As the full moon started to rise, he started looking for shelter. On his path, he came across an ancient stone building. It resembled an inn, in which he could spend the night.

A pale faced woman, well past her prime, opened the door. For some reason, his whole body shivered at her sight. He politely asked the woman if she could offer him a place to stay for the night. “Yes,” she said, “I can offer you a place for the night but you must leave very early tomorrow morning.” He accepted her offer, wondering why she would want him to leave very early tomorrow but did not dare ask her.

He was happy to have found a warm and seemingly comfortable place. While going to his room through the corridor, a strange feeling overtook him. “The things these old walls must have seen,” he thought to himself, “the things they must have witnessed.”

He walked into his room, took his wet clothes off and left them in front of the fireplace to dry. How terribly tired he was! Even the mere idea of a good night’s sleep was enough to make him feel drowsy.

Suddenly, he felt the wooden floor under his foot collapse with a loud crack. Like the rest of this building, the boards too were probably very old and simply could not carry his weight. It was a good thing that he was going to leave early; he would not have to explain to the strange woman why there was a hole in the floor of his room.

He was looking at the hole to see if he could perhaps fix it a little, when he noticed something under the floor board. He kneeled, stuck his hand inside the hole and pulled out a roll of paper that must have been there for a long time. The paper must have been white once but it was now yellowish in color and felt very brittle. He carefully opened the roll and began to read.

And he kept reading on through the night.
There was a strange feeling inside him as he was leaving this strange inn in the morning. He had not noticed the woman watching him behind the window, nor could he hear her say that they would meet again. He felt uneasy, though; he shivered, despite the bright sun in the sky.

>> NEXT STORY

An encounter with the High Priestess, the card number 2, means it is time to rest in silence, and to softly push open the doors of mystery.

Our thanks to the Magician who gave the Fool an idea aside, the Fool is still quite confused as to how he should progress. He does not know how to decide, or which path to take. If he had wished for guidance, the appearance of the High Priestess is the answer to that wish.

In the Tarot, the High Priestess is intuition personified. She is calm, silent and mysterious. It is almost as if everything you do not know is hidden beneath her deep gaze, and will remain there as long as she does not decide to reveal it. The High Priestess, this spiritual woman, gently whispers with her wisdom, erudition and depth of understanding: “Listen to your inner voice!” Thus she advises you to stop, meditate, listen to your instincts and to open the closed doors of your subconscious to a mystic discovery.

The journey you take towards your subconscious gradually reveals how much you actually listen to your self. As your rusty memory is nudged, your fears and anxieties appear. The desires and aspirations you have suppressed seek to express themselves. This is a challenging process, and a magnificent opportunity, that leads to awareness. As your mind calms down, it becomes easier for you to hear your inner voice. Your intuition expects to be trusted, and listened to. The more you trust your intuition, the more it responds by doing everything to earn that trust and not disappoint you.

The High Priestess reminds the person who draws this card that he or she must listen to his or her intuition and instincts before making a decision and taking action. The High Priestess might also represent a mystic who reveals a secret, a teacher, or a person who knows the person who draws this card closely. The ruler planet of this card is the Moon, the feminine power that represents sentiments, intuition, concealed aspects and the past.

The High Priestess, this most mysterious face of the Tarot, invites you upon a spiritual quest. But you are still at the beginning of this journey. Some knowledge must remain concealed, and only be revealed when you are ready. Although the mysterious doors do not open fully, the call of your inner voice is profoundly inspiring. Poets and authors are probably influenced most by this energy.

However, the High Priestess does bring certain warnings in her wake. If necessary, she will be the first one to remind you that you presently do not trust your intuition enough. Or perhaps, you are so busy these days, that you have severed your ties with a person you are close to, who acts as your mirror. Or your subconscious, since it has been overlooked, is driving you towards depression; and your intuition has fallen out with you. Or to relieve you of the blame, perhaps there are some who are conspiring behind your back, or gossiping about you. In all cases, what you need to do is lend an ear to your inner voice.

>> NEXT CARD