The High Priestess
Looking at the stars
Growing up, I watched a lot of NOVA with my dad. These shows got me excited about space, the universe, planets and stars. I understood from a young age that there was a lot we did not know about our universe. I loved that.
I was also influenced by the NASA space program that was so wildly popular in schools across the US in the 1980’s. In third grade, my elementary school transformed an old school bus into a space shuttle that kids could ride in. I wanted to be an astronaut. Then, in 1986 when I was in fourth grade, I watched the space shuttle Challenger explode, alongside all my classmates.
That ended my desire to be an astronaut.
Making contact
Ten years later, the movie Contact, inspired by the Carl Sagan book by the same name, premiered in 1996. I clearly remember the night I saw the film. The moon was bright that night, and I watched it in stunned silence all the way home. If the universe held so many mysteries, how could I begin to understand any of it?
There’s a scene where the main character, Dr. Ellie Arroway, played by Jodie Foster, is sitting in the field surrounding the Very Large Array (VLA) in New Mexico. She is, listening for signals from the universe, literally. She has her shirt over her head to protect her from the sun, which echoes the look of the High Priestess card (see examples below). Here is a screen shot from the film.
Dr. Arroway, played by Jodie Foster in the 1997 film, Contact.
Making contact… with myself
I had my own High Priestess moment during meditation several years ago. I was trying to find a way to reduce the chronic pain in my eyes (more on that story here) when I experienced something like a portal to an imaginary realm where I could feel no pain.
In this meditative vision, I pictured myself sitting on a hill with my legs crossed, looking out over the Earth’s horizon. I could see the Milky Way galaxy and all the planets in alignment. In this place, I could rest and ready myself for whatever came next. I went back to this place many many times during my healing process.
I realize now that this type of disembodiment is common in people with chronic pain, and now I try to stay in my body as much as possible. That said, it did provide relief at a time when I needed it most.
Who is The High Priestess?
Typically The High Priestess card is illustrated with a goddess-like character who wears a cape flowing out from beneath her crown. The crown is adorned with is a silver moon.
The High priestess card typically appears when we are listening for signals from the universe. The High Priestess herself is someone who has become quite good at this. It also stands for stillness, calm, and ease, three qualities that do not come easily to me.
Here are some examples of The High Priestess cards by various artists of tarot decks I own and use myself:
The High Priestess cards from my collection of tarot decks, clockwise from top left: Rider-Waite Tarot, illustrated by Pamela Coleman Smith; Modern Witch Tarot Deck by Lisa Sterle; The Wild Unknown Tarot by Kim Krans; The Gentle Tarot by Mari in the Sky; Rainbow Heart Tarot by Rachel Rosenkoetter; and The Reclaimed Tarot, ReClaim it! PDX, collage by Samantha Caruthers-Knight.
A self-portrait
I wanted to illustrate the high priestess in a way that honors both Carl Sagan’s vision and my own. My High Priestess card is a self-portrait of me in meditation, envisioning a galaxy with planets in a rare moment of alignment. I am listening for what the universe has to say to me.
With that in mind, here is my sketch of The High Priestess card:
From my sketchbook
My notes in my sketchbook include the phrase “be still and know.”
Easier said than done.
Here is a time-lapse video of me removing the masking fluid (liquid rubber) from the planets. I did this to protect those areas from the space sky, which I painted with waterproof India Ink. I added the stars of the Milky Way by splattering white paint* in one direction.
Removing masking fluid from the planets.
The final illustration
Here is my final illustration for The High Priestess card. Note that I plan to add my calligraphy and the Roman numeral after scanning my painting. This is for two reasons:
Allows me to change the color of the numeral from black to white when it appears on a dark background; and
Makes the calligraphy much clearer and easier to read when I bring these down to card scale in the future.
The High Priestess card illustration from my forthcoming Tarot of These Times deck, anticipated 2026.
Next up: The Empress 👑
The next card in the Major Arcana I am illustrating is The Empress. Those of you who have read this far (mom!!!) might recall I said in my last post that the Emperor would be next. Oops! I had them out of order in my sketchbook, apparently.
What do you think of this card?
Leave me a comment below
I read every comment, and I love to hear from you!
Footnotes
Materials notes from this post
White paint used for Milky Way galaxy is “Bleed Proof White” ink/paint by PH. Martin.
Learn about tarot
Want to learn more about tarot? I highly recommend the book Modern Tarot: Connecting with Your Higher Self through the Wisdom of the Cards by Michelle Tea.
A note about Ai and this project
I do not use Ai (artificial intelligence) to write any of the content for this blog, my other blog Behind the Scenes, or this website. While I am not against use of Ai to proofread, edit, or otherwise help generate content for back-of-the-house text such as photo image tags to improve SEO (search engine optimization), I don’t believe it’s needed here. Why? Because I like to write. Also, one of my former English professors is a subscriber to this blog and I want to see if he is paying attention. ;)
To this end, I have placed the following statement about Ai to my website’s Copyright and Terms and Conditions pages:
NO AI TRAINING: Without in any way limiting the author’s/artist’s exclusive rights under copyright, any use of images or text of this website to “train” generative artificial intelligence (AI) technologies to generate text is expressly prohibited. The author reserves all rights to license uses of this work for generative AI training and development of machine learning language models.
