Tarot card meaning · Major Arcana · II The High Priestess tarot card meaning

The High Priestess is the card of what you know before you can explain it. Upright it means intuition, secrets and a time to stay still and listen. Reversed it means you are ignoring what you already know. In a yes or no reading it is not yet: wait for what is hidden to surface.

intuition
secrets
stillness

Yes or no: Not yet
Reversed: No

Arcana: Major
Number: 2 (II)
Element: Water
Astrology: The Moon

The High Priestess tarot card, Rider-Waite-Smith deck — Rider-Waite-Smith, 1909

Upright

The High Priestess upright meaning

A woman in blue sits between two pillars, one black marked B, one white marked J. Behind her hangs a veil covered in pomegranates, and through the gaps you can see water. She holds a scroll marked TORA, half hidden in her robe. A crescent moon lies at her feet. She is not doing anything. She is keeping something.

Upright, The High Priestess means not everything is on the table, and you sense it. There is information you do not have yet, and some you have but cannot prove. She asks you to stop asking out loud for a while and listen to the part of you that already noticed.

It is a quiet card. In love it can mean a secret, a private feeling, a person who keeps their cards close. It is not a bad card. It is a card of timing, and the timing is: not yet.

Reversed

The High Priestess reversed meaning

Reversed, the knowing is still there. You are just not listening to it. You have a sense of what is happening and you keep talking yourself out of it, because the answer is inconvenient.

It can also mean secrets coming out badly, gossip, or someone hiding more than a private feeling. Sometimes it means the opposite of her stillness: asking everyone you know, pulling cards every night, looking outside for an answer you already have inside.

That is why reversed reads as a no. Whatever you keep pushing away is usually the answer, and it is usually the one you hoped not to get.

Love and relationships

The High Priestess in love.

If you are single

Someone may already be interested and saying nothing. Or you may be drawn to someone you know very little about. Let it unfold quietly. Watch more than you talk, and trust the small things you notice.

In a relationship

Something in the relationship is unspoken. It may be a private feeling, a worry, or a part of their life they have not shared. Upright it asks for patience and close attention. Reversed it asks you to stop pretending you have not noticed.

About an ex

About an ex, The High Priestess says you do not know everything about where they are or what they feel, and pushing will not tell you. It also says you knew something before it ended. That first instinct is worth listening to now.

How they feel

The High Priestess as feelings

As feelings, The High Priestess means they feel more than they show. Private, quiet, interested in a way they keep to themselves. They may be studying you. They are not going to say it first, and they may not say it for a while.

What to do

The High Priestess as advice

Be still and listen. Stop asking everyone else and stop pulling another card. Write down what you sensed the first time, before the hoping started, and take it seriously. Then wait for the thing that is hidden to show itself.

The question everyone asks

Does The High Priestess mean they still think about me, or that they will come back?

It means there is feeling on their side that they are not showing, and there are things about their situation you cannot see from where you stand. It does not say yes and it does not say no. It says wait, and watch. If you already have a quiet sense of the answer, The High Priestess is telling you to trust it.

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Yes or no

Is The High Priestess a yes or a no?

Not yet Something is not on the table and you already sense it. Wait for it to surface before you decide.

↺ No Reversed: You are ignoring what you know. The answer you keep talking yourself out of is the right one.

A single card answers a single question, and only if the question is narrow. If yours is about a person, I can read the whole thing for you.

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Reads tarot and casts candle work by hand

In my readings

When The High Priestess comes up for me.

The High Priestess comes up most for clients who already know. They have a feeling about the person, a feeling about the situation, and they come to me hoping I will tell them they are wrong. I do not read her as a mystery. I read her as a hint that the client's first instinct was right.

So I ask what they noticed early, before they talked themselves out of it. Then I look through the spread for what is behind the veil: a third person, an unsaid fear, a decision already made on the other side. That is what an honest reading is for. Not comfort. The thing behind the curtain.

If this card is about someone

One card shows a corner. I read the room.

When a card keeps coming up about the same person, the question under it is bigger than its meaning. These are the two ways I can help with it today.

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Questions

What people ask about The High Priestess

Is The High Priestess a yes or no card?

It is not yet. Upright, something is still hidden and you should wait for it to surface before deciding. Reversed it is a no: you are ignoring what you already know, and that is the answer.