The Tarot of Marseille the Nan Yar Who Am I cards are based on, depicts card number V as The Pope.
Seeing the Marseille Tarot came into the world at the end of medieval times, when the pope in Western Culture had been regarded as the representative of God on earth for more than a thousand years, the interpretation of this Archetype as the spiritual aspect of life on earth makes sense.
As the interpretation of the Tarot changes throughout the ages; depending on the stage a culture is in and many other religious beliefs have found their way into the western world, we can nowadays see card number V: The Pope, as a representative of a more widely ranged set of spiritual components embedded in the way we look at life on the western material plane.
For some this will imply they begin to acknowledge a divine presence within themselves, while others will refer to the belief system they recognise themselves in, whether that’s Buddhism, Hinduism, Paganism, Humanism, Gnosticism or any other belief system that represents the way one thinks and feels about the existial basics of life..
When this card comes your way, you might want to contemplate on questions outside the logistics of life, such as : Why Am I here? What is my purpose in life? What gives my life meaning? Or the biggest biggie of the Western World since the first recorded ‘Know Thyself ‘ inscription on the temple of Apollo in ancient Delphi, indicated people started to wonder about themselves: Who am I?
And of course…what better place to explore ones spiritual components than in ones dreamworld?
V: The Pope, is the 5th card of the 22 Archetypes of the Major Arcana, also known as the Bigger Secret. These 22 cards are divided in a so called Nil-card – without a number – and 3 rows of 7 cards. In total this makes 22 cards of which 21 are divided in 3 layers:
- The first row of 7 , cards I – VII characterises the life traveller on the Material World.
- The second row of 7 cards VIII- XIV characterises the Soul Journey of the life traveller
- The third row of 7 cards reflect the Spiritual Facets the life traveller is gifted at the birth and remain part of the Eternal Journey – including the present life on earth, regardless whether the life traveller is aware of this.
Looking at these 3 categories, the archetype of the Pope, the 5th card (out of 7) characterises the life traveller in the material world.
to read more on how to practice the winter solstice contemplation ritual click here.
Click on The Pope to read more on its meaning
On the right side of this blog you can also draw your own card and see what it summons up from within.
