Barbara Walker Tarot - 5: The Pope

With tiara, gloves, and a papal staff, the Pope sits between two pillars that support air, a tiny devil peeking around one of them. Two acolytes kneel at his feet, corresponding to two devotees on the matching Devil card. As a holy man, the tarot’s Pope is identified as much with a pagan high priest, a hierophant, the Mithraic Pater Patri, or even the phallic father-god of Rome, as with the Christian pontiff. His card means spiritual authority, moral law, or political power plays; perhaps excessive rigidity or intolerance verging on fanaticism.