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GENERAL MEANINGS
The Priestess embodies the Universal Yin Principle - the receptive feminine aspect that preserves the Universe.
As the complementary opposite of the Magus, her stance is one of silence, contemplation, serenity, and internal observation. Her attention is directed towards the internal world, whereby she is closely associated with her most intimate nature, in touch with her heart. This introspection gives her access to a vastness of wisdom. Her knowledge is not rational, deductive, or analytical, but rather intuitive.
Without going out the door
One knows the world
without looking out the window
One sees the path to heaven.
The further we go
the less we learn.
Thus the wise man
takes no steps and arrives
looks not and knows
acts not and does
Tao Te King. Chap. 47
The Priestess is known as the guardian of occult knowledge and in many decks is depicted with the Tora - the Hebrew Book of Law - semi-hidden beneath her cloak. She divulges her knowledge to those who she herself chooses.
She does not seek to know herself as the Hermit does, nor does she search for anything. Thus she is not divided between the subject and object of the search. There is no future, no action; she is whole in her non-doing.
Sitting with her eyes closed, allowing everything to happen of its own accord, she is in touch with her own essence, in profound meditation, no mind, devoid of projections into the futures or anchors in the past. Lacking objectives, in the eternal present, she thrives on her own being, representing the Principle of Feminine Spirituality.
According to Jung, the Priestess is linked to the psychic function of intuition.
Some authors see this Arcana as the continuous back and forth movement typical of the Moon, symbolizing the oscillation between favorable and unfavorable moments, attraction and repulsion alternating rhythmically.
