The High Priestess Tarot Meanings Upright and Reversed
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The High Priestess Tarot Card Meaning: Upright and Reversed Meanings & Breakdowns

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The High Priestess Tarot Card Keywords

Upright Keywords

Intuition, Instinct, Inner Voice, Spirit, Spirituality, Mystery, Enigmastism

Jump to upright meanings

Reversed Keywords

Secrets, Mistrust in Self, Unperceptive, Psychic Blockage, Psychological Complex

Jump to reversed meanings

The High Priestess Tarot Meaning

The High Priestess is a tough card to fully wrap your head around, and for good reason. It is an energy that represents the intangible aspects of the divine feminine energy. It is the bridge between the spirit and the real world, transmitting intuitive and instinctual messages to our consciousness so we can take action on them. 

The High Priestess, in traditional Tarot decks like the Rider Waite-Smith deck, sits in front of two pillars with a curtain draped behind her, hiding what lies on the other side from the ordinary passerby. It is the keeper of this deep unconscious knowledge, and it will only share it under unique circumstances. Instead, it prefers to deliver the messages it receives from this great unknown, meaning that there is often a lot left unsaid or in need of further investigation.

Often, it can be a frustrating card to work with because, as a society, we are so used to having all the information at our fingertips, but The High Priestess is here to keep us humble and remind us that not everything is meant to be known. 

The High Priestess Upright Meaning

The upright meanings of The High Priestess refer to a healthy and strong connection with the unconscious and the spiritual self. It can be an invitation to explore these parts of ourselves to better understand our own thoughts and actions. 

When The High Priestess appears upright, intuition is at work; there is a knowing that wants to come forward, but it’s not yet fully formed in a way that the conscious mind can comprehend. Instead, we have to work with the clues that The High Priestess is willing to offer to us, in order to piece together the puzzle and start to build the whole picture.

Be prepared to leave without all the answers, though. The High Priestess upright is very much like the oracles and seers of ancient civilisations; it can help to give us the general thread to follow, but it won’t give you the answers you’re looking for on a silver platter. 

Should The High Priestess appear upright in your Tarot reading, look for what is hidden. Try and read between the lines, look beneath the surface, and think outside of the box. There may be a riddle that needs to be solved. 

Journal Prompts for The High Priestess, Upright

If I woke up tomorrow and could completely change just one detail of my life, what would it be and why?

If there were no boundaries or limitations, what would I want to achieve?

How might I be keeping myself small right now? How might I be denying the things that could help me reach my full potential?

“The medial woman stands between the worlds of consensual reality and the mystical unconscious and mediates between them. The medial woman is the transmitter and receiver between two or more values or ideas. She is the one who brings new ideas to life, exchanges old ideas for innovative ones, translates between the world of the rational and the world of the imaginal. She “hears” things, “knows” things and “senses” what should come next.” – Clarissa Pinkola Estés

The High Priestess Upright Meanings | Love, Career & Finances

In a love reading, The High Priestess upright hints at things left unsaid and things being kept under wraps, whether for better or for worse. Don’t believe what you see on the surface, especially when it comes to how you feel about the relationship and your own feelings towards your partner. 

It can also be a call to deal with your own inner world and ensure you’re not projecting issues onto the other person in the relationship. It may be that you have traumas or fears from past relationships or even childhood that need to be addressed before you can feel fully ready to let someone else in. In this respect, you become The High Priestess, barring the way for anyone trying to get a look at who you really are.

In a career reading, The High Priestess upright could suggest a big learning opportunity, but not in terms of skill. This learning could come in the form of finally understanding what you want to work for or what the true value of your work is within the grand scheme of your life. 

For business owners or those trying to create a soul-led or creative business, this card can offer insight into limitations you may be causing. In these types of businesses, you may be required to open yourself up in a way that feels vulnerable or revealing. You may be holding back in fear of allowing yourself to commit to this project fully. You may be worried about giving too much of yourself to the business and losing a sense of self-identity in the process. This can lead you to dream small, not push yourself to your full potential or prevent you from forming a connection with your target audience.

When it comes to finances, The High Priestess upright reminds us that money is often an energetic transference. Our money mindset can put obstacles in our way that otherwise do not exist, so making sure you’re always working on your perspective and beliefs around money is imperative to feeling abundant. 

The High Priestess upright can also ask for a huge amount of trust. It can ask you to simply deal with what is happening in the present and leave the future in the hands of divine intervention. Don’t try and fix problems that you’ve assumed will appear in the future. Fix the problems in the now and watch as things start to fall into place.

The High Priestess upright in a self-development reading can signify a desire to reconnect or repair the connection with your intuition. It can suggest you desire more time for thinking more broadly about the self, using tools like meditation or even taking a solo holiday so you can be completely with yourself. It’s a need for spiritual and emotional self-care.

Often with The High Priestess, we are asked to be in conversation with the deepest parts of the self. This is the point within The Fool’s journey, where you start to ask the questions you’ve probably always been afraid or hesitant to ask. You may start to have more questions than answers, even though you’ve gained more clarity and understanding. Doors start to open for you, the more you unveil in your inner world, but you have to be brave enough to step through and be ready to explore what you find.

The High Priestess Reversed Meaning

The High Priestess moves within the underworld, the world beneath the world, the underbelly, the subconscious and mysteries behind the vale of the universe. When The High Priestess is reversed, there’s often discourse in these realms. It can manifest as psychological complexes, repressions, denials or the suppression of deeply intuitive instincts. 

We move through the energy we see in The High Priestess reversed more than we know because we’re not as connected to our natures as much as we used to be. We start to notice things that we’ve previously kept locked away tight in the subconscious, leaking through into the material world or conscious mind.

There is a disconnect, and within The High Priestess card, this can result in our inability to really trust in the divine or trust that there is a force bigger than us that is guiding us. Within the realms of science, there is so much we don’t know. Things happen all the time without any logical rhyme or reason, and when that is mirrored within our own psyches, that’s when we start to notice The High Priestess reversed popping up.

With this card, we’re already looking inwards, questioning the things we thought we knew, but when it’s reversed, we need to go deeper. We need to ask harder questions, ones that feel alien to us, ones that we’d never dream of asking anyone else. We need to be able to step outside of ourselves, hovering overhead and taking a perspective of our internal world that may be uncomfortable or difficult to reconcile. 

Journal Prompts for The High Priestess, Reversed

What might I be avoiding or overlooking in favour of the things that make me feel good or support my pre-existing beliefs?

How many times over the last month have I ignored my intuition, and what was my conscious reasoning?

What is my current viewpoint around my spirit, soul or existence and how could I challenge them to gain a fresh perspective?

“We feed the deep intuitive self by listening to it and acting upon its advice…” – Clarissa Pinkola Estés

The High Priestess Reversed Meanings | Love, Career & Finances

In a love reading The High Priestess reversed could indicate a repression of intuition around a potential partner. These will be red flags that may seem very subtle and almost invisible at first, until we take a magnifying glass to them and see what is at the root. It won’t be a clarity that comes easily, though; you’ve probably been perfectly happy ignoring what you don’t want to see. This could be things within your partner’s behaviour or energy, or it can be in your own.

Just like we would have to do in any other context with The High Priestess reversed, we have to ask the hard questions. It’s important that if you have even the slightest feeling like something is off, you are able to ask the right questions to figure out what it might be. This can require time away with the self. Time to think, to reflect and get your head together, so you can communicate more effectively.

In a career reading, The High Priestess reversed could suggest a wealth of possibilities, but maybe not a clear or traditional road to success. This role will be what you make of it; it will be filled with twists and turns, and you may never know what’s coming next. Decide whether this sounds exhilarating or exhausting in order to move forward in the best direction for you.

You may also find that you are less likely to ask questions when something isn’t right. Maybe you’re not sure about a task, or you’re unclear about what is happening within your team or company. Maybe you don’t want to look too closely at your job for fear of seeing all the cracks. In this respect, you may be keeping your head down and just getting on with things, but this can only take you so far before you start to feel the weight of always being compliant and never facing challenges.  

In a financial reading, The High Priestess reversed can indicate a reluctance to admit how deep your financial matters go. This could be in terms of a true lack of financial security, or even an underestimation of just how secure you are. In either of these cases, there’s usually a deeply rooted money belief that is causing you to repeat old cycles.

With this in mind, The High Priestess reversed can ask you to make time to sit down with your finances and make sure you fully pull back the curtain on everything that is going on. Leave no stone unturned. Be aware of every single penny that is coming in and leaving your account so that everything is accounted for and there’s no chance of surprises.

The High Priestess reversed in a self-development tarot reading can suggest a deep mistrust or discomfort with the self. This may be caused by unresolved trauma, limiting beliefs or even low self-esteem. It points to things below the surface that are causing issues externally or in the conscious self.

In this case, it’s advised to find external support to help you do this work. There’s only so far we can probe into our own subconscious alone. Sometimes we need someone to walk with us so that we feel stronger and more capable of facing the harder parts of who we are. This might come in the form of a life coach, therapist or counsellor. Ensure that you have someone who is able to help support you in the ways you might need.

Nurturing Our Spiritual Self

Any divine feminine energy within the Tarot, whether it be The High Priestess, The Empress or The Queens of the Court Cards, is here to nurture the energy it is channelling.

For The High Priestess, it is the spiritual self that is being nurtured. That little voice of wonder that whispers to you when something ‘lucky’ or ‘spooky’ happens and sends a shiver of thrill and excitement down your spine, is The High Priestess empowering and nurturing that spiritual connection and curiosity.

The High Priestess | Esoteric Correspondences

Astrological Sign

The High Priestess Tarot Meanings Astrological

The Moon

The Moon is a celestial body that matches The High Priestess’ ever-changing cycles and how much or little it is willing to show. Sometimes the lessons and guidance of The High Priestess are on full display, like the full moon. Sometimes they are hidden, with just the outline visible, like the new moon.

Elemental Energy

Ace of Cups Tarot Meanings Water

Elemental Water

The High Priestess is elemental water due to its free-flowing, emotional and creative energy. It matches the element of the moon and its ability to tap into deep intuition. Like elemental water, The High Priestess can also be an emotional card to tackle, as it asks us to open ourselves up and be vulnerable.

Numerology

Two in Numerology Meanings

Number Two

The number two is all about balance, decisions, and can also form a portal through which a transition can be made, just like our card. The High Priestess is a way point following The Magician that allows us to ask questions and gain knowledge so we can make better decisions moving forward.

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