High Priestess tarot card, personality:?

[TurquoiseVirgo]

I was studying my tarot cards and I was just thinking of how a person of each card's personality might be and I noticed that there were a few cards I'm clueless about. One card in particular I can't stop wondering about is the High Priestess.I'd like to think that a person described by the High Priestess would be a woman of course who is maybe conservative and very feminine or maybe even quiet and mysterious? How do you guys think someone would see someone who is described as the High Priestess? What would that person's personality be like ?

 

[Thirteen]

The Librarian

I'd like to think that a person described by the High Priestess would be a woman of course who is maybe conservative and very feminine or maybe even quiet and mysterious? How do you guys think someone would see someone who is described as the High Priestess? What would that person's personality be like ?

Wouldn't have to be a woman, and wouldn't have to be conservative There's a gay male deck which has the HPS as a man, and many male readers have found in seeing this deck that they can, absolutely identify with this persona. That she's female in 99% of the decks doesn't mean her persona can only belong to a woman.

And she's not conservative, per se. The Hierophant is the card of those who are "conservative." Meaning, they want to maintain social norms, traditions, etc. The good of the majority over the good of the individual.

Of course, the HPS is not a rebel either. She is doing her own thing, but she does it privately, quietly and in her own comfortable world. She is most definitely mysterious; as a card about secrets, she is the sort to gain knowledge and keep it to herself. She decides who should know what and how much. Think of her like the librarian of the rare book section--the one who knows (and has read) books that no one else knows are in the collection. She might come across as a little distant, a little cool, even a little (or a lot) smug, but then, she knows she knows more than you do--then most people do

 

[Thirteen]

The Camel

Just to add: One of my favorite aspects of the HPS is that, Kabalistically speaking, her symbol (or special name) is "The Camel." This is because her card is the path along the tree of life that travels through an area called "The Abyss." Its this great empty stretch, viewed as dark and scary. Her emblem is the moon, and you can imagine that there, in the dark, you'd want moonlight to show you the way. But there's the other aspect of her as a camel in the desert. As distant, reserved, cool a person as she may seem to be, she is the one who can carry you across the roughest, driest, scariest areas of the esoteric.

She is "instinct"--also all those other "good" things the Moon represents (as compared to the bad things like illusions and deception)--like creativity, imagination, dreams, psychic powers. Which means you can think of her as that magical person in all those movies, the mysterious woman or man, who after gazing into the crystal ball, or at the hero's hand (or at his cards! ) tells the hero what to beware, or what to do or not do to survive in the scary woods or in the monster's castle.

She's not flashy like the magician, not part of some ancient tradition like the Hierophant, not out doing her own investigations like the Hermit. She is, rather, a quiet repository of information, the camel carrying it's own reserves of water. She is what you know, what you need to know, to survive in unknown lands.

 

[PAMUYA]

I was studying my tarot cards and I was just thinking of how a person of each card's personality might be and I noticed that there were a few cards I'm clueless about. One card in particular I can't stop wondering about is the High Priestess.I'd like to think that a person described by the High Priestess would be a woman of course who is maybe conservative and very feminine or maybe even quiet and mysterious? How do you guys think someone would see someone who is described as the High Priestess? What would that person's personality be like ?

This is how I personally see, my opinion of the High Priestess.

The High Priestess is an introvert(liberal/conservative depending on their up bringing). A lot of people like her/him but no one really knows them, she/he shares their secrets or inner most feelings with no one. She/he will sit quietly in a group, when they do speak up in conversation it is filled with wisdom that most oversee or "don't get". People bore them, but they listen, never forgetting what they has been told. You will never know when you meet a High Priestess, they are the wall flower at the dance, the girl/boy who keeps their head down, the "bag lady" living out of her shopping cart. They may seem harmless, but when you look into their eyes they can see right through you, know all of your secrets. They are hard working , caring, doing charitable work, but they keep to themselves needing their space and private time. They are the invisible people in society, not flashy, not wanting to be noticed.

 

[Nachtigall]

She is definitely mysterious, "veiled in light", as often described. I tend to see her path as the path of mystic - as were the "wise women" of the past, the shamans, the prophetesses, the ones whose work often seems too dangerous, too scary, perhaps also too strange and unworldly to the outside observer.

She is among the ones, who are called "the brides of God" in different traditions; she is the Pythia of the Delphic Oracle, the one who does her work sitting in a dark cave, breathing in the vapors of an ancient serpent - and getting to be in the union with the God of Light, as close as possible for a human being.

As others have said, she is not necessarily hostile to traditions, but doesn't always adhere to them as well - she does her own thing.

 

[TurquoiseVirgo]

Wouldn't have to be a woman, and wouldn't have to be conservative There's a gay male deck which has the HPS as a man, and many male readers have found in seeing this deck that they can, absolutely identify with this persona. That she's female in 99% of the decks doesn't mean her persona can only belong to a woman.

And she's not conservative, per se. The Hierophant is the card of those who are "conservative." Meaning, they want to maintain social norms, traditions, etc. The good of the majority over the good of the individual.

Of course, the HPS is not a rebel either. She is doing her own thing, but she does it privately, quietly and in her own comfortable world. She is most definitely mysterious; as a card about secrets, she is the sort to gain knowledge and keep it to herself. She decides who should know what and how much. Think of her like the librarian of the rare book section--the one who knows (and has read) books that no one else knows are in the collection. She might come across as a little distant, a little cool, even a little (or a lot) smug, but then, she knows she knows more than you do--then most people do

It's ironic you say the gay man comment and when I was looking at my High Priestess card, it reminded me of gay men for some reason. I loved the librarian metaphor to xD! Thank you for giving me a better understanding but I still am going to have to study the card in respects to other cards , it's very difficult... she's so secretive she even hides her secrets from me 8D.

Just to add: One of my favorite aspects of the HPS is that, Kabalistically speaking, her symbol (or special name) is "The Camel." This is because her card is the path along the tree of life that travels through an area called "The Abyss." Its this great empty stretch, viewed as dark and scary. Her emblem is the moon, and you can imagine that there, in the dark, you'd want moonlight to show you the way. But there's the other aspect of her as a camel in the desert. As distant, reserved, cool a person as she may seem to be, she is the one who can carry you across the roughest, driest, scariest areas of the esoteric.

She is "instinct"--also all those other "good" things the Moon represents (as compared to the bad things like illusions and deception)--like creativity, imagination, dreams, psychic powers. Which means you can think of her as that magical person in all those movies, the mysterious woman or man, who after gazing into the crystal ball, or at the hero's hand (or at his cards! ) tells the hero what to beware, or what to do or not do to survive in the scary woods or in the monster's castle.

She's not flashy like the magician, not part of some ancient tradition like the Hierophant, not out doing her own investigations like the Hermit. She is, rather, a quiet repository of information, the camel carrying it's own reserves of water. She is what you know, what you need to know, to survive in unknown lands.

Okay, THIS explanation made me understand better! I couldn't help but think of the Triple Moon Goddess or the Moon in Scorpio !

This is how I personally see, my opinion of the High Priestess.

The High Priestess is an introvert(liberal/conservative depending on their up bringing). A lot of people like her/him but no one really knows them, she/he shares their secrets or inner most feelings with no one. She/he will sit quietly in a group, when they do speak up in conversation it is filled with wisdom that most oversee or "don't get". People bore them, but they listen, never forgetting what they has been told. You will never know when you meet a High Priestess, they are the wall flower at the dance, the girl/boy who keeps their head down, the "bag lady" living out of her shopping cart. They may seem harmless, but when you look into their eyes they can see right through you, know all of your secrets. They are hard working , caring, doing charitable work, but they keep to themselves needing their space and private time. They are the invisible people in society, not flashy, not wanting to be noticed.

Woah... again, the description really helped me gain an understanding. It's weird because I am that way, can read people at first sight and generally am quiet. lol. It's funny how we can have a hard time understanding something and it turns out we are more like it than we think. Thank you all for your answers !!!

 

[Thirteen]

Absorbing unconscious information

People bore them, but they listen, never forgetting what they has been told. You will never know when you meet a High Priestess, they are the wall flower at the dance, the girl/boy who keeps their head down, the "bag lady" living out of her shopping cart. They may seem harmless, but when you look into their eyes they can see right through you, know all of your secrets. They are hard working , caring, doing charitable work, but they keep to themselves needing their space and private time. They are the invisible people in society, not flashy, not wanting to be noticed.

I think this is a great description, and the key here is the "not wanting to be noticed" line. It's important to distinguish, I think, between the shy wall flower at the dance who wants to be noticed, but isn't, and the HPS who isn't there to dance at all; she's there's to observe and learn something and being noticed and asked to dance will just interrupt what she's doing. She not only wants to be invisible, but makes an effort to be so.

Given all this, the hardest thing to remember about the HPS is that her astrological emblem is the Moon, which relates her to water signs. Yet she isn't, like most water signs, outwardly compassionate or emotional. Like the Moon, she's distant, her coolness more like armored Cancer (emotional inside but not on the outside), her desire to gather information more like that sign's inclination to nab treasures in its claws and take them back to it's lair under the sea. Like Scorpio she is secretive, reserved, suspicious, and well able to make use of that information the Cancer side gathered. And like Pisces, she can be mysterious, otherworldly, observant.

Which is to say, for all her librarian qualities, she isn't an airy intellectual. She can be as comfortable at the dance gathering information as she can flipping through reference books. She isn't the wallflower at the dance thinking, "I wish someone would ask me to dance," nor is she there thinking, "I'd rather be reading." She's apart because she wants to see who asks whom onto the floor, take in the body language, snippets of conversation, expressions. She's the Scorpio psychiatrist, the mom-who-knows-all Cancer and know-what-you're-going-to-say-before-you-say-it Pisces confidant, absorbing any and all unconscious information like a sponge, then discretely filtering it out to those she feels need to know it.

 

[Anna Supertramp]

It's weird, but I get bad vibes from her mostly, and she mainly does appear in my readings when describing people with hidden agendas -- backstabbers. To me she's kinda like a reversed Queen of Cups -- I feel she uses her intuition to do good, whereas the Priestess uses her instincts to deceive others and abuses her power to serve her own needs. I am not super super proficient yet, so my views of her might change somewhere along the line, but from the readings I have done she has appeared as somewhat vindictive, manipulative, a bit like a mind game player -- much like the Scorpio, indeed.

To give you a more concrete example, she recently came up in a reading for a woman who is narcissistic and emotionally abusive to her emotionally dependent husband, whom she clearly only married for his money.

 

[Thirteen]

A spectrum of personality

To give you a more concrete example, she recently came up in a reading for a woman who is narcissistic and emotionally abusive to her emotionally dependent husband, whom she clearly only married for his money.

There are no cards in the deck--or in any readings you'll do through out your lifetime, that are purely black or purely white. All the cards contain a spectrum; in regards to the personality in characters cards, these range from the very best to the very worst. Depending on the reading and who we're reading for, we might come up with any persona in that spectrum when we get such a card. I'm sorry that you've only see the very worst side of the HPS' spectrum, but it is perfectly fine and right when discussing her to point out all the possibilities, the unflattering and dangerous ones as well as the positive and useful ones.

For example, if we were discussing the Queen of Cups, whom you seem to view positively, it would be good for someone to point out that she can also indicate a very moody personality, one inclined to manipulate for very selfish reasons--and/or can stand for someone with psychological problems (depression, schizophrenia) or an addiction to prescription drugs.

The more parts of that personality spectrum we discuss the better. We shouldn't dwell only on the positives of any card's personality any more than we should dwell only on their negatives. Just as we shouldn't cast all Scorpios as backstabbers (And no, I'm not a Scorpio, but I figure I'd better point this out before they take offense and come after you )