Secret of the High Priestess Spread

 

 

Difficulty: Average

This spread makes a nice alternative to the Celtic Cross, which covers basically the same ground. It is useful when a question doesn't quite call for the Ankh spread. This tarot spread is helpful for looking into a current trend. The High Priestess may or may not present a mysterious secret to be analysed after the rest of the spread.

1. & 2. Main impulses representing the topic at hand. They may compliment or oppose one another.

3. This is the current influence at this time.

5. The Waning Moon is the influence that is moving into the past.

4. The Waxing Moon indicates what is on the horizon, or the approaching influence. This is the immediate future.

7. The Light is what is clearly recognized, consciously.

6. The Dark indicates what is there but not fully perceived, though noticed on a deeper level of consciousness.

8. The Next Step is the near future, where this journey leads.

9. The final tarot card, only if it happens to be of the Major Arcana, reveals the Secret of the High Priestess. This is a special message that should be given added weight.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Your Secret of the High Priestess Reading

The Waxing Moon 8 of Cups	The Full Moon 7 of Cups		The Waning Moon 9 of Pentacles
	Significator #1 Knight of Cups	Significator #2 3 of Cups
The Dark 10 of Wands	The Secret of the High Priestess 5 of Swords		The Light 6 of Swords
	The Next Step Knight of Wands

 

 

 

Significator #1 

 

Knight of Cups

Graceful, but not warlike; riding quietly, wearing a winged helmet, referring to those higher graces of the imagination which sometimes characterise this card. He too is a dreamer, but the images of the side of sense haunt him in his vision.

Reversed Meaning:

Trickery, artifice, subtlety, swindling, duplicity, fraud.

 

 

Significator #2 

 

3 of Cups

Maidens in a garden-ground with cups uplifted, as if pledging one another.

Reversed Meaning:

Expedition, dispatch, achievement, end. It signifies also the side of excess in physical enjoyment, and the pleasures of the senses.

 

 

The Waning Moon is the influence that you are putting behind you, as it moves into the past. 

 

9 of Pentacles

A woman, with a bird upon her wrist, stands amidst a great abundance of grapevines in the garden of a manorial house. It is a wide domain, suggesting plenty in all things. Possibly it is her own possession and testifies to material well-being.

Reversed Meaning:

Roguery, deception, voided project, bad faith.

 

 

 

The Full Moon is the current influence at this time. 

 

7 of Cups

Strange chalices of vision, but the images are more especially those of the fantastic spirit.

Reversed Meaning:

Desire, will, determination, project.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Waxing Moon indicates what is on the horizon; the approaching influence. 

 

8 of Cups

A man of dejected aspect is deserting the cups of his felicity, enterprise, undertaking or previous concern.

Reversed Meaning:

Great joy, happiness, feasting.

 

 

The Light is what is clearly recognized. 

 

6 of Swords

A ferryman carrying passengers in his punt to the further shore. The course is smooth, and seeing that the freight is light, it may be noted that the work is not beyond his strength.

Divinatory Meaning:

Journey by water, route, way, envoy, commissionary, expedient.

 

 

 

The Dark shows what is there but not fully perceived, though it has been noticed on a deeper level of consciousness. 

 

10 of Wands

A man oppressed by the weight of the ten staves which he is carrying.

Reversed Meaning:

Contrarieties, difficulties, intrigues, and their analogies.

 

 

 

The Next Step is the near future, where this journey will take you. 

 

Knight of Wands

He is shewn as if upon a journey, armed with a short wand, and although mailed is not on a warlike errand. He is passing mounds or pyramids. The motion of the horse is a key to the character of its rider, and suggests the precipitate mood, or things connected therewith.

Divinatory Meaning:

Departure, absence, flight, emigration. A dark young man, friendly. Change of residence.

 

 

 

The Secret of the High Priestess - if, and only if, this card a Major Arcana, it reveals the Secret of the High Priestess. This is a special spiritual message that you should pay extra special attention to. If it is not a trump, the Priestess has revealed no secret. 

 

5 of Swords

A disdainful man looks after two retreating and dejected figures. Their swords lie upon the ground. He carries two others on his left shoulder, and a third sword is in his right hand, point to earth. He is the master in possession of the field.

Divinatory Meaning:

Degradation, destruction, revocation, infamy, dishonour, loss, with the variants and analogues of these.