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The High Priestess Tarot Meaning

The High Priestess, third Major Arcana Tarot card numbered 2 (beginning with The Fool as 0), represents our ancient, sacred inner knowing, our intuition, and subconscious mind. It is a primal wisdom that cannot be created nor destroyed, but always resides in the seat of the soul. It takes patience and stillness to access, but it is always there.

Read on for more High Priestess significations and what it means for you when it shows up in a love, career, and general Tarot reading:

High Priestess Tarot Card Meanings

After we have enacted our will and initiated the power of our pure potentiality with The Magician, we move inward through the next Major Arcana card to reconcile with our inner voice, that deep well of knowing that never runs out, if we can get quiet enough to drink from it. The High Priestess represents the unconscious, instinct, and ebbs and flows of the tides. Like the Moon, it changes phases in a fluid dance.

We can see behind the figure in the Rider Waite Colman Smith Tarot deck, a calm and placid body of water, representing a stillness of emotions, a calmness, and impartiality. The senses are serene and composed. She sits between the black and white pillars with a B and J on them, for Boaz and Joachim, from the Temple of Solomon, first in Jerusalem.

On the fabric between them, there are pomegranates, calling to mind the story of Persephone, who gets abducted by Hades/Pluto to the Underworld and must remain there for six months of the year because she ate 6 pomegranate seeds. In this, the High Priestess is a gatekeeper to the hidden.

In many Tarot decks, her crown represents all phases of the Moon, as well as a symbol for the Maiden, Mother, Crone; the Divine Feminine, encompassing all important stages of life- her inner wisdom knows no bounds. It is also the crown of Hathor, Egyptian Goddess of Fertility. It also calls to mind Hecate, Goddess of Magic, who’s symbol is the crescent Moon, who witnessed Persephone being adbucted and helped to get her back.

As such, she is often seen presiding over thresholds as a guardian. Below her, her dress turns to water as it flows over another symbol of the Moon. In her hand, she holds a Torah and has a cross around her neck, symbolising a knowing faith and wisdom told through religion, that by blending the two transcends beyond any one.

Numerologically, the number 2 is all about balance and duality, finding harmony with self and other. In this, we can see The High Priestess as a bridge between two worlds. The Roman numeral two also literally looks like the two pillars she is sitting in front of, a reminder of the portal she stewards.

Astrologically, this card is related to the Moon, the Planetary body that governs our inner world, emotions, maternal line, creativity, emotions, and physical body. In this we can see the tie with the liminal, the right-hemisphere of the brain. The part of wisdom that cannot be explained, only known and felt. To some extent it also ties in Cancer, ruling Sign of the Moon. In this, we can see the relationship between the body and how we mother ourselves.

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Historically, she was known as La Papessa in the original Italian decks, a counterpart to Il Papa (now known as The Hierophant, card number 5), changed by Arthur Rider Waite and Pamela Colman Smith. The Popess was in reference to the legend of Pope Joan who was said to reign secretly for a number of years during the middle ages unbeknownst to anyone.

In general, when we receive the High Priestess in a reading, we can see it as an invitation to listen to our inner voice, to get still, quiet, and listen. It is a call to harmonise our intuition with our heart and emotions, and to follow our gut instinct. We know more than we may think we know.

It can appear as a message that we are already highly intuitive and with the potential for psychic understanding, the veil is thin in this moment- what can you see? When this card shows up for you in Tarot readings, it is time to trust yourself. It can also be a message that you have been spending too much time in the conscious mind and now is a moment to visit the ethereal.

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High Priestess Reversed

As a reversal, like all reversals for me, this card can represent a blockage or fear in listening to our intuition, an insecurity or lack of confidence in what we know we know. Often when something can’t be logically explained by the mind, we disregard it, but this is unwise. Sometimes, the heart, soul, and gut are wiser than we give them credit for (indeed more signals are sent to the brain from the heart than vice versa)! Whereas upright we may understand more consciously want we need to do, reversed it can indicate a confusion in knowing which voice to listen to.

The High Priestess card in a Love Reading

In this case, this card is a call to listen to what your instinct is telling you about the relationship. It can symbolise a spiritual union, almost Divine, as well as an invitation to follow your intuition rather than your logic.

High Priestess Tarot Meanings in a Career Reading

In a career reading, it is still a message to listen to your instinctual knowledge as regards to a business decision, as well as an invitation to invoke a higher meaning, to search for a spiritual path or compromise. To follow what your Higher Self would do in this moment.

To learn more about all the Tarot cards, check out our Beginner’s Tarot Guidebook!

So those are some of the High Priestess Tarot meanings, as with all cards, and this one in particular, your own discretion and intuition are always required on the moment! Each card is influence by the cards surrounding it, the nature of the question, the layout of the spread, the circumstances of the querent, and how it all feels for you on the moment. What other significations would you add? Let me know in the comments section below if you have any questions about it :)

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