Opening to trust can change your life. Your intuitive powers are increasing, and you may be inspired to be creative. This is a particularly great card for poets and writers. The High Priestess advises you to adhere to your chosen spiritual practice on a more regular basis. We all have distractions, demands — a whole life full of reasons why we cannot find the time to retreat into our inner sanctum. A spiritual path, practiced every day, is the most trustworthy path to freedom

• High Priestess
• Female Pope
• Wisdom, Creative Thought, Word
• Ishida.
• Gates of the Sanctuary
• Mystery, Truth, Gnosis, Occult
•  From the Crown to Beauty
• The moon as a symbol of inner consciousness, intuition and the power of subconscious forces.
• Neptune. Water trine houses: IV, VIII, XII.
• Cassiopeia
• The occult meaning – secret knowledge

General Meaning

Sometimes Priestess is a reference to a female person (a wife, a mother, a sister, a  friend, a boss). The High Priestess nearly always symbolizes a presence of a mystery.

Mary Greer subtly observes that “the truth of the High Priestess can be seen only through a sacred mirror.”

If a person just sees things as they seem, ignoring hints and figurative sense, the mysteries of High Priestess remain mysteries forever. She acts as a mentor and teaches those who trust in the wisdom of unconscious forces and the mysterious inner world. We need to make a difficult step to stop relying solely on rational favorite. The presence of the High Priestess opens up the “sixth sense”. We can call it intuition that works.

The High Priestess advises us to pay attention to “small overlaps” and to listen carefully to the various pointers on a path of life (to hold on to each sign that somehow understood as addressed to you). The High Priestess represents our unconscious forces – intuition, – often inexplicable, but it is a firm belief in something that is coming. It is a key to a mysterious truth that eludes logical thinking. Paying attention to the subconscious and our dreams is necessary. The High Priestess means wisdom, knowledge, understanding, ability to learn and teach, to comprehend the mysteries, and to devote to the sacraments.

Gradually, some information comes to light that will make you look at your life from another angle. There are currently some hidden factors. It must be taken as it is – we do not know, monitor and predict everything.

In a spread, the High Priestess emphasizes tranquility and withdrawal. The High Priestess says that it is necessary to spend some time in concentration and meditation and stop searching answers and solutions, as they are to come at some point. “Hustle” should be set aside. The High Priestess is associated with the adoption the will of external events and humility with them. She speaks of the solitude and opportunity for a person to listen to natural rhythms and cycles of nature, body, and soul. It is very probable that the development of a situation will lead to tangible enlightenment and personal growth.

Individual cognition, development of talents, spiritual wisdom. Knowledge, education, study and attainment of anything. This applies particularly to occult experience but may have relevance to the professionalism of when any questions are grasped in higher states of consciousness. This can be a very search for these highly enlightened states of concentration, and an indication of their presence, “just listen” to intuition.

Intuition, inspiration. The ability to foresee prophesies. Attention to signs and symbols, the ability see an auspicious moment and appreciate the concatenation of circumstances that can be called nothing, but mystical. Under the authority of the High Priestess there are unfathomable events, mysterious coincidence, all kinds of signs, which life sends us a living, we find clues of subconscious mind (like the overheard phrase could be a response to our thoughts). In a tarot spread, the High Priestess reminds that life is this Sacrament.

The second meaning of the High Priestess is obscurity, ambiguity, and uncertainty about the future. It’s a secret that opens in due time. The Priestess says: “Do not make plans for the future, the answer has not yet come”. The presence of the Priestess indicates that there is a hidden factor, the secret which has yet to be revealed. The outcome of events may affect some secret motive, unknown aspects of the case, the implicit moments.

The High Priestess contains two opposite meanings “knowledge” and “ignorance” — a seeming contradiction. Priestess teaches that the knowledge is already within us. How often we have some time go blind and then shout, “Yes, I’ve always known it!”. The High Priestess just about it. You need to learn again what you already know. After all, we are very much in life learn from ourselves, and not from others! That happens when we find time and energy to focus on our own spiritual identity,  connecting mind and a heart.

In a very real sense, the High Priestess points to the person who has a secret.

The High Priestess is one of the most influential cards of balance and harmony. She is not characterized by aggressive and violent manifestations of the Amazons. She just clasps her hands, hearing the warnings of impending events. Here we do not see emotional loads. The High Priestess is a carrier of deep tranquility and balance of personality, introverted and impartial in her wisdom. To understand and feel the High Priestess means to make a significant step on your path of spiritual development.

On a Deeper Level

The High Priestess represents the wisdom  of a female in a mystical, magical and metaphysical senses.

She can see through, read thoughts and guess the past and the future. This is an eternal goddess of an ancient world, carrying knowledge and spiritual wisdom, and equal to a man.

The High Priestess is a guardian of the secrets of life. She embodies all the magic power of wisdom, inherent only in women, expression of patience, understanding, mercy, kindness, and forgiveness, the use of subconscious forces for the benefit of the people – for the sake of help, healing, and clairvoyance. The High Priestess knows the way and is ready to lead those who are open. The High Priestess is considered one of the three “guardian angels” because, according to Christian mythology, “the Holy Virgin” can make a person immune.

Personal Relations

Ancient interpreters said that appearance of the High Priestess could be associated with repressed or unexpressed feelings (a secret love) or platonic relationships without sexual intimacy.

The High Priestess represents concealed, covert, or uncertain relationships (or at least, feelings). The High Priestess reminds that a human heart is an ocean of secrets. By the way, for a man, the appearance of High Priestess foreshadows a meeting with an understanding and loving woman, a real treasure.

The High Priestess may show a quality of relations as such, emphasizing a profound link between the partners. Perhaps we are all once saw: people do not look crazy in love, but feel each other at a distance and understand each other entirely. There are a trust and affection, and even something more mystical, which often felt in. It is present in virtually supersensual bond (which may seem strange to both of them – it is not clear why it is). In such a relationship it is usually no imperative nature. No fuss and nobody insists on anything. Sometimes it seems that people do not talk about.  This is telepathy.

The nature of the High Priestess is unbounded independence. Her self-confidence and responsibility are very high. The High Priestess radiates a sense of self-sufficiency as a result of her self-acceptance. The High Priestess is tremendously stable. She was not prone to fall from her heights (or emerge from ocean depths). The High Priestess intuitively defends the higher truth and wisdom. It is challenging to “pull her off” on household level and to make her “adjust” to the hustle and bustle of society. She won’t flirt, calculating views of bridegrooms and rushing on dates. One look to the eye of a man, who is destined, and he will be gone.

There never be random people next to her. She is a very patient and confident person, capable of long waiting. She can remain alone (knowing that an ulterior motive is given to her by chance and she is not going ever to lose a spirit of independence and internal balance). Her inner voice tells where and when she has to do to be the one and how to act. The heart drives her to look for a partner, – not to analyze him or the situation, – the High Priestess follows merely her inner voice, and finds herself in the right place at the right time. 

The High priestess emphasizes the ability to wait and openness to be guided. Unlike the Queen of Swords, for example, the High Priestess is not demanding, she is contemplative. The High Priestess lets events take their course, watching what is going on without any desire or expectation. She goes with a stream of intuition, and catches it, taking upon the exact moment that intended by her fate, – taking this moment, no matter how unusual it could be, and then suddenly acts on it as no one could expect from her. It might feel crazy. Perhaps it lies dormant and awaits a call, but the awakening comes not from external circumstances, but from within her. Her firm steps will make very little dependent on external conditions.

The High Priestess embodies a perfect woman, but not in an ordinary sense of being romantic. She knows and understands too much to rush the waves of love and passionate impulses and illusions. The depth of her knowledge is to understand without words and heal with a touch.

The High Priestess may seem cold, but only as far as the depths of water is more refreshing than a surface. Marriage to the High Priestess is a Sacrament a man will feel during and after incarnation. This is not a case of “till death disconnects us” – this is the case when you never disconnect, even after death. Next, to this woman, you instantly get the feeling that you know her for eternity and forever after.

The High Priestess describes a discreet, enigmatic and very subtle understanding partner. This unfathomable human being may have a lot of different mysteries, but this person will never be a rebel. This person is patient, wise and shrewd. It is almost impossible to hide anything from this person, — not even a thought. You might perceive this person as a life teacher, who shows you the world from another perspective. His advice is invaluable. He does not need to see the person to know it. A distinctive feature of this partner is a mystical, meditative silence, in which a connection is comfortable and fully preserved.

In sexual term, the High Priestess is tantric and healing. There is no race for an orgasm – she merely allows something to happen and to be in perfect tuning with a partner. She is patient and sympathetic. She is inherent in the art to guide a process of interchange of energies being the driven.  By the High Priestess, sexual experience is to provide healing and transformative impact internally.

Health

This card indicates that a person has spiritual powers and abilities to heal.

Reversed High Priestess

The reversed High Priestess also suggests in reading that you are an intuitive person who is connected with your inner self but currently you feel the connection is lost.

You are hustling around and worrying about external issues and other people’s problems that lead you to negativity. You need to focus on your own needs. You need to tune into your inner voice and awaken your intuition. Concentration and meditation will help.