Major Arcana II
The Priestess
The Keeper of Thresholds
The card
Michelangelo’s Lybian Sybil is seated at the border of this world and the next. She reaches for an open book containing both past and present. Behind her are the mysterious cliffs of Eleusis, a temple dedicated to the free passage between the physical and non-physical realms.
The priestess’ unsurpassed powers, draped in gold she is dressed in and the pronounced muscles of her back, are said to be so potent that even the goats who graze on her grave can be used to divine the future.
Above her head floats a Roman egg, the symbol of life and renewal, and a portal to physical existence.
The Priestess is symbolic of intuition—to know without evidence. She highlights the importance of tuning in to our physical senses as well as those we cannot name. Take time to notice what others don’t. There is an unseen reality beyond this physical world and much wisdom hidden within it. Silence is a portal back to ourselves and our individual truths.
Learn to trust the knowing inside you and nurture it as a mother would. Watch as your inner guidance is proven correct and your grand ideas come to life.
What do you already know before explanation arrives?
Jungian lens
The archetype in motion
Intuition mediates between conscious knowledge and the unseen psyche. Its shadow appears when intuition is treated as unquestionable certainty. Integration allows inner knowing to remain in conversation with embodied reality.