The Priestess

A seated goddess seen through a shimmering net of light that falls from her Isis crown, a bow and arrow across her lap. Below her, at the foot of the veil, lie crystals, seeds and fruit, and a camel walks the desert between the worlds.

Gimel, the camel, on path 13, the long road straight down the middle pillar from Kether to Tiphareth across the Abyss. The camel is the beast that can cross the desert where there is no water: this is the path of the initiate returning to the Crown, and the reason the Priestess veils the light rather than showing it.

The Moon, mistress of the tides, of reflection and the fluctuating soul. The Moon rules Cancer, is exalted in Taurus, and is the planet of Yesod.

Two, and Gimel's value 3. Two is the Line: the first extension of the point, the reflecting Other. The card sits between the Magus (1) and the Empress (3), the virgin idea before it takes a body.

The anima in its highest form and the virgin aspect of the Great Mother: the guardian of the unconscious whose wisdom is wordless. The card is often read as the ego's first meeting with the inner feminine and with the limits of rational knowing.

Waite's Priestess sits between the pillars with the Torah; Crowley strips the temple away and paints the veil of light itself, with the crystalline forms of matter precipitating beneath her.