The Cloisters

The first original tarot card Ann Stilwell discovers, the one that launches her onto a new stage in her journey, features Diana, Roman goddess of the hunt. The novel relates Diana to the Popess card, also known as the High Priestess. In tarot, this card is associated with divine wisdom, intuition, and female leadership. Its appearance and prevalence in Ann’s life symbolizes her shift toward knowledge and intuition, and her ultimate step in taking control of her own life. Later, the card becomes the key that unlocks the constructed language of the cards: “But translations without a key were impossible. The card, I realized, was that key—an image of Diana as the huntress, and the word, spelled out in the same strange way, was something we could use” (144).

Diana was the Roman equivalent of the Greek goddess Artemis. Both women were symbols of power, the natural world, and chastity. Their chastity was not enforced or embraced as a demonstration of subservience; rather, the goddesses adopted chastity as a sign of independence and agency.

Prior to discovering this, Ann had been fairly passive, working to maintain her position and allowing events to happen around her. From this point forward, she begins making choices that shape her own fate.