The crown of twelve stars
The Empress wears a crown of twelve stars and the High Priestess has a crescent moon at her feet. Both come from one verse of Revelation: a woman clothed with the sun, the moon under her feet, a crown of twelve stars on her head.
In the tradition
Revelation 12 opens with "a great wonder in heaven", a woman clothed with the sun, standing on the moon and crowned with twelve stars. Christian art has long read her as Mary, and painters of the Immaculate Conception gave Mary the same moon and stars.
Waite names the verse on the Empress, calling her the woman clothed with the sun. On the cards the image is shared between two women: the stars crown the Empress, and the moon lies at the Priestess’s feet.
Sources
- A. E. Waite, The Pictorial Key to the Tarot (1910). Waite's own guide to the deck he designed with Pamela Colman Smith, with each card's divinatory meanings.
- Various, The Bible (King James Version 1611; the Latin Vulgate, 4th century). The source of much of the Temple, Eden and Revelation imagery in the Rider-Waite-Smith deck.
Updated October 9, 2026.
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