Bohemian Gothic-The High Priestess

Thirteen

Our High Priestess is robed in her traditional blue, a satin cloak with stunning needle work of what seem to be leaves, as if she's wearing falling leaves. Underneath is a pomegranate red gown, purple sleeves and white gloves. She is, in fact, covered from head-to-toe, only her face revealed, giving us that traditional feel of her as nun-like. The untouchable and likely secluded lady. She sits between the traditional black and white pillars, but this is the Bohemian Gothic deck and so they are topped with skulls.

What is most interesting is what she holds in her hand. Maybe others can make it out better, but so far as I can tell it's a crystal vial--but a very odd one as it's attached to a gold rod. This makes it resemble a key. A key of any sort is certainly apt for the HPS, who holds the key, the answers to all mysteries. In this instance, the vial holds a red liquid that is undoubtedly blood. Blood is the key to life, and the key to much of this deck. It feeds the vampires, carries drugs through the veins, summons the demons, is the "key" element in magic spells, and is essential to any kind of sacrifice, holy and unholy alike.

This "key" of blood replaces the HPS's traditional scroll of knowledge. She gazes at it as if into scrying mirror, either because it tells/shows her secrets or because she's waiting to consume it and gain all its secrets. Perhaps it is a vial of very special blood from someone or something very special. In any case, the red color reminds me of both pomegranates and menstrual blood, elements of the traditional HPS.

Thoughts?
 

Surja76

Thirteen said:
In any case, the red color reminds me of both pomegranates and menstrual blood, elements of the traditional HPS.
You are right with your point of view. It is the same you think.

She is in white gloves and she is looking at this bloody wand like at something sacred, wand is gold and gold is pure metal. She looks like nurse taking something only with clean hands or gloves.
She is innocent but ready to physical sexual relationships and she think if she need to make this step or not.
As I mentioned she take is with clear hands like something very special, so that this special can belong only to the special man. She is collective with men.
She put her forefinger to the head, she thinks how to dispose treasure she has, who will be that one she will belong to. Her head cover is something near marine and green. She is smart and logic girl.
She looks like cocoon in her navy blue cover. It is her knowledge has has got, but it is only theory but not practice. Her it means her knowledge is not useful for common real life. Her sleeves are of violet color of Death - means Dead books knowledge.And else, in my Country people say - white hands or white gloves - it means that girl can do nothing with housekeeping. Her hands and movements are seemed to held down.

In readings:
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It is too close to traditional meaning of the girl of has grown up in traditional family like hothouse plant on books and fairy-tales, and who does not know how to use her knowledge in practice. She is looking for prince on the white horse, who should come himself to her house and pick her up. But she does not do nothing to make the first step herself to meet him, she is lazy and inactive.
But men do not look at her, because she is cold, closed and clamped. Guys do not like to potter with such girls. It is necessary to stand on ceremony with them much.
Ste is not easy and social. She can not live with full life like Empress can.

In its best meaning Hight Priestess can be a little girl, minor teenager who just discover her sexuality and is not allowed to date High School guys being punished by her parents because of her age. And who should be under the parents influence till her 16 or 18. :) :)

But from the other side:
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This card belongs to the mantic, mystic and it is close to tarolog's profession, so that this card is more positive in this meaning. High Priestess keeps sacred knowledge not all pleople can be devoted to. It is something she keeps in a secret and can open only if she decide other person is ready or worthy to be shared with it.
 

Thirteen

Surja76 said:
She looks like nurse taking something only with clean hands or gloves.
Oh, good call! Yes. There is something of an old fashioned nurse about her, even to the cap she's wearing.

it means that girl can do nothing with housekeeping. Her hands and movements are seemed to held down.
Interesting. The white gloves certainly go with the rest of the outfit, as if she is, as you said cocooned, but elegantly, richly. It has that ivory tower feel about it. This is not a lady who is ever going to do housework. And I agree entirely that she might be a play on the girl raised in a secluded tower or among hot house plants.

Or, more likely given the mystical side of her, a girl raised to be a special holy woman, untouchable, remote, delicate, etc. Her separation from the world is necessary in order for her to understand the esoteric.

Interesting....
 

swimming in tarot

Interesting points have been mentioned! These are my musings, which I am not trying to tie in with anyone else's at this moment. I realize I am expressing myself poorly, and will likely do a massive re-write later. Probably none of this is what the deck creators intended.

In this deck the High Priestess looks to me like a link between the Magician and the Empress not just numerically, but conceptually. Maybe it's like this in all decks, but only in this one does it strike me that she's about to change religion, as it were!

To try to explain: she looks dressed like a nun in mystical oriental robes, white gloves between her and the dirt of the world, heavy on the thinking, light on the doing. The Magician has all kinds of theoretical knowledge, too (which he does use, true enough). This HP sits in front of the usual black and white pillars, topped with skulls--which to me suggests that the knowledge she has is from the canon of dead authors who wrote on dry parchment, illustrating all kinds of sacred geometry, mystical ciphers, and correspondences, but nothing from the manifest world.

We have interrupted her in her contemplation of a vial of red liquid--could be pomegranate juice, but is probably blood, quite likely her own. She meets our eyes: some sort of understanding has occurred to her about the red liquid, and by looking at us, she confirms it. Usually the HP holds a rolled scroll, a spiral thing. This vial also contains, I am sure, spiral things of a different kind: double helices; DNA. Sacred geometry of a different kind. Magical, mystical, un-reinventable, and therefore more mysterious than all the invented arcana that she has been studying. It is the messy magic of the Empress that has our young HP in awe; she has made a new discovery in the mystery of Life and Death, blood and pomegranates. Perhaps she has never seen blood in all of her young, cloistered life: the archivist's white cotton gloves even protect from papercuts! She realizes that she not only does she hold the key to the mysteries in her mind; she also holds them in her body.

(She looks in our eyes and sees another living, flesh and blood person: someone, perhaps, with whom to mingle DNA to make new DNA, and partake in the highest magic. I think she is having a Moon moment, and might step out of the cloisters, tonight! Or is my mind still on the Moon card?)

I'm not sure what to make of her very colourful robes and very pale face. She could just have librarian's pallor, or she could be pale from a little loss of blood. The deep blue outer robe and red inner robe remind me of the vestments of the Virgin Mary; the outer purity, and the inner passion. Perhaps this HP is just discovering her passion, and is on the brink of life in all its messiness? I can't make much sense out of the figures on the blue robe, or relate any meaning to the teal headcloth or purple sleeves.
 

Surja76

swimming in tarot said:
In this deck the High Priestess looks to me like a link between the Magician and the Empress not just numerically, but conceptually. Maybe it's like this in all decks, but only in this one does it strike me that she's about to change religion, as it were!

To try to explain: she looks dressed like a nun in mystical oriental robes, white gloves between her and the dirt of the world, heavy on the thinking, light on the doing. The Magician has all kinds of theoretical knowledge, too (which he does use, true enough).

We have interrupted her in her contemplation of a vial of red liquid--could be pomegranate juice, but is probably blood, quite likely her own. She meets our eyes: some sort of understanding has occurred to her about the red liquid, and by looking at us, she confirms it.

Your thoughts completely reasonable.

Actually she is perfect.
Any Soldier dreams to be General...

What does she think of? She is just on her TOP of her Maturation and may be she just think of two ways of her future life.

Her hothouse cocoon cover can be not only the storage of knowledge but also the seed container. She is ripe to be an Empress to give the birth to new life (pomegranate juice - symbol of life and blood), but she should decide to ACT to become Empress.

Of course, if she only does not God's wife and it does not Immaculate Conception...

From other side....
She can stay passive. She can be stay nurse in white gloves with a syringe full of fresh blood who makes refreshing injections to all the suffering, in order to resurrect the dead souls....
 

Thirteen

swimming in tarot said:
the archivist's white cotton gloves even protect from papercuts!
There is a "sleeping beauty" feel to her, as if she's being protected from cutting herself or shedding her own blood--and by doing so waking up, becoming a complete woman--or maybe not a woman at all. Maybe she's being kept protected for fear that she'll turn into something dangerous? I think of all those scary movies where if the innocent girl gets one taste of blood she turns into some fantastic monster.

In fact, given this deck, her layers of clothing might be protecting her from other things instead. Like the sun, for example. In older Vampire stories the vampires can go out during the day, but need to protect themselves from too much sunlight. Or maybe, like the Witch of the West, she doesn't want to get wet and melt ;)

Likewise, she might well be saving herself from being contaminated for other reasons. Young women who were going to be sacrificed were often kept bundled up and pure. Likewise, a person may go through purity rites and wear special holy clothing as they're working their way on up to some powerful level of magic.

I can't make much sense out of the figures on the blue robe, or relate any meaning to the teal headcloth or purple sleeves.
I think it might have to do with covering all the colors of magic and mystery and the moon. Those colors appear over and over again in this deck, especially in relationship to the Moon, water and blood, all inter-related. Teal is a mix of blue and green and so gives her some green. She essentially is wearing all the colors of magic.

I wonder what kind of leaves those are on her cloak. Anyone know?
 

Surja76

Thirteen said:
I think it might have to do with covering all the colors of magic and mystery and the moon. Those colors appear over and over again in this deck, especially in relationship to the Moon, water and blood, all inter-related. Teal is a mix of blue and green and so gives her some green. She essentially is wearing all the colors of magic.

I wonder what kind of leaves those are on her cloak. Anyone know?

It is very interesting.

Red like an element of blood and fire - wands
Green like an element of Eath and life, material world, The Sun - Coins
Yellow like an element of power of spirit, it is ether - Swords.
Blue - like an element of water, the Moon - Cups

Blue is also the element of wisdom and Death.
I see the same some mixture colors like green and blue mixed to marine color.
What is it? Mixture of wisdom and practice? Life and Death?

Purple, violet is an element of creativity and Death also.

Birds on her coat seemed to fly with their heads down. People say that Birds are souls of Dead people. They look like little swords. Yellow Birds like an element of spirit. What do you think?
 

Thirteen

Surja76 said:
Red like an element of blood and fire - wands
Green like an element of Eath and life, material world, The Sun - Coins
Yellow like an element of power of spirit, it is ether - Swords.
Blue - like an element of water, the Moon - Cups
AH-ha! I think you may have it. All four colors for all four elements...and Purple for the fifth, as Purple is also the color of the spirit. The fifth element.

And I don't think those are birds on her coat. I'm pretty positive that they're leaves. Maybe oak leaves? Oak was the tree of truth, and it's the "masculine" symbol to the pomegranate's feminine. Or perhaps the leaves are just standing for the tree of knowledge? She holds up that vial of blood much as Eve might have held the "apple." Or, on our case, the pomegranate as that, some say, was the real fruit that was eaten in Eden. It is a fruit of knowledge, life and death.

This would fit in with the meaning of the High Priestess. Our HPS holds up the vial which is the "fruit" and key to knowledge, life, death, power. She hasn't consumed it, and so isn't all knowing, yet she isn't as innocent as she was because she has the vial, understands what it is, and may consume it. And we're in that moment. That eternal pause between the pillars, the moment where Eve holds the fruit in her hand. That twilight place between dark and light where all elements and colors can meet.

That, to me, is very much the High Priestess card.
 

baba-prague

A quick one - and I'd like to emphasise that anything I say is just clarifying our intentions when we made the card. I don't think the way we see it is "correct" as a deck will find its own meanings over time with each reader who uses it with focus.

But, our intention with the gloves was to imply white Papal gloves.
http://dappledphotos.blogspot.com/2006/04/episcopal-gloves.html

The High Priestess is, after all, also La Papessa.
 

Surja76

baba-prague said:
A quick one - and I'd like to emphasise that anything I say is just clarifying our intentions when we made the card. I don't think the way we see it is "correct" as a deck will find its own meanings over time with each reader who uses it with focus.

But, our intention with the gloves was to imply white Papal gloves.
http://dappledphotos.blogspot.com/2006/04/episcopal-gloves.html

The High Priestess is, after all, also La Papessa.

AH, Karen!!! Thank you. Your Deck is Great and opened from different unexpected sides. Thank you for your work.
Please, add your comments if you feel we are aside of main subject.

Really I did not know about Ritual gloves. Thank you for your mentioning. I am Orthodox and our Priests do not ware gloves.

Oh, I was just little close. :(
But I compared gloves not with Catholic Ritual ones but with relation to the one Catholic Monk, Saint Pio, who had to put gloves on his hands because they were constantly bloody, like hands of crucified Christ. This blood had healing effect. And he used white gloves like antiseptiс.
So that I have thought she is nurse with soul healing blood. :) :) :)


Thirteen said:
AH-ha! I think you may have it. All four colors for all four elements...and Purple for the fifth, as Purple is also the color of the spirit. The fifth element.

And I don't think those are birds on her coat. I'm pretty positive that they're leaves. Maybe oak leaves? Oak was the tree of truth, and it's the "masculine" symbol to the pomegranate's feminine. Or perhaps the leaves are just standing for the tree of knowledge? She holds up that vial of blood much as Eve might have held the "apple." Or, on our case, the pomegranate as that, some say, was the real fruit that was eaten in Eden. It is a fruit of knowledge, life and death.


YESSSS I think you just got it, perfect. :)