The High Priestess

Josipa

Have a question about the letters on the pillars on the High Priestess card.
What do they stand for?
 

Rosanne

Hi Josipa -The B and the J on the High Priestess stand for Boaz and Jakin, the names of the pillars on the entrance to Solomon's Temple in Jerusalem. ~Rosanne
 

Ross G Caldwell

Hi Josipa,

Josipa said:
Have a question about the letters on the pillars on the High Priestess card.
What do they stand for?

As Rosanne noted, B stands for Boaz and J for Jachin. These are Hebrew words from the Biblical account of Solomon's Temple, recounted in I Kings 7: 15-22 and 2 Chronicles 3: 15-17. The two names mean -

Boaz - He comes with power.
Jachin - God establishes.

The two pillars are important symbols in freemasonry, in the symbolism of which Waite was an expert. See for example
http://www.freemasons-freemasonry.com/larsonwilliam.html
(and type in +jachin +boaz +temple +masonic +waite +tarot in Google for countless others)

See also Bob O'Neill's sources of the Waite-Smith images
http://www.tarotpassages.com/old_moonstruck/oneill/2.htm

The account in 1 Kings 7:21 reads : "He set up the pillars in the porch of the temple; and he set up the right pillar, and called the name thereof Jachin; and he set up the left pillar, and called the name thereof Boaz." (King James Version)
 

Fulgour

I have asked my mind to ignore the B & J and
it does, they are almost invisible to me now...

This is a little something WAITE had done at
the printer's ~ you can tell by the letter style
it is not the script we know as Pamela's own.

Probably some handy guy with a brush dabbed
them on for a few pence extra at Rider & Co.
 

Josipa

Thank you for the input. I'll check out the links!