GRAY TAROT
The High Priestess II.
The High Priestess provides insight and medicine for enlightened conscious change. She makes us aware of the powerful presence of duality and the need for it to exist. The cat embodies the essence of the divine power of the feminine polarity in magical workings. With agility and flexibility, she is able to maneuver through all spaces in the material and psychic world, both domesticated and feral. She is tapped intuitively into the collective consciousness, on a higher frequency than The Magician. She holds space and grace for the world around her, in the intention of manifestation. The cat honors the material world with self love and low end healing frequencies. She purrs in order to heal, whether subconsciously or consciously knowing, the sound of her joy encourages healing growth to take place. Indignantly independent she is a creature of beauty and charm. It is easy for the cat to obtain what she wants and operates by her own rules. All things are easily accessible within her workings and desires.
The High Priestesses can get lost being at odds with her head’s conflicting priorities. Indignantly clever and self aware, she can be prone to over indulge in personal vanities, either psychically, materialistically, or mentally. She can get caught up outwardly chasing elevated image and status or inwardly getting lost in the workings of magic and the subconscious realm, falling too far into the darkness detaching from reality, dreaming, and sleeping too much. There needs to be a proper balance of incorporating the High Priestess magic into this realm to achieve positive results in your life.
The Cat carries with her the lantern which casts light on the darkness for all to see. She brings forth the light that casts and exposes the shadow. The High Priestess is the bearer of this enlightened illumination within humanity. Within her is self awareness. She is full and complete, intuitively knowing being radiant in the dark. She is at home embodied in her holy places; the earth, the mother, the darkness, and the womb. In these realms she provides the nurturing healing of sleep and dreams. Deriving psychic and intuitive healing powers from the phasing lunar cycles she is there to guide us to trust our instincts and work on healing ourselves. Like the cat who purrs of its joys, we are unconsciously healing ourselves when we pursue our enjoyment. Similarly to the owl (The Magician), the insightful eyes of the cat can see through the darkness into the veil of the shadows and perceive the mysterious energies that interconnect everything. She is aware of the energies at play in most situations and knows how to conduct them. While she can, at her worst, slip into the pursuit of elevated vanities, she is, in her best nature, very kind and brings the illumination of light to all.
Cats coexist with us because we harbor vermin. Mice and rats are the animal plague that comes with crops, excess, mess, and waste. The cat, while still technically being feral, has adapted to live besides us, protecting us from creatures that carry disease and invade our spaces. She is a great protector of the sacred space of home. We need this kind of energy to guide us, cleaning our spaces of harmful (although sometimes cute) unwanted guests. Use this High Priestess energy to guide you to be swift and diligent about keeping your spaces clean and free from harmful creatures and energy that might be lurking around living off your energy. The cat is a loving independent companion and also a fierce warrior, provider, and protecter. She teaches us to be there for yourself first and then you can be available to give away the excess. She challenges the narrative of the feminine needing to put others before themselves, on the contrary she teaches use the need for balance in relationships. Like the cat’s relationship with humans, it in beneficial for her to live with us because we provide food, in return, she provides us protection. The High Priestess invites us to not take part in one sided relationships.
Unfortunately there exists much hate and contention for cats just as there is the feminine. Cats in their very nature embody powerful feminine energy. Graceful, agile, alert, and powerful, cats exhume psychic and sexual energy. Their movement is streamline with great intelligence and intuition. The cat’s behavior is self serving and indulgent in her freedoms. People are scared of her awareness of power and independence. She will not be tamed but chooses to befriend those within her world who lean in her favor. This society despises and hates that which they fear and cannot control, this includes the intuitive knowledge derived from the goddess herself marijuana. This divine feminine plant when consumed floods our minds with subconscious awareness, contemplation, and insightful perspective which is valuable to the human experience. Like the cat, this plant is also shunned and dogmatized. This medicinal healer of the High Priestess can also be psychically indulgent and starts to lean into negative frequencies when habitual or over indulged. Like any drug, there is a line between medicine and poison which we need to have the awareness to decide what is helping us and what is hurting us. Unfortunately this medicine has been severely dogmatized by racism and its effects of making people more introspective. It is funny, the reality of the overconsumption of this drug results in us being aloof and lazy, just like, well a cat would be! With all these engrained stereotypes, we must unlearn systematic detest, dismissiveness, fear and disproportionate respect of the feminine and rewrite what that actually looks like. We continue failing to evolve and be whole if we cannot accept her in ourselves, denying the power to nurture, heal, and experience joy.
Illuminated The High Priestess exists exalted in the mystical land of intoxicating divine feminine energy and power. Her number is 2, representing polarity and balance. This split from 1 to 2 created all interconnected polarities, like yin and yang, positive negative, masculine and feminine, completing the two sides of the coin. Polarities can’t exist without the other half and in their distinct separation a spectrum is created. The High Priestess shows us we all have authority to operate on this spectrum. She is the sacred realized completion of the higher self. The counter polarity bringing us back in earth creating the energetic field. This divine marriage of the polarities constructs a path for higher or lower trajectory for life’s experiences and all in between. As the torch bearer, she creates light and shadow, balance and depth within our world. Being the moon that oversees us constructing the earthy laws of gravity, she influence both blood and tides. This interconnected energy is felt both on the physical and energetic realms. She completes the conscious awareness needed to push forth the progress of humanity. Here are some question you might ask yourself when drawing this card. What brings you joy and how does this create magic in life? What relationships are out of balance and how can you fix that? Where are you self sufficient and what helps you heal when you’re alone? How do you protect your energy? How can you best take care of yourself? What do you need eliminated from your life that’s been gnawing at you or taking up unwanted space? What are you dreams trying to teach you? How can you tap into your personal cycles and make them work best for you? What is your relationship to rest and sleep and how can you improve it to be your best self? What needs to be illuminated in your life?