By Sarah Taylor
The Priestess’s third appearance in five weeks is drawing our attention to the message she embodies as card II in the major arcana, while her change in position from the other two readings — then centre, now left — indicates a shift in emphasis. Her presence today serves as a reminder of what we have already been called to do earlier this winter (summer, if you are in the Southern hemisphere); it is a moment of recall and revision before a change in circumstances.
The Priestess is about going to the quiet within. She is the principle of stillness — or, rather, active stillness: her work is in the inner realms but she is by no means doing nothing. While The Magus is concerned with magic created through action, The Priestess’s work is contemplative. The Magician conjures and creates; the Priestess reflects.
What is she reflecting? Knowledge. Core knowledge. I can’t be more specific than that because it will be entirely personal to each person who seeks it. The Priestess is an inhabitant of the liminal world between matter and Spirit. In a process that lies outside thought, she tunes into that core knowledge, and then brings it into the physical world in a way that is understandable and digestible. When we are listening to our intuition, we are working with The Priestess archetype.
And learning stillness is going to be useful, because we are poised on the edge of a period of transition, as we move from The Priestess and into the influence of Fortune.
M. M. Meleen writes this about the Fortune card from the Rosetta Tarot:
… Fortune is usually a welcome card indicating a surprising change for the better, and a fortunate development in an uncertain arena. It points to adapting to changes in the courses of both karma and destiny. Transformations are on the horizon, and our willingness to adjust to this flow will support our true calling.