Tarot · The Major Arcana
The High Priestess
- Intuition
- stillness
- inner knowing
The picture
A woman in a blue robe sits between a black pillar and a white pillar, holding a half-hidden scroll marked TORA, with a crescent moon at her feet.
The meaning
The High Priestess sits before a veil, and behind it you can sense water. The tradition reads her as the voice that speaks quietly and still knows. She stands for intuition, for patience and for what cannot yet be put into words. You do not hurry her; you listen.
Reversed
Reversed, she is read as a gut feeling ignored, or a secret that takes up more room than is good for it.
In love
In love she is read as a deep bond without many words, or something that only shows itself slowly.
At work
At work she stands for a good instinct and for not giving everything away at once.
As your card of the day
It may pay today not to answer straight away. Give what you quietly already know a little room.
The High Priestess stands for stillness. A few minutes without talk will help more today than a long conversation.
The Major Arcana are the 22 trump cards, from the Fool at zero to the World at twenty-one. The tradition reads them as stations on a life's journey: large themes that touch everyone at some point.
Picture: Pamela Colman Smith, Rider-Waite-Smith tarot, 1909, public domain (Wikimedia Commons).