In its upright position, The High Priestess card stands for deep internal wisdom and intuition, as well as sensuality and spirituality. This card also symbolizes common sense and making solid decisions. Seeing the upright High Priestess card can encourage you and help you trust your feelings.
The reversed High Priestess card, on the other hand, stands for secrets and a lack of intuition. When you pull the reversed High Priestess card, think about how you’ve been ignoring your feelings. Sometimes we overthink things rather than listening to our gut. The reversed High Priestess card can prompt you to trust yourself and how you feel about something or someone, and it can also help you explore anything that blocks your genuine emotions.
The reversed High Priestess card gives you a chance to think about your deepest desires. It’s helpful to keep an open mind when you see this card and consider all possibilities. There’s lots of positivity associated with the reversed High Priestess card, but it can also make you think of secrets. Are you holding something back from the people in your life, or are you lying to yourself about something? These are healthy questions, and this card can be a great opportunity to take some time to explore your subconscious and be honest with yourself.
Reading this reversed card using the “blocked/restricted” meaning
Okay, so let’s talk about the different ways you can read your reversed High Priestess card. First, you can use the “blocked/restricted” card meaning. When you read your cards like this, you’re looking for an obstacle.
With the reversed High Priestess card, this means something may be standing in the way of you using your intuition or common sense, or there may be information you don’t have access to. You can also look at why you’re not trusting your internal voice or being honest with yourself.
Say you pull the reversed High Priestess card when you’re thinking about your romantic life. If you’re in a relationship, you can take this opportunity to think about what’s standing in the path of your growth and happiness. Have you been fighting recently about a particular topic, or do you feel like one of you isn’t emotionally available?
Sometimes it’s hard to confront these feelings, but the reversed High Priestess card will give you the chance to look at what’s standing in the way of what you want. Take this opportunity to think about how you’re feeling and listen to your gut. How have you been neglecting your needs? What’s keeping you from making sure they’re met?
Reading this reversed card using the “opposite” meaning
You can also use the “opposite” card meaning when you pull the reversed High Priestess card. When you read your cards like this, you look at the opposite of the upright meaning. For The High Priestess, this means you may be neglecting your intuition and focusing too much on logic or external information.
Have you been overthinking things or have you been crowdsourcing your decision-making process? This card can help you explore where you’re being overly analytical in your life or relying on others rather than trusting your own feelings.
For example, if you pull the reversed High Priestess card while thinking about your personal growth and development, maybe you’ve been feeling overwhelmed by the responsibilities in your life and have cut off your own intuition about needing to slow down or take a break. Sometimes we spend so much effort thinking about what we need to get done that we forget to listen to our intuition.
Maybe you have been very “task-oriented” lately, and you need to focus on your desires. Have you been neglecting yourself? How can you find some time for self-care? The reversed High Priestess card can help you think about your desires and what you need to be the best version of yourself.
Reading this reversed card using the “worse” meaning
Using the “worse” reversed card meaning, you look at the upright meaning of your card but with a negative spin. For the reversed High Priestess card, this means you have been using your intuition, but maybe you have been over-using it and ignoring hard realities.
Intuition is a good thing, but it can get you into trouble if you don’t also include solid information and think critically. It’s important to find balance between the two, and sometimes, when we go with a gut feeling even though we have concrete information to the contrary, we can make poor decisions.
For example, say you’re considering your finances when you pull the reversed High Priestess card. Maybe your gut is telling you it’s time to take a trip or make an investment. While this can be an exciting and fun idea right now, it might not be the best decision for your long-term financial health.
The reversed High Priestess card can allow you to think critically about your impulsive desire to spend your money, and whether or not what you’re feeling is intuition or just excitement about a fun idea. It might prompt you to sit down, look at your finances, and take more time to plan before you spend your hard-earned cash.
Reading this reversed card using the “no/not” meaning
You can also use the “no/not” reversed card meaning when you’re looking at your tarot cards. For the reversed High Priestess, this means “no intuition”, “no knowledge”, or “not using common sense”. It could be that there are things about the situation you’re asking about that you don’t know or aren’t taking into account.
Say, for example, you pull the reversed High Priestess card when thinking about your career. Maybe you’ve been offered a new job, supervising your current co-workers. The reversed High Priestess can help you take some time to figure out what your next move is, and could indicate that there may be some aspects of the situation that you don’t know about or haven’t taken into account.
This card can indicate that you may need to ask more questions rather than just relying on your own intuition about what to do, as well as asking yourself questions like: do you really want this position and are you even happy with your company and in your current field? This card can help you explore how you’re feeling about your current job, and help you make sure you have all the information, so you can make the right decision.