Tuesday, December 17, 2019

More Tarot-relevant art from York Minster

From Joseph Halfpenny's Gothic Ornament: Architectural Motifs from York Cathedral (1795).

This is, I suppose, an abbess, but her crozier might easily cause her to be mistaken for a female bishop, and her crown (unusual but not unheard-of for an abbess) is something one associates with the papacy. She is also holding a book, as is the Female Pope of the Tarot.



These two depictions of Samson show that holding a lion's jaws open (as in the Strength card of the Tarot) was standard symbolic shorthand for victory over that beast.



Update: An anonymous commenter has informed me that the Papess-like figure is St. Etheldreda of Ely, who was both an abbess and a queen.

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Divinatory bull's-eye: It's 2019 all over again in China

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