Universal Tarot

II - THE HIGH PRIESTESS

The Priestess tells us we are dealing with the very deepest part of ourselves and her governing planet, the Moon, represents our emotional world and how we feel about ourselves internally.

This is the purest manifestation of female intuitive consciousness and all its various aspects: dreams, memory, telepathy, clairvoyance, the anima and so on.

She stands behind a veil, only a small part of her is exposed, just as we only have access to a small fraction of our memories and creative sources. We veil and sanctify that which holds terror and fascination for us. Behind her is a camel, a beast which can retain large amounts of water for long journeys. This retention of water parallels the idea of retention of water consciousness (intuitive power) in the subconscious. The Priestess has full retention of memory, imagination, psychic force and spiritual wisdom. She is the secret church containing the inner or hidden truths of religion. She is the female counterpart of the Hierophant. The Hierophant is the manifest spiritual path, the Priestess the internal spiritual evolution.

Since this is the card of water and the moon, it is also the card of tides and waves, and that which is transmitted by waves. The wave forms, which mirror the waxing and waning moon, run right across the horizon. Emotions, thoughts and ideas all travel by waves. This is the source of telepathic knowledge and synchronicity. Clairvoyance is indicated by the crystal ball which stands at the feet of the Priestess. She is comparable with the Tibetan Dakinis, fairy-like goddesses with occult powers who bear the skull and sickle blade, similar to the ancient cup and sword which usually represents female and male knowledge respectively. In this case the sickle blade curves into a crescent moon, suggesting a predominance of female wisdom.

Many myths tell of the eternal virgin, eternally potent. Most well-known of these mythical goddesses are Isis and the Virgin Mary who have often been linked with each other. The Egyptian glyph at the corners of the picture is the throne of Isis, and the iconic images of Isis show the goddess cradling Horus as Mary cradles Jesus. The image of the fish in the belly is Christ inside the Virgin, symbol of the virgin-birth potential, the starting point of evolution as a fish-seed in the subconscious. But this image is also seen in much older cultures going back as far as the Sumerians, whose saviour-god Oannes was half fish, half man. He was the teacher of all esoteric arts leading to salvation. The 'fish' allegories and connections with the saviour-god Jesus are well known.

The sign at the base of the card is a multiple character showing the cross, water and earth. Although Christ was redeemed and 'risen' via the ascension, Mary was conveyed through the earth, both female elements. Her way of redemption was the way of female knowledge. This was known as the Assumption.

But finally the crucial image is that of the veil; there is an important Biblical reference to the veil that is worth mentioning. It is written that a woman, Veronica, wiped the head of Christ as he was being led to the cross. The bodily fluids of blood and sweat combined to leave an image of the Lord's face on the cloth. This became known as 'the Veil of Veronica’. Veronica was a social outcast because she had an illness which caused her to be in a state of permanent menstrual bleeding; the dogma of the time placed a taboo on this. After the image of Christ was manifest on the veil, she was healed of this illness. The healing or cleansing aspect of the veil also ties in with the idea that the priestess' veil is like an unbroken hymen, implying that pure spiritual knowledge lies behind the veil, unsullied by the crudities of the physical world.

From all this mythology surrounding the Priestess, the Virgin Goddess, what can be refined and absorbed when one is in need of divinatory information? The veil tells us there is a hidden influence at work, that there is an indirect guiding force. It is not a time to speak of things which should be kept secret, so caution should be the watchword, and especially beware of loose talk. Internal search will bring the greatest revelations and rewards. It is a time for meditation. Listen to the small voice. The waves are telling us not to rock the boat during these times of fluctuating waters, this ebb and flow. Instead of trying to balance the external world, focus on stabilizing the internal world. Pay attention to dreams and let intuition be the guide.