The bridge over the abyss

RECEPTIVITY - PSYCHIC REALMS - MAYA

Hidden influences

Unconscious awareness, intuition, dreams, imagination, memory, plexus, Prakriti, the Shekhina

Role of daughter, ways in which the daughter remains part of the mother

The number 2 suggests duplicity, deception, untruth, illusion, error, and delusion. This is where the subconcsious repeats, reflects, and elaborates mistaken results of faulty observations or conclusions.

Intuitively feminine virginal guardian of the temple of the mysteries; enigmatic mistress of the night. First path of contact between the human and divine worlds. The longest path without a stopping point, the most dangerous.

The virgin Priestess, reserved for the God, and trained in the highest Magic, meets the Horned One at Beltane, to conceive a Mystical Child.

This is the myriad Anima forms; this woman can be a chameleon, a shape-shifter, seductive, supportive, friendly, beautiful, and charming, or an arbitrary, cruel, deceptive hag. She is the Hindu Kali, offering boons with one hand and slitting throats with the other. She wears a necklace of human skulls.

This female can be antagonistic to the male "agon," or "line of fire." She is menses, the lunar flux of the female body, the monthly rejection of blood and albumen and preparation for new fecundity.

KALI - Malignant Anima

The crescent under her foot is shown here as a moon, but in some cards is depicted as a scythe, connecting her again to Kali.

She is also the cthonic realm. Cthonic means "of the earth," or "the bowels of the earth." These rocks grinding against each other are the horrific bloodshed that nature also is. Nature is brutal, along with everything else it is. Being at the top of the food chain allows us forget that fact.

The High Priestess is the Virgin Mary, Hera, Diana, or Hecate, who has all of the secret powers of nature at her command.

The Empress and the High Priestess are the two halves of the female archetype.

• The Empress is pregnant, actively generating life, while the High Priestess is the consecrated virgin, the field ready for planting.

• The High Priestess is the Veiled Isis, while the Empress is Isis Unveiled.

• The High Priestess is undifferentiated cosmic subconsious; the Empress is activity in the subconscious mind, gestating the idea-seed planted by the personal self.

• The Empress is Venus, the warm mother Goddess; the High Priestess is Diana, the cool virgin Moon-Goddess.

This is the Anima, the archetypal female human, Eve. For a man, The High Priestess is the Women in his life. All other archetypes can be said to descend from these two. For a woman, the Magus, Key 1 is the Men in her life.

This is the true face of the Anima, unmasked by the Persona, or mask, in the domain of Key 21. It is a general principle in Jungian thought that inner and outer personalites are complementary: a methodical and scientific Persona usually suggests an emotional and irrational inner being.

PRAKRITI

The High Priestess is "Prakriti" - the "universal substance" or "mind-stuff" of existence, symbolized by her blue robe and the water it turns into.

from Patanjali:

"Prakriti, it has been said, is the elemental, undifferentiated stuff of mind and matter. In what relation does it stand to the highly differentiated phenomena of this apparent universe? In order to answer this question, we must trace the whole course of a creation from the beginning. We say "a creation" deliberately -- for Hindu philosphy sees creation and dissolution as an endlessly repeated process.... Prakriti is said to be composed of three forces, sattwa, rajas, and tamas, the three Gunas.

The water from her robes represents the unconscious, dream realms, and flows through Key 3, Key 7, Key 14, Key 17, and Key 18.

The curtain hanging between the two pillars symbolizes virginity - and fruitfulness - it depicts palms (male) and pomegranites (female), and conceals a view of Eden.

The curtain connects pllars of light and dark, and all other pairs of opposites, symbolizing the associative powers of the subconscious. She sits on the stone cube that will be created in Key 4. P. F. Case says the cube is made of salt, which crystallizes in cubes, and represents the salty waters of the the ocean/womb/mother.

Key 2 is the Shekhina - a Hebrew word for the immanent aspect of the Creator, seen in Jewish philosophy as the female aspect of God. The "above" aspect of Shekhina is Binah, and the "below" aspect is Malchut. This is the "Sabbath Queen" who is welcomed at sunset on Friday with the joyous "Lecha Dodi," and "K'Gavna," an Aramaic prayer from the Zohar:

 

K'Gavna Just as the Sephirot unite above in Oneness without evil so Sephera Malchut unites below in the secret of Oneness so She may join those above One receiving One. The Holy One, Blessed is He, the One above, does not sit on His Throne of Glory until She below, the Shabbes Queen, is made over in the secret of Oneness like His that they may join in a Oneness of Oneness. Thus have we set forth the secret of G-D's Oneness: His name is One. This is the secret of Shabbes: She (Malchut) is called Shabbes when One, when She is united up in the secret of One, occurring in the fullness of Shabbes, for then the Holy Throne of Glory unifies with the secret of Oneness, and becomes ready for the Holy King to mount it, when Shabbes arrives, She unifies Herself and divests Herself of the other side, all harsh judgements are removed from Her and She unifies with the Holy Light, with Holiness, and crowns Herself with many crowns in behalf of the Holy King. All dominions tremble in agitation and bearers of trials flee from Her together and Her appointment overwhelms, Her dominion arises, and then, with completion, Her myriad creations rejoice. Her face glows with Heavenly Light, and She takes those below who see Her up as Her Crown, and they crown themselves with Shabbes Souls.

Read in Aramaic, the beautiful and sacred poetry ritually describes the beginning processes of every Jewish Sabbath. [This prayer is read in the Sephardic (Spanish) rite, not Ashkenaz (German)].

It is a meditation on "ONE" - Echad:

Seeing the universe in a context of "ONE," all "Harsh Judgments" and "bearers of trials" flee.

 

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Her crown, the Diadem of Isis, is a combination of circle and crescents, referring to the moon and its phases. Crowns appear in Key 2, Key 3, Key 4, Key 5, Key 7, Key 11, Key 14, Key 16, Keter,and Malchut.

The periodicity of the moon suggests rhythm, repetition, and memory - reflected in her scroll of Torah (Bible, teaching), a product of memory, history, and recorded experience.

from K. D. Newman:

The Popess veils herself in mystery. When we hide behind jargon and acquired paraphernalia and seek to generate mystery through concealment, innuendo, and suggestion so as to appear "the guardian to the secrets of the sanctuary," then we are constellating and identifying with the Popess within ourselves. This should not be understood to mean that there are not things that need to be concealed, nor should this view of the Popess be seen as an attack on concealment per se but on its intent. Key 9, the Hermit, is also a card of concealment, but does not do so to stage an effect, be it wonder, admiration, allegiance or power."

The Popess represents the essential division in creation, with her concealing veil, and the spiritual quest that arises from awareness of that concealment from Eden, and the brushes with Holiness we are gifted with.

The pillars, from Solomon's Temple, also express this division, and choices we confront. These are also the pillars of Mercy and Severity mapped on the Tree of Life.

The pillars are named Joachin and Boaz, the names of two of Solomon's sons. The Hebrew letters would be Yud and Bet, showing the infinite spark (Yud), and its "housing" (Bet). These "Houses of the Holy" are shown in Key 0.

The square cross on her breast shows a balancing of the two forces, the black and white pillars. It also hints at her powers of manifestation, and the cross of completion in Malchut.

While the Fool and the Magus represent only the potential, the will, to create, the High Priestess has the latent power to manifest. She is the link between the seen and the unseen.

This path connects Tipharet and Keter, creating the longest of the paths. This is the mystical, archetypal Bridge - spanning the mysteries, balanced between Chesed and Gevurah, Mercy and Severity. It is manifested by the High Priestess combined with the power of the bridge builder, the Hierophant, Key 5.

"All the world is a narrow bridge - but the point is to be fearless." Hasidic proverb

This is the same passage manifested as a door in Key 3. Both are links to the higher realms; they are a "plexus," a "siddhi," or a "revelation."

Druidic Celts believe in an Otherworld, Avalon, where life is perfect, and united with the Spiritual. The High Priestess brings down a mist and manifests a passage to Avalon, but this mystical land cannot be found by ordinary folk. The two realms are interwoven with one another, with joined destinies, and are called the "Nexus." Celtic artwork depicts this interweaving.

The Druids believe the worlds overlap in certain places and times, which are sacred. This seeping through occurs at the sea shore, where land meets sea, dusk and dawn, where night meets day, the Equinoxes, where summer meets winter, and other places. Such a place is called a "Plexus," and is an opportunity to commune with the otherworld.

"Gimel," the Hebrew letter for Key 2, means camel. Camels, the "Ships of the Desert," travel in caravans, lines flanked by hostile desert; they are adapted for long, hard journeys, appropriate for the longest path.

"The dogs bark, but the caravan passes - "
Arabic proverb

The camel connects distant places, like the Popess, and her domain of telepathy and subconcious connections between people.

Gimel is a "Double Letter," with two sounds, also reflected in the duality of the black and white pillars.

Key 2 is Maya - the veil of illusion that conceals the full experience of Brahman (Keter) from the Jiva, or individual soul (Tipharet).

Maya is Brahman's power, a result of Brahman - like the heat from fire. Maya causes us to see manifold reality, instead of the one Reality. Maya has two aspects:

• Avidya Maya leads us further away from the realization of Brahman into greater worldliness and bondage, expressing itself as passions and cravings.

• Vidya Maya leads us closer to the realization of Brahman, and expresses itself as spiritual virtues.

Both Avidya and Vidya Maya are transcended when a being realizes Brahman.

The Priestess card is still under construction.

The Moon

The Moon's placement at birth sets the character for the person's personality, and instinct. It determines the kind of imagination, dreamscapes, and moods the person has. The Moon has no light of its own; and like the Moon, the personality reflects the light of the Sun, the person's true Spirit.

The Moon shows our hidden, unexpressed, or unexpressable desires, emotions, and esoteric self-image. The Moon shows our Inner Nature. When you are misunderstood, it is your Moon nature, expressed imperfectly through the Sun sign, that feels betrayed. Things you know without thought, instincts, hunches, intuitions, are products of the Moon. Modes of expression that you feel truly reflect your deepest self belong to the Moon: art, writing, creative work of any kind; for fun OR business. The feeling-tones of your deepest emotions are filtered by the sign your Moon occupies at birth.

Most people can map their moods and day to day cycles by the moon, some more than others. People with strong Moon influences are changeable, have vitality that waxes and wanes, are susceptible to external influences, and are comfort loving.

While the Sun indicates ego and drive, the Moon shows the kind of personality. Sign placement describes the basic stamp; proximity to compatible planets enhances their influence.

The "New Moon" is the same as a "Sun-Moon conjunction." These people are "the same inside as out" - they can be "easy to read." Sun/Moon types can achieve a great unity of personality/soul, and be "self-contained." They can also have a lack of perspective about their own identities - no sense of how they appear to others.

The "Full Moon" is a Sun/Moon opposition. When balanced, this gives a person great perspective and brilliance; it can be schizophrenic if not well aspected by other features in the chart.

The "Waxing Moon" is growing fuller; moving from New to Full. The "Waning Moon" is moving Full to New, that is, getting darker. Waxing moons are full of vitality and are traditionally good times for starting projects; waning moons are the opposite.

The "Balsamic Moon" is the last ten degrees before the moon enters its three day dark period. These moons provide psychic insight and precognitive powers.

The moon shows the childlike part of a person. In some it is deeply buried during adulthood, but it comes out again in old age. Moon/Saturn or Moon/Pluto relationships show Father/Child issues, and are often difficult. Moon/Venus and Moon/Jupiter lend charm and artistic/business ability when well aspected; gullibility, excess, and wastfulness when not.

Moon/Mars difficult aspects can cause impulsiveness, subconscious sexual problems, being opinionated, sadistic, arrogant, selfish, stubborn, angry, antagonistic, or misogynistic.

Moon/Mars good aspects allow the subconscious and conscious will to harmonize, makes one courageous, energetic, with strong vitality and good recuperative powers. Animal nature has been harnessed; family protector.

The Moon governs the tides in the ocean, and the moods of the masses. Mental hospitals and emergency rooms are usually extra busy during full or angular moons.

The Moon is Exalted in Taurus, and Rules Cancer. The Moon's detriment is Capricorn, and its fall is Scorpio.

The Sepher associated with the Moon is Yesod.
Key 18 looks at the Moon as a Tarot Key.