II - The High Priestess - "I know"
A woman sits on a stone seat, between black and white pillars, staring straight ahead. She wears a crown with the symbol of the full moon and 2 crescent moons, and holds a scroll with the letters TORA. A yellow crescent moon sits at her feet. Her veil, cloak and dress of light blues have the quality of rippling water. There is a white cross on her dress. Behind her, glimpses of still flat water can be seen through a tapestry adored with pomegranate fruits and flowers.
II The High Priestess from the Rider-Waite-Smith Tarot
My immediate response to drawing this card was a quiet, visceral but distinct startle … then twisting pull of fear. Intriguing.
As far as feminine archetypes go, most of us are familiar with and comfortable with the ‘feminine’ as the loving, nurturing, fertile mother. This more benign but soft archetype is encouraged and understood.
So the priestess – as another aspect of the feminine, subverts this cultural preference of what feminine energy is. She’s not trying to grapple back power or gain acceptance by embodying sanctioned masculine qualities of physicality, force and logic. This dark feminine is the conscious feminine aspect of Self that works within the quiet, mysterious and unconscious realms. Less doing, more being. Less out there, and more in here.
So that’s precisely the invitation. To go deep, go inward. But beyond that … to LISTEN.
What are the things (people, places, practices, attitudes) that help me go inward?
What resistance do I meet with an intention toward contemplation – resistant emotions, thoughts, behaviours, culture?
Because we live in a patriarchal dominant culture; doing, action, and logic is valued over listening, stillness, feeling and intuition. This kind of divide suits the status quo. If you aren’t producing and achieving then you are less worthy.
But the Priestess partakes in none of that absurd argument. She sits with ultimate serenity and unshakeable confidence to mediate between the duality of the black and white pillars. She holds her position in the centre; temple guardian on the threshold to the deep personal and collective unconscious.
I’m not surprised that fear was an instinctive response, because this priestess does not sit and navel gaze, and can’t bare self-indulgent idle musing and fluffy spirituality. She’s deeply compassionate but stoic, so before she grants access beyond the veil, she wants to know if you’re serious, if you really want to know, the secrets and wisdoms held within.
Do I really want to know the truth? Will I be able I handle it?
What is the great problem I wish to know the answer to?
Meditation, contemplation, and trance are usual (but not the only) practices to develop the stillness of mind and intuition that can awaken you to wisdom within. When the veil is lifted, the risk is you discover the illusions you’ve been living under – ignorance was bliss. The gift can be a breakthrough and insight.
How does ‘knowing’ change the way I experience and move in the world?
Finally, you really ‘know’. The challenge then is, what to do. The Priestess invites you into her temple to seek answers to your important questions. But the temple is not a place to live. Passivity is also a trap. You must pass back out through the veil and into mundane Reality. And enact your new found knowledge.
Mendy xx