The High Priestess

She sits between two pillars, one dark and one light, a crescent moon at her feet and a scroll marked TORA half-hidden in her lap. Behind her hangs a veil of pomegranates and palms, screening the water beyond. Pamela Colman Smith drew her in 1909 as a figure of held silence — the card of what is known but not spoken. Smith completed the full seventy-eight in a matter of months, paid a flat fee, and left uncredited for the better part of a century. This house restores her name. Her 'PCS' monogram sits quietly in the lower corner, as it does on every plate she made.

Maker

Pamela Colman Smith, for A. E. Waite

Date

1909

Medium of the original

Plate

Original held by

Published London, 1909 · scan: Wikimedia Commons

Credit

Published London, 1909 · scan: Wikimedia Commons

Rights

Public domain, verified

Catalogue number

PA-00429