Card 2 – The High Priestess
Perhaps one of the most mysterious cards, the High Priestess here is depicted as a white tiger (which is meant to denote a rarity because they are hardly seen in nature. The white tiger is seen as a high status commodity in the private and public eye due to the Captive Wildlife Crisis but I digress….). She sits in the darkness of night, with a crescent moon in the background. In between her paws is a crystal ball, an illumination of the veil between the worlds. She is in a state of BE-ing, and it acts to radiate her light outward, reaching up to the Moon. Both entities promise a bringing forth, and new creation.
Although the elemental nature of the High Priestess is highly feminine, it can be hard to describe in physical language what her nature is. This is because the High Priestess is extremely internal. She is constantly sensing, observing, and feeling. She harnesses everything around her without judgement, because there is always something to learn, to understand, or to use as a form of growth. To and through the High Priestess, everything is sacred. Everything serves a role. Even the bad, the minuscule, or misunderstood. When one of these elements surfaces in our lives, it is the High Priestess who urges us to go deeper, to not be afraid, and to comfort in our sacred selves within the good, the bad, the ugly. When we can find the sacred in these forms, we find more sacredness in our very bones.
Intuition is the vein that taps into the pay-dirt of this card. Intuition is something we are all given, which strengthens the notion that we and everything are sacred. Intuition is the ability to understand something, without having the physical proof, or need for proof. Intuition is the pull on us when something or someone is not as they seem. Intuition is the voice that urges us to do or act on something because it feels right. The High Priestess is the embodiment of this gift because there is a sense of ownership with her. She is not relying on the crystal ball, the cosmos, or the veil to channel her ability of understanding. Those messages are, and have always been there. But because she is able to harness those messages uniquely to her through intuition, she is equipped to utilize both the messages and the tools.
As mentioned, all of us have intuition. We all have the ability to go deeper into the shadows. She did not just attain this ability, and that is not what is portrayed when this card is pulled. The use of practice, process, or ritual is paramount with this card and her energy. Because the High Priestess is in the balance between internal recognition and external sources, it takes times to really go deep. One does not sit down for one meditation and suddenly become enlightened. It takes practice, process, or ritual to really start building the links between the internal and the external.
As beautiful, rare, or exotic the High Priestess looks, she is not portrayed in a world of glitz, fortune, or fame. Everything in her energy is very subtle. Her rarity comes from the fact that she can alter the energy around her. She can take in messages from the Universe and write her narrative of intention. She is present for the energy of the Universe. This is her presence. She is present. She is sensing the the subtle fingers of all the creatures that share this globe. She is creating a river of energy from the messages around her. Her intuition guides her forward.
How does your intuition guide you? When you have you stopped for a few moments and just held your form? Do you remember the sound of trees, the smell of Earth, the light of the Moon? Take time to connect deep into the skeleton of your sacred self, and into the skeleton of the Earth. The High Priestess reminds us that everything is a river that flows into the ocean of our mind.
**Tarot card pictured is from The Wild Unknown deck, and can be found at http://www.thewildunknown.com. This is not an affiliate link**