Two cards in conversation
The High Priestess + The Hierophant
People often bring two cards with a question about what will happen. Olivia reads a pair as a conversation instead: what each card brings, and what appears between them.
The High Priestess: the full card ↗The Hierophant: the full card ↗
What links them
- Both Major Arcana
Carved on both cards
- The horned crown and gold disc · The three-tiered crown
- The dark pillar · Two lapis pillars
Five ways to read this pair
Try one lens at a time. Write a sentence for each before you read anyone else’s version.
Story
Read The High Priestess first, then The Hierophant, as two scenes of one story. What changes between them?
Contrast
Where do The High Priestess and The Hierophant pull in different directions, and what does each ask of you?
One colours the other
Let The Hierophant describe the way of The High Priestess, as an adjective describes a noun. Then swap them.
A shared symbol
The same symbol is carved on both: “The horned crown and gold disc” and “The three-tiered crown”; “The dark pillar” and “Two lapis pillars”. Follow it from one image to the other: what stays the same, what changes?
Number, suit and element
Two Major Arcana: two large themes side by side. Which one is the ground, and which the movement?
One reader’s version
The High Priestess and the Hierophant both sit between two pillars, and their Marseille names, Popess and Pope, make them a pair. Together they draw attention to inner knowing and outer teaching, and to how each can test and deepen the other.
The High Priestess also sits between two pillars, a scroll half-hidden at the side. Together the two cards draw attention to two kinds of knowing: the private, intuitive kind and the kind that is spoken, taught and shared. Each keeps the other honest.