THE HIGH PRIESTESS – I’m [my] filter
The High Priestess as interpreted by @waxwing.tarot and @dasmyego.
Number two in the tarot’s major arcana, the High Priestess – also called by many the High Priestexx, to reflect the card’s openness to any & all gender identities – is (for me) absolutely an energy that Park Jimin embodies in their work, persona, & way(s) of showing up / being in the world. My advice as a “professional”* tarot reader – if you want to think about the High Priestess in the context of embodiment, and especially as a card that challenges binary oppositions – is ✨simply✨ to do yourself the favor of watching Jimin’s performance of Filter.
Have you done it? Excellent. Carrying on.
The High Priestess (again, for me) is an invitation to see & be with & attempt “to know” oneself in a very specific way. A way that acknowledges that “oneself” can be an underworld kind of space (hence the pomegranates!), & that working within that space can be difficult & complex. Self-knowing can be the kind of work that takes place underground; like seeing one's reflection in the waters of a cave; like reaching out a hand in the dark. Me to me: I’m your filter.
I’ve recently taken another step in my own relationship with Namjoon’s reading list by reading Damien by Herman Hesse as my first book for 2022, and I almost cannot explain how on-the-nose that book feels for a discussion of the High Priestess – but I’ll attempt, anyway. The epigraph for Damien sums up the vibe: “I wanted only to try and live in accord with the promptings which came from my true self. Why was that so very difficult?” That’s the High Priestess, for me. The self as a guide whose course can feel unknowable – & who we spend our lives getting to know.
*”professional” in quotes because I actively resist and challenge the dichotomy of professional vs. unprofessional in my relationship with the tarot & within the tarot community.
Artist’s Interpretation of The High Priestess by @dasmyego
When discussing The High Priestess, an interpretation about this Tarot card couldn’t escape my mind – the Divine Feminine. My immediate response was to use Jimin to represent the High Priestess. They can pass freely between conscious and subconscious, masculinity and femininity because of their knowledge and acceptance of this balance.
Watching Jimin’s journey from debut to present day is like watching a flower bloom. From a young person exposing their abs in “We Are Bulletproof Pt 2” in 2013 to posting pictures getting ass length hair extensions in 2021, it is obvious that the Jimin we see today has several times gone through the cycles of transformation and the journey of self-knowing.
