Wisdom archetypal image (Tarot)

The encounter of the psyche with the image of an august, imposing, feminine personage, "larger than life", is one of the most universal of the archetypes that humanity expresses in numerous ways. In the Western classical world she was embodied in many deities and so also in the East. In Hellenistic Judaism her archetypal presence was expressly indicated as being symbolic of wisdom. Being of Kether, she reaches above the abyss, pure and virginal. Among the Tarot emblems she is number 2; she precedes her representative on earth, the empress, and comes before the emperor and the Pope as well. However the latter emblem, called also, the Hierophant, may be encountered as an archetype in conjunction with that of wisdom, as the Tarot suggests.

Her Kabbalist path is represented as lying between the sephiroth of the crown (Kether) and beauty (Tiphareth).