Liminal/New Liminal Tarot - Priestess

2 - Priestess

A veiled priestess, wearing the headdress of Hathor/Isis, holds a sistrum and is flanked by two glowing columns. Her throne is surrounded by water; by her feet cobras rear their heads (the reared cobra hieroglyph represents a goddess or priestess).

The two pillars attached to the throne - one topped with a new moon and the other with an eclipsed sun - suggest that the Priestess shows another way to approach life. While the Magus was busy manifesting what he desired, his self-will also creating a big ego. Although he knows the power of intent and intellect, the Priestess knows the power of stillness and silence to see beyond the ego's judgments and opinions that can skew reality. She would tell us, in the words of Ranier Maria Rilke, "Make your ego porous." The veil and waters (and possibly the rhythmic percussion of the sistrum) imply sinking below egoic awareness to receptive awareness, a level that perceives what is true without all the attachments of desire that pollute our openness and clarity. Such insight and inner wisdom can lead to a more skillful use of will, keeping us from being 'hoist with our own petard.'

Like a finger pointing to the moon,

Reasoning and words show the way at first.

But the natural state is no object of thought,

so let us turn within and truly see!

~Mipham Namgyal Gyatso