AUTHOR’S NOTE: The High Priestess, the second “numbered” trump card of the tarot, is typically regarded as a guardian of secrets both cosmic and mundane. When she appears in a reading, something about the matter is not yet known, and perhaps the querent isn’t prepared to receive the revelation or is being kept in the dark for good reason. Reversal would bury the awareness even deeper.

This card is a key player in my personal view of “how tarot works” because the Priestess is the keeper of the scroll of the Mysteries sometimes described as the “Akashic Record” of everything that was, is and will be in the Universe, and our subconscious mind attempts to penetrate that chronicle by tapping into the Collective Unconscious when we perform divination. (This is an act of “channeling” at a more exalted level than that accessed by psychic mediums.)

In my system of numerological counterparts, the Priestess is not alone in discharging her responsibility and is assisted by the rest of the “2” trumps. The “posse” of the title includes Justice, Trump #11 of the Waite-Smith deck (1+1=2), and Judgement, Trump #20 (2+0=2). If we were writing a murder mystery, the agents of the Priestess would piece together the shadowy evidence leading to an arrest, Justice would adjudicate the testimony and Judgement would render the verdict.

The Twos of the Minor Arcana – all of which embody some kind of binary choice – also take on a role in this drama. In esoteric number theory, the number Two represents the “Line” that enables movement between one point and another, thus providing a path by which a destination (as well as a decision) can be reached. The 2 of Cups, representing one aspect of Cancer, is related to the High Priestess due to the latter’s correspondence to the Moon, ruling planet of Cancer. The 2 of Swords, exemplifying Air as the element of rational deliberation, can be connected to Justice and its association with Libra. The 2 of Wands, conveying the dominion of authoritarian rule in Aries, aligns well with the Fire of Judgement.

By a further stretch of the imagination, I see the Queen of Cups, also signifying Cancer, as the “little sister” of the High Priestess and therefore her understudy. The judgemental Queen of Swords, with her Libra placement, exhibits a degree of integrity second only to that of the Lady of Justice, while the imperious Queen of Wands is linked to Aries and might be construed as the “handmaiden of Judgement,” or maybe “prosecutor in the Court of Last Resort” is a better analogy.

Since the Pages (Thoth Princesses) are the eleventh card of their suit, we could numerologically condense 11 into 2 (1+1=2) and throw them into the mix. It should be noted that the 2 of Pentacles and Queen of Pentacle fall outside of this model simply because there is no obvious elemental correlation; theoretically they could be included as “bridging” factors between the prosaic affairs of Judgment and those of the World..

The pattern looks like this: