The High Priestess

Beware of this one…she comes disguised in many ways, especially in the Tarot, where she cuts a benign figure, piously exhorting you to tap into your feminine side. Ha! Do not be lulled. Once she has you in her snare she will hang you upside down by your heels and shake you until your brains are emptied of all your complacent preconceptions and smug assurances. She will cram you with creative energy until you are stuffed full as a Strasbourg goose. She will tease and torment you with glimpses of a reality far removed from your hum drum days until you are twitching and itching to get your hands on some paint, some paper, a crayon – anything to make your mark. Your own, imperishable, undiluted mark, torn from your heart and wrung from your soul, but yours, the sign that you are alive.
Ignore the reader who smiles sweetly and tells you the High Priestess means you should reflect, look inward and seek quiet self knowledge. Laugh at her if she tells you the High Priestess wants you to find a bare cell and pray or study. Shun her utterly if she tells you the High Priestess is the passive female principle of the divine harmony.
The High Priestess is not passive, she is not obedient. She is telling you to get up! Get a grip! Do something beautiful with your life, sing, dance, be!
Do you think she wants to be stuck on that throne, wearily waiting for someone to come along so she can dispense homely wisdom? Hell, no! Before her behind was nailed to that chair, before they stuck a silly crown on her head and mocked her, calling her the `Female Pope’ – La Papessa – before Tarot historians passed her off as the `female aspect of religion’ or `the figure that represents the body of the Church, as the Empress represents the Empire’, or one of a dozen demeaning and completely erroneous interpretations – long before that, the High Priestess garlanded her arms with live snakes, and lived as a lightning rod for the power of the Goddess.
So don’t be fooled by the stillness and serenity. Don’t imagine she will go easy on you. She is you.