Tarot: The Symbolism of the High Priestess

The High Priestess is the third card of the major arcana. Depicted in the Rider-Waite deck as woman dressed in blue, sitting in front of two pillars and holding a scroll, she represents the feminine intuition and the lunar influenced elements. The two pillars in the Rider-Waite deck are colored black and grey-white, and are adored with the letters B (black pillar) and J (white pillar); behind the woman is a curtain, or veil, with seven pomegranates visible on it (esoteric tradition says that the veil actually has ten pomegranates on it, with three of them being hidden behind the woman). Furthermore in the Rider-Waite deck, the woman in blue has a cross around her neck, a horned lunar crown on her head, a crescent at her feet, and is holding a half rolled scroll with the letters "TORA" visible.

The Golden Dawn version of the High Priestess has the woman standing wearing a lunar crescent and veil, barefoot and holding a chalice (cup); around her waist is a belt adorned with orbs of the moon. The Golden Dawn version is predominately colored blue.

The High Priestess is one of the guardians of the Temple in esoteric tradition. She represents Isis in her virgin state (before bearing Horus, the son of Osiris slain, restored and risen). She is Shekinah, the bride of the spiritual man. The scroll she holds, or the Chalice, is an aspect of the Holy Grail, symbol of divine law and inspiration; she is the voice of the Kabbalah, the mystic science that details the creation of the universe by God and the redemption of the Adept that leads to complete conscious union with the divine.

The Pillars behind her represent the Pillars of the Temple, Boaz and Jachin (Yachin), and the Pillars of Severity and Mercy of the Tree of Life. The seven pomegranates on the veil represent the Tree of Life, the seven rays, the seven charkas, and the seven energetic bodies of the realized Adept. The scroll of the law reminds us that it is though the study of the divine that we come to the knowledge of the mystic hidden parts of the universe. The lunar symbols, crescents and moons, remind us that in order to ascend we must learn to control and harness our emotions and astral body.

The initiates of Golden Dawn associate the High Priestess card, Key 2, with the twelfth path that connects the sephiroth Kether and Tiphareth. This path is assigned the letter Gimel ("Camel") and the classical planet, the Moon by the members of Golden Dawn.

Esoteric Title: The Priestess of the Silver Star

Keyword: Consciousness

In a reading, the High Priestess represents change, foresight, intuition, the emotions, and opportunities opening up.