Haindl Tarot
II - The High Priestess
HEBREW LETTER: GIMEL "CAMEL"
RUNE: UR, "AUROCHS" OR "RAIN"
ASTROLOGY: THE MOON
ELEMENT: WATER
In occult tradition the number two signifies the female principle. Just as one is phallic, so two, or II, suggests the vaginal lips. Does this mean the Priestess is simply a sexual or fertility symbol? Absolutely not. The term "priestess" implies spiritual leadership, one who initiates others or leads the way. The card originally showed a "female pope," a figure either heretical or satirical. Over the centuries the image, and the character, have evolved into one of the Tarot's deepest symbols. More than someone who simply leads rituals, the High Priestess is keeper of the mysteries of life itself. Through her, we look deeply into the wonder of existence.
The Hebrew letter for this card, Gimel, means "camel," the animal seen crouched at the woman's legs. A symbol for timelessness and patience, the camel carries its own liquid as it crosses the desert, linking the elements Water and Earth. But this camel is filled with light that radiates upward and reminds us of the truth found in animal instincts. The camel looks away, into the past. The images and myths implied in this card belong to humanity's most ancient memories. The spiritual tradition of the Tarot is like the camel's water: It sustains us on our journey through good "fertile" times and in "desert" times of hardship and pain.
The Rune, Ur, or U, means either "Aurochs," a prehistoric European bison, or else "Rain," an image seen in the card. As the bison, the Rune connects to the Norse creation myths of a primordial cow that licked a block of icy salt into the shape of Buri, an androgynous being (like the Fool). The Rune, therefore, symbolizes the power to give form to basic energy. Like the camel, the Aurochs is a very ancient animal, one of the first that humans cultivated.
The German word Ur means "before all," the original pattern. The ur-mutter is the Great Mother, source of life. The ancient Egyptian Goddess Nut is an ur-mother. She is usually pictured as arching over the Earth, her body forming a shape similar to the Rune (see also the Mother of Swords and the glyph for Leo, in Strength). Some other ur terms are ur-quell, the source of existence, and ur-licht, the first light at the beginning of the world. This is the light we see in the card. The High Priestess looks at it with wonder and awe.
Earlier we described as the principle of light, and the High Priestess as darkness. Why then do we find dark matter in the Magician and light in the Priestess? From the Magician we learn that the pure light of being continuously enters physical matter; the High Priestess teaches that we discover the light of Spirit when we look inward, into darkness.
The Rune also means the mythical lands of Ur, Thule or Avalon. An island inaccessible to ordinary ships (everyday consciousness), Avalon is a place of everlasting life. When King Arthur lay wounded, after the Grail had left his kingdom, he instructed his servant to throw the king's sword into a lake. This action can symbolize surrendering the ego, for the sword symbolizes the mind. As soon as the servant had done this, a boat appeared with three women to take Arthur to Avalon. We will see in a moment that the three women were really one, the Triple Goddess of the Moon.
The astrological planet for the High Priestess is the Moon. The element is Water. We will look at the associations for both of these.
Traditionally this card shows a female pope, or, in some modern decks, a priestess of Isis, the Egyptian Goddess who brought civilization to humanity. The Haindl Tarot presents us with an image of the Goddess herself, who appears in the natural world as the Moon, the seas, the night, and the Earth. We see her as a transfigured woman with a sphere floating before her. Light rises up from the camel crouched at her feet, radiates from her palms, and pours down from a globe above her head. Along with light, water suffuses the scene. It fills the air with mist and bubbles. Her dress seems to pour down like rain on the camel and the dark land below. Rivers run in deep channels.
Where the Magician signifies action, the High Priestess represents stillness and receptivity. A magician, after all, seeks to act upon the world, while a priestess is a figure of devotion and understanding. As the number one the Magician signified unity and directed consciousness, while the number two suggests balance and calm. The traditional High Priestess sits between two pillars, one dark, one light. We see this image subtly preserved in the Moon diadem over her forehead, with one horn bright and the other dark. We also spoke of the number two as suggesting the vagina, which opens to the dark of the womb and so symbolizes the mystery of creation. It receives the energizing sperm which awakens the eggs hidden inside (see also the astrological glyph for the Sun). The Bible tells us that before Creation there was "darkness on the face of the waters" until God sent down a beam of light. The vagina opens to allow the newborn child to emerge. The Goddess, the Mother, is not passive but creative. We will see this idea developed more fully in the Empress.
We should recognize that even though we speak of the Magician and the High Priestess as masculine and feminine principles, they apply both to women and men. The psyche knows no boundaries, not even male and female. At different times in his life a man will experience the deep wonder and stillness of the High Priestess, while a woman may act with the creative force of the Magician. At the same time there is a sense of wholeness about the High Priestess that transcends male and female.
The High Priestess symbolizes the unconscious - formless and extending beyond limitations of ego, with all possibilities for future development. She gives us an intuition of unity beneath the wondrous forms of existence. Our single planet contains many millions of different species of plants and animals, yet they all belong to the same ecological system.
The High Priestess takes us back to the pre-individual state, to the feeling "I am a part of everything." Indeed, if we truly merge with the High Priestess we may lose the sense of "I" entirely. This represents a danger in the card, symbolized by the dark streams running between the clefts in the rock. Like the Fool, the High Priestess shows no emotion. Emotion, like thoughts, develops out of individuality (ego).
The element for the High Priestess is Water, the astrological link is the Moon. To many, the idea that people once worshipped the Moon or believed in links between the Moon, the seas, and individual women, seems extremely nave. But in fact, the realization of a single life principle in all these things forms one of humanity's greatest achievements. The seas surge and fall back under the gravitational pull of the Moon (and of the Sun as well, but the Moon is much closer and so more powerful). The average menstrual cycle runs about the same length as a lunar cycle. When a woman is pregnant the fetus floats in water, which "breaks," like rain falling, at the start of birth. Life originated in the seas; our blood has a chemical makeup similar to the ocean. Some scientists believe that life started when lightning - the masculine principle of sky and fire - struck the waters and quickened certain molecules into proto-organisms.
The Moon passes through three distinct phases: new, full, and old. The female body passes through three phases as well: childhood, which ends with the onset of menstruation; the fertile period; and the post-menopause, when she can no longer bear children. Men have pre- and post-fertile phases as well, but not so clearly marked as with women. Moreover, when a woman becomes pregnant her belly takes on the shape of the full Moon. Is it any wonder that people have depicted the Moon as a unity of three Goddesses, a maiden, a mother, and a crone?
Many modern people can acknowledge all these correlations. They may even believe that the Moon's gravity somehow "scientifically" affects a woman's childbearing potential. But the ancient people saw it differently. They looked on the Moon, the seas, and women as all the same thing, a mystery of life which they worshipped through Moon rituals and statues of pregnant Goddesses.
In the Haindl Tarot we see the three phases of the Moon subtly brought together. The maiden appears in the woman's face, the full Moon in the sphere, and the crone in the dark waters at the bottom of the card, as well as in the dark horn of the diadem.
The Moon and water come together in the tides. Water represents the unconscious - formless, yet surging with energy, continually shifting, impossible to cut or break into pieces, impossible to grasp yet able to overwhelm, never the same from one moment to the next, with no fixed surface yet with hidden mystery.
The unconscious is energy. If we try to separate ourselves from it we become arid of feeling. The life-giving rain pours down from the woman's hair and dress, just as feeling connects ideas to experience, the ego to the outside world and to inner truth. The mist and the bubbles blur the distinction between air (intellect) and land (the "real" world). But the unconscious is dark and even dangerous. At the bottom we see the blue-black streams flowing through clefts like cliffsides. Mythologically this water symbolizes the River Styx, which souls crossed from the world of the living to the land of the dead.
The myth, like all great stories, has real meaning in our ordinary lives. Some people become very drawn to the stillness and mystery symbolized by the High Priestess. They withdraw from other people; they enter deeply into meditation or some similar discipline and avoid any involvement with the world. The High Priestess has seduced them, and they lean too far over the cliffs, trying to see into the water. They run the danger of falling into that river that obliterates personality. The Tarot teaches the necessity to balance the High Priestess with the Magician, and vice versa.
We have spoken of the Goddess as the Moon and the water, but the Earth belongs to her as well. Agriculture depends on the Earth's giving birth each spring to the young plants. The cycle of growth links the Earth and the Moon. The waxing Moon symbolizes spring; we see the full Moon in summer and the waning Moon at the harvest. Winter belongs to the dark period when the Moon has died. Because women and female animals give birth out of the "dark waters" of the womb, we see why so many people viewed the Earth as female. And so the cycle of the Moon, the seas, women, and the Earth becomes complete. In the Tarot we see the Goddess in her aspects of Mother and Earth most fully in the card that follows the Empress. The High Priestess shows us a way of being that is even more basic - more "ur" - than the Mother Goddess. She is pure existence, pure stillness.
The chakras form the body's centers of energy, the root being the base of the spine. In this card, the camel sits below the woman's root chakra. The "kundalini," or life energy, lies coiled, like a snake (or a crouching camel) at the root. Through yoga, meditation, or some other discipline, we uncoil the kundalini snake (see the Empress) and move it up the spine through the chakras. The pineal gland chakra, traditionally pictured as a third eye, functions as the seat of revelation. When the kundalini reaches the pineal level, we experience the light of truth as if the third eye has opened. The final chakra, the crown of the head, connects us to that divine oneness sought by the Magician. In this card we see the Moon diadem, with its polarity, over the third eye. When the eye opens the opposites become united. Above her, at the crown, we see the glow of cosmic energy. The stigmata of light in the High Priestess's palms do not signify suffering, like the holes in Christ's hands. Rather, they show the life-giving energy within the unconscious. We describe the unconscious as dark, because it is hidden from us, a mystery. And we gain a sense of it through stillness and darkness, for the clear light of day brings us back to the outside world of actions and plans. But if we enter that unknown world, we will discover the dark unconscious blossoming into infinite light.
The great sphere floats before the woman, joining the camel to the higher chakras, uniting Heaven and Earth, showing us the possibility of perfection through bringing together the varied elements of existence. If we meditate with this card, or simply look at it a long time, the sphere slowly, almost majestically begins to turn.
DIVINATORY MEANING
The High Priestess signifies a time when the person must be quiet, must look inward. This does not mean barricading yourself in the house and refusing to speak to anyone. Instead, it means to take life slowly, to spend time alone, and not be distracted by television or other entertainment; to keep still and feel a returning to who you are. For someone who has been very active in business or social life, the High Priestess says to step back and look inward for awhile. Instead of trying to conquer the world, seek peace with yourself. Under the influence of the High Priestess, patience and calm are more important than action.
During a time of the High Priestess the person finds a sense of wholeness in life and does not try to separate existence into pieces. It is a time for intuition rather than analysis, for feeling rather than thought (for a contrast see Justice). The person may experience deep feelings that she or he cannot put into words. More importantly, perhaps, the person will not want to put these feelings into words. The High Priestess advises resisting any demands to "explain yourself." The person needs time.
For people with commitments, to business or to children for example, withdrawal may be difficult. Often, when such a person receives the High Priestess in a reading, the person will usually say, "That sounds great, but I can't right now. I'm too busy." But is this really true? Often, at least part of a person's busyness is habit. If there's work to be done the person must do it, but after the work is done, instead of going out or scheduling something else, the person might spend some time alone. Even in a frantic day of errands the person can try to develop a distance, an inner calm. Sometimes, when people say, "It sounds great," they do not really mean it. The idea of doing nothing, of letting the inner life awaken, frightens them. But the High Priestess is a card of peace and joy.
One way to join with the High Priestess is through meditation. Just as the Magician is the patron of ritual magicians, so the High Priestess invites meditation.
Priestesses were often virgins. The card, therefore, does not indicate a time for romance or passion. If a person is asking about a lover and the High Priestess appears, then it says that the lover (or the subject of the reading) needs time alone or is avoiding a commitment. Or it may advise the person to focus attention inwards, rather than on a relationship.
REVERSED
The High Priestess reversed indicates a time when the person should not withdraw from the outside world. It is a time for action, for involvements with other people. In connection with romance the High Priestess reversed may suggest commitment, especially if it appears with the Lovers. In work, the reversed card advises taking the initiative, especially with the Fool or the Chariot. the High Priestess reversed may remind us of responsibility to others.
The above aspects show the reversed card as recommendations. Depending on the other cards, this reversed trump may suggest that the person needs to develop the qualities of the High Priestess but does not know how to achieve that quiet state. She or he may find it difficult to be alone or to slow down. This may come from other people making demands on the person, or because the person is afraid. The High Priestess can lead to selfknowledge and, for many people, this is a disturbing possibility.
