Four of pentacles and the high priestess

Laurelle said:

hmmm...you are being very secretive (HP) and not telling us what the action is about. lol.

I would say just from a glance at those two cards that someone is being secretive, jealous, not letting go, hoarding.

The HP is all about being ultra quiet and secretive. Those two cards actually have more in common than you would think upon first inspection. Both hoard thing. Both hold on tightly. Both are non-action cards.

Both are kind of telling you to wait. These are NOT action cards.

The Emperor (key 4) represents stability, but that doesn't mean that just because the 4 of pentacles is also a 4 that this card represents stability. Remember, the Emperor can also be tyrannical, rigid. The person in the 4 of pentacles also has a tendency not to think clearly with their heart. If they did, they would share, but they hold on, due to a block of emotions.

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And this person is withholding at the expense of someone else.
Thanks

What if he is protecting himself? (4 pents)
what if he sees her as HP with some hidden tallent. What if he is afraid of her abilities? Maybe she doest but in his head? You know that sarcastic sentence "are you reading my mind?"

Thirteen said:

I know that when the card is called the Papess in certain decks it does refer to this apocryphal tale. And, obviously, if this tale strikes you it strikes you. As you've brought it up, however, I have to say that it's always troubled me rather than inspired me as a model for the HPS.

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The Catholic Church is *very* good at keeping records. There's a paper-trail back almost to Peter, even during the time of the schisms. The story was exactly that - a story or more accurately, a teaching-parable. The fact that the all-male Popes have to bare their genitals to the cardinals before ordination is about honouring that teaching (which I don't quite understand and thus won't explain).

If you're looking for a model, why not Manfreda Visconti? The ancestor of the Visconti family who commissioned the earliest surviving decks, she was the mother and aunt of a powerful Papal line over the generations. She was also a Cathar, a member of a heretical sect that believed women could actually think, be spiritual and assume leadership roles, and was their Pope-elect, from what I've read. Invited to the Vatican for discussions, she was instead butchered in the forecourt for the heresy of wanting to be clergy. I believe the pregnant woman on the Chariot of the Visconti decks was also a portrait of her going in hopefulness to the Vatican - the pregnancy not necessarily literal, but symbolising that she already had children.