Greater Arcana Study Group—The High Priestess

Abrac

Secrets of the Waite-Smith Tarot says of the cross:

"It is certainly on magnification a nascent [just beginning to form] rose-cross or Celtic Cross, as there is a circle from which the four arms extend."​

I think what they're talking about are the inside corners; the way they’re rounded it looks like there's possibly an invisible circle, but to me it’s anything but “certain.” Anyone else see a circle there?
 

Richard

A central circle certainly may be implied, since the arms of the cross may, among other things, represent the sun's rays. The arms may not even be straight, as in the swastika (which appears in many cultures, the Nordic version apparently being an elaboration of the sun rune Sowilo).
 

Abrac

kwaw, that's an awesome quote from Mathers you came up with. :)
 

Richard

Yellel, my copy of The Tarot by Case is the First Revised Edition ©1990.
 

Yelell

All I really see are biblical references, particularly with this card. The rest of it seems like studying the Klingon language, so I'm not going to have any constructive contributions as the discussion goes on.
Yellel, my copy of The Tarot by Case is the First Revised Edition ©1990.
The one I originally had says
"The first book of this series, "Wisdom of Tarot," represents some of Paul Foster Case's earliest thoughts on the subject. Though almost two decades will pass before the publication of Paul's masterpiece "The Tarot, a Key to the Wisdom of the Ages" ..."​
so that explains the difference. I confused myself thinking they were the same.
 

Richard

All I really see are biblical references, particularly with this card. The rest of it seems like studying the Klingon language, so I'm not going to have any constructive contributions as the discussion goes on.......

Nothing wrong with asking questions. It stimulates discussion. A lot of the time, technical language is just shorthand for concepts that have simple explanations. See kwaw's post about the Magician.
 

Teheuti

What could be the meaning of the solar cross on her breast?
From Paul Christian, The History and Practice of Magic: “The solar cross (analogous with the Indian Lingam as union of the sexes) signifies the fecundation of matter by spirit; it expresses also, as the seal of the infinite, the fact that knowledge proceeds from God, and is, like its Source, without bounds.”

Waite: “In Kabalistic Tradition the Cardinal Points are indicative of the universal dominion exercised by the Holy Shekinah: from Zenith to Nadir, from East to West, and she abiding at the centre of the cosmic cross formed by the intersection of their influences, from which centre she irradiates and sanctifies all.” (A New Encyclopedia of Freemasonry).

Added: I believe the solar cross represents the sun at the center with the path of the sun through the year marked by the solstices and equinoxes (the four arms).
 

Teheuti

This explanation from Waite shows how, while still in the GD, he saw the High Priestess as Shekinah and as Gimel and the astrological Moon on the GD Tree:

"The Shekinah in transcendence, keeping the Path of Gimel – religion in attainment. She is Divine Law wherein is the path of attainment. She is the Moon . . . the Queen of Heaven. Her light comes from the Eternal (Kether). She is the Guardian of the Gate of Daath. She is Virgin, Bride, Mother [triple crown], because she is the splendour of purity in all her states and planes. She is Anima Mundi. For us, however and for our concerns, she is the restorer of worlds. It is for this reason that she is the Gate of Yetzirah, or the Guardian who stands thereat. Waite, “The Tarot and the Rosy Cross”

"The Tarot and the Rosy Cross" is the third paper in this pdf: https://tarotcirkel.files.wordpress.com/2014/05/artikels-tarot-waite.pdf
There's much, much more about the High Priestess in this paper.

For Waite, she was, above all, the Shekinah, “the prevailing genius of the esoteric, withdrawn power” (PKT). In The Holy Kabbalah, he speaks of her as she “who sits between the Pillars of the Eternal Temple with the Book of the Secret Law lying open on her sacred knees."
The Book of the Secret Law = the TORA scroll and the Secret Doctrine itself.
 

Teheuti

Regarding the Moon crescent at her feet. Normally the moon is in the sky above; here it is below, indicating that the High Priestess may actually be high in the sky from which the river of life flows:

“There is a sense also in which this Daughter of God is—or becomes—the Mother of man. In respect of the manifest universe, she is the architect of worlds, acting in virtue of the Word uttered by God in creation. In respect of the myth of Paradise, the Shekinah is the Eden which is above, whence the river of life flows forth that waters the Garden below, and this is also Shekinah as she is conceived in external things—or Bride, Daughter and Sister in the world below. . . . So also she is the waters that are above the firmament in respect of her title of Elohim, but she is the waters below the firmament when she manifests as Adonai. As Elohim she is the Middle Pillar.” Waite, The Holy Kabbalah
 

Yelell

Shekinah, the pomegranates, the moon, "she is the spiritual Bride and Mother,"etc, in a dozen ways what I see is biblical.