SkarpChapter 6 of 14
The Major Arcana II: Case Studies in Archetypal Symbolism
Zoom in on a handful of trump cards to dissect how costume, gesture, background, and traditional correspondences generate complex archetypal stories.
From Prediction to Close Reading: How We Will Work With the Trumps
Zooming In on the Majors
You will practice reading Major Arcana cards like a poem or film still: noticing costume, gesture, background, and correspondences to build a layered psychological story.
Our Four Case Studies
We focus on four RWS-based cards: II The High Priestess, V The Hierophant, XIII Death, and XVI The Tower. The symbolic logic will transfer to most other decks.
Correspondence Systems
We will lightly use three systems: astrology (signs/planets), elements (fire, water, air, earth), and Kabbalah (paths/sephiroth) as hints, not rigid rules.
5-Step Method
The method: 1) Describe the image, 2) Notice costume/gesture, 3) Scan background/objects, 4) Overlay correspondences, 5) Translate into growth and shadow dynamics.
The 5-Step Close-Reading Method for Any Trump
Step 1: Neutral Description
Start like a camera: describe only what you see, with no meanings yet. Example: "A seated figure in blue robes between two pillars, holding a scroll."
Step 2: Costume and Gesture
Notice clothing, posture, and hand positions. Armor vs. nudity, sitting vs. falling, open vs. clenched hands all hint at roles and defenses.
Step 3: Background and Objects
Scan environment, symbols, and colors. Are we indoors or outdoors, in water or on land, under a tower or beneath a moon? These set the psychological scene.
Step 4: Overlay Correspondences
Lightly add astrology, elements, and Kabbalah as hints. Ask how a sign or element modifies the card's mood, rather than hunting for a single keyword.
Step 5: Psychological Translation
Finally, translate imagery into growth potentials and shadow expressions: inner capacities, fears, defenses, and developmental tasks.
Case Study 1: The High Priestess (II) – Image to Archetype
High Priestess: Neutral Image
A seated woman in blue and white robes between black and white pillars, with a moon crown, a veiled backdrop with pomegranates, a crescent moon at her feet, and a partly hidden scroll.
Costume and Gesture
Flowing blue-white robes, lunar crown, seated and composed. She hides part of the scroll. This signals receptivity, inner focus, and partially concealed knowledge.
Background and Threshold
Pillars B and J, black and white, with a veiled backdrop. This evokes polarity and a guarded doorway between outer life and the inner sanctuary of the psyche.
Correspondence Hints
Elementally watery, lunar in tone, often linked to Moon or Cancer. She embodies deep, non-verbal knowing, memory, and the unconscious.
Growth and Shadow
Growth: trusting intuition, honoring privacy, tolerating ambiguity. Shadow: secrecy, passive-aggression, overvaluing hunches while ignoring evidence.
Your Turn: Micro-Reading The High Priestess
Apply the 5-step method briefly to The High Priestess, focusing especially on psychological translation.
Activity (3–4 minutes)
- Write one sentence for each of these prompts (you can do this in a notebook or notes app):
- Neutral description: "On this card I literally see..."
- Costume/gesture: "Her clothing and posture suggest..."
- Background/objects: "The pillars, veil, and moon make me feel..."
- Correspondence hint: "If I think of her as watery and lunar, that adds..."
- Psychological reading: "In a person, this might show up as..."
- Now split your psychological reading into two versions:
- Version A (growth): "At their best, this energy helps someone to..."
- Version B (shadow): "When distorted or in fear, this energy becomes..."
- Optional reflection:
- Think of a time in the last year when you felt like The High Priestess.
- Which side were you in more: Version A (growth) or Version B (shadow)? What did that feel like in your body?
Use this same structure for the next cards as we go.
Case Study 2: The Hierophant (V) – Authority, Tradition, and Inner Law
Hierophant: Neutral Image
A robed religious figure sits crowned between pillars, raising a hand in blessing, holding a staff, with two kneeling figures before him and crossed keys on the floor.
Authority and Posture
Ceremonial robes and crown mark institutional power. His elevated seat and blessing gesture signal a teacher or gatekeeper role over the kneeling figures.
Background and Keys
Temple-like interior and crossed keys point to controlled access: who is in or out, who is initiated or uninitiated, who belongs to a tradition.
Correspondence Hints
Often linked to Taurus and an earthy tone: stable values, endurance, and the solid structures of culture, religion, and education.
Growth and Shadow
Growth: mentorship, shared practice, ethical codes. Shadow: rigid conformity, dogmatism, hiding behind rules instead of owning choices.
Quick Check: High Priestess vs. Hierophant
Use this quiz to test your grasp of how these two archetypes differ psychologically.
Which statement best contrasts The High Priestess and The Hierophant in a psychological, depth-oriented reading?
- High Priestess is always positive while Hierophant is always negative.
- High Priestess represents private, intuitive inner law, while Hierophant represents public, institutionalized outer law.
- High Priestess is about romance, while Hierophant is only about work and money.
Show Answer
Answer: B) High Priestess represents private, intuitive inner law, while Hierophant represents public, institutionalized outer law.
The High Priestess is a guardian of inner, intuitive, often hidden knowledge, while The Hierophant embodies outer structures of teaching, tradition, and collective belief. Either card can have positive or negative expressions depending on context.
Case Study 3: Death (XIII) – Transformation, Not Just Ending
Death: Neutral Image
A skeletal rider in black armor on a white horse carries a black banner with a white rose, passing figures on the ground, with a river, boat, and sun between two towers in the background.
Inevitable Movement
The armored skeleton moves steadily forward, impersonal and unstoppable. Other figures plead or collapse, showing different ego reactions to unavoidable change.
Transition Symbols
White horse, rose on black banner, river and boat, and the distant sun all suggest passage, renewal, and the cyclical nature of endings and beginnings.
Correspondence Hints
Often linked to Scorpio and deep water: taboo topics, emotional intensity, and psychological death-rebirth processes.
Growth and Shadow
Growth: conscious letting go, grieving, stepping into a new identity. Shadow: clinging to what is over, self-sabotage, or emotional numbness.
Case Study 4: The Tower (XVI) – Sudden Disruption and Liberation
Tower: Neutral Image
A stone tower on a cliff is struck by lightning. A crown flies off, flames burst from windows, and two figures fall headfirst under a dark, stormy sky.
Falling Figures
Differently dressed figures fall, suggesting that crisis ignores status. Their inverted bodies signal loss of control and a forced shift in perspective.
Symbols of Breakdown
The tower is a rigid ego structure; the blown-off crown hints at deflated arrogance; lightning is a shocking truth; fire burns away what cannot last.
Correspondence Hints
Often linked to Mars or, in modern readings, Uranus: fiery, electrical disruption, accidents, and revolutions in thought or circumstance.
Growth and Shadow
Growth: awakening, liberation from false structures, humility. Shadow: constant drama, collapse into despair, rebuilding the same fragile tower.
Shadow Work Exercise: Reversals as Psychological Signals
Many readers use reversals (cards appearing upside down) to highlight shadow expressions or internalized dynamics. You can adapt this idea even if you do not read reversals literally.
Activity (4–5 minutes)
For each of the four cards, answer these prompts in your notes. Imagine the card "reversed" as: energy turned inward, blocked, or distorted.
- High Priestess reversed
- How might intuition become anxiety or suspicion?
- What does emotional secrecy look like in daily life (e.g., texting, social media, group chats)?
- Hierophant reversed
- When does healthy tradition become oppressive dogma in families, universities, or online communities?
- Write one sentence that starts: "A part of me says I must always..." and notice whose voice that is.
- Death reversed
- Identify one area of your life where something is clearly over, but you are still holding on.
- What small, concrete action would symbolize letting go (cleaning a folder, having a conversation, changing a routine)?
- Tower reversed
- Do you tend to avoid change until it becomes a crisis, or do you unconsciously create crises?
- Describe a time when a "small planned change" could have prevented a big blow-up.
You do not need to share these answers. The goal is to feel how shadow expressions are not abstract; they show up in emails, deadlines, relationships, and self-talk.
Key Terms and Archetypes Review
Use these flashcards to reinforce core ideas and vocabulary from this module.
- 5-step close-reading method (for any Major Arcana card)
- 1) Neutral description, 2) Costume/gesture/posture, 3) Background and objects, 4) Overlay correspondences (astrology, elements, Kabbalah), 5) Psychological translation (growth and shadow).
- Archetype
- A recurring pattern or image (such as a wise teacher, trickster, or death-rebirth process) that appears across myths, dreams, and stories, reflecting deep structures of the human psyche.
- High Priestess – core psychological theme
- Inner, intuitive knowing and the boundary between conscious and unconscious; growth in trusting inner guidance vs. shadow secrecy and passive-aggression.
- Hierophant – core psychological theme
- Outer authority, tradition, and shared belief systems; growth in mentorship and ethical structure vs. shadow conformity and dogmatism.
- Death (XIII) – core psychological theme
- Irreversible transformation and endings that make way for new life; growth in conscious letting go vs. shadow clinging, self-sabotage, or emotional numbness.
- The Tower (XVI) – core psychological theme
- Sudden disruption and collapse of rigid structures; growth in awakening and humility vs. shadow of chronic crisis or total despair.
- Shadow expression
- A distorted, repressed, or defensive manifestation of an archetypal energy; often shows up as overcompensation, denial, or acting out.
- Reversal (in psychological tarot)
- Often read as the card's energy turned inward, blocked, or in shadow; can indicate internalization, delay, or distortion rather than a simple opposite meaning.
Key Terms
- Shadow
- In Jungian and depth psychology, the aspects of ourselves that are denied, repressed, or disowned; in tarot, the more problematic or distorted expressions of an archetype.
- Reversal
- A tarot card appearing upside down in a spread; many modern readers treat this as indicating blocked, internalized, or shadow aspects of the card's energy.
- Archetype
- A recurring pattern or image found across myths, stories, and dreams that reflects a fundamental structure of the human psyche, such as the Mother, Hero, or Trickster.
- Major Arcana
- The 22 trump cards in a tarot deck, numbered 0–21, representing large-scale archetypal themes and life processes.
- Correspondence
- A traditional symbolic link between tarot cards and systems like astrology, the four elements, or Kabbalah, used to deepen interpretation.
- Threshold figure
- An archetype that stands at a symbolic doorway between states or worlds (for example, conscious and unconscious), such as The High Priestess.
- Element (in tarot)
- One of four symbolic qualities: fire (will, energy), water (emotion, intuition), air (thought, communication), earth (body, materiality).
- Psychological tarot
- An approach that interprets tarot cards as mirrors of inner dynamics, complexes, and developmental tasks rather than as fixed predictions of external events.
- Kabbalah (high level)
- A Jewish mystical tradition later adapted in Western esoteric systems; tarot is sometimes mapped onto its Tree of Life as paths between sephiroth (spheres of divine qualities).
- Tradition (in Hierophant context)
- Shared beliefs, rituals, and norms transmitted through institutions like family, religion, education, or culture, which can support or constrain individual development.