About Tarot

Chapter 5: Empress and Papess

The Empress and Papess are the brides of the Emperor and Pope. There are treated together because they complete the quartet of secular/religious, male/female and must be interpreted in this light. Examples of persons who were Empresses occur in the Inferno (5:52-54), Purgatorio (3:115) and Paradisio (3:118). However, Dante seems less interested in the Empress as a real person than as an allegorical symbol. In hell, the female ruler is Hecate (Inferno 10:79). In the Purgatorio, Beatrice sometimes appears in this role (see the crowned figure in Figure 39).

But the true Empress is Mary, Queen of Heaven (Paradisio 31:115-116). Since Mary was crowned by God and God is referred to as the Emperor (Inferno 1:124) then Mary is logically the Empress and the distaff partner of the celibate Christ. In Figure 12 we see her enthroned in a 14^th century manuscript of the Commedia.

In contrast to the Empress, there are no examples of Papesses in the Commedia. It appears that Dante didn't give credence to the legend of Pope Joan. Given his frequent gibes at the papacy, he might have used Pope Joan if the story was as widespread as some have hypothesized. Or perhaps he simply dismissed it as foolishness.

To understand the allegorical meaning that the Papess might have had for Dante, one must consider who would have been the logical distaff partner of the Pope. Inferno 19:57 refers to the Church as the lovely lady. Paradisio 10:140 and 11:31 refer to the Church as the Bride of God. So it would seem that the logical partner for the celibate Pope would be an allegorical representation of the Church. The Pope is often referred to as being married to the Church. But, as with the Fool, the Papess does not appear explicitly in the Commedia and her identification as the Church must remain as speculation.