Letter: Bet = Moon
Path: Between Keter and Tiferet
Quality: Wisdom
The Priestess is the Virgin Sophia, first companion of Creator, who channels and conveys authentic Divine Love into the world. This is also the sensitive soul of the mystic (male or female) who, having entered the temple of the Heart, waits expectantly for a revelation of the goddess. We see the Priestess (or Papess) drawing life-force up her left side (the ascending Father Pillar), harmonizing it with cosmos around her crown, then pouring it out (along the descending Mother Pillar) through her right breast and hand, feeding the sub-Lunar realms with her heavenly Light.
The two candlesticks with their twining vines demonstrate that all of Earth is the Priestess’ altar, putting us in mind of Jakin and Boaz of the Hebrew Kabbalah Tree, later reproduced in Masonic temples. From antiquity this is Silence, spouse of Depth, first syzygy of the Valentinian Gnostics. She was present in the beginning and is the shaper of Divine Thought into individual things. As the personal guide and invisible lover of the scribe or aspirant (this is you, dear reader), she is also the Mistress of Books, foremost in the library. Boehme would call her the Noble Virgin of Divine Wisdom. Alchemically, she is the Soror Mystica, spiritual companion to the alchemist at work in the laboratory.
Major Arcanum 2, the Priestess, represents the antithesis-response which naturally develops in the Light after the appearance of the Magus. The rule is “if this, then that”. Where he is outgoing, she turns inward. Where he is the Divine Word in action, she is Wisdom, witness to the truth that gives meaning to the Word. He balances across the breastbone, she plunges down the spine. Like night follows day, this Priestess is the depth to the Magus’ breadth. As befits her association with the Hebrew letter Bet, the Priestess occupies the altar in the inner sanctum of the temple, enthroned between the two pillars of rising and falling energies that forever stir the cosmos.
She represents the developed intuition, the ability to harmonize with Divine Will. Scripturally, Sophia is the name of God’s Wisdom and first companion, called the Logos-cutter. She separates out the infinite potentials of God’s mind and gives each thing its unique frequency for substantiation in matter. In Trump 2, she is the soul’s tutor in the labor of contemplation, which requires conforming one’s inner life to the archetypes. Under her title of Mistress of the Library, she has access to all of the teachings the ancestors distilled for our edification.
She bears witness to pure potential, not yet committed to any particular manifestation but backed up by all the luminous intelligence shimmering forth from the vibratory universe. Whichever way she is named or portrayed, astral energy pours out of the Sophia’s Heart into Creation at large. Often we’ll see the High Priestess represented as an oracle or a sibyl. She’ll be veiled, and on her lap will rest the Torah, including sometimes a gold and silver key (keys to the inner sanctum, referencing Astrology and divination).
Etteilla took a different tack and named her Eve. This title also emphasizes the intuition; Eve may be uncultivated and unsophisticated, but totally in touch with subtle currents both celestial and terrestrial. In any of these forms, she is a creature of the inner senses, the dreamtime fantasia of visualization and trance. This is the shadowy feminine figure that the Grail Knight follows both through his outer adventures and through his life of dreams and visions. She has various roles in his life: as sister, as guide, as lover, as corrector.
But the one role she doesn’t take is Mother. (That is reserved for our next Trump, the Empress.) Some religious philosophers interpret the symbol of Eve as the initiatrix of all future humanity. In this interpretation Eve’s eating of the apple proffered by the serpent was necessary in order to open humanity’s spiritual sight and awaken our capacity for discrimination. Her sacrificial act grants us some protection from false presentations and dissembling manipulators as we navigate this illusory world.
We are to understand the “knowledge of good and evil” as being a good thing to possess, not a tragedy, but a growth stage to master. We have chosen to emphasize this reference with our Priestess of the Holy Light because it best illustrates the esoteric operation of this Arcanum.
This Priestess represents the keeper of all the esoteric arts, but such is her nature that she uses them only as a catalyst to open the mind towards higher states of consciousness. So whereas the Magus represents the will to awaken dawning in the individual ego, the Priestess represents Divine Consciousness looking in on us and out through us.
This Priestess mediates awareness of the hidden realities that support the mundane world, spooling out the knowledge through the waxing and waning cycles of the Moon. Although the Priestess speaks all the languages of the mystery Schools, her genius lies in synthesizing the teachings of tradition with the living presence of Spirit in the consciousness of the individual. She stimulates the awakening of intuitive inner voices, which become our guides and allies as we study the spiritual sciences.
The Priestess is all forms of sentience, bestowing a clarity that dawns from within. She teaches through the parables of the ancients, and there are multiple levels to her every word. With her help the voice of the personal will is met by the even more compelling voice of Spirit. The Priestess is the first and last teacher, primary companion through the life of the mystic. She guards that inner sanctum within the self, where in her eloquent solitude we can relax and absorb the messages she writes on the mirror of the mind.
The above text is an excerpt from our book Tarot of the Holy Light: A Continental Esoteric Tarot - Volume One.