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I was late to the party with Severance, but once I started watching, I was in deep. It’s one of those shows that creeps into your brain and refuses to leave. What got me obsessed – beyond the weird culty workplace vibes and that killer season one finale – was the dynamic between Helena and Helly. And with season two’s finale airing today, it feels like the perfect time to talk about them. The contrast between them is so sharp, so philosophical, that I couldn’t stop thinking about it. And as a tarot reader, my brain immediately went: Hierophant vs. High Priestess.
Those two cards represent totally different kinds of knowing. The Hierophant is all about outer knowledge – the rules, the structures, the traditions we inherit or are taught. The High Priestess is the opposite. They’re about what you know in your bones. That gut-deep, wordless kind of truth that nobody gives you because it’s already inside you.
In this post, I’m diving into how Severance Helena and Helly reflect these tarot archetypes, what that can tell us about our own relationship with knowing, and why both of these energies matter – especially when they clash.
What Is Severance?
What Are Innies and Outies?
The basic premise of Severance is fucking wild. Employees at Lumen Industries undergo a surgical procedure that splits their consciousness in two. Their “innie” only exists at work and remembers nothing of their outside life. Their “outie” lives their life normally and has no idea what their innie is doing on the job. It’s marketed as a work-life balance miracle, but let’s be real – it’s straight-up dystopian.
This severing creates a deep split between external and internal control. Outies make the decisions, hold the power, and usually buy into the system. Innies are trapped in a loop of fluorescent-lit labour, totally disempowered but slowly waking up to the injustice of it all. That tension between the inner and the outer – the personal and the institutional – is where the tarot stuff gets juicy.
Who Are Helena and Helly?
Helena Eagan is Lumen royalty. She’s the granddaughter of Kier Eagan, the founder of the company, and fully believes in the mission. She volunteers to be severed as a kind of PR stunt, to show the world how devoted she is to the cause. For Helena, Lumen isn’t just a job or a company. It’s a belief system, a tradition, a sacred order.
Her innie, Helly Riggs, is another story. From the moment they wake up, Helly is resistant. Angry. Refusing to conform. They don’t accept this imposed life and don’t care about Lumen’s supposed greater purpose. Their journey is one of rebellion, of waking up to injustice, and of trusting their own sense of truth – even when it’s dangerous.
This isn’t just a character split. It’s a full-on symbolic clash between the Hierophant and the High Priestess.
The Tarot Archetypes: The Hierophant vs. the High Priestess
If you’re not familiar with tarot, it’s essentially a deck of 78 symbolic cards used as a tool for reflection, insight, and self-discovery. Each card holds layered meanings that speak to different aspects of our lives – emotions, experiences, patterns, choices. It’s not about predicting the future or reading fate. It’s about tuning in to where you are right now, what’s going on beneath the surface, and how you might want to move forward. If you want to go deeper into what tarot is and how I use it in my practice, I’ve written a full breakdown here.
The Hierophant Tarot Meaning
The Hierophant is the teacher, the gatekeeper, the priest. They represent knowledge that comes from outside yourself – religion, education, social norms, rules passed down through generations. When this card shows up in a reading, it can point to guidance, structure, or a need to reconnect with tradition.
But it can also be a warning. The Hierophant in shadow is dogma. It’s following the rules without questioning them. It’s doing what you’re told even if your gut says something’s off.
The High Priestess Tarot Meaning
The High Priestess sits between the pillars of shadow and light. They don’t speak truth – they hold it. Their energy is quiet, deep, mysterious. They’re the part of you that just knows. When this card shows up, it’s a call to go inward, to trust your intuition, to listen to what’s not being said.
The High Priestess isn’t loud, but they’re not passive. They watch. They wait. And then they act when it matters most.
How Helena Embodies the Hierophant
Born Into the System: Power and Privilege
Helena isn’t just part of Lumen – she is Lumen. She’s grown up inside the institution. She believes in it completely because it’s all she’s ever known. The Hierophant archetype isn’t just about teaching the rules – it’s about embodying them so deeply that you stop seeing the cracks.
Her status gives her power. She’s not subject to the same risks or punishments as the average innie. She volunteers for severance not to explore or question the system but to prove her loyalty to it. That’s Hierophant energy – devotion to an institution, no matter the cost.
Blind Faith in the Institution
Helena doesn’t question. When her innie begs for freedom, she shuts her down cold. There’s no room for dialogue, no empathy, no curiosity. That’s the shadow side of the Hierophant – structure without soul, tradition without reflection.
Even when the evidence mounts that something’s not right, Helena doubles down. She plays the game harder. In her eyes, the system can’t be wrong – the people challenging it must be.
Manipulation and Control
The Hierophant can be a spiritual guide, but in its distorted form, it becomes a manipulator of truth. That’s exactly what Helena does. She watches footage of her innie, mimics her tone and body language, and uses that to manipulate others.
She weaponises her knowledge of the system to stay in control. She doesn’t just follow the rules – she bends them to her advantage. And all of it is justified in her mind because she believes she’s protecting something sacred.
That’s how the Hierophant keeps power – by deciding who gets to define the truth.
How Helly Embodies the High Priestess
Intuition Over Obedience
From the moment Helly wakes up on the severed floor, something in her says, “Nope.” She doesn’t have the context, she doesn’t have the facts, but she knows in her gut that something is wrong. That’s High Priestess energy in full force. The High Priestess doesn’t need everything laid out in black and white. They tune into what’s beneath the surface: the vibe, the energy, the things people aren’t saying.
Where the Hierophant demands structure, the High Priestess trusts instinct. Helly doesn’t wait for someone to give her permission to resist. She doesn’t need someone in authority to validate her discomfort. Her resistance is raw, emotional, and completely grounded in her inner knowing.
Seeking Hidden Truths
The High Priestess isn’t just intuitive. They’re also the seeker of what’s hidden. They know there’s more going on behind the curtain, and they want to find it. Helly embodies this perfectly. She starts digging as soon as she can. She tests boundaries, challenges rules, and tries to figure out what the hell this place really is.
Unlike Helena, who sees the system as sacred, Helly doesn’t give a shit about its rituals or rules. She’s not interested in the story Lumen tells about itself. She wants the truth. And not the corporate PR truth. The real, messy, dangerous truth that they’ve buried under layers of loyalty oaths and waffle parties.
Speaking What Others Stay Silent About
The High Priestess is usually quiet, but when they speak, it cuts deep. They hold powerful truth, and when that truth is finally spoken, it disrupts everything. Helly lives that out in the season one finale. While everyone else is still playing it safe or trying to figure things out, she seizes her moment and tells the world what’s happening inside Lumen.
It’s bold. It’s terrifying. It doesn’t fix everything, but it shakes the whole system. That’s what the High Priestess does. They don’t just whisper truth to themselves. When the time is right, they tear through illusions and show people what’s really going on.
The Shadow Side of the High Priestess
Helly is powerful, but she’s also vulnerable. The High Priestess can sometimes retreat so far inward that they lose connection. They can become guarded, isolated, even suspicious of people who genuinely want to help. Helly isn’t perfect. Her instincts are strong, but they sometimes lead her to shut people out or take dangerous risks.
The lesson here isn’t that inner knowing is always right. It’s that trusting your gut is essential, but it has to be balanced with support, strategy, and sometimes a bit of structure. The High Priestess isn’t infallible. But they are necessary, especially in a world that punishes truth and rewards obedience.
When Archetypes Collide: The Finale Showdown
Two Selves, One Truth
The season one finale is where things properly kick off. It’s the moment we see Helly and Helena clash on screen for the first time, kind of. It’s a collision of archetypes. On one side, we’ve got the High Priestess pushing truth into the open. On the other, the Hierophant clinging desperately to the system that gave them power.
Helly’s speech doesn’t just expose Lumen. It exposes the lie at the heart of the institution. She’s not just speaking for herself. She’s breaking the sacred silence that holds the whole machine together. Helena’s response is dismissive and cold. Hierophant energy tries to shut the gate tighter rather than let the truth spill out.
Systemic Power Doesn’t Fall Easily
Even though Helly acts on their truth, the system doesn’t collapse overnight. This is important. The High Priestess reveals, but it’s the world’s response to that truth that decides what happens next. The Hierophant doesn’t let go easily. They double down. And Helena, with all her power and status, is in prime position to do that.
Truth without strategy is risky. It leaves you exposed. Helly’s bravery is crucial, but it also shows how vulnerable that High Priestess energy can be when it doesn’t have support. The system is built to crush that kind of knowing. But it doesn’t mean it’s not worth saying.
What This Teaches Us About the Hierophant and High Priestess
Neither One Is the Villain
It’s easy to love the High Priestess and hate the Hierophant. But in a healthy balance, both have their place. We need structure. We need tradition. But we also need intuition. We need mystery. When either is out of balance, we lose something important.
Helena is a warning about what happens when we give our power away to external structures. Helly is a warning about what happens when we try to burn it all down without a plan. They both show us where these archetypes can go off course.
Every One of Us Holds Both
We all have a bit of Helena and Helly inside us. Times when we follow the rules just because they’re the rules. Times when we trust our gut so hard we forget to check the facts. Neither is wrong. But the magic happens when we learn to hold both.
When these cards come up in a reading, whether together or on their own, I’m always thinking about this tension. Where are you getting your knowledge from? Are you ignoring your intuition? Or are you rejecting wisdom just because it comes from outside you?
Tarot as a Mirror
Tarot doesn’t give you answers. It helps you ask better questions. And this story? It’s full of good ones. What systems are you part of? Which ones are you challenging? Where do you need to trust yourself more? And where might a bit of structure actually support your truth?
The Hierophant and High Priestess aren’t enemies. They’re partners in tension. And Severance nails that tension better than anything I’ve seen in ages.
Closing Thoughts
I could honestly talk about Severance for hours. It’s just so rich with meaning, power, and symbolism. And the way Helena and Helly reflect the Hierophant and High Priestess has stuck with me ever since I first watched that finale. If you’re navigating a moment in your life where you’re trying to figure out what to trust—your gut, the rules, the advice you’ve been given—maybe these cards can help you get a bit clearer on where you’re at.
If you want to explore that tension in your own life, I offer tarot readings that dive deep into these exact kinds of questions. Click here to book a reading. if you want to chat more about any of this. I’d love to hear your thoughts on Severance, on tarot, or on how you’re learning to balance the inner voice and the outer world.
Because at the end of the day, that’s what it’s all about: listening to yourself, noticing the systems you’re caught in, and deciding how you want to move forward.
