Boaz, Jachin, and the High Priestess

Look at the Hathor Temple in the middle- where the round circles are are the Pillars on the so called Porch.
http://www.crystalinks.com/DenderaTempleComplex.html
In this case the entrance seems to facing North.
So if HP was on the Porch with the water behind her- she is facing South- looking directly at the North Entrance. She has her back to the outside world.
~Rosanne

If it's some kind of anteroom to the main temple and she's facing inward, she's either guarding the natural world behind her, or, if she's guarding the temple entrance, she's unclear on the concept.

Here's Waite from the Pictoral Key.
http://www.sacred-texts.com/tarot/pkt/pktar02.htm

II
The High Priestess

She has the lunar crescent at her feet, a horned diadem on her head, with a globe in the middle place, and a large solar cross on her breast. The scroll in her hands is inscribed with the word Tora, signifying the Greater Law, the Secret Law and the second sense of the Word. It is partly covered by her mantle, to shew that some things are implied and some spoken. She is seated between the white and black pillars--J. and B.--of the mystic Temple, and the veil of the Temple is behind her: it is embroidered with palms and pomegranates. The vestments are flowing and gauzy, and the mantle suggests light--a shimmering radiance. She has been called occult Science on the threshold of the Sanctuary of Isis, but she is really the Secret Church, the House which is of God and man. She represents also the Second Marriage of the Prince who is no longer of this world; she is the spiritual Bride and Mother, the daughter of the stars and the Higher Garden of Eden. She is, in fine, the Queen of the borrowed light, but this is the light of all. She is the Moon nourished by the milk of the Supernal Mother.

In a manner, she is also the Supernal Mother herself--that is to say, she is the bright reflection. It is in this sense of reflection that her truest and highest name in bolism is Shekinah--the co-habiting glory. According to Kabalism, there is a Shekinah both above and below. In the superior world it is called Binah, the Supernal Understanding which reflects to the emanations that are beneath. In the lower world it is MaIkuth--that world being, for this purpose, understood as a blessed Kingdom that with which it is made blessed being the Indwelling Glory. Mystically speaking, the Shekinah is the Spiritual Bride of the just man, and when he reads the Law she gives the Divine meaning. There are some respects in which this card is the highest and holiest of the Greater Arcana.

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I could swear I read somewhere that she guards the Temple.

LRichard said:

I'm getting more and more confused by all this stuff. If she has her back to the west, and she is facing the eastern door, then how can she be outside on the porch?

And nobody has explained what happened to the Holy Place היכל if the door opens from the porch directly to the Holy of Holies קדש הקדשים , which is in the back or western end of the building.

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I'm guessing the portrayal is symbolic, as there really is so much one can do with two-dimensional space. Plus the actual pillars didn't hold anything up, and were, according to some theories, on the roof. Not to mention, there is no body of water anywhere near Jerusalem.

However, I will probably have to amend my original post, as it may not hold up. What could hold up is if you consider the verse about the veil itself:

"And he made the veil of blue and purple and crimson and fine linen and wrought cherubim thereon"

There is no blue on the veil in the card, but the Priestess herself is all blue. While my original theory was perhaps more "elegant," she could in fact be part of the veil itself, shielding creation from the scintillating light of Keter. This could still make sense in regard to the adjacent paths. Also her hat seems to depict Da'ath, a relative rarity in the RWS portrayals of the Tree. One would assume the cherubim on the veil were not actual likenesses, so as not to go against the commandment against idol worship, so the Sephiroth could be an adequate portrayal of this. Of course, one could also be wrong in that assumption, as the passage clearly speaks of wings and "cherubim of image work."

On the other hand, in front of the Temple there was a large basin called the Brazen Sea, which could be the water we see behind the veil, in which case she really is with her back to the door. But then the placement of the pillars actually would be wrong...

Oh dear, this is confusing...

Hehehe! I missed this bit about it been a mystic temple. In reality all the temples faced the Nile, which in the Temples of Hathor and Isis etc this is what is said....


The main temple complex is oriented, as usual, toward the Nile, which here flows east-west, so that the temple faces north. However, to the ancient Egyptians, this was symbolically east, since the temple faces the Nile.

So it would seem to me in this 'mystic Temple' on the card, she has her back to the Nile and is facing the inner sanctuary of Isis. According to the book, symbolically she is facing West, with her back to the East.
Clear as mud??????
~Rosanne

But there are many indications it faced East, towards the rising sun

http://www.bible.ca/archeology/bibl...nt-east-orientation-jewish-temples-altars.htm

in which case her back would be toward the east and her face toward the west

ETA: Sorry, misunderstood your post, we're saying the same thing but differently.

Could we get a sketch of this with "N" indicating north? Someone?

Best one I could find (although I must admit I didn't try hard). In any case, it does show the Temple opening eastward

http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/historical/ancient_jerusalem.jpg

I still believe the HP is in a sort of generic Golden Dawn or Masonic lodge room, which suggests the Hekhal in Solomon's Temple, but the orientation is opposite. Anyhow, the entrance to the room is in the West. The Presiding officer is in the East. The Altar is in the center of the room. Viewing the room from the West entrance, the Pillars are oriented with the White Pillar to the right of the Black Pillar. If the HP is in the East, facing the entrance, from her perspective the White Pillar is on the left, the Black on the right. If there is a Veil, it would be in the East, dividing the Hekhal from the Most Moly Place.

The orientation of the Pillars is significant to those entering the room, but the HP represents the Middle Pillar from Tiphareth to Kether, and as such, like the World and Temperance, she does not have polarities. She is a synthesis of the Pillars of Mercy and Severity, the Masculine and Feminine, symbolically androgynous like the other segments of the Pillar of Balance. Behind her is the Veil, the partition between the Hekhal and the Holy of Holies.

This is my take on the HP card.

The clues are many that Waite drew inspiration from Solomon's Temple in creating THP. It's stylized in many respects but that's not surprising. Very often occult doctrine is based on the Bible in one way or another, but is a secret or hidden interpretation revealed to the initiated. The Torah, the Pillars, the water flowing from the Temple, Waite's references to her as Shekinah, the holiest (as in Holy of Holies) of the Greater Arcana, and the Secret Church all show where his inspiration came from, though his language also suggests a mystic interpretation.

I believe the water is a reference to Ezekiel 47:1-12. It's not a literal river (at least not at this point) but a river of life Ezekiel saw in a vision:

"Then he brought me back to the door of the temple, and behold, water was issuing from below the threshold of the temple toward the east (for the temple faced east). The water was flowing down from below the south end of the threshold of the temple, south of the altar. Then he brought me out by way of the north gate and led me around on the outside to the outer gate that faces toward the east; and behold, the water was trickling out on the south side. Going on eastward with a measuring line in his hand, the man measured a thousand cubits, and then led me through the water, and it was ankle-deep. Again he measured a thousand, and led me through the water, and it was knee-deep. Again he measured a thousand, and led me through the water, and it was waist-deep. Again he measured a thousand, and it was a river that I could not pass through, for the water had risen. It was deep enough to swim in, a river that could not be passed through. And he said to me, 'Son of man, have you seen this?' Then he led me back to the bank of the river. As I went back, I saw on the bank of the river very many trees on the one side and on the other. And he said to me, 'This water flows toward the eastern region and goes down into the Arabah, and enters the sea; when the water flows into the sea, the water will become fresh. And wherever the river goes, every living creature that swarms will live, and there will be very many fish. For this water goes there, that the waters of the sea may become fresh; so everything will live where the river goes. Fishermen will stand beside the sea. From Engedi to Eneglaim it will be a place for the spreading of nets. Its fish will be of very many kinds, like the fish of the Great Sea. But its swamps and marshes will not become fresh; they are to be left for salt. And on the banks, on both sides of the river, there will grow all kinds of trees for food. Their leaves will not wither, nor their fruit fail, but they will bear fresh fruit every month, because the water for them flows from the sanctuary (Waite calls her the threshold of the "Sanctuary of Isis"). Their fruit will be for food, and their leaves for healing.'"