A closer look…
True to his name, The High Priest resonates authority and the garb of one who is the leader of a spiritual order. In Tarot, his spiritual order is an all encompassing one, embracing aspects of all beliefs that seek to do good. In the ‘Old Path’ deck, this particular High Priest is likely to represent some Pagan Order.
He completes the balance of the four ruling cards in the Major Arcana of this deck. Place the High Priestess, The Empress, The Emperor and The High Priest in line and you can see this balance. All are depicted outside, all in tune with nature. By naming him The High Priest in this deck, he is in perfect balance with The High Priestess; neither title suggests a higher ranking than the other. Our instant reaction maybe to assume that a Priest is higher than a Priestess, but this is only a society induced perception, and the inner workings of Tarot never conform to such things, even if the direct images of some decks would sometimes suggest otherwise on the face of it. The four cards together represent the balance of the masculine and feminine traits of humanity (traits that cross both sex and gender and reside in both men and women).
Together they celebrate the skills, intellect, and strength of humanity in equal measure. Other cards, such as The Lone Man, The Guide, and Temptation represent vulnerabilities.
If we look at the symbolism displayed upon this card we can begin to learn a little more of its visual meaning. First let us look at the ‘hand blessing’. What an amazing Tarot image this is! Amazing because it crosses all the major decks. It has transcended Tarot from its earliest origins through to present day. Look at early 15th Century Visconti decks and 16th Century Marseilles decks, and, as often as not, the same hand blessing appears. It is still commonly appearing in the 19th Century, as demonstrated by the Italian Gumppenberg deck of 1810 among others, and its place in Tarot is then secured for at least the next two centuries by its appearance in The Rider Waite/Smith and Crowley Thoth Deck.
But what does it mean? As far as I know, it simply symbolises a ritual blessing, which can sometimes mean or confirm initiation in to an order, sect, or religion. Perhaps the High Priest is initiating us into the Tarot.
“and with his right hand he gives the well-known ecclesiastical sign which is called that of esotericism, distinguishing between the manifest and concealed part of doctrine.”
The Pictorial Key to the Tarot by A.E. Waite (1910)
The symbol of the crescent moon is an unusual one for this card. It is generally more symbolic of female intuition and more commonly appears on The High Priestess card (which indeed it also does in this deck). In particular is appears in this upside down form in the Rider Waite/Smith, Crowley Thoth and, more recently the Morgan Greer Deck. I am not sure whether an upside down crescent has a different meaning from an upright one. However, the meaning I get from it appearing on The High Priest Card, is yet again one of balance, reminding us that men and women share both masculine and feminine traits. While The High Priest gains his knowledge more typically from applied study, than that of the inner knowledge possessed by The High Priestess, he too may be influenced, under the crescent feminine symbol of personality, by the inner teachings of the subconscious mind.
The bull, I know, represents the Astrological sign of the Taurus, which I am reliably informed governs this card; though, as I know nothing of astrology, I cannot expand further upon this. And the elephant (which may have been influenced by The Crowley Thoth deck, in which it also appears on this card) suggests strength, loyalty and a good memory for facts and figures to me; well they say an elephant never forgets! An Eagle is an extremely powerful bird and I dare say this is one of the things it stands for. The herb leaf… well I’m sure Silverlotus will come to the rescue on that one!