Tarot Study: The High Priestess

[MaddLlama]

I promise I didn't forget. Been working on some other projects, and hoping to drum up more interest in the study. For those of you who are just joining us, anyone is welcome to participate, but I ask that you meet the following conditions: please be respectful and follow the rules of the DIR, and I also ask that you only post serious responses. Also, if you want to participate, you can also respond to the previous two study threads if you'd like. Thanks

This time I've got two different cards for you to look at:

So, last verse, same as the first. Post any observations, feelings, insights you have, and we can also talk about the similarities and differences between the two cards.
(The first card is from the Robin Wood deck, and the second the traditional Ride-Waite. Sorry about the size difference.)

 

[lilithu]

So, last verse, same as the first. Post any observations, feelings, insights you have, and we can also talk about the similarities and differences between the two cards.

Sorry, the other card does nothing for me so I am going to focus on the Rider-Waite card.

The first thing I notice, contrast - black and white - she sits between them.
(I have no idea what the B and the J stand for. No lewd comments, please.)
Cresent moon at her feet, a full moon crowns her head.
She holds the Torah - the revealed truth - but it is only partially revealed.

Unlike the Fool who is empty (and yet full of possibility) and the Magician who is complete, the High Priestess is duality, yin and yang, change.

I'm not sure what the cross means, and whether it is a Christian cross (crucifixion) or a solar cross (the intersection between vertical heaven and horizontal earth). I would tend towards the latter.

Interestingly, she sits in front of a tapestry - it looks like pomegranates, which often symbolize life. Is it a veil of life? What is behind it? That question reminds me of the fact that the Torah is partially concealed. Clearly, there are things we do not know, cannot see.

 

[Reverend Rick]

I think of the High Priestess as the Goddess. She and the Empress, balance the male influence of the Magician. The light and the dark on each of her sides are in true balance with each other, and that makes her all powerful. She is in control. The card tells me to look beyond the obvious. She can lift the Vail of the unknown. The High Priestess is all knowing, but you must receive her favor if you want her to share what is known. The card represents patience.

 

[Gentoo]

I think of the High Priestess as the Goddess.

I'm curious Rick as to why you see the High Priestess as representing the Goddess? I see more of the Goddess in the Empress myself.

 

[Willamena]

In mystical terms, I can see the Fool as the person newly introduced to the unity of reality, aware of the 'emptiness' or 'zero' in all things. His cliff is a new reality that he is stepping into. He has become aware that in all he knows, with the whole world surrounding him, he knows nothing at all (and finds himself understanding Zen koans, just like that *snap*). The Magician represents the duality of reality, the world we know vs. the world apart from what we know. He has both worlds at his disposal - above and below; so much potential for growth.

This Lady, then, Wisdom, if we continue on with this like a tale, introduces a ready-made structure for absorbing and processing the knowledge attained. She sits with a book on her lap, assembled from years of human thinkers with rational conclusions, building upon prior knowledge and experience. Be it religion, philosophy, science or mathematics, the structure offered in her book, that can lead to enlightenment, is presented intact, and taciturnly. The book isn't just going to tell you and you'll "get it," as that's not the way to learn this particular wisdom. You have to come to it. The book on her lap may just as well be Kahbala, I Ching, or Carl Sagan's Cosmos, as it is Torah. Torah means instruction, and that we get from those all we hold as our teachers.

The columns are reminiscent of the pillars at the Greek "four corners of the world" that hold the sky separate from the earth, desire separate from attainment. She is queen of the same duality that the Magician simply acknowledges.

 

[lilithu]

I'm curious Rick as to why you see the High Priestess as representing the Goddess? I see more of the Goddess in the Empress myself.

As do I.

To add to the pillars of dark and light between which she sits:
I am reminded of the "Middle Way."

 

[Mike182]

what do the pomegranates represent on the banner behind her?

 

[Reverend Rick]

I'm curious Rick as to why you see the High Priestess as representing the Goddess? I see more of the Goddess in the Empress myself.

While the Empress is the mother figure like mother earth or the Goddess, I see both High Priestess and Empress in the same light. The High Priestess is the female equivalent of the Magician, but the Magician is out in the open as the High Priestess is secretive of her knowledge and not boastful like the Magician is.

I guess it is not traditional to think like this, but I believe both cards are intertwined revealing characteristics of different aspects of the Goddess.

 

[Reverend Rick]

what do the pomegranates represent on the banner behind her?

Persephone, the queen of the underworld. This is a perfect example of a dying god who's annual rebirth renews the world.

Perhaps a greater question is, what lies beyond the pomegranates? A highly secret path.

 

[Reverend Rick]

The first thing I notice, contrast - black and white - she sits between them.
(I have no idea what the B and the J stand for. No lewd comments, please)

The "B" stands for Baal
The "J" stands for Jehovah

Two different paths that you can go on.

 

[Isabella Lecour]

I was always taught that the pillers "B" and "J" stood for respectively the pillers that stood in Solomon's temple, Boaz and Jachin. This is part of the carry over from Freemasony and some of the older Western cermonial magic. However they are black and white in this context and thus emphises the duality of their nature.

My impressions of the High Priestess; Rider Waite deck

She sits at the entrence of the temple, behind her is the tapestry of the Solomons temple. Pomagrants being a symbol of fertility and abundance but if you look closely you can see how the pomegranates line up to for the tree of life behind her.

She wears the horns and the moon on her head, Hathor's crown. She hold the TORA, the book of law in the right hand. I have issues with this symbol...as it is unlikely to touch a holy scroll by bare hands. It' been suggested that "TORA" is a hidden magic square, but I'm undecided about that.

Her gown turns to flowing water...the source of the waters of life, the source of the rivers of Eden?

Otherwise I see her as the Queen of Heaven or as Mother Mary / Lady Isis. She is both young and old..virgin and mother, wisdom and understanding, inner emotions, entrence to secrets, keeper of the way, holder of the law, protector, inborn ferility, life itself, she is mystery itself.

 

[Willamena]

what do the pomegranates represent on the banner behind her?

The food in the story of Kore and Hades represented attachment to the material world. If anything was eaten in the underworld, even one seed, the person would remain (retain their belief of) "dead"; whereas, if they ate nothing they could move between worlds. In that regard, it's a symbol of understanding the esoteric perspective.

 

[lilithu]

I was always taught that the pillers "B" and "J" stood for respectively the pillers that stood in Solomon's temple, Boaz and Jachin. This is part of the carry over from Freemasony and some of the older Western cermonial magic. However they are black and white in this context and thus emphises the duality of their nature.

The food in the story of Kore and Hades represented attachment to the material world. If anything was eaten in the underworld, even one seed, the person would remain (retain their belief of) "dead"; whereas, if they ate nothing they could move between worlds. In that regard, it's a symbol of understanding the esoteric perspective.

Excellent. Frubals to both! :yes: