← Encyclopedia of Tarot · lesson 3/121
The High Priestess
The High Priestess is the card of what lies beneath the surface: intuition, dreams, the quiet knowledge that cannot be argued for but is felt. Where The Magician acts, she waits and listens. She is often read as a call to trust inner wisdom, to keep a confidence, or to let a situation reveal itself in its own time.
The image
A woman in blue and white robes sits between two pillars, one black and one white, marked B and J — the pillars of Solomon's temple. Behind her hangs a veil embroidered with pomegranates, hiding what lies beyond. She wears a horned crown with a globe, like the phases of the Moon, a crescent moon lies at her feet, and she holds a scroll marked TORA, half hidden in her mantle. Waite says this shows "some things are implied and some spoken".
Upright
Intuition, secrets, mystery, patience, inner study. Waite gives "secrets, mystery, the future as yet unrevealed", and also silence and wisdom. The card can point to an answer that is not ready to be known, to a time for reflection rather than action, or to listening closely to dreams, instincts and what is left unsaid.
Reversed
Waite reads the reversal as passion, conceit and surface knowledge. Modern readers often see intuition ignored or drowned out, secrets kept too long, or a withdrawal so deep that someone cuts themselves off. Some readers do not use reversals at all.
Correspondences
Major Arcana, card II. In the Golden Dawn system, which most English-language decks follow, she carries the Hebrew letter Gimel ("camel"), the 13th path on the Tree of Life — the long path from Kether down to Tiphareth — and the Moon, the planet of reflection, cycles and the unconscious. French tradition (Papus, the Marseille deck, where she is the Papesse) gives this card a different letter.
In a reading
In the past, she can describe a time of waiting or of hidden influences. As an obstacle, she may point to information not yet available. As advice, she tends to say: be still and trust what you sense. Beside The Hierophant she is often read as inner knowing set against received teaching.
In astrology
The Golden Dawn's correspondences, which most English-language decks follow (French, Marseille-based tradition differs for some Major Arcana).
Planet: Moon