The High Priestess

The High Priestess description

The High Priestess sits between two pillars, the entrance to the temple of Solomon, the first Jewish temple in Jerusalem. The white pillar displays a J for Jachin, ‘he will establish.’ The black pillar is marked with a B for Boaz, meaning ‘in his strength’. The cross on her heart represents the point where opposites meet and are reconciled, where energies are united. The High Priestess is a master of balance and duality. She commands the yin and the yang. The darkness and the light. She can conceive of two worlds at one time. A deep, vast ocean is thinly veiled behind her. The pomegranates on the veil are a symbol of her fertility and divine feminine energy. The water is the source of all the flowing rivers in the tarot cards that follow. The crown on her heart is a nod to the Egyptian God Iria, the all seeing. She reads the Torah, a scroll of Jewish religious teachings, sacred knowledge that is both explicit and implicit. A crescent moon lies at her feet, a sign that she is linked to mysterious and universal truths. She is the mistress of unconscious knowledge.

Upright meaning

The appearance of the High Priestess means you are in touch with your own inner sense of knowing and you are very receptive to, well, everything! You are traveling between two worlds, such as the conscious and subconscious mind. You may be going through a spiritual awakening or finding a new sense of ‘flow.’ Flow, is a state of optimal experience where individuals are fully immersed and focused, feeling energized and fulfilled by the activity they are engaged in. Do the things that make you feel this way! If you are unsure, or you are seeking solutions, well the only one who has all the answers is you! Trust your instincts and tap into the power of working with lunar cycles. Moon journaling, intention setting, dream documenting, can all be useful tools for you right now. The High Priestess begs you to express yourself creatively and let your intuition flow.

Reversed meaning

When your High Priestess energy is reversed, it’s a sign that your intuition is blocked or you are questioning yourself, your faith, your beliefs, etc. This can turn up if you are uncovering hidden secrets; you could be dealing with someone that has a hidden agenda. While this card could be secrets kept by others, it can also be about secrets you like to keep from yourself. What are you concealing or avoiding from yourself? What is your intuition trying to tell you? Listen to yourself. Take particular care to recharge your feminine, or yin energy. All genders have both feminine (yin) and masculine (yang) energy that must be properly balanced to ensure good health and harmony. We go through natural cycles where one tide may rise higher than the other. In this case, you can bring balance by practicing yin inducing activities such as spending time in nature, massages, yoga, meditation, drinking warm herbal tea, warm baths, stargazing, and preparing nourishing, comforting foods, etc.

The High Priestess quote

“A priestess is a woman who lives in two worlds at once, who perceives life on earth against the backdrop of a vast, timeless reality. Whether or not she is mated to a human partner, she is a woman in love, wedded to being, to life, to love it self. Having offered herself, body and soul, in service of spirit, she mediates between matter and spirit, between human and divine realms. She may or may not be sexually active, but she will always honor sexual energy as a link to the source of life itself.”
-Jalaja Bonheim