while avoiding anything heretical.
The Early Italian and French Popess
How did the Popess appear in the earliest decks that weren’t commissioned by the aristocracy? Block-print decks from the 15th and 16th centuries show a generic, uncontroversial figure who is the counterpart to the Pope.
BUDAPEST TAROT LATE 15th CENTURY
ROSENWALD TAROT c. 1475
CATELIN GEOFFROY MID 16th CENTURY
The earliest deck shown here is the Budapest Tarot from the last quarter of the 15th century. The Popess holds a bishop’s crook and the keys of Saint Peter. In the re-colored Rosenwald deck from about 1500, both Pope and Popess hold a very large key, while the Popess holds a book in her other hand. The French Popess from the mid-16th century is very similar to the earlier Italian cards. She holds a book and a very large key that’s nearly identical to the Pope’s key. In all these examples, as well as in the Tarot de Marseille decks of the next century, her crown has two levels rather than three, which is the Pope’s trademark.
When the Popess was Replaced
TAROCCO BOLOGNESE 1725
SPANISH CAPTAIN 1762
BESANCON TAROT 19th CENTURY
In spite of being conventional religious figures, the Pope and Popess were seen as problematic and were replaced with secular figures in some regions during the 18th century. In certain parts of France, Germany and Switzerland, Besançon decks substituted the Roman deities Jupiter and Juno for the Pope and Popess. This wasn’t done because the Catholic Church objected to religious figures on playing cards, as many people assume. These changes were made in heavily Protestant areas where people didn’t want to see Catholic imagery on their cards.
In Belgium and northern France, the Spanish Captain, a character from the Commedia dell’Arte, substituted for the Popess, while the Pope became Bacchus. The situation was a bit different in Bologna, where a political tempest created a new Bolognese-style Tarot deck. The Pope’s emissary in Bologna decreed that the Empress, Emperor, Pope and Popess were to be replaced by four Moors in all Tarocchi decks.
The Tarot de Marseille
JEAN NOBLET TAROT c. 1660
PIERRE MADENIE TAROT 1709
FRANCOIS GASSMANN 1840
By the late 17th century, the deck had settled into the Tarot de Marseille pattern. The French La Papesse was standardized into a seated woman wearing a heavy cloak and the papal tiara while holding an open book in her lap with both hands. A curtain with furled edges floats behind her head. The religious items displayed in earlier decks, the staff with a triple cross or bishop’s crook, and the keys of St. Peter have been eliminated. Only the papal triple crown remains. Above are examples of Tarot de Marseille cards from three different centuries showing how the imagery remained consistent over time.
Over the centuries, diverse cartomantic meanings have accumulated around this card. When the Popess is seen as a learned, high-status woman holding a book, the card may be interpreted as scholarly or scientific knowledge, mental clarity, or a woman who is a wise advisor. When the Popess is seen as embodying intuitive knowledge or spiritual understanding, this figure has a touch of the other-worldly, able to see behind the façade of consensual reality. She may be hiding something behind the curtain or under her veil, making her the guardian of esoteric knowledge, or a deceiver who withholds information. This card eventually acquired the lunar qualities of a goddess or sibyl. On the other hand, negative stereotypes of femininity are sometimes projected onto her. She can be unstable, emotional, superficial, or close-minded. In some cartomantic systems she represents a wife, mother or the female querant.
From Popess to High Priestess: French Occult Tarot
The Popess was called the High Priestess publicly for the first time in Antoine Court de Gébelin’s 1781 book of pseudo-anthropology Le Monde Primitif. De Gébelin firmly believed that the Tarot deck is a picture book preserving ancient Egypt’s most profound wisdom; therefore Christian imagery had to be a later distortion. He made it his mission to return the Tarot deck to its original Egyptian purity. De Gébelin renamed the Pope and Popess Le Grand-Prêtre and La Grande-Prêtresse (High Priest and High Priestess) and said they were a married couple, like the Egyptian religious leaders who bore those titles. His card description has the High Priestess wearing the horns of Isis, but his illustration of the card is nearly identical to the Tarot de Marseille pattern.
Someone who must have read de Gébelin created a more radical design, probably in the 1790s. The anonymous designer also called these cards Le Grand-Prêtre and La Grande-Prêtresse. Both figures are standing, dressed in elegant clothing, laurel wreaths on their heads and holding a palm branch. There is only one known copy of this deck in an American collection. It didn’t start a new tarot style, but it shows that as early as the 18th century, people were imagining a radically different Popess.
The greatest influence on the subsequent development of the Popess card was Eliphas Levi’s description in his 1856 book Transcendental Magic: “a woman is crowned with a tiara, wearing the horns of the Moon and Isis, her head enveloped in a mantle, the solar cross on her breast, and holding a book on her knees, which she conceals with her mantel.”
Following the French occultist tradition, Levi attributed the second letter of the Hebrew alphabet, Beth, to this card. This associates the card with the House of God, a sanctuary, and Gnosis, which leads to the idea that the High Priestess is sitting at the entrance to an inner sanctum. Levi also attributed the moon, the occult church, the mouth, speech, wife and mother to the card.
OSWALD WIRTH 20th CENTURY
Oswald Wirth, an influential 19th-century French occultist, said of this card, “she is the priestess of mystery, Isis, the goddess of deep night and without her help the human spirit could not penetrate darkness”. Wirth redesigned his original 1887 deck in the early 20th century to make it conform to Levi’s original concept. The High Priestess’s throne is a carved sphinx. She rests the spine of the book on her knee and keeps a finger in the pages as if holding her place. Wirth interpreted the papal crown as two rows of precious gems representing Hermeticism and Gnosis, then he placed a crescent moon on top. He emphasized the dualities of the sun/moon, intellect/intuition and exoteric/esoteric knowledge with red and green pillars, silver and gold keys and a rather incongruous yin/yang symbol on the book. The curtain behind the La Papesse is attached to the pillars, reinforcing the idea that she is guarding the entrance to the inner sanctum for all except worthy initiates.
Wirth and his colleague Papus called this figure the Priestess of the Mysteries and the Goddess of the Night who possesses higher esoteric wisdom and secrets known to only a few. They emphasized lunar qualities of reflected light, passive receptivity, and knowing but keeping silent.
By the early 19th century, the Popess was drifting away from her medieval Christian context and was about to find a harbor in a strange new culture.
The Golden Dawn and Waite Smith Decks
GOLDEN DAWN TAROT 1977
WAITE SMITH TAROT 1909
French occultism jumped the English Channel in 1888 and was reborn in London as the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. They called the second trump card the Priestess of the Silver Star and associated her with the Moon, Isis, and the ultimate expression of water. By association, she presides over things that fluctuate and are partly hidden. In the Golden Dawn system this card is the Hebrew letter Gimel—the camel that allows you to travel long distances because it stores water.
The most iconic High Priestess of the 20th century was created by two former members of the Golden Dawn, A. E. Waite and P. C. Smith. Their card follows Levi’s Egyptianized concept closely. The High Priestess wears the horns of Isis on her head representing three phases of the Moon. The equal-armed cross on her breast represents balanced dualities. Instead of a book, she holds a scroll labelled Torah to highlight its secret knowledge. The black and white pillars are inscribed with the letters for Boaz and Jachem, loosely representing an active/passive duality, which were supposedly inscribed on the pillars of the Temple of Solomon in Jerusalem. The High Priestess sits in front of a curtain embroidered with pomegranates and palms, guarding the entrance to the inner sanctum of the temple.
In his book, Pictorial Key to the Tarot, Waite couldn’t praise the High Priestess highly enough. He calls her the Secret Church, the Shekinah, the spiritual bride, supernatural mother, daughter of the stars. He says that in some respects this is the highest and holiest of the major arcana. Waite’s divinatory meanings for this card include: secrets, mystery, wisdom, silence, the unrevealed future, and a woman of interest in the reading.
Contemporary Cards
CHRYSALIS TAROT 2016
ROBIN WOOD TAROT 1991
PIRATES TAROT 2008
Once this card drifted from its original Christian context and became associated with all things lunar and mysterious, it was a short leap to seeing the High Priestess as a witch, sorceress, fortune teller or wise woman. According to the creators of the Chrysalis Tarot, the youthful sorceress is a young Morgan La Fey. Dressed in boho gypsy style and accompanied by her raven familiar, she stirs a golden cauldron of transformation while magic mushrooms gather at her feet.
The Robin Wood High Priestess, as the lunar goddess’s representative on earth, is ready to lead her coven in a ritual under the full moon. The black and white trees in the background, and the book of knowledge and crystal ball of intuition illustrate the same dualities highlighted in esoteric cards. This priestess exhibits the mature qualities needed to lead a coven: practical experience, leadership skills and intuition.
The tavern fortune teller in the Pirate’s Tarot has mesmerized her client with her supernatural powers and her other attributes; although the crocodile on the wall doesn’t seem nearly as impressed. The tools of her trade, cards and grimoire, rest on the table with this down-to earth, working class sorceress.
Conclusion
Although she began as a symbol of conventional Christianity, the Popess has been associated with heretics and saints, and has been replaced by pagan figures at times. Her enigmatic appearance encouraged students of occultism to project their romanticized Egyptian fantasies onto her. By the time Tarot arrived in the English-speaking world, her Christian and Italian roots were forgotten. When tarot was incorporated into new-age, neo-pagan, and feminist subcultures in the mid-20th century, she morphed into a witch, sorceress, psychic or coven leader.
In spite of these radical changes, a continuous thread runs through her story. The Popess is an icon of deep spirituality that transcends dogma and formal religion. She is a paragon of intuitive understanding who sees beneath the surface of superficial distractions. She calls to us to slow down, enter our own inner sanctuary, and discover the wisdom waiting for us there.
Jacques Vievil Tarot c.1650. Restored and hand painted by Sullivan Hismans. Tarot Sheet Revival, 2019.
Tarot of the Crone. Ellen Lorenzi-Prince. Arnell’s Art, 2017
Allegory of the Church, Canon’s Chapel, St. Peter’s Basilica, Rome
Woodcut from the book De claris selectisque mulierbus, Jacobus Philippus Forestus, Ferrara, 1497.
Pope Joan Giving Birth. Woodcut from the book Boccaccio – Vornemmste, by Burgmair, c 1545. Cornell University Library collection.
Visconti-Sforza Tarocchi, @1450, Pierpont Morgan Library, New York
St Clare and the Poor Clares. Anastpaul.com.
Budapest Tarot, late 15th century. Recreated by Sullivan Hismans, Tarot Sheet Revival, 2017. Collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City.
I Tarocchi Rosenwald, c. 1475. Re-created and colored by Marco Benedetti, 2019
Catelin Geoffroy Tarot, mid 16th century. Collection of Museum fur Kunsthandwerk, Offenbach, Germany.
Tarocco di Besançon, early 19th century, restored by Il Meneghello, 2000
Spanish Captain. Tarot Flamand Vandenborre, Brussels, 1762. Restored by Pablo Robledo, Argentina, 2018.
Tarocco Bolognese Al Mondo, 1725. Facsimile by Marco Benedetti, Rome, 2020. Collection of The British Museum.
Jean Noblet Tarot c. 1660, Paris. Restored by Jean-Claude Flornoy, 2007. Collection of Bibliothèque Nationale Française, Paris
Tarot Pierre Madenié, Dijon 1709. Restored by Yves Reynaud, 2016.
François Gassman Tarot, Geneva, 1840. Restored by Yves Reynaud, 2020. Collection of the Swiss Game Museum.
La Grande-Prêtresse. Kaplan, Stuart R. The Encyclopedia of Tarot Volume II, p. 337. Stamford: U.S. Games Systems, Inc, 1986.
Oswald Wirth Tarot. Tchou Editeur. 1966.
The Golden Dawn Tarot. Robert Wang and Israel Regardie. U.S. Games, Systems Inc., Stamford, CT, 1977.
The Rider Tarot Deck, A. E. Waite and P.C. Smith, 1909, U.S. Games Systems, 1971
Chrysalis Tarot. Toney Brooks and Holly Sierra, U.S. Games Systems, 2016
The Robin Wood Tarot. Robin Wood. Llewellyn Publications, 1991
When we think of the Tarot de Marseille (TdM), France usually comes to mind. But the game of tarot was played throughout Europe, with locally printed decks that had their own unique touches. Giordano Berti has recently produced facsimiles of two German Tarot de Marseille decks. The Tarocchi Miller is a Besançon-style deck where the Pope and Papesse are replaced with Jupiter and Juno. Read more
When we think of historic tarot decks, the French Tarot de Marseille and early Italian decks quickly come to mind. But I’m ashamed to say that in my nearly twenty years of deck collecting it never occurred to me to think about German tarot decks. Read more
Yves Reynaud has produced facsimiles of historically important decks like the Madenié, Burdel and Conver. Now he’s done it again with a recreation of the 1713 Jean-Pierre Payen Tarot, one of the few Tarot de Marseille Type I decks available to purchase. If you’re familiar with any of Reynaud’s decks, the Payen is the same high-quality, limited-edition production housed in a sturdy box. Let’s put this deck in context with the Tarot de Marseille tradition. Read more
As far as I know, there are only a few Besançon-style decks on the market. I’ll start my survey with the most affordable and accessible deck, a re-creation by Evalyne Hall. While translating the writings of Antoine Court de Gebelin and the Comte de Mellet (18th century French authors who were the first to link Tarot and Kaballah), she realized de Mellet used a Besançon deck. Since she didn’t have access to this type of deck, she created her own by lovingly re-drawing historic cards that reside in Paris in the Bibliothèque Nationale. Read more
Tarot Heritage 