Contemplating The Pillars

Another connection between Tarot and Freemasonry

Looking at the Major Arcana as illustrated in the Waite-Smith Tarot we see that a number of cards portray the Pillars.

Perhaps most noticeably, the two Pillars to either side of The High Priestess. On this card the Pillars are denoted as B and J. (And no, I shall make no puns here.)

Waite Smith Tarot, High Priestess, Public Domain Image

Other Major Arcana cards featuring the Pillars include:

The Hierophant

Justice

Death

And The Moon

What story does it tell us if we read these five cards in order? What does it tell us if we read these cards in a shuffled order? Does the fact that five cards have images of the Pillars hold meaning, what are the occult meanings of the number five?

These are, I believe, valuable questions to contemplate.

A.E. Waite was a very active Freemason, and these same Pillars play a role in each of the Degrees of Masonry, most prominently in the Fellowcraft Degree.

They are named Boaz and Jachin.

But there are not two Pillars in Freemasonry’s Fellowcraft Degree. There are three.

Boaz and Jachin are two physical Pillars within the Masonic Lodge. And they are two physical Pillars on the ‘porch’ of the Temple built in Jerusalem by Solomon.

But there aren’t two Pillars. The Pillars are three in number, because the third Pillar is the person passing between Boaz and Jachin. That individual is the third Pillar, making the symbolism complete.

Waite certainly understood that.

So, who is the third pillar in The High Priestess card? The querent, the reader, everything symbolized by The High Priestess? What about The Hierophant, and Justice both of which also have the figure seated between the Pillars?

What about the Pillar symbolism in Death? Where the Pillars are a long distance away, faded into the background, but with the sun rising between them?

And The Moon? Where the Pillars are closer, the moon above them, its light symbolized by Yods falling between them?

Waite and Smith included the Pillars in their Tarot for a reason. To communicate truths to us. They were not simply design choices. The symbolism of these Pillars is, in my view, truly valuable to contemplate.