Alchemical Study Group - II The High Priestess

HoneyBea

The High Priestess is a no II card and twos also signify duality and so our HP shows us an awareness of duality within, of her unconscious and her conscious. She recognizes both of these and understands that she can meld them to work in unison.

I'll come back later when I have more time I would really like to look at this card in some more depth.

~HoneyBea~

Ok I'm back I love the way this HP floats in her moon boat across the water, perhaps indicating the depths that exists.
The water I note is a rich green colour and green is made up of blue associated with the heavens and yellow the earth and could well indicate here the duality that exists and how they can merge together.
That rich deep purple robe she wears surely indicates here her wisdom and maybe her authority of esoteric knowledge, it can also be associated with the crown chakra and again alludes to subconscious/higher self and conscious meeting.

The full moon hangs in the back ground, perhaps suggesting that the secrets revealed to the HP will bring fulfillment. She clutches that book close to her and it bears the alchemical sign for water suggesting to me that she is in touch with her emotions and feelings.

The HP has a passive energy and in her silence she meditates knowing that the real power lies within her depths. She appears on the surface to be inactive and yet she is active,(the moon boat moves, yet she is still) knowing that only you have the key to unlock those hidden talents that lie within — she is the one who encourages us to approach our life in a fresh way that maybe places trust in one's intuition rather than logic.

Pollack said of the HP and I can't remember from where
The secret of the High Priestess is simple — that no fixed rule defines existence, no absolute truth. To know reality we must flow like water and open our souls to the pulse of life

This Alchemical HP image certainly feels like she is able to flow like water.
 

Marchal

sapienza said:
Before I begin on this card, I just need to say that the paragraph above has had an enormous impact on how I view the major arcana. I just love the way he corresponds these four cards to the four elements.

..although I would have expected the Emperor to correspond with Aries and Fire, and would have associated the Hierophant with Air (although I have also found the Hierophant corresponding to Taurus, Earth). Which correspondence is the right one? (ah, yes, IS there a RIGHT one?)

Kind regards Marchal
 

RexMalaki

The High Priestess stands robed with raised hood in a crescent-shaped boat surrounded by an ocean. Her left hand makes a motion as if to warn us, quiet. Her right had holds a closed book emblazoned with the alchemical symbol for water, and a full Moon is prominent behind her right shoulder.

The High Priestess stands in full virtue robed from head to foot and floating on a sea of unconscious thought. The closed book indicates hidden knowledge. This card is a personification of Levi's four words of the magus: to know, to dare, to will, and to keep silence. The knowledge is the unconscious ocean and the book that she holds close. She dares to venture into this vast expanse of water in an unstable craft. It is her will alone that sustains her as the wind whips her robe in the moonlight. Hush, she cautions; there is danger in a loose tongue. It is better to keep silence.
 

princess of there

Hey Rexmalaki and everybody,

some 'random' thoughts I came across. Going back to the water, very present in this "ocean" card, you say it embodies knowlegde. Do you think :

1) she stands near the coast, welcoming the reader to discover this knwoledge nightly (=in secret)

2) she stands in the middle of the ocean, like the whale in the King of Vessels another/the other ocean card? In the latter, water would rather symbolizes our emotion

Ju
 

RexMalaki

princess of there said:
Hey Rexmalaki and everybody,

some 'random' thoughts I came across. Going back to the water, very present in this "ocean" card, you say it embodies knowlegde. Do you think :

1) she stands near the coast, welcoming the reader to discover this knwoledge nightly (=in secret)

2) she stands in the middle of the ocean, like the whale in the King of Vessels another/the other ocean card? In the latter, water would rather symbolizes our emotion

Ju

I am not sure how to resolve this "water" thing. Robert Place assigns Water to the Jungian aspect of personality Intuition. Rachael Pollack assigns Water the aspect Feeling.

Ocean and water does symbolize unconscious thought, but water also implies emotions and feeling. There is no truth. It is up to us to decide how water applies in a given situation.

But I see hidden knowledge and the emotional center in this card. Maybe the Queen of Vessels is more the emotional side of the High Priestess.
 

Gazel

RexMalaki said:
I am not sure how to resolve this "water" thing. Robert Place assigns Water to the Jungian aspect of personality Intuition. Rachael Pollack assigns Water the aspect Feeling.

I really find it to be meaningful that Fire is assigned to Feeling and Water to Intuition. Something just click'ed so to speak, because I've always found it confusing that Fire/Wands should be associated with Intuition.
 

Parzival

Alchemical Study Group : High Priestess

This is a most interesting, insightful thread. I think the Ocean may be considered vastness of Being, both deep down in the individual and out into the whole Universe. The book is closed because Being cannot be experienced in direct reality except when all books and words are silenced, and pure, simple awareness of all there is is all there is (not that I have achieved this ultimately and permanently). Hamlet says, in the end, "Let be." The wu wei of the Taoist is "Stop doing and be." Siddhartha finds Being by ferrying travelers across the river. Thoreau finds Being in Walden pond's reflection of sky in water. So the High Priestess is not essentially a correspondence but actually a universal Truth.
 

sapienza

I love your insights on this card Frank. Thanks so much for sharing, it has really given me a lot more to think about with this image.