Meditations on the Tarot 2: The High Priestess

(See my post on Arcanum 1 for explanation.)

2. The High Priestess

• The number 2: This number reminds us that the goal of Christian mysticism is not loss of the self but the "unity of two," the self and God, through love. This love is symbolized in Genesis by "the divine Breath and its Reflection" (33), the creative act of the Spirit moving across the reflective face of the water. [In reflecting on our direct experience of the Divine, we reenact the Creation.] The Christian mystics' "union with the Divine is not the absorption of their being by Divine Being, but rather the experience of the breath of Divine Love" (36).
• The Priestess as woman: The word sophia, wisdom, is feminine. "The intellect being the reflection--or light--of the fire principle of love, can only be the feminine principle, Sophia or Wisdom, who assists the Creator in the work of creation, according to the Old Testament. The gnostic tradition also considers Sophia as the feminine principle. Pure intellect is that which reflects; love is that which acts" (39).
• Her three-layered, bejeweled tiara and her book: The three-layered crown and book symbolize the four stages of Hermetic Christian practice: "It is by way of three stages that the crystallisation of the pure act descends through the three higher and invisible planes before arriving at the fourth stage--the book" (40). "The first [stage] is the pure reflection or a kind of imaginative repetition of the experience. The second stage is its entrance into memory. The third stage is its assimilation in thought and feeling, in a manner where it becomes a 'message' or inner word. The fourth stage, lastly, is reached when it becomes a communicable symbol or 'writing', or 'book'--i.e. when it is formulated" (41). Each of these stages has a corresponding "sense" and can be represented by a letter of the Tetragrammaton: the "mystical sense" (Yodh), the "gnostic sense" (He), the "magical" sense (Vav), and the "Hermetic-philosophical sense" (He). "Full consciousness of the sacred name YHVH can only be attained by the united experience of these four senses and the practice of four different methods. . . . He who dares to aspire to the experience of the unique essence of Being will develop the mystical sense. . . . If he wants not only to live but also to learn to understand what he lives through, he will develop the gnostic sense. And if he wants to put into practice what he has understood from mystical experience, he will develop the magical sense. If, lastly, he wants all that he has experienced, understood and practised to be not limited to himself and his time, but to become communicable to others and to be transmitted to future generations, he must develop the Hermetic-philosophical sense, and in practising it he will 'write his book'" (42).
• Her seated position: "To be seated signifies a relationship between the vertical and horizontal which corresponds to the task of the outward projection (horizontal, book) of the descending revelation (vertical, tiara). This position indicates the practical method of gnosis, just as the standing Magician indicates the practical method of mysticism. The Magician dares--for this reason he is standing. The High Priestess knows--this is why she is seated. The transformation from to dare to to know consists in the change of position from that of the Magician to that of the High Priestess" (40). [The Masonic ring I wear carries an early American Masonic motto: Vide, Aude, Tace--Know, Dare, Be Silent.]