Tarot Meditation 1: The High Priestess

The High Priestess, designed by Pamela Colman-Smith

 For this meditation, you are a Seeker. Here, you are seeking an answer, and you are on your way to obtaining it. You have been directed to obtain your answer from The High Priestess, and Her Temple is open, and welcomes you with open arms.

The scents of gardenias, and lavender, and jasmine, greet you as you step into the vestibule of the Temple. The light from the blazing sconces warms your body as your bare feet caress the smooth, cold tiled floor. At the far end of the room is a set of brass double doors, wide open to receive you, and a corridor beyond.

Beneath the celestial ceiling, you find yourself at the threshold of the corridor beyond. The ceiling of the corridor beyond has similar art, and the corridor beyond is illuminated by daylight through stained glass windows between gold-covered columns either side.

More gardenias line the walls either side of the brass double doors at the far end of the corridor, and lavender hanging from brass pots suspended from the ceiling, their strong scents stimulating and also deeply relaxing.

The doors open at your touch, and in the room beyond, you see the High Priestess.

The Priestess beckons you enter. Incense smoke rises in two columns either side of Her, flanking the black and white columns beside Her throne, bearing the initials of Boaz and Jachim, for Severity and Mercy.

Her robe of blue matches the blue colour of the room beyond the columns. From here, you cannot pass further to explore the Mysteries until you have met Her scrutiny. The blue colour represents revelation, compassion, and Divine understanding, and your body responds to the colour when you realise that these are qualities that She not only epitomises, but that they are qualities you can find in you.

And as you notice the understanding in you, you realise that what She says is what you yourself understand - She is merely giving your unconscious a voice.

The columns, Night and Day, are connected by the uncircled solar cross on the Priestess' robe, representing union and unity. She, and your unconscious, are both Darkness and Light - both Justice and Mercy - both Thought and Intuition.

On Her head is a crown, in silver; two Lunar crescents, and a Lunar circle in the centre. This is the crown of the Goddess - Whom you may see as Isis, or Hathor, or Hekate, or some other wondrous Goddess. Her enigmatic expression as She looks direct into you is part scrutiny, part recognition, part blessing.

And her gaze unties and unknots the last ties of trepidation and confusion within you, releasing a lot of hidden tension, dispersing into the darkness outside of the circle of light in the Temple. And it is at this time that you realise that Night has fallen all around the two of you in the Temple, which only serves to accentuate the Light shining from Her.

In Her lap is a parchment scroll, and one of Her bare feet is resting on a large gold Lunar crescent, representing Her dominion over dream and thought and intuition. Behind her, the veil ripples from behind, making it look at if there is something behind Her, something mysterious for you to enter, once She allows you.

Her scrutiny complete, She nods serenely, and opens the scroll to reveal a Word for you. And as you see the Word, you notice that it is a Word which unlocks a deeper state of mind than your current one, and it's now so easy to let go. Deeper, more connected to your unconscious, a realm of mind below the realm of thought and reason and memory. A state of deep mind you can now enter, and it's very hard to keep from letting go now.

And once you enter that state, so deep now, beyond your conscious mind, you can follow this link and pass through beyond the High Priestess, through this link now.