The High Priestess - Proserpina

 I had a reassuring and pleasant dream about my late big brother Ralph last night, whom I miss very much. The welcome appearance of The High Priestess that I drew this morning was also reassuring, because I've been missing him and he's been in my thoughts so much lately. In our dreams, is often where we  find comfort from or the answers to our questions, if we pay close attention to them.

 Persephone who is embodied in the High Priestess, ruled by the Moon, and is the queen of the underworld or of the unconscious. She's also the daughter of the Earth Mother Demeter and she is the guardian of the secrets of the dead. Although Persephone would never reveal  or speak of these secrets, I think dreams can give us some sense and glimpse into this hidden world. Personally, I've had number of experiences involving the people I love, that have died, who've visited me in my dreams, which can sometimes be disturbing or comforting.

 The depth of the soul, the secret of our real purpose is revealed through our intuition and the wisdom of  patience. In particular, because I speak from the perspective as a woman, our inner Mother reveals to us our own identity through the creative womb of unconscious and it's a beautiful thing.

Persephone - Proserpina Come Home To Mama

We have all felt lost, hurt, confused, bewildered, fearful, and even like we have been taken hostage, much the way Persephone felt when she was abducted by Hades, to whom she was bound forever, and taken to the Underworld.

Persephone The High Priestess, Queen of the inner hidden world, keeper of mysterious secrets, reveals herself to us in dreams, and in our unconscious.

Persephone's Earth Mother Demeter, searched desperately for her until finally she punished the earth casting a spell where everything was plunged into snow, cold and darkness, and nothing grew from the earth.

The past few weeks I felt myself glimpsing into that dark world, where Persephone resides three months out of the year. Through a message of the unconscious in a dream, the Ten of Swords and a synchronicity of events, my intuition was working overtime, trying to get the message across to me. As usual, I didn't fully understand until the whole thing was over, but I am feeling much better, and come back to myself with a deeper sense of trusting my intuition, wiser and stronger than ever.

Persephone reminds us that there is a constant coming and going in the depths of our souls, that allows and causes us to grow when we do the shadow work. The High Priestess urges us to pay attention to our feelings, intuition, and to the night-world of dreams, as this is where the natural law is revealed.

In Greek Myth Persephone and her Mother Demeter, are embodied in this mythic story. In Roman myth we find the same story with Proserpina and her Mother Hera.

I heard the beautiful song Proserpina this week, written by the late great Kate McGarrigle which was the last song she wrote before her death. It is only fitting that I post this, sung by her loving daughter, Martha Wainwright. It is both very beautiful, moving and poignant.

The Empress

The Major Arcana card of the Empress or Demeter follows and completely trusts her inner voice, vision and values. Her connection to the good earth is deep and strong. She loves passionately, lives by her instinct, and intuition.

Living a life of abundance and growth is paramount to her, as she is the Mother of all and desires to provide for her children who dwell on the earth both spiritually and physically.


The Empress urges us to listen to our own instinct, and to the practical wisdom of nature. If we do not, we can loose our way, becoming bitter and resentful.  She reminds us that the cycles of life are always changing; we must accept and adapt to beginnings and endings.

The Empress is the Wild Woman, the Wolf Woman, La Loba the one who howls, and finds her own pack.

The Empress - The Queen of Nature

I always feel happy to draw the Empress, Demeter the Earth Mother, matriarchal goddess, mother of Persephone. She is a welcome site and gives me the sense, all is right with the world, especially after the big storm this week. This card makes me feel very grateful, hopeful and optimistic for the day, and for the future.

The Empress lightens my heart, and brings thoughts of sunshine, flowers, growing things and the Spring. She has  pomegranates decorated on her dress, and she is obviously carrying a child, signifying her fertile nature, and the creative growth within.

The water flows in the background which is life and spirit affirming symbolizing, flowing feelings and fertility. She wears a necklace with twelve stones, representing the astrological signs, and wearing her crown that represents her as ruler of nature and instinct.

The Empress embraces and cares for the good earth, and she is a creator, encouraging and urging us to do the same and to take good care of the earth and of ourselves, mind, body and spirit. She cares for all vulnerable creatures. Without her we cannot appreciate our physical selves and we are disconnected living only in an intellectual world.

A new creation whatever it is, needs patience and nurturing, in order for it to grow to full term. The Empress symbolically reflects the mothering experience, not necessarily in a physical way, but on an inner level.

Nurturing and caring for ourselves like a mother would, is probably one of the most difficult things for us to do, as women are often much more comfortable mothering, nurturing and caring for others. It is essential that we learn how be a mother or to re-parent ourselves, because if we can not care for ourselves, we not only short change ourselves, we are not able to fully care for or be present to another. We can risk burnout, may become resentful and bitter, because we are constantly giving to others, feeling that we are being taken for granted, revealing the dark side of Demeter.

Wild Woman Singing Over The Bones Egg Tempera, Catherine Meyers 2013

' The Feminine Face of God '

La Loba /Wolf Woman - Catherine Meyers

Yesterday I posted the about the Empress, which was the card I drew from my Mythic Tarot deck.
The Empress (Demeter) is the Earth Mother. Her daughter is The High Priestess (Persephone) queen of the underworld, link to the inner world or ' the unconscious ', and guardian of the secrets of the dead.

I am posting today about these two particular cards because they directly relate to the amazing book I am reading that I have mentioned in my posts a number of times, The Heroine's Journey, by Maureen Murdock. There is so much more I would love to share about this book and why I think it is a very important book to read, but suffice to say I highly recommend it to anyone, but especially to those who are tarot readers. It is a book that enables a deep understanding of our feminine and masculine identity and how there needs to be a balance between the two within ourselves for wholeness.

The High Priestess is our guide to all that is mysterious and mystical. I have read that this card, more than any other in the tarot deck, embodies and symbolizes the tarot reader, which I agree with, because the High Priestess represents the knowledge of intuition, supernatural, instinct, secret and self knowledge, and I believe it is the reason why individuals become tarot readers, male or female.

Here are some excerpts from The Heroine's  Journey that I hope will provide for you  food for thought, that I think clarifies ideas about the feminine, masculine, and about mother and daughter.

 " The nature of the mother/daughter split is also determined by how a woman integrates the archetypal Mother into her psyche, which includes Mother Earth and the cultural view of the feminine.

Our collective psyche fears the power of Mother and does everything it can to destroy it. We take her nurturance for granted; we use, abuse, and dominate matter (mater) every time we get a chance. Every barrel of oil that pours into Prince William Sound, every ton of nuclear waste that is stored in the New Mexican desert, every tree that is suffocated by acid rain shows our enormous arrogance and disregard for her.

Our churches have pushed the feminine face of God underground for centuries, destroying her image and usurping her power for the male gods. How can we feel connected to the feminine when culture around us does everything in its power to make us forget? We bow before the gods of greed, domination, and ignorance and scoff at the feminine images of nurturance, balance, and generousity. We rape, plunder, and destroy the earth and expect her to give to us endlessly. This mother/daughter wound runs deep; it will take much to heal it. "

" Your inner man and woman
   have been at war
   they are both wounded
   tired
   and in need of care it is time
   to put down the sword
   that divides them in two "

" The Masculine is an archetypal force; it is not a gender. Like the feminine, it is a creative force that lives within all women and men. When it becomes unbalanced and unrelated to life it becomes combative, critical, and destructive. This unrelated archetypal masculine can be cold and inhuman; it does not take into account out human limitations. Its machismo tells us to forge ahead no matter what the cost. It demands perfection, control, and domination; nothing is ever enough. Our masculine nature is wounded. "

" It is the job of the heroine to enlighten the world by loving it-starting with herself. "

I have to say I was initially not clear about what is meant by the masculine not being a gender. Upon more reflection. I believe what is meant, is that masculine and feminine are archetypal forces, not gender. That makes sense to me. I found more information from this site.

 http://www.gestaltreality.com/2013/02/03/archetypal-masculine-feminine-forces-the-key-to-creation/