Shadowscapes Study - High Priestess

Silver Crow

Please share your interpretations here. Here is the artists description which can be found on the Shadowscapes website:

H I G H P R I E S T E S S

The High Priestess turns her face to the sky. She basks in the radiance the stars cast upon her upturned cheeks. She soaks in that tremulous incandescent light, feeling it glow within her mind, opening corridors and dancing into filigree patterns.

The stars chant:
we were here when the mountains were young
and the sea was only a dream
we've seen the hills bloom with countless millions of seasons
we've watched the clouds paint their visions
in a slow language across the centuries
let us speak

At the light brush of a moth's wing across her palm, she turns her gaze to it.

"Take this as a present to your mistress," she says. She plucks the filigree orb of light from the air and holds it out to the emissary of the Moth Queen. "I know my sister appreciates tales. Tell her that this holds the stories of the stars."

The little orb pulses with a fiery heartbeat, and the moth flutters as if to acknowledge.

Meaning: Wisdom, knowledge, learning, intuition, purity, virtue. The Owl is a keeper of knowledge, and he bears a key to unlock mysteries. The pomegranate is an icon of Persephone, who tasted the seeds and thus tied herself to Hades -- it is a fruit of fertility and death; and the moons embroidered upon her garments wax and wane. The new crescent, and gibbous moon that create the full cycle, embraced in one.
 

Water Lady

The owl holds of the key to wisdom in his feet (I wish it was more visable) and the tree branch rooted in our world, to me says we can have this wisdom for ourselves, just ask.
 

Kloeyy

This card's image screams knowledge and untold secrets. The cycle of the moon and the cycle of life ~pomegranate. To me just says it's lessons of life.

~Kloeyy
 

Inkscape

She reminds me of Amaterasu, the sun goddess. I think it's interesting that her head is kind of like a sun, but there are moon designs on her sleeves.

There's a half-eaten pomegranate in her left hand... pomegranates instantly remind me of Persephone and Hades, as mentioned above. The pomegranate is also a powerful anti-oxidant with numerous health benefits. This, coupled with the whole wisdom (owl + key + tree) thing, makes me think of a wisdom tempered by clarity. The pomegranate was also in the running for the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge (and there's a tree below the Priestess as well).

While the High Priestess floats above, the owl swoops in the middle, and the tree remains grounded in our world (as Nan points out). In a way, this card represents three different types of knowledge: The Tree -- primal truths. The natural world.... The Owl -- animal instincts and desires.... The Priestess -- enlightenment, going beyond oneself.

To me, this card says: "To know, you must learn. Keep your conscience clear. Knowledge is power; don't let it get to your head (floating). Aspire to great heights (like the High Priestess), but keep your feet on the ground (like the tree). Trust your instincts (owl)."
 

JSNYC

The High Priestess is one of those cards for me that can influence my opinion of an entire deck...

Like (almost) all the Shadowscapes cards, I love the image and feel drawn to it. But... first, and a very superficial thing, Stephanie made (what should be) a dark-haired mysterious woman, a blonde. However, thinking about this now, after writing a post about the sun tattoo on The Magician, did the sun tattoo move again? Is that why she is blonde? Her hair almost looks like an image of a sun.

Next, Stephanie removed the pillars of wisdom and the veil, typically symbolized in The High Priestess card, and doesn't appear to replace them with anything... And even seems to contradict them. The leaves swirling around The High Priestess typically symbolize earth or Pentacles in this deck. And she has the white wings with black underneath, just like The Magician...

Additionally, there are stars behind The High Priestess in the sky, but the moon is inside her cloak or garments...

I really like this card but haven't yet figured out why. Maybe I will be finding out soon because I have been starting to draw this card a lot. ;)

Hmmm... The Magician is not as bold or powerful as typically represented, and The High Priestess not as passive as typically represented...
 

Sagefire

JSNYC said:
I really like this card but haven't yet figured out why.
I am inclined to agree. Initially I probably liked this card the least of all...which is saying something. But in a short amount of time she has grown on me. I think before I was bothered by the expression she bears. It indicated to me a sort of cocky smirk, much the same energy I'm used to feeling with the magician. She is much freer than most High Priestesses I know. Where they sit and are calm and quiet, she is standing, flying even, and expressively states, "I know these things!!" Her power may be old and mysterious but it is intense power none the less.

After comparing between the Magician and her a little more, I have drawn a Apollo, Artemis connection that was hard to see in other decks. Here the connection is simple. Both characters have wings, both blonde, one holding a green orb, the other red, and both look very similar to one another. Only a little trading among twins, Apollo wearing horns, and Artemis with sun waves in her hair. The hair even sort of implies the blocking of the sun, and the reflection of it, more lunar...

I can kinda see the two pillers in the tree below here, soft and merciful branches in the foreground and hard, severe branches in the background, with spiky dark spines coming off. This is such an intense card, very taunting that you can never know all her secrets... :D
 

Peregrin

An enigmatic card! The high priestess seems to float in the air, unsupported. The sun highlights her head, emphasizing that her gifts of learning, wisdom, and intuition are centered in the mental realm.

According to the Shadowscapes companion book, as she holds her arms up, her body takes the form of a chalice. The chalice, a cup, implies the element of water. Her owl's flight seems to generate a great splash of liquid, in lines that echo the priestess's upheld arms. The splash is filled with tiny nature spirits, a sign of intense energies at work.

According to the book, her robes show the waxing and waning moon, the cycle of growth and decline. She carries a seed-filled pomegranate (potential/birth), and leaves fall from her as if she were a tree in autumn (completion/death).

The high priestess seems exuberant and expressive, a contrast to the still and inward-focused magician.

What should we make of the many shell-like spirals at the bottom of the picture?
 

erinaree

I struggle with this card in the Shadowscapes Deck. Normally I'm quite drawn to the High Priestess, as of all the cards in the Major Arcana, the High Priestess is the one I most commonly identify as myself. For that reason, her presence in a reading is usually reassuring.

For some reason, though in the Shadowscapes deck, the High Priestess unsettles me.

It may be something as simple as the colour of her hair, as pointed out by JSNYC, or the earthiness of the card, which I would have otherwise would have identified with water.

As this card is about embracing intuition, to me the fact that she is floating free with her arms spread says the querent should embrace intuition with wild abandon, which rubs me the wrong way. I prefer the traditional interpretation of this card, which is using a more reasoned approach to intution - if such a thing is possible.

Because this card rubs me the wrong way, I know I need to keep reading it, looking at it and learning about it. But there's just something about it that makes me jump back when I draw it in a reading.
 

hedface

I've been using this deck for a while and decided recently to study it in-depth (thank goodness for you guys!) One thing I noticed was the figures of people within the branches - this makes me think of the River Styx and the souls of the lost. The fact that they are embedded in the branches makes me think of the natural pattern of life, but other than this I'm a little lost on what this could mean, interpretation-wise. What do you think?
 

Sulis

I've been using this deck for a while and decided recently to study it in-depth (thank goodness for you guys!) One thing I noticed was the figures of people within the branches - this makes me think of the River Styx and the souls of the lost. The fact that they are embedded in the branches makes me think of the natural pattern of life, but other than this I'm a little lost on what this could mean, interpretation-wise. What do you think?
Hi Hedface,

Welcome :).

Are you talking about the High Priestess card or the cards in general?