Welcome to Tarot for Scholars, a resource that helps you weave the deep wisdom of tarot into your daily life and work. In each post, we offer reflections and prompts for exploring your own inner world and unlocking the unique creative power of your scholarship.
High Priestess
About this card
A receptacle and guardian of the wisdom and knowledges of the ages; a syncretistic figure of the divine feminine, whose spiritual powers may be understood as intuitive, psychic, or simply mysterious. The paradox of going deep within your intuition to access the secrets of the collective unconscious, which are both internal and external in nature, both personal and cosmic in scale. Remaining alert and attuned to your inner wisdom, and to the knowledge far beyond what can be articulated.
Other interpretations
Margy’s cards, clockwise from top left: Radiant Tarot; New Chapter Tarot; Cosmic Slumber Tarot; Shining Tribe Tarot; Elemental Tarot; Navigators Tarot of the Mystic Sea; Spolia Tarot; Tarot of the Spirit.
Helen’s cards, clockwise from top left: Moon & Stars Tarot; Light Seer’s Tarot; Japaridze Tarot; Canes Arcanae; Star Spinner Tarot; Muse Tarot; Tarot of Mystical Moments; Forest of Enchantment Tarot.
Questions and prompts
In the video, we discuss several different framings for this mysterious wisdom figure; which ones resonate most with your personal experience and worldview?
Reflect on how your experiences creating scholarship mirror larger archetypal symbols. To take a few examples from the High Priestess herself: does your creative process feel like the lunar cycle? Do your sources feel like ancient scrolls? Does your discipline or research area feel like a veiled temple? (In your reflections, feel free draw on other archetypes not depicted in this card.)
How does your scholarly process incorporate sources, methods, or assumptions that lie beyond conventional academic knowledge-making?
Thanks for joining us for Tarot for Scholars! Your hearts, restacks, and comments brighten our day. 💫
Yours in scholarship,
HELEN SWORD is a scholar, poet, award-winning teacher, and founder of the WriteSPACE, an international writing community with members in 30+ countries. Her research-based books, articles, and online tools empower scholarly writers to write more clearly, confidently, prolifically, and with greater pleasure.
Visit Helen’s website here.
MARGY THOMAS is the creator of ScholarShape, a body of work dedicated to elucidating the patterns of Story-Argument across genres, disciplines, and life itself. Through services and DIY resources, Margy helps scholars use Story-Argument patterns to design their work — and to find its deeper meaning and higher purpose.
Visit Margy’s website here.
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