The second stop on the Fool’s journey finds us at the Temple of The High Priestess – the Fool is 0, The Magician is I, and The High Priestess is Key 2. I often used The High Priestess Key as my significator (a card chosen to represent the inquirer in a tarot reading) in the past when I read for myself. I still read for myself; I just don’t use The High Priestess.
The High Priestess sits between two contrasting pillars at the doorway of her temple, and she represents the subconscious. Her demeanor is calm as she sits on her throne made of stone. The High Priestess is passive, receptive, and, by ancient meanings of the title, virginal.
One of her roles as High Priestess is to oversee past records, as the book or scroll she holds in her lap makes evident. Studies have shown that the subconscious stores and keeps everything happening in our lives. The significant events in our lives and the most trivial occurrence are recorded there. No clear impression escapes being written on the scroll of the High Priestess. Subconscious memory is perfect and, therefore, cannot be improved.
Memory is the primary power of the subconscious, and the High Priestess symbolism sums this up.
The power of recollection is the ability to remember all those events of our life that are written on the High Priestess’ scroll. And this is related to The Magician. The Magician’s ability is to focus on what is going on around him. He is always in the now. So, the first requirement for better recollection is to be alive and alert to what is happening around us. We must be “here,” or we will forget.
The Laws of Recall work automatically. They are rendered useless by our inattention. We interfere with their operation when we strain and struggle to remember. We can remember anything if we know these laws and let them do their work.
Key 2 symbolizes all the laws of recall – Laws of Association, Similarity, and Contrast. The two pillars are similar in shape because we naturally group together similar images. Yet these pillars are opposite in color because the second law of association is that of contrast. Think of light, and you also think of darkness. The pillars symbolize similarity and contrast because these two laws act together.
A third law is recency. Usually, we recall easiest what we have most recently experienced. The High Priestess doesn’t have to open her scroll to read what she has just recorded.
The fourth law under the High Priestess is the law of repetition, which is directly related to the number 2. Anything frequently repeated is easier to recall.
The fifth law is intensity. We remember our first childhood experiences because they received our full attention. If we train ourselves to live life with a youthful intensity, our memories will again be as vivid.
The Magician in Tarot Key 1 represents the objective mind or the self-conscious. As previously noted, The High Priestess in Key 2 represents the subconscious mind. Usually, the subconscious mind is viewed as mysterious and difficult to control. That is not true. The subconscious mind is very submissive and always subject to our authority.
The subconscious mind is very open to suggestion. If we think of the subconscious as difficult to know, then it will be. The subconscious immediately responds to any suggestion and continues to do so until we give it a strong, definite counter-suggestion. Once you know how to do it, the subconscious is easy to manage.
Control doesn’t mean absolute control. It’s essential to give the subconscious directions such as “I would like to be healthy.” However, we must let this inner and deeper mind run free to obey our directions in its own way. We know the subconscious carries on all the body-building work. Our concern shouldn’t be with the processes but with their outcome. Your conscious work ends when you have formed a clear, distinct image of the desired result, and then you turn over that image to the subconscious.
It’s crucial to express perfect confidence in the powers of your subconscious. If you have any anxieties about results and repeat them continuously, you are expressing a pattern of your fears instead of your expectations. The subconscious, loyal servant that it is, is immediately going to work to materialize the fear pattern it has received.
The fertile soil of the Magician in Key 1 will grow any seed planted. If you are careless with your observations and use incorrect reasoning -weeds form. These weeds appear in our life as problems and have all sorts of uncomfortable consequences. However, if you learn to focus and make your mental imagery clear and definite if you make accurate observations from which you draw correct inferences. The seed you plant in your subconscious garden will bear fruit by the positive transformation of your personality.
One familiar activity of subconsciousness is “mind-wandering.”
This enables us to pass from one thought to another until we have wandered through a vast field of ideas. It will interfere with our ability to concentrate until we learn to control this wandering.
As the seat of memory, the subconscious “carries the load” of our personal experience. It bears a more significant burden because the personal subconscious is merely a manifestation through a single organism of the great and all-inclusive universal subconscious.
The High Priestess is closely related to the goddess Hekate. For the ancient Greeks, Hekate combined the characteristics of the moon goddess, earth goddess, and queen of the underworld. Hekate had a share in the rulership of earth and sea; gave aid in war, athletic contests, and hunting; protected herds and children; but she was particularly the goddess of magic, mystery, and occult powers. She also presided over the meeting place at which roads cross. Indeed, it is principally from the attribution of Hekate that the symbolism of the second Tarot Key is derived. All the powers attributed to these moon goddesses are actual, living powers of your subconscious.
Blue is the primary color of Key 2 and is attributed to the moon.
It represents the element of water and the subconscious.
Much of the symbolism of the High Priestess relates to memory. Her scroll contains the complete record of experience, but practicing concentration and observation will make it easier to read the high priestess. Be vividly aware of what goes on around you. By focusing on your mental camera, the images and information you receive will be sharper and more precise—secondly, understanding and applying the laws of recall as set forth in the symbols of this Key.
The robe symbolizes the element of water. Hindus call it Prakriti or root matter. Representing vibration, the wavy lines of the robe are one of the most important symbols in occultism. The robe of the High Priestess also represents flowing and fluidity. Thus, it typifies the ever-changing forms of life. The robe seems to flow out of the picture. It is the source of all the streams and pools of the Major Arcana Keys.
A virginity symbol is a veil behind the throne of the High Priestess. The design of the veil represents the associative powers of the subconscious. The design has palm leaves and pomegranates which are masculine and feminine symbols. The red pomegranates red represent the masculine planet Mars. The palms are green, representing the feminine Venus vibration.
Although the pillars are similar in form, they are opposite in color. The color symbolizes opposites, such as light and darkness, attraction and repulsion, affirmation and negation, active and passive, manifest and unmanifest. Each pair is represented by the white pillar and the second by the black pillar. On the white pillar is Yod, the initial letter of the Hebrew noun Jachin. On the black pillar is the Letter B, Beth, the initial letter of Boaz. The two pillars of the High Priestess are identical with those at the porch of Solomon’s temple.
The lotus buds on the top of the pillars refer to our subconscious activity, which is the cause of growth and development. They are buds because this Key represents the possibilities of the subconscious, apart from their actual expression in response to impulses originating in self-consciousness.
The High Priestess is sitting on a cubic stone. One of the meanings of the cube is as a symbol of the element of earth and the physical plane. The cube stands for truth and order because all its faces are equal, and so are its boundary lines. This cube of made of stone, a word in the occult world signifying life, wisdom, and union.
The High Priestess’ crown is of silver, the metal of the moon.
Representing light is the white cross on the woman’s breast.
You will notice the right hand of the High Priestess is hidden. This is because the more powerful activities of our subconscious elude our attempts to analyze it.
The power of telepathy is directly connected to the subconscious. Creative imagination is involved with the higher subconscious processes. It is also involved with the superconscious knowing that uses its subconscious substance. The superconscious mind transcends human or normal consciousness. The superconscious is the universal mind of God.
This fluidity of the universal subconscious is the secret to understanding telepathy. This fluidic subconscious substance is the medium for telepathic transmission. For instance, if you happen to be tuned into me, you will automatically receive my thoughts from the pulsating flow, but you will not be conscious of it. If you are unaware of it, you may think telepathy occurs only at times. There is never a time when telepathic communication does not occur between all living beings. Our thoughts and emotions are not as private as we think. This might seem unsettling considering some of the things we think and feel!
To summarize, telepathy is not something that happens intermittently or sporadically. There is no time that it is not taking place. Since we all share one universal fluidic mental substance, and it constantly circulates between ourselves and others, there is no time that these shared images are not affecting others and ourselves.
You have probably noticed our emotional reaction in the presence of someone trying to force your emotional attention. You were picking up emotional contacts on the telepathic levels. The more we advance along the Path of Return, the more we become aware of our supersensory faculties and the more careful we must evolve to protect ourselves from the emotional forces of the lynch mob, the hate thinkers. Except for short periods of time, the advanced student must carefully avoid the company of those who project these destructive states of consciousness.
We live in the World and have to deal with this World; we have to make a living, but we should try as much as possible to seek friendship and participate in the group work of those with whom our emotional telepathy is in rapport. We must place ourselves in the company of those who will nourish our aspirations because reciprocity will hasten the development of our powers.
Telepathy is magical because it is the primal substance of the unification of life. The path of the High Priestess in Qabalah is called the Uniting Intelligence. It unites us with that to which we direct our attention. Thus, what we attend to with our powers of The Magician is what comes to fruition and pours forth. The powers that make this so are those of the High Priestess flowing forth and connecting us together by all the links through which we are interwoven in the one life. The interconnections between us are far more intricate than we usually realize.
Imagine how wonderful it will be when you can say to yourself when an unpleasant emotion pours in upon you. “This does not belong to me. This negative emotion attempting to influence me is generated by someone else. I will send back love and hope to whomever or whatever it may be.” With this technique, you are not pulled down into the depths, but instead, you will be helping to pull others up, even though you have never met
Telepathy truly is a magical power. And the High Priestess leads the way to that magical power.
About The Author
I am originally from the Chicago area. I believe I still retain much of my midwestern sensibilities. Midwesterners are direct and honest.
My Intuitive abilities have always been there for me. I remember being in my bed when I was about three. The room was dark and still. Laying there, I just knew that I could make toys appear. I tried and tried but alas that didn’t happen. And I couldn’t understand why. I understood a certain principle that didn’t seem to work in this physical world. I always knew I was different, even then – out of place, out of time.