March 27-29, 2017; II. The Priestess
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ג
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.
https://www.wikiart.org/en/lady-frieda-harris/atu-ii-the-high-priestess-thoth-tarot-aleister-crowley
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Only now that I've carved out
A separate identity
With my magician's tricks,
My slight-of-handCan I turn around and see:
The matrix that created me,
The surplus that made
My conception possible,
The rhythms of the seasons
That bore me to fruition,
My future and my past. -
That's awesome Av!!
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Thank you!
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Animating one's invocations and illuminating one's true vocation, her silent reflections above to below counsel quiet openness to the diffracted light reflected in higher aspirations and resonant intuitions. She is the encouraging whisper of inner wisdom, the promise of attainment and prosperity (in the richest sense). She travels with us across wastelands, her guidance visible best when extended into the dark night. Her enchantments bend time and space, and she moves in ways seen and unseen. She is never a bad omen, but one might get overly dreamy and indecisive (loony) in her sphere.
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This Key can be summed up in one word with two expressions - REFLECTION. If the Fool represents inspiration, the Magus clothed it in language giving it direction, the Priestess is substance and the medium for the word to be received and cast forth. By her very nature, she is duplicitous: she is dark yet brilliant in the light of the sun, rhythmic and cyclical yet stable. She securely rests on her throne, poised between pure being and the matrix of the human personality, reflecting what is cast before her.
We find her highest expression in those moments when the light of the Sun of one's Soul is most clearly reflected outward, through the personality and into the world in the same way the Moon reflects the most of the Sun's light during a "Full Moon" (which, even then, is an illusion, since we are not necessarily seeing the moon in its ENTIRETY but rather the a face of the moon).
We find her lowest expression in those times when we are enmeshed in the matrix of the personality and our view of ourselves and the situations we find ourselves in is skewed.
Interestingly enough, the act of reflection can loosen the grip of that which we got ensnared by, giving us a chance to discern the illusions as such and return to that state between pure being and the personality. It should be noted that what is said in the prior sentence is crude and general statement summarizing the mystical journey.
