The High Priestess

The High Priestess of the Incidental Tarot

The High Priestess…one of the most sensuous and feminine of all the trumps of the Tarot.  She is the incarnation of yin energy, consort to the Red King and spiritual mother to the rest of the Major Arcana.  She embodies the quintessential qualities of the water element: emotion, intuition and connection.  Poised to receive, bathed in the light of a full moon and immersed in the ocean, the High Priestess is one with the currents that connect us to the unseen realm, the realm of the magical.  This ability to feel, to see beyond the physical manifestation of energy and to tap into its source is the gift of the High Priestess.  Her feminine beauty is just a visual representation of the depth of her power.

I’ve always aspired to be like the High Priestess.  So elegant, so beautiful, so perfectly in tune with the world around her.  But despite my aspirations, I’ve always felt much more an affinity with the Empress, or Strength or Temperance, also feminine cards, but perhaps earthier, not as delicate or sophisticated as the High Priestess.  I think in some way I felt unworthy of her, too imperfect, too out of touch with what I understood as traditional feminine ideals.

When I was growing up, I never felt like “one of the girls.”  I was clumsy, chubby, awkward and envious.  I eventually found my identity and strength as a woman in unusual—and less socially acceptable ways.  I turned inward and explored things that stimulated my passion for the mysterious.  My earliest memories are colored by ghosts, witches and things that could not be explained.  While this interest of mine did not endear me to my greater circle of femkind as an adolescent (and in, fact branded me more of a misfit in the eyes of my peers) it did set me on the path that ultimately led me here today, creating my own Tarot deck.

What I couldn’t understand at that age, being bombarded by a media culture that elevates perfection, beauty, thinness (and conservative thinking) as the primary virtues of femininity…was that the deepest and most truthful aspect of being a woman has nothing to do with appearance and everything to do with how we relate to the world around us.  It is our nature to interact and respond with emotion, and in a deeper sense react intuitively to the people and circumstances we encounter.  But while we are forced into the physical ideals of femininity, we are lured away from its emotional aspect by society at an early age, our “sensitivity” frowned upon and suppressed.  It’s not generally a blessing to be sensitive in our society, but it is an advantage to be rational, logical and empirical.  Our culture does not value the spiritually inclined child, whether girl or boy.  As a result, children that feel those invisible connections that the High Priestess represents are fretted over and miscast, pushed into mundane roles and careers that do not suit their deepest nature.

The path of the High Priestess is not an easy one.  She is so deeply immersed in the currents of the unseen world, it can be hard for the people in her life to relate to her.  The role of the mystic is largely unsupported in our culture, its attributes looked down upon as hypersensitive, hysterical or even crazy.  Allowing her nature to come forth and flourish in a yang dominated world is challenging, but the power of the High Priestess can actually be cultivated with a small effort: recognition is the key.  Each of us, woman and man, is born with that universal connection the High Priestess embodies.  We can choose to suppress it or nourish it as we see fit, but the source is always there for us to tap into when the need arises.

READING THE HIGH PRIESTESS:  In a reading, the High Priestess indicates a strong connection to the unseen world.  Psychic energy, intuitive counsel, and the ability to see into potentiality are the messages of this card.  The High Priestess tells us to look beneath the surface, to feel the answers to our questions, and to trust our inherently feminine or receptive sense of knowing.  She can see the workings of destiny beyond what a mortal can perceive with purely physical senses.  She is an oracle and an intermediary between the physical and spiritual planes.  Her insight comes not from reaching out for answers, but from opening to the source and allowing its omniscience to flow in and be perceived.

To define the High Priestess in a word: PERCEPTION.

REVERSED.  Clouded judgment, confusion, apprehension of the unseen.  Feeling out of touch, alienated, awkward in your skin.  Unrealistic ideals, self-consciousness, self-doubt.