High Priestess: Dreams & Visions
A Journey through the Tarot Major Arcana: The High Priestess ~ Card 2
Thanks for joining me on my quest to renew my tarot practice by taking a journey through the cards of the Major Arcana. This is the third post in the series, which is an offering for paid subscribers. We focus mainly on the Gaian Tarot and the Herbcrafter’s Tarot in this series, which includes a look at the card’s themes, card comparisons, creative sparks and crafts, journal prompts, and even a playlist inspired by the card. Thanks for reading. I’d love to hear your responses in the comments.
Silence, Autonomy, Mystery
“Guard the mysteries! Constantly reveal them!”
- Lew Welch, Ring of Bone: Collected Poems
I can’t remember exactly when I first heard the quote above, but I remember thinking that it was so profound that it must come from antiquity. Perhaps it was uttered by the Oracle at Delphi, I mused. Instead, it was written in 1969 by Beat poet Lew Welch. Perhaps he was unknowingly channeling an ancient Muse. The phrase so neatly encapsulates a key task of the priestess, witch, or spiritual practitioner: to know when to speak and when to keep silent.
If the Magician is all about taking action and creativity, the Priestess is about quiet receptivity. He is solar; everything is out in the open, bathed in light. She is lunar; she lives in the realm of twilight, moonshine, mysteries, and secrets. She asks us to develop non-rational, non-linear ways of knowing and to live a life of spiritual purpose and service. We think of her as being solitary, autonomous. We can envision her living on the edges of the community and frequently withdrawing into solitude and contemplation.
In the Shining Tribe Tarot, Rachel Pollack writes: “Where the Magician acts, the High Priestess remains still. Where the Magician draws down the light, she looks into the darkness. She does not seek answers or confrontations, but simply to touch the wholeness of existence. We think of the High Priestess as containing secrets, but this does not mean forbidden knowledge or even specific information. Rather, she understands truths that cannot be put into words. She is in some ways the most powerful of the trumps, though she does nothing.”
Along with the Empress, she is one of the most powerful female archetypes in the tarot. In historical decks, she was called “La Papesse” and was depicted as a female Pope. How radical was that! In a world where the dominant religions are patriarchal and women priests or pastors are still uncommon, the High Priestess presents us with an alternative: a woman (or woman-identified person) of great spiritual power and authority.
In the three cards at the beginning of this post, the palette of cool tones — blues, silvers, greens, and whites — reflects a lunar, watery sensibility. The veil (hidden knowledge) behind the priestess in the RWS card becomes a curtain of willow leaves in the Gaian version and a light blue altar cloth in the Herbcrafter’s card. I emphasized the ocean in the Gaian version; you can only see a glimpse of it in RWS. The blue altar cloth is both a nod to the ocean and the veil. The black and white pillars (symbols of duality) are echoed in the black and white ritual garments in the Gaian card, and in the vials of storax and copal resin in the Herbcrafter’s.
The scroll of written wisdom in the RWS priestess’ lap is found tucked into the dream pillow of the Herbcrafter’s card. I left the scroll out of the Gaian card and added a sculpture of the Dreaming Lady of Malta to emphasize the importance of dreams. The moon under her feet in the RWS card becomes the moon in the sky in the Gaian version and a necklace in the Herbcrafter’s. One of the pomegranates seen on the veil in RWS is now held in the priestess’ hands in the Gaian. Pomegranates (a reference to Persephone’s underworld journey) are transformed into rose hips in the Herbcrafter’s card. Mugwort, of course, is an herb reputed to bring on dreams and psychic visions.