The concept of the High Priestess can be found in the earliest creation myths of the Pelasgians. She is Eurynome the Wide-Wandering (a name that connects her with the moon), who separated the oceans from the sky and danced on the oceans of chaos.
“She danced lonely upon
The waves of the sea.”1
She danced to the south and in doing so created a north wind behind her. As she danced more wildly the north wind became aroused and encircled and impregnated her in the form of the serpent Ophion. She turned into a dove producing the World Egg which Ophion gestated, wrapping himself around it in seven coils, at her command. When the egg burst open all of the world’s creatures were produced fully formed, as well as the trees, mountains, rivers, and even the sun, moon and planets. The story goes that the couple took up domestic bliss together on Mount Olympus but soon fell out with each other and Eurynome kicked Ophion out, at which he fell to the ground in pieces creating the indigenous race of the Peloponnese. After that Eurynome again:
“…danced lonely upon
The waves of the sea.”2
She appears again - re-incarnated or re-invented - as Aphrodite, a very early Greek goddess of love who was born from the sea and stepped ashore riding on a scallop shell. Although she produced many offspring she is not known to have had any physical liaison. Her concept was that of love and beauty whose offspring were not so much physical but representative of resurrection and resuscitation. In a later generation she was replaced by the Greek goddess Artemis, who truly was a virgin goddess, whose symbol was the waxing new moon. The High Priestess is also Isis of the ancient Egyptians, goddess of the moon, of life and resurrection; sister-wife to Osiris (who, like Ophion was cut up and scattered in pieces). She is comparable too with Astarte of the Hebrews, as a female aspect of Yahweh in his Neolithic form of a sun god.
The Christian Church with its emphasis on God the Father failed to find a response to the inherent need in people for the archetypal receptive female aspect of deity, so the Virgin Mary became elevated in the church to her present status. It is the Virgin Mary, not God the Father, to whom most Catholics have always prayed. In the Middle Ages this card was known as the Female Pope, which gives quite a different connotation, but shows how it was necessary for people to be made aware of the importance of this female aspect and not to regard it as something dark and unknowable that had in some ways been ‘swept under the carpet’ by the male-dominated church of the time.
The Exhortation: Never forget your inner worth!
The High Priestess is twinned with
Hexagram 2 K’un: The Receptive-Passive Principle
Upper Trigram: K'un: earth, female, receptive (heat, dark). Mother; Larger Yin.
Lower Trigram: K'un: earth, female, receptive (heat, dark). Mother; Larger Yin.
SYMBOL This hexagram symbolizes the passivity of the terrestrial forces. The Superior Man [Elite Traveller] displays the highest virtue by embracing all things.
We can understand the concept of the High Priestess better if we look at the I Ching where we find her equation in the second hexagram, named the Passive or Receptive Principle. Here we find the Receptive-Passive Principle being given equal stature with the Creative Principle. The passivity implied is in no sense weak; in fact it is equally as powerful as the Creative Principle. It is a more difficult concept for us in the west than the Creative Principle which finds a rapport with our eager, active society. But in the eastern world the idea of the strength to be found in yielding, absorbing, opening up to things, is much more acceptable.
The Wên Yen commentary makes it very clear:
The Passive Principle, thanks to its exceeding softness, can act with tremendous power. Silent, tranquil, its virtue is amorphous …. Its essential characteristic is glad acceptance.
In a footnote John Blofeld explains:
The power of softness is a favourite theme with Taoists; cf. the power of water over rock in the process of erosion.
The strength of the Receptive-Passive Principle is symbolised by the enduring strength of a mountain; by the relentless pounding of waves on a rocky shore; by the uncompromising desert wind; by the implacable, mysterious ocean tides.
The first two cards of the Major Arcana of the Tarot and the first two hexagrams of the I Ching represent the two primordial concepts of the heavenly, creative spirit and the receptive waiting unconsciousness of the world. Both are in a state of potentiality, for the Creative and the Receptive are equally participating. These two archetypes express the quintessential male and female aspects and now these two fundamental principles must become expressed in a more earthly way.
Pythagoras saw the number two as an essentially female number for it will always produce a multiplicity. The one of the Magician plus the two of the High Priestess produces the three of the Empress.
In order to move on to the next hexagram (and the following Tarot card for the Empress) we need some movement in this static double-trigram. Looking at the text, I found there is only one really beneficial moving line, which changes it to Hexagram 7, the Army. We need a beneficial moving line otherwise our journey is not going in the right direction.
So in Hexagram 2, for the Receptive-Passive Principle, the second from bottom line is starting to move and becomes the first and only Yang line, thus forming Hexagram 7. It is the first change in the all female aspect manifesting in the world as it takes on the essence of the creative force, with a slight but perceptible and increasing movement in the second line from the bottom of the hexagram; (lines are always read from the bottom upwards in the I Ching). The original Yin (broken line) is moving inward onto itself until it joins up forming a single, long or continuous Yang line.
The moving line of the 2nd Hexagram is described thus:
Straight and of broad capacity, though we do nothing, all our affairs prosper.
We still have the passivity of the feminine principle accepting and moving forward in the only way it can, which is inwards.
The Wen Yen commentary:
Straightness denotes rectitude. Broadness denotes a capacity for righteousness. The Superior Man [or woman] is reverent and thereby strengthens his inner self; his [or in this case: her] righteousness enables him [or her] to deal justly with the external world. With reference and righteousness established in our hearts, we shall never depart from moral excellence. Straight, of broad capacity and great – whatever we undertake is sure to prosper; no longer need we doubt the successful outcome of our affairs.
So, in this way we move directly from the concept of the High Priestess to the more earthly Empress.
Card 3: The Empress (Yin)
The Empress is the receptive principle of the High Priestess made manifest in the world, and so represents the Great Mother, the Mother-Goddess, or the Earth Mother. She is the harvest goddess Demeter of the ancient Greeks, who made everything fruitful. She is mother-love, pure feeling without any censure. The mother who sees beauty in her crippled child; the mother who will fight against all odds for her gaoled son; the lioness who will guard her brood to the death.
She is honoured throughout every culture in the world and goes by many names, but when we look behind the names we find the same all-fruitful, all loving mother figure. She is represented in the earliest works of art of the most primitive cultures from one side of the globe to the other. With her authority the leaves come forth and the flowers bloom. She is fruitfulness in all its forms. She symbolises the virgin soil made productive as the crops ripen for the harvest.
My picture shows a woman dressed in the green of the nourishing earth with a hint of the red of the creative spirit, surrounded by rose-flowering trees. She feeds a baby at her breast and unconditionally offers a sheaf of ripe corn without looking at the recipient, whilst another child demands her attention. She is a ‘multi-tasker’!
Just as the High Priestess has a quiet strength, so the Empress is no namby-pamby. Giving is her prime attribute; an overflowing, outpouring giving that only a woman - perhap
s only a mother - can achieve, and which asks for nothing in return. One can only give as much as one has, and this abundance of giving and acceptance comes from a great inner strength and supreme knowledge that what she is doing is right - in fact there is no other way for her.
But there is a mystery about her too, for there is an aspect of this that no man can quite comprehend: the essential hold that every mother has over her son. She was known as Diana to the Romans, the Huntress associated with the moon and therefore with the ocean tides and timing and with the night. This later association degenerated into her being seen as a ‘woman of the night’ or seductress. This in turn led to the feminine being regarded as something to be hidden away because it was in some way dangerous.
The sacred number three which represents the Empress, the Mother Goddess, has been special throughout the world from earliest times and was considered by Pythagoras to be the first ‘real’ number - in other words, the first number that relates to the actual world. The Empress also represents the beauty of the world, of Gaia; the quintessential beauty that we see in all nature. She is not just the external beauty of the world; she also represents our own internal ability to see it. She is colour, sound, taste and touch. She is the iridescence on a beetle’s back and the deep orange of an autumn sunset. She is the late evening song of the blackbird and the boom of the bittern in the lakeside reeds. She is the taste of honey and of the ripe peach. She is the softness of the cat’s belly-fur and the smoothness of volcanic rock. And it is through her that we are imbued with the ability to appreciate it.
The Exhortation: Remember to nourish yourself as well as others!
The Empress is twinned with
Hexagram 7 Shih: The Army
Upper Trigram: K'un: earth, female, receptive, (heat, dark). Mother; Larger Yin.
Lower Trigram: K’an: abyssal water, (cloud, moon). Middle Son; Lesser Yang; Winter
SYMBOL The hexagram symbolizes water surrounded by land. The Superior Man [Elite Traveller] nourishes the people and treats them with leniency.
We have noticed how in Hexagram 2 the second line from the bottom (being a moving line) has changed from a Yin line to a Yang line. This is the first instance of the Creative Principle entering into the female aspect. It is represented by the eye in the traditional Yin/Yang symbol and is shown in my image of the Empress as the hint of red on her clothes.
It may seem strange that this essentially beneficial moving line should change the very beautiful hexagram of the Receptive-Passive Principle into Hexagram 7 for the Army, but we cannot as a feminine principle move into the world at large without some down-turn! Also, it is the entrance of this small essence of Yang that gives the greater strength necessary for the feminine principle to operate in the world. Many a woman will understand the battles that the Empress will have to fight for her children, for her own femininity, for her very survival and sanity once she has entered into the normal world of creativity and reproduction. The ability to do this comes from the inner strength she has inherited from the High Priestess enhanced by the inclusion of the single Yang line, the essence of the creative force.
Persistence in a righteous course brings to those in authority good fortune and freedom from error … Making progress with a highly dangerous task is a way of obtaining control of the realm and of winning the people’s allegiance. When such good fortune is obtained, how can there be room for error? The Superior Man [or Woman] nourishes the people and treats them with leniency.
In mythology we see the archetype as Freya, the Norse goddess of fertility and plenty who led the Valkyries into battle. There have been warrior women in history as well as in myths who have very successfully led armies, or who have inspired men to fight for their cause. They were able to do so not by strength of arms but by their charisma and courage, which instilled in their subjects the desire to lay down their lives for their queen or empress - Boadicea comes to mind, the Cathar princess Esclamonde of Foix, Eleanor of Aquitaine - the world-wide list is long, including the Berber female seer Kahina who fought against the Arabs, and a modern version of the type may well be found in the Burmese activist Aung San Suu Kyi. They are all women who did not betray their femininity for their cause whilst fighting in a man’s world.
Card 4: The Emperor (Yang)
Just as the Empress is the Receptive Principle made manifest in the world, so too the Emperor is the Creative Principle made manifest in the world. He is Demeter’s brother, Zeus of the ancient Greeks, also the King with Divine Right. Like the Mother Goddess he too is honoured in every culture throughout all the world from time immemorial, not least in the form of 'God the Father' of our own religious system.
He is a father in the true and best sense. He is the father to whom anyone can turn: reliable and correct; strong, powerful and dependable. As an Emperor he knows how to correct the erroneous ways of his subjects because he understands the ways of the world and how everything works. He sees the weaknesses and follies of his people and knows they have to be like that, only intervening when necessary. He does not ‘love’ his people, for that is not his way, but he enjoys them immensely, moreover their prosperity and well-being is his greatest wish for they are the broadest expression of himself.
He has inherited his intellect from the Magician and he knows how to use it within the confines of the world. His mathematical abilities are supreme so his timing is right. He knows how fast the world turns and when the equinoxes are due; he understands when eclipses will occur, the proportions and ratios connected with Pi, Phi, Fibonacci numbers and all that complicated stuff!
In my image his body is four-square and solid, and his clothes are red for the creative spirit in him, with blue trimmings denoting the eye of the Yin in this otherwise totally Yang card. He still holds the wand of the Magician, central and firm. His understanding of the geometry of the world is reflected in the background.
He is also the supreme ruler in a world that was ready (at the opening of our era) for such a ruler. An Emperor is not just the ruler of a country, like a king, he is the ruler of the whole known world, the only world that matters. He is a cerebral archetype: he has no trouble with making decisions or in acting upon them.
He has had a bad press lately, since the culture of our own world age founded on the masculine principle has become somewhat out of balance as our period draws to a close, and the idea of an Emperor with power over others is replaced by the desire for all to participate in their own politics. Nevertheless, we should not allow this to cloud our sight of the fundamental idea of the Yang made manifest in the world. When all the chips are down who would not wish to have the Emperor there at the back of them? And when we all have the vote - what do we do? We elect a new ‘Emperor’! ‘The King is dead. Long live the King’!
The Geburah of the Sephiroth is close to the Emperor for he too has the attributes of strength, judgement and discipline. He knows the boundaries.
The idea of the Divine King in mythology reminds us that the Emperor is directly descended from the Magician and the Creative Principle. Throughout history kingship and the divine have been closely connected even down to the present day when our own royalty is also head of the state church. The Dalai Lama is considered primarily a god by his own people but he is also regarded by them as their head of state. The Egyptian Pharaohs’ automatic leadership came from their divine heritage.
The Emperor’s number is four, which stands for stability. It is a practical, earthly number, four-square and solid, the foundations of the earth and buildings. He represents the building blocks of our worldly structure and society but we must not forget that he is the worldly offspring of the Magician.
The Exhortation: Be strong enough to give way to others!
The Emperor is twinned with
Hexagram 14 Ta Yu: The Great Possessor
Upper Trigram: Li: Fire, brilliance, beauty, (sun, dependence, lightening). Middle Daughter; Lesser Yin. Summer.
Lower Trigram: Ch’ien: heaven, male, creative, (sky, cold
, light). Father; Larger Yang.
SYMBOL This hexagram symbolizes fire in the heavens. The Superior Man [Elite Traveller] suppresses those who are evil and upholds the virtuous. Most gladly he accords with heaven and carries out its commands.
One Yang/male line in the 1st Hexagram, the Creative Principle, has moved to become a Yin/female line. It is the central line of the upper trigram, which has pulled itself out so thin it has broken into the two shorter lengths forming the Yin line, thus creating Hexagram 14 entitled Great Possessions, whose upper trigram is named for the elder daughter. She is the eye of the Yin in the otherwise totally Yang hexagram. The moving line itself is described in the commentaries:
(a) This passage presages the emergence of a being who is truly great. (b) It also symbolises the supreme position of the ruler. (c) It exemplifies accord with heaven’s virtue … His clarity of mind resembles that of the sun and moon; his actions are as well-ordered as the unfolding of the seasons; his joys and sorrows make him the equal of gods and demons … Yes, even heaven grants him full support – then how much more so men and how very much more so gods and demons!
In Hexagram 14 it is the yielding (line 5) that has moved into the place traditionally regarded as being of most importance, therefore this whole hexagram becomes one of the greatest good fortune.
The Tao in the Tarot Page 6
