Tarot of the Silicon Dawn - The High Priestess

She is in the process of becoming or of dividing. She embodies the traditional black and white pillars of Boaz and Jachin which stood at the entrance to the Temple of Solomon. Her temple in this deck is a science lab. I also see her as standing at and embodying the doors of perception. I look at this card and think of Huxley's mind bending experiencing of the world and his exploration of imagery and symbol under the influence of mescalin - in altered state and I then think of the Pythoness of the Delphi intoxicated and drugged by fumes spouting forth oracular messages.

Huxley's 'Doors of Perception' drew its title from Blake's 'Marriage of Heaven and Hell' (as above so below). There are intertextual links in this deck whether intended or not.

I cannot make out the images on all the screens at the back of this card but Egypt points out that there is a camel (Gimel : the Hebrew letter associated with this card) and a Janus two-faced image, which I CAN see and which as well as a representation of duality is, for me, also about perception and how knowledge becomes transmitted to us visually (at a non-verbal level) since it is also the 'Is it a vase or two faces ?' image.


Egypt talks of binocular vision in her commentary on this card…a link to those video cameras in the Fool perhaps...

I think the same Elendil, it does look like this lady is in an altered state... and merging, the more solid version has her hands closed yet the transparent version hands open, this makes me think of the receptivity of the self and the higher/inner/spirit self (whatever you want to call it) that our inner being is so much more receptive and aware and yet the physical body seems to not be giving anything away.

This mirroring and merging also looks like a dance, we can be one aspect of the priestess and then another, sometimes both.

when I first saw this card I thought it was an erotic dance scene, a women in an altered state on a podium in front of the camera, I didn't see the science lab thing at all until it was mentioned here. For me it was a nod to the virgin/whore aspect of the priestess.

Tilting the card it seems she has an aura around her which reaches out to the corners of the card, it feels to me this is both her boundaries (closed fists) and and also her reaching out and connecting on a spiritual level. Looking at their heads there seems to be a pink cone is this the connection to higher self, divine wisdom?

the podium is interesting, are those round things little mirrors? self reflection? Her eyes are closed indicating a withdrawal and looking within.

The Janus reference does seem to indicate the duality and also the black and white of her hair makes me think of ying and yang, these two images are part of the whole, one cannot exist in balance without the other.

The green color across the chest makes me think of the heart chakra, of being open hearted and of healthy love, self love also. Other chakra colors feature but are not in the right places on the body for instance the orange represents the sacral chakra but is on the legs rather than on the genitals so I doubt the coloring is an intended nod to the chakras.

The pictures on the walls are interesting, I am going to did out my granny's magnifying glass to try and see the images. But I wonder if on the whole they are suggestive of esoteric teachings, the art of understanding and interpreting symbolism. Reading the signs and messages of what surround us. being aware of the synchronicity presented to us.

The spotlights and tubes above her head interest me. why spotlights... I keep coming back to the image this card presents (to me) as the priestess as a performer. Her nakedness, her ability to reach an altered state on a podium in front of cameras interests me. are the two merging or separating? does it matter as they will only reunite again either way, perhaps here we see her stepping outside herself for this spiritual quest, to connect with those vibrations around her, to have some time outside of herself where she can access pure intuition and divine connection. Maybe this is a ritual we are witnessing.

There is a lot to think about in this card, it is not a card I would look at and recognize as the priestess which makes it all the more interesting. It makes me think of the connection she has to the magician because the more I look at this the more I see altered state and ritual.

hmmm I need to think about this card a lot more - I'm missing something important.....

At first glance I didn't get a lot out of this card, I kind of just hit a blank wall...however the Priestess is slowly starting to reveal her mysteries to me.

I like your comment Elendil of how the two images of the Priestess are black and white representing the traditional pillars of the priestess card...

The uv effect waves seem to emmanate from the priestess' forehead where the blending of the priestess' faces seem to create a 'third' eye.

This priestess seems to me to be dancing, perhaps between realities, which to me ties in with the science lab feel, as quantum physics (isn't it? or is it string theory? I'm no scientist!) puts forward the idea of multiple dimensions and layers of existence, and also relates to the conscious and unconscious realms.

I like how she has been put on a pedestal, Pythias of old were revered by their communities and held great respect. And what they did no doubt contained elements of showmanship and theatre to make it all the exciting and mysterious to the people who came to them seeking knowledge...

Two's are about duality and this card certainly seems to show that! I also need a magnifiying glass I think to see the details in the pictures in the background! I think one has the image of a crescent moon though, and we all know how the priestess and feminine principles relate to the moon and the night time...

I'm probbaly going to come back and post more, but the priestess is being a tease and not giving me anything more at this time! I feeeeel like there is more...

ETA: I feel like there is more in a physics kinda way to this card, however my physics is sketchy at best! Like how if you watch a pot boil, it really does take longer to come to the boil...that your consciousness interacts with atoms and directly influences the outcome, or is that more the magician? arrgh i need to go to sleep!

To be gnomic...

Double slit experiment. Interference patterns. Especially in light of the varnish here.

Note that the dark-haired half has her hands closed, the white has them open. On and off, 1 and 0.

Less gnomically, I may have to contemplate this card before the next time I take my clothes off onstage, thanks to Nikki's reading! Modern burlesque can definitely be about a sacred feminine space. But I digress.

Some screen symbols: camel, moon, bubble chamber tracks, vase/face ambiguity (are they eyeing each other or is the vase half full?) , a hand with first and second fingers upraised - in a V, in a rude English gesture, or in benediction? Or maybe just counting to two.

I think this card and some of the (VOID) courts are the only place I used outlines on things. High Priest comes close, but I see his lines as details on a surface, not cartoony outlines. Do the Priestess' lines make her/them more or less definite than the rest of the deck?

Egypt Urnash said:

To be gnomic...

Double slit experiment. Interference patterns. Especially in light of the varnish here.

Note that the dark-haired half has her hands closed, the white has them open. On and off, 1 and 0.

Less gnomically, I may have to contemplate this card before the next time I take my clothes off onstage, thanks to Nikki's reading! Modern burlesque can definitely be about a sacred feminine space. But I digress.

Some screen symbols: camel, moon, bubble chamber tracks, vase/face ambiguity (are they eyeing each other or is the vase half full?) , a hand with first and second fingers upraised - in a V, in a rude English gesture, or in benediction? Or maybe just counting to two.

I think this card and some of the (VOID) courts are the only place I used outlines on things. High Priest comes close, but I see his lines as details on a surface, not cartoony outlines. Do the Priestess' lines make her/them more or less definite than the rest of the deck?

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The HP definitely feels more ethereal and less definite to me than the rest of the deck. I feel like half of her is not in this dimension with me, but like Nikki says maybe in an altered state of consciousness.

Duality, is a big theme in this card as has been pointed out. Black, white...open, closed...the ambiguity of the screen symbols, you can interpret quite a few in one of two ways.

Ahhhh the Double Split experiment and wave interferance patterns...I think I thought about this last night, but was too tired to articulate it, so that thought bubbled floated away! I like one particular interpretation of the results of these experiments as it feels profound to me somehow...

According to the relational interpretation of quantum mechanics, first proposed by Carlo Rovelli,[30] observations such as those in the double-slit experiment result specifically from the interaction between the observer (measuring device) and the object being observed (physically interacted with), not any absolute property possessed by the object. In the case of an electron, if it is initially "observed" at a particular slit, then the observer–particle (photon–electron) interaction includes information about the electron's position. This partially constrains the particle's eventual location at the screen. If it is "observed" (measured with a photon) not at a particular slit but rather at the screen, then there is no "which path" information as part of the interaction, so the electron's "observed" position on the screen is determined strictly by its probability function. This makes the resulting pattern on the screen the same as if each individual electron had passed through both slits. It has also been suggested that space and distance themselves are relational, and that an electron can appear to be in "two places at once" – for example, at both slits – because its spatial relations to particular points on the screen remain identical from both slit locations

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Taken from wikipedia