the sexuality of the priestess

[brennamor]

I've just read this thread with a lot of interest. I hadn't given it a whole lot of thought before but I've always interpreted the High Priestess as virgin in the sense of belonging to no one person or family. Her responsibilities are to the tribe or the people and not to one specific family. But I have never seen her as virgo intacta.

Much like many others have posted, I've often considered her a sacred prostitute or the High Priestess who makes the hieros gamos with the king to ensure the blessings of the gods. Even in the more traditional RWS version she reminds me of the prioress or abbess of a spiritual center. A woman who is in command of her domain and not subject to the will and whims of men. Someone else mentioned the descriptions of ecstatic experiences described by some saints and nuns. They definitely sound like experiences of sacred sexuality. So there was some sexuality there - but perhaps it was more than physical.

And Fudugazi, now I want to see the movie you mentioned - The Night Porter. It sounds very interesting.

 

[SunChariot]

Well the HP is my Soul Card and I do very much associate with her, so I would hate to see her as sexless.

That being said, maybe she is someone who is privy to hidden sexual knowledge that not everyone has access to, the kama sutra for example. Or even someone who is trying to fulfill some unconscious needs through sex.

Bar

 

[Shannon Rae]

From something I've written before and from ''The Sexual Key To The Tarot'' by Theodore Laurence:

II High Priestess: A ''dream girl.'' Geographically symbolized, sexual gratification is ''up,'' sexual frustration is ''down.'' The crown that she wears with the horns on either side pointing upward (phallic symbols) indicates her mental awareness of the needs of male phalli. It is this penile awareness which makes her the ''perfect woman,'' she who is cognizant of all the sexual facts of life, ''a girl after one's own heart.'' She exists in all women once they recognize their true sexual role in a man's life.

On her breast is a large solar cross...This emblem symbolizes the sanctification of the ''heart,'' from whence comes her uninhibited sexual expression and free spirit in her sexuality with men of her choice; where ''sin'' does not exist. In love she will utilize her sexual knowledge, ardent passion, and her vagina consecutively or simultaneously with ''all her heart,'' and the man in her life will know complete and gratifying sexual ecstasy.

In her hands, inscribed with the word ''TORA,'' is a scroll partly covered by her robe...That the scroll is partly concealed implies that her sexuality is only partly objectified. The complete woman is not evident simply because she induces sexual pleasure. The scroll (phallus), half hidden, signifies that a man who is true to her, who has won her ''heart,'' will find in her, via the path of her objectified free and open sexuality, deeper and unforeseen delights.
As for the word ''Tora,'' this and and the word ''penis'' each vibrate, numerologically, to 9, the mystical number denoting completeness, fulfillment.

She is seated between two pillars, one dark and one light...the symbolization is threefold. One, like the half hidden scroll, the dark and light pillars (phalli) represent the secret and the obvious respectively, the two aspects of her total sexuality. Two, as symbols of erected, sexually-charged phalli, the two pillars signify her acceptance of man and his penis without discrimination, yet another indication of her free spirit in sexual matters. Three, the bloomed, flowering heads of the pillar-phalli are portents. They symbolize her promise of eruptive and violent orgasms for men with whom she cohabits.

Her dress is flowing and gauzy..these represent continuity of sexual expression.

Her garment is blue...signifying radiant emanation of mind, spirit, and body, each of which or all of which insure sexual fulfillment.

She represents to the Querent the perfect woman all hetero men dream about and long for, the woman who can satisfy their sexual desires far beyond their wildest thoughts. She intuitively knows the value to a man of a loving and sexually expressive female who can gratify him. She is the spirit of motherhood and is associated with the earth from which all things flow. A woman of the High Priestess-nature will please a man in every way she can, barring no sexual activity. She does not recognize sexual perversion, ''sin'' does not exist for her where love is concerned.