January 8-10, 2014: II. The Priestess
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II
THE PRIESTESS
(Luna)“Yet thy skin is cool & pale in the moonlight. Not even night can cool the embrace of thine arms about me, nor darken the glistening silver-white substance of our love. I close my eyes and it shields them not; rather, you grow brighter still. Your eyes lock on mine, unblinking and uneclipsed, O mother, O lover, O child.”
MEDITATION COLOR: Blue (infused with white).
HEBREW LETTER: Gimel, camel; from a root meaning, “to bear, to carry,” implying mother symbolism. As a verb, “to wean, ripen.” A camel is a means of effectively traveling long distances through dry and barren terrain – the Mystical Journey.
CARD NAME: Priestess (a form of “priest” chosen to convey a specifically feminine idea) is from the Indo-European root per-, basically meaning “forward” or “through,” and used in many extended senses such as “in front of,” “before,” “first,” “chief,” “toward,” “around.” Important derivatives (besides spatial ones: far, forth, further) include: paramount, paradise, foremost, first, privilege, privy (or deprive), proper, premier prime, primal, primary, primitive, prince, principal, principle, pristine, priest.
ESOTERIC MEANING: The Uniting Consciousness (lit., Consciousness Leading to Unity). It is the Essence of Glory. It is the consummation of the essential Truth of unified spiritual being.
TREE of LIFE: Tifereth to Kether. As on the Tree of Life, The Priestess is situated between two pillars where a veil partitions the relatively Outer from the Inner. (Links ‘Beauty’ and ‘the Crown’; or the Ego-center with Unconditional Being, Ruach with Yechidah; or ‘the Son’ with ‘the Ancient of Days.’)
ESOTERIC TITLE: The Priestess of the Silver Star
TANTRIC & ALCHEMICAL SIGNIFICANCE: The Priestess: the Vehicle (or bearer) of the Word.
DIVINATION: A pure, exalted, and gracious influence enters the matter. Change, alternation, reaction, increase and decrease, fluctuation, cyclicity, rhythm; whether for good or evil depends on the dignity. Secrets, hidden things, mysteries awaiting later disclosure. There may be, however, a liability to be carried away by enthusiasm, to become “moonstruck,” unless careful balance is maintained.
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I did something I haven't done in a long time last night. I prayed. Authentically.
I'm sharing that with the intention of pointing to what is starting to occur for me as an ingraining of the patterns of the tarot such that my actions are matching the "procession" of the card. For whatever it's worth.
My next update will be on day three but I am opening up this conversation for anyone that experiencing similar results or phenomenon.
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@Al-Shariyf said
"I did something I haven't done in a long time last night. I prayed. Authentically.
I'm sharing that with the intention of pointing to what is starting to occur for me as an ingraining of the patterns of the tarot such that my actions are matching the "procession" of the card. For whatever it's worth.
My next update will be on day three but I am opening up this conversation for anyone that experiencing similar results or phenomenon."
Yes.
I am a little behind and haven't finished/posted my notes for the Magus, but I would like to mention that today I also prayed after meditation, authentically. I've been making decisions in life that are in conflict with my True Will and in short I asked for guidance, clarity, and strength in my Quest. I also asked forgiveness from the Powers and re-devoted myself to the Great Work.
I am experiencing these exact results to the effect that the meditation on the Fool Trump opened up a world of chaos and indecision--the card was effectively manifested in my daily life, in a negative (in the mundane realm) but powerfully instructive way.
I can't exactly describe it in detail, as the circumstances involved were very complex and confusing: let us say that I effectively manifested the Fool and made some very Foolish decisions that resulted in a great deal of Trouble for my self (little "s"). I got a good Universal arse-kicking.
I am a bit behind but I would like to know if others also are manifesting the "Energy" of the cards in their daily life.
Now that I am back on track with the Magus I will finish my meditations on that card tomorrow and play a little catch-up. I just wanted to mention that these meditations are having a powerful effect on my daily life and I wonder if my decision/choice not to follow up the Fool with the Magus (in meditation) was the cause of my troubles, because now that I've begun on the Magus the Chaotic forces that seemed to be released by the Fool have coalesced into a clear, calm certainty and fervent intellectual devotion.
All this just to say: there is an inherent power in these cards that seems to make itself manifest in my life through these meditations, in a good way.
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Notes:
I'm seeing the Priestess card in relation to the Fool and the Magus. In this trio, I see the Magus representing the limit of a single choice, the Fool representing the potential of all. And the Priestess as the highest union of these two opposite ideas. The Holy Grail, the highest ideal of the purified of heart. A strange contradiction of passively accepting all, and relentlessly pursuing the one. Restriction and Freedom.
I see the camel differently than I used to. Formerly, I imagined the camel as a tool of the aspirant to cross the abyss. Now I see the reverse--the camel as a tool of the Yechida to carry the precious word South across the Abyss to the Ruach.
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"Gimel" comes from a root meaning "to bear." While this applies obviously to gamal, "camel," it also has distinct significance for the Root Mother idea of The Priestess.
She is bearing - carrying and delivering - the "fruit of her womb."
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"I am a bit behind but I would like to know if others also are manifesting the "Energy" of the cards in their daily life."
I've observed this too.
My thought is we prime our minds with the ideas associated with the cards we're working with and in the process create a context that shapes and colors how the world shows up for us. Said another way, each card is like a pair of glasses we put on and look at the world through for 3 days.
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- uterus, mother
- the manifestation of Light.
she is Light! the Light itself - the great yellow flower: Beauty = life; there must be a form and also matter, so we can perceive something as beautiful
- she is not the Light, but its Reflection…
- there is utter stability in her, although everything is in the waves of her net, changing
- the Deep, the Unknown, Mystery in its Highest form
- white light: it’s not the light of the Sun, but of Moon or a distant Star; it’s – for earthlings and the life here – “another light” – mystical, nocturnal; connected to death, and thus to eternity
- The Priestess of the Silver Star: she carries information from distant stars to our sun (Tipharet) – she is the vehicle (this thought initiates state/feeling of exaltation)
- there is no one particular “formula” or “word” for this Path; only Devotion, complete surrender
- bounty; giving
- she is every distant star we can see in the night sky; Nuit!
- harmony, balance; Peace – but dynamic, peace-in-motion, supreme Peace
- a song comes to my mind, an old one, in my native language, a song that I cherish and connected to many intimate memories – it perfectly matches the symbolism of the card! I never realized that before.
- only Adoration; her Presence has fullness and power, beyond words
- she IS Presence in the most Sacred, most High sense, as being-here (Aletheia - Beauty and Truth)
- being the Connection of a single star and us on Earth, she is the weft of the entire universe (this is Paradox for reason) ; the net = pictorial image of all-connected-ness
- it’s so Beautiful – so Sublimely Beautiful – words can not express it
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Pluck a string, and the whole web vibrates with the music.
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Day one notes:
The ego as the bearer of the word, impregnated with the word, language and the capacity to speak.
Watery-ness. First glance at the background feels like mental submersion into water.
Exalted receptivity, receptivity exalted, mystery, wonder of a majestic kind
Sitting between two pillars - reconciliation
Bow - a weapon for shooting arrows - speeding aspiration
The fruit are like a mirage
The lunar fluctuations create a web and net.
She's naked, pure.
Day two:
Waves of light casting a reflection
The movement of the lunar crown casts waves of light, the fluctuation, the cycles of this lunar nature.
Exalted receptivity, giving oneself over to something
Subtle influence, gentle influence
She sits between the pillars her hands resting at the top of both
as I type this I think of the position of her hands as in chokmah and binah, serving as a conduit to combine and channel their energies
She casts a net outward
The motion of her casting this net stirs her energy, the energy travels along the net culminating in fruit and riches
Something present and palpable yet almost unknowable.
You must be open to receiving when you come to see the priestess for she will give you what you want but on her terms.
There are almost no words that really capture the priestess. She's too pure to be defined. She will offer you a reflection of SOMETHING but that reflection is what you put up in front of her mirror. She will take whatever form she may chose but she is not the form.
Day three:
The priestess- seductress
II Duality, polarity, attraction, repulsion
Pregnant with the light of the Sun of Life, a full moon, shining forth, giving itself whole-ly fully, in-most intoxication, learning to be receptive as a way of beingEntangled and enmeshed in ones own imagination, attached to things as we see them, not as they are
Pure being dancing with egoic entanglements of the mind
Weaving a net to cast thy fruit out into the world
Appreciation and exaltation of the feminine
Targets - she has a bow and arrow because she has an intention to hunt, she has a target
Emerging from the primal waters, a figure of pure being enters our mind. Crowned with a crown of the moon, this is no ordinary woman. This is the divine feminine. The seductress, she who gives all of herself to the sun of life.
Armed with a bow and arrows she approaches her throne, her rightful place, ready to speed the arrow of truth.
Poised between the pillars of force and form, she outstretches both of her arms causing the light emanating from her to echo outward.
Gazing intently at her target she casts her web and casts her bounty toward her beloved
Rich fruits and precious stones stream forth as tokens of her generosity and epicurious nature.
She embodies and represents the innate jewel of light, life, liberty and love of our being, which when we are in the presence of it, carries us ever forward into the dark , cold desert night.
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I just want to acknowledge everyone who's been participating so far. It's been pretty awesome and we're just getting started.
I love not coming on the board for 3 days and then coming on here, posting my meditation outcomes and then seeing all the similar things show up for other people.
I'm going to make a request that we post all of our meditation outcomes on day three of whatever card we're working with and then if we want to have a discussion about what came up for us we do it on the rest day.
Let me know if you accept, decline or have a counter offer.
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I suggest the opposite: Post as thou wilt. Encourage productive activity on the forum rather than discourage it.
If people don't want to be influenced by others' posts, don't read them
Let the consumer control consumption.Also, if everyone waits until the last day, then any back and forth discussion will occur over the days following when the mind is rightly saturated with the next card.
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Thanks again Jim. I'm aligned with your suggestion.
Post as thou wilt people!
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Onward, to the knees of the Empress!
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@Al-Shariyf said
"Thanks again Jim. I'm aligned with your suggestion.
Post as thou wilt people!"
See man, I really like the idea in terms of an experiment. If I had the discipline, I think I might really enjoy it and be able to say I learned from it. And I bet there would be some cool things to see.
But I know me, and for me this is only able to be fueled and given time for in the inspiration of the devoted moment. If I squeeze it to hard, it goes away.
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I hope you won't be angry, I, like you, have a lot of shit going on.
Right now, this is the work I can do.
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It's all good dude.
You don't HAVE to post everyday. You can post whenever the spirit moves you to.
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I like to read people's accounts after I've done my meditations. I might start reading them on the third day, though. The differences and connections are all so interesting. I can't say I have noticed a great influence from these cards playing out in my life, but the whole exercise is certainly building/revealing a narrative in my mind and that way the themes do stay with me. A very enjoyable experience!
So onto my first day of meditation on the Priestess. I see the web of Indra before. I see the mind, the web that thoughts are hung on. The web is the veil of the goddess. The goddess is naked behind this veil, but seeing her takes unique vision. On her lap the goddess holds the bow that must be held and cocked to ascend the upward path. Meditation is the path. This exercise is the path. This is gimel or the path of the camel. The goddess is Artemis. At the bottom of the card, there are sacrifices: jewels, fruits, etc. They are worldly things which are sacrificed in order to begin the journey. This card is about astral activity. The scene is atrium-like, like a temple, a house.
On the second day, I note that gimel looks like a candle. Candles, of course, burn with light. They are a sacrifice which turns itself into light by the act of sacrifice. The sacrifices at the feet of the goddess are not just sacrifices to the goddess, but gifts from the goddess to us. Using them reaffirms our relationship to her, so this card is actually a two way street. I'm struck by an odd similarity between that idea and the burning of a sacrificial candle. I find it very difficult to convey this realization in text. The act of devotion is the aim of devotion. We are Light! I am the candle.
On the third day, I see chaos and order in the card. Chaos is power and order is shape. Even the material things at the bottom are just power packaged in forms. Eating a grape, breaking its form, fuels us. This card is about peeling back the layers, but as we do so the truth changes at each stage. Though truth is mutable in this way, all is ultimately Light! Oneness! The world is not there to distract us (though it often does), it is there to feed and empower us. In meditation, all the distracting thoughts that may arise are Light too! Just unpackage them and recycle!
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She lays down her weapons and parts the veil allowing worship of her, laying gifts at her feet. She expects the worshipper to give all.
She is Isis-Nuit. All is within her-She is the path to Godhood. The virgin waiting to become mother.
She is beauty purity and infinity. Her face contains a peaceful bliss- she is the keeper of knowledge and attainment of her is true initiation.
"To love me is better than all things".
She has the means to destory but chooses love instead. Maiden of the triple goddess.
Diamond-purity of kether, grapes-ecstacy of bacchus. She guides and carrys the adept across the abyss. Give everything to Babalon (there is a conflict between goddesses in my mind)
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As my mundane conditions do not permit of me to access the internet regularly I will be posting "ad hoc:"
Verbatim from my Magical Diary:
II. The Priestess
1.11.14
10:05-10:36
Rhythmic breathing established, sphere of blue/white light and white light over head. Devoted concentration to the card: difficult meditation surroundings. Struggled with thoughts of ill worth and plumbed certain subconscious depths as regards mother symbolism, etc. The card interacted with my subconscious in a strange way until I was able to subdue the mental/subconscious flow and concentrate on the card itself, allowing the energy of the Priestess to interact with my mind without any linguistic interplay. A pure and exalted influence permeated my being, and I became engrossed in rapture, contemplating Luna in Her many forms. The blue/white light passed into nothingness and in my meditation I was given a vision of dark blue, purple, and gold color, and I realized that the darkness I disregard as mere mind is actually the brilliant night sky of the Goddess.
Terrible meditation conditions (busy house, etc.), but good concentration.
1.12.14 9:00-9:20 A.M.
Rhythmic breathing established; good breathing without. Not much to say about this meditation: I simply allowed the card to interact with my mind in whatever way it chose fit. Contemplation of Kether and Tiphareth, the Divine Light and the Son made manifest by the Virgin Mother; ideas of purity, exalted, radiant, and somewhat stern and cold. Barren, like the desert through which the camel travels. And like the desert, a beautiful barrenness it is, as She weaves Her web of enchantment over the course of Things. I saved these meditations for these days because Luna is in Taurus, and so I am more fitted to be saturated with the ideas inherent in the card.
Meditation conditions fair.
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"See man, I really like the idea in terms of an experiment. If I had the discipline, I think I might really enjoy it and be able to say I learned from it. And I bet there would be some cool things to see.
But I know me, and for me this is only able to be fueled and given time for in the inspiration of the devoted moment. If I squeeze it to hard, it goes away.
[...]I hope you won't be angry, I, like you, have a lot of (****) going on.
Right now, this is the work I can do."
Likewise, I have an extremely hectic lifestyle occurring at the moment (this is not an excuse, simply a statement of intent) and without going into mundane details I will only say that I am doing the best I can (which is better than nothing). Now that I am all "caught up" I will do my best to keep on track.
I will mention that the inherent discipline involved with these meditations has done much to center my Self.
Edit: I may also mention that my meditations almost always go beyond the prescribed 15 minute segment. I allow the card to soak itself into my being until I am thoroughly saturated. I then contemplate the card throughout the day. I might do two meditations a day or I might do none as conditions permit. I am now aligned with the rest of the group and I will strive to keep up. (My mundane conditions are rather severe at present.)
I also read through almost every other post, as it is very educational and intriguing to me how we each respond as individuals concerning each card.