The Gate of The Priestess

Watcher Angel Tarot- High Priestess

I am currently writing a post for a beloved project that has sprang up from my great enjoyment of this page, Aaron's Rod, Aphrodite's Altar, which is an adults only blog where I tackle love and sex through the tarot (so please don't go if you are not of legal age or don't wanna talk/read about sex), and I am ready to write about The High Priestess.  At least, I think I am.  She may have other plans for me.

I am not finding her as easy to write about as I thought I would, and while in the silvery sliver of light from last night's moon I believed I had the thread, today the words are coming hard.

In this deck, The High Priestess is represented by Kasbiel, who keeps the secret name of God.  Unlike some High Priestesses, she seems to almost be inviting us in to learn her secrets as easily as we inhale her musky incense.  The veils of her keep are not stone castle walls, but they are just as imbreachable without her soft inviation.  She will not be taken by force, in any sense of the word, and perhaps my Taurean nature has been acting like a bull in a china shop as I tackle her entry.  I have been looking at her as a task, something I must do, and she is not responding to me.  My question today is, "How should I approach The High Priestess so that I can write about her?"

Watcher Angel Tarot - Six of Swords, King of Cups, Knight of Pentacles

Although I have previously disliked cards with keywords on them, a technique taught to me by James Wanless, just last week, has caused me to open up to the possibilities of using them more effectively with decks that choose to use them.  If I string a sentence together from these, I have "Passage through The Dilettante leads to The Artisan."  To me, that means I must become a dilettante, an admirer and appreciator of the arts in order to practice my own.  As I consider this in approach to writing about The High Priestess, I realize she needs to be approached with a more reverent and loving attitude than I have been offering.  I have been fumbling at her with clumsy fingers, grasping at her and insisting she show up on my terms, where she would prefer to be treated more deftly.  I have a tendency to want to "just get it done" but like all aspects of the Divine, the High Priestess wants all of me, not just what I am willing to give.

From the images, combined with my understanding of tarot, I see that while there may be a battle raging on, in this moment, and maybe only for this moment, I am to put down my Swords and focus on the beauty that surrounds me.  The King of Cups is in full mastery of his emotions, and is a bit of a showman as well.  Embracing these qualities will help me to achieve my goal of the day, to practice my art.  Artistry requires form and function both, and while I have been plenty willing to function, my form has needed some help.

Watcher Angel Tarot- The Lovers

The shadow card of the reading is The Lovers, as represented by Na'amah.  My favorite series of books ever is written by Jacqueline Carey, and begins with Kushiel's Dart.  The denizens of her carefully crafted alternative world worship beings much like Enochian angels themselves, and one of their foremost deities is Naamah, the blessed precept they adhere to, "Love as thou wilt."  This echoes Mr. Crowley's, "Do as thou wilt shall be the whole of the law... Love is the law, love under will."  In the topography of my own spirituality, the Holy Spirit figures largely, and is the Divine Feminine aspect of the Trilogy.  The Holy Spirit, being the creative hand of God/dess upon the earth, makes appearances in many cards, but perhaps is strongest for me as The High Priestess.  I have made a mistake approaching her with demands upon my lips, rather than praises and soft requests.  I have been demanding that she hand over all her secrets to me, when I know very well she is a gatekeeper, and will give me nothing I don't dive deep into my own psyche to retrieve for myself.  This is actually love of the highest order, the journey she is willing to guide me on, though, like The Fool, I must be willing to go.  The High Priestess is connected to The Moon, the card of shadows and the need to trust what we may not be necessarily able to see.  I have to trust this feminine aspect of God, and of myself, or her secrets will remain a mystery to me.  Lovers give and receive graciously.  They do not demand.







These cards are from Watcher Angel Tarot by Michelle Belanger and Jackie Williams, published by Spiral Fire Studio.