The High Priestess

Sign: Cancer

Element: Water

Numerology: 2

Numerologically speaking the number Two aligns us with reflection, partnership, compatibility, harmony, balance, and diplomacy. As the number 2 can also be designed as two ones creating the number 11 it is seen as a portal number and influential energetic framework for human evolution. What we see in the number two is both ourselves and our community. It is the dance between shadow and light, and the build up of potential after the cycle has begun again (after number 10).

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Message from Dilara:

The High Priestess, a figure beloved by many, is a card of the underworld and intuition. She, in her cyclical expression, asks us to be still and centred in our knowing. She calls for us to dig deeper into the body of our shadow, the illusive realm we may want to avoid yet need to enter into fully to know who we are. She in the bearer of truths hidden under the surface. The rights of passage taken by those who choose to walk a path of illumination.

The High Priestess says: ‘loosen your grip on what is conscious, let what is beyond the veil of your control come front and centre for a time, for in doing so, you will re-instate the purpose of your soul. It may be scary, and know – you are safe.’ Because of the presence of the number two, this card transcribes to the truth of duality as much as to the truth of unity. You cannot ‘obtain’ the priestess for she has learned to blend between worlds and exist through the pain of separation, utilising its energy to create a world of wisdom, unity, faith, and knowing.

What people often misunderstand about The High Priestess is that she is not just here to show us what is present within our being, she is here to remind us to look beyond what we know – she is the mystery we must have courage to face, the embodiment of unconditional trust in the divine plan, she invites us to flow between worlds, remaining anchored in both and neither. For me, The High Priestess represents the Tao in many ways. Her ephemeral dance within one truth and the next, holding it all, reminds me of how the Tao allows our consciousness to flow through layers of information. Holding onto none whilst retaining all.

When The High Priestess card appears before you you are being asked to look at your shadow, to embrace it, to love it, to learn from it and ultimately to grow from it, taking the next step on your journey through the archetypes. Ultimately, The High Priestess helps us to access our human nature by offering a gateway to our deepest knowing, and the unknown knowns we get to journey to discover on this path. The crown The High Priestess wears can be seen as a symbol of the royal path of self-awareness, as well as her connection to her divine intuition.

Another energy this card brings forward is the Divine Feminine, who rises at the most appropriate moment, revealing what has been contorted, distorted, and confused She provided a vision of inner nurture and renewal. To honour the Divine Feminine is also to honour what is ancient, what has come before you to make you up as who you know yourself to be. The Divine Feminine is a bridge between that version of you and who you do not know you are becoming next. What does the Divine Feminine Principle mean to you?

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Reversed:

The High Priestess reversed can represent a loss of connection between you and your intuitive nature, a form of distortion around access to your deeper knowing. Reversed, this card also invites us to take action towards re-connecting with ourselves at a more intrinsic level. This card reversed can also signify and unwanted sexual encounter, betrayal, superficiality, and falsehoods within your mind, body, emotions, or outer world.

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Message from The Herd:

Loving conjecture. The movement between security and non-attachment. Awareness in its infinite forms. The High Priestess is a card you all feel within you, there is only a turning toward yourself with this card. As she appears early on in the journey through the archetypes our understanding is that she is part of the defining aspect of knowing the self. Almost immediately you are thrust into a confrontation with the divine within you, flipping between threads, weaving and re-writing existence into a new screen.

The High Priestess is a card of subtle accomplishment, where do you feel you have become whole? Where are you ready to slip between worlds to discover more of yourself? In any way, this card is a bridge of consciousness. The gateway, as Dilara has written, the informative yet ethereal outlay of circumstance. Imagine a bridge, hovering over a valley of stone and water. The bridge is high, elevated, cascaded in its vision between worlds. All you can ‘do’ is cross this bridge. Whether that is in your mind, heart, physically or spiritually. The reason all you can do is cross is because human nature is designed to move toward what is aligned for it. This movement can take a lifetime or a moment, the choice (as always) is yours by nature of how the psychic within you is given space. This Psychic is represented by the High Priestess in the Tarot. Your intuitive nature is a fountain of prosperity, wanting you to relate to it with your awareness.

We feel humans will benefit from seeing your intuition filling you up, moment by moment by moment. You have the choice to listen or the choice to avoid it, in the end you will always act on it regardless because it fills your life in a myriad of more subtle ways. For example, numbers, synchronistic speech from another person, uncanny events, etc. Let yourself love through using your intuitive insights, build them, let yourself be loved by entering a state of forgiveness for any grievances you may have bestowed on yourself. Let yourself be loved by embodying what you do not know, this means encouraging the divine to guide you through your own choices to release control.

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Reversed:

Reversed, The High Priestess is unencumbered. She flaunts the necessary steps she thinks she needs to take but is in fact taking the longer route to her destination through the ego. The High Priestess reversed has forgotten her cycles, she is in need of a deep connection to her primal nature in order to remember who she is. Returning. Returning to the self through opening to the body’s wisdom, the obscured, the unseen. Let it reign before you move humbly towards your next step with renewed energy.

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Meditation for The High Priestess: