Tarot of the Sidhe - The High Priestess

This week's Tarot of the Sidhe card decided to flip itself out of the deck while shuffling and wanted some serious attention.  I was actually coming to the point of getting ready to stop shuffling and cut the deck and pull a card but this one decided to jump out instead.  And it's a great one!  I have come to a point where I judge a deck based on two cards, the High Priestess and The Hermit.  If I like these two cards in a deck then I typically end up loving the whole deck.  This ended up being the case here because this is truly one of the most dynamic High Priestess cards I have ever seen.

So let's start by looking at some of what Emily Carding says about the High Priestess in the book for the deck.

I am the guardian of the lake, and I am the waters.  I am the reflection of the hidden moon, and I am what lies beneath.  I rest upon the pages of the great book, between the setting sun and the rising moon.  My name is secret and its power lies beyond the veil.  If you would learn to read your own reflection in my waters, then perchance you may start to glean some wisdom from my book.

I absolutely love what she presents here about the idea of reading your own reflection in her waters to glean her sacred wisdom.  This is something that I have always felt with the High Priestess.  She isn't trying to block our path through the veil and she isn't trying to hide anything from us.  Her book or scroll is right there waiting for us to read from it but often we find a little feeling of intimidation, at least at first glance, when we come up against her.  She's knows our deepest thoughts that sometimes even we don't know exist.  She'll show us how to see them too if we'll listen to what she has to offer.

This card is really interesting.  Let's start with looking at the rainbow since that's one of the very first things that grabs your attention with this card.  Rainbows are created when light reflects through rain droplets in the sky.  When we see the High Priestess holding the rainbow in her hands for us she is reflecting something back to us.  If we stop and look at the High Priestess what parts of ourselves can we find within her?  Do we have the same inner sight that she has?  Do we have that intuition that she has?  Maybe we're just don't give ourselves enough credit and we feel we need someone to facilitate these things for us. 

Once we see through the rainbow and the waters we can read the book of wisdom that she guards.  And there's a reason she guards it.  When I look at this card and the look on her face I feel as though she's testing us.  She tests us because the wisdom in the book is something that isn't for everyone.  It makes me think of the Akashic Records and the great deal of information housed there and the fact that not everyone is meant to read the Records.  Some people are never in the right place to access this information while others just need to be tested and grow enough to read it.  The High Priestess is very much a teacher but a teacher.  She's a teacher of inner vision, inner strength, and our personal resolve in both cases. 

We can also look at the rainbow as a bridge that the High Priestess presents to us to travel. We can travel that bridge and gain insight and wisdom along the way and the High Priestess will help us if we ask for it.

She has the moon behind her hair and the sun blazing through her belly.  It's interesting to me to see the sun shining through the solar plexus here.  It's another reminder about strength and being true to yourself.  And again, much like the Tower card, we see the Glyph as a foundational element.  She is connected to the Underworld and she can pass through to there to gain insight and information when needed through the waters that she calls her home. 

This made me stop to think a bit about the connection between the High Priestess and the Tower.  The High Priestess asks us to look within, to find our inner wisdom and, to an extent, test ourselves to be able to touch this level of wisdom.  We move through the other lessons which teach us and test us and then we eventually reach the Tower where we finally break free of the things that have been holding us back or keeping us from reaching our true potential.  I feel a connection between these two and as though it's the power of knowledge that we gain from the High Priestess that helps us to make it through the challenges we face at the Tower.

This is a beautiful and rich card.  The face on the High Priestess has an almost alien-like appearance.  She certainly is of another world and here she feels removed from the other Sidhe to me.  I see her as someone that has been removed from the others.  She sees and understands things that others don't and her wisdom is special, privileged, and unique.