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 The
tarot called now usually titled “The High
Priestess” was traditionally named “The
Papess” (female pope). The card is an enigma
for tarot historian. Did it represent an actual
female pope (perhaps the legendary Pope Joan or the
heretical Guglielmite pope, Sister Manfreda)? Or
did it represent a generic archetype of female
religious authority, completing the symmetry of
Emperor and Empress in the ecclesiastical domain?
Or does it reflect influence of some other
religious tradition, now obscure or
uncertain?
Whatever the
original motivation for this card and image, The
Priestess is undeniably one of the most evocative
and fascinating tarot symbols for us today. Modern
Pagans see her as a symbol of goddess spirituality
and pre-patriarchal religion. Psychologically
astute tarot readers see Carl Jung’s
“anima” archetype: the feminine alter-ego
dwelling within a man’s
personality.
In the model
I’ve been using in this series, the Priestess
becomes the connection between Younger Self and the
body, between the imagination and the physical
world. Whereas Emperor, Empress, and Priest all
link parts of the individual’s personality
together, the Priestess is a link between the
personality and the tangible world of matter and
the senses.
This is a
role for the Priestess that resonates deeply with
the image of priestess in the Pagan religions: she
binds humanity to nature, engaging and embodying
the cycles of Moon and Sun; of life, growth, and
death; of matter and spirit. She is not a
communicator of abstractions like the Priest; she
revels in the tactile particulars of real
life.
By being a
conduit between the imagination and the physical
world, she is also a worker of natural magic,
attuning her imagination to nature’s way, and
giving her intentions physical form.
For many of
us, imagination and nature have become
disconnected. We regard our senses as a data stream
for mental processing (or perhaps a stimulus for a
transient emotional response), rather than
nourishment and sustenance for a rich imaginative
life. Perhaps we have taken our worldview from
religious traditions that deny or reject the body,
the senses, and the physical environment. Perhaps
we are immersed in a secular worldview that teaches
us to regard the physical world with indifference,
as something of no intrinsic value beyond its
usefulness as an exploitable resource.
The
Priestess challenges and rejects such
understandings of the physical world. For her, our
physicality is our connection; it joins us with
other living things and with the cosmos. The glow
of a moonrise, the caress of a lover, the fragrance
of freshly tilled earth, the salty taste of a sea
breeze: this is how we experience the sacred when
we take the Priestess to heart.
The
Priestess card is a reminder to keep imagination
and sensation in communion, to appreciate the gifts
of world and body, and to explore the richness
present in each moment of experience.
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