Who is the High Priestess
The High Priestess denotes unconscious power, tenderness, sensitivity, and often inexplicable but deeply rooted certainty. She is the key to the mysterious truth that cannot be approached with a logically thinking mind. She knows that the truth that can be spoken is never the eternal truth. Her clear side is the expression of patience, understanding, apology, goodness and forgiveness, as a helper, a healer, or a visionary for the power of the unconscious. But her shady side is the "dark nurse", the embodiment of the witch who uses the power of her spiritual power to seduce, paralyze or harm others. However, Tarot's interpretations emphasize only a friendly, helpful side.
The card refers to the Moon. The Moon (being the general feminine symbol, the symbol of the second order corresponding to the Sun as the Yoni does to the Lingam) is universal, and goes from the highest to the lowest. It is a symbol which will recur frequently in these hieroglyphs. But in the earlier Trumps the concern is with Nature above the Abyss; the High Priestess is the first card which connects the Supernal Triad with the Hexad; and her path, as shown in the diagram, makes a direct connection between the Father in his highest aspect, and the Son in his most perfect manifestation. This path is in exact balance in the middle pillar. There is here, therefore, the purest and most exalted conception of the Moon.
The card represents the most spiritual form of Isis the Eternal Virgin; the Artemis of the Greeks. She is clothed only in the luminous veil of light. It is important for high initiation to regard Light not as the perfect manifestation of the Eternal Spirit, but rather as the veil which hides that Spirit It does so all the more effectively because of its incomparably dazzling brilliance.
Thus she is light and the body of light. She is the truth behind the veil of light. She is the soul of light. Upon her knees is the bow of Artemis, which is also a musical instrument, for she is huntress, and hunts by enchantment.