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The High Priestess

The student, as the Magician, plays with the cards, and communicates their growing understanding of the Tarot with friends, family, other colleagues. In a profound moment the student experiences a dream, a vision, or draws an astonishingly appropriate card and is abruptly plummeted into the mysterious world of the High Priestess.

"A-ha!", exclaims the High Priestess. "Aren't you getting all caught up with yourself and your new found earthly power! Don't forget that I'm the Spiritual Mother. You are studying to be a conduit of unseen world to seen world. Your new-found power on the earthly plane is little compared with the power and responsibility I bestow on the worthy. I will assist you in translating the messages, but in acquiring this psychic power you must be wary of the temptations of ego. Remember that I will grant you these gifts as you prove your worth in egoless sacrifice and gratitude. And remember too that iny our times of pain, sorrow and regret, I am here to hold and nurture you backto spiritual health."

The High Priestess brings forth the vision from the unseen world to the seen world for the Magician to manifest in the world. She will reveal emotional concerns, hidden factors, psychic feelings and hunches.

The student at this stage is reminded to listen to her inner conscience, knowledge, gut feelings and heart. Genetti depicts the High Priestess as an old woman, "I see this card as the opposite to the Magician: whereas he is a young man, she is an old woman; whereas he is just beginning to feel his power, she has lived in hers for many long years. This card represents the truth of woman's power: that it is enduring and long-lived, coming from within and from subtle knowledge rather than from the directed and focused power and immediate action symbolized by the Magician."

Students ask questions like, "Why is it that I keep pulling the same cards?" Some students report dreaming about their cards – one student said he has nightmares related to the Tarot – scary predictions,

The High Priestess stage represents the time when the initiates unconscious is constellated by the Tarot and responds – The High Priestess stands strong at the gates marking the boundaries of the unconscious and consciousness. The High Priestess stage is marked by an increased interest in the student in psychic ability and its relationship to reading the Tarot, dreams and their relationship to the Tarot. There's a lot more to magical readership than knowing the meanings!

One student of the Tarot reports that he's having trouble learning all the meanings of the cards through his practice because the same cards keep turning up in the readings. Laughing he has an insight that these cards he's drawing he thinks are meant for others, are actually messages, lessons and guidance to him from the High Priestess at this juncture in his development to magical readership.