The Veiled

The High Priestess has traditionally been seen as a chaste virgin, especially as contrasted with the opulent fecundity of The Empress. She can, however, be seen from a slightly wider perspective. First of all it must be granted that she is a virgin, though not nesessarily a chaste one. The concept of ‘virgin’ can be expanded to express more than just the modern and more common denotations of a person, often assumed to be female; who has not yet experienced intercourse. If we use an older meaning, that of a woman who simply has never married, we bring into the picture connotations of freedom and abandon. The nubile Priestess, unlike the Empress/Emperor pair bond, is not tied to social convention. Her sexuality is her own: her energy tantric. The expression of the High Priestess is sensual not procreative, aesthetic not fertile.

Not being in marriage the High Priestess is free to take lovers. Here she becomes an image of the Sacred Prostitute. It is hypothesized that in the ancient matriarchies the Sacred Prostitute was a priestess in the temple of the goddess of love and beauty whose influence continues as an archetypal force.

“Her beauty and sensuous body were not used to gain security, power, or possessions. She did not make love in order to obtain admiration or devotion from the man who came to her, for often she remained veiled and anonymous. She did not require a man to give her a sense of her own identity; rather this was rooted in her own womanliness.”1

In the Temple of Love the Stranger, an emissary of the god, is comforted and welcomed by the Priestess. There is a gentle rustle as the diaphanous robes sink to the tiled floor. She emerges from the soft shadows, the song of the flute mingling with the musky perfume that wafts through the evening air. She lithely dances before him, her face veiled. Her arms open, but their embrace is not of a mortal nature. It is an expression of the divine. Their blessed passion becomes an offering to the goddess, a nexus of creative fire.

For the woman, awareness of the Sacred Prostitute gives her a new reverence for her divine nature and feminine values. To the man, the veiled priestess is anima, the image feminine that dwells deep in the male psyche. The High Priestess reconciles duality, the masculine flesh and the feminine spirit, that they are unified and made whole.

The High Priestess has been seen as a priestess of the temple, however every light casts a shadow. It would be neglectful not to show a reflection of the High Priestess, the dark side.

Lilith winged demon of the night whose origins are shrouded in the depths of prehistory. Lilith with raven tresses that caress a graceful form but with wings and animal feet, which bespeak her bestial nature, possesses a dark ‘virgin’ drive to freedom and non-constraint. She abandoned Adam to become the wife of Samael, the devil. When Shekinah descended to earth to “follow her flock” Lilith became the consort of God.

The liberation Lilith seeks is frustrated. She finds her identity and power defined by her relation to men; Adam, Samael and even God. She rages at this situation and seeks to alter it with chthonic vengeance. The “image of the flashing revolving sword captures the essential quality of Lilith, now goddess, now demon, now temptress, now murderess, now bride of Satan, now consort of God, ever flaming at the gates of pardise.”2

Lilith lacks Eve’s submissive nature, but neither does she have Eve’s compassion. She is the Woman of Harlotry, her joy is to spark desire, but she cannot, would not herself feel passion’s stirrings. She is the succubus that preys on those who sleep alone by sending erotic dreams and visions. Her sexuality is cold and vampiric, obsessive and self-serving.

“Men experience her as the seductive witch, the death dealing succubus, and the strangling mother.” Lilith speaks to men of the haunting differences between women and themselves, differences illuminated only by a haze of fear and suspicion. She is the Alien Woman, the Impure Female. “For women she is the dark shadow of the self that is married to the Devil.”2 She is the eternal ‘Other Woman’, never granted redemption.

The aspects of the Sacred Prostitute and Lilith stand in sharp contrast. The love acts of the Sacred Prostitute are a sacrament of the union mystica, a detached offering of the heart’s bliss. The debauched sex of Lilith is a divisive sword of estrangement, a calculating tool of egotism and loneliness.

Both the Sacred Prostitute and Lilith are facets of The High Priestess. The veil does not mean that she is unobtainable, but rather that she is unveiled on her own terms. Both maidens are free from marriage and other societal constraints. The basic quality of The High Priestess’ nature is an innate understanding of the I/Thou duality. How can she relate to the alien ‘other’ presence? As the Sacred Prostitute she welcomes the Stranger as a god, just as he respects her as a goddess. To Lilth men (and women) are prey, targets for the venting of her primal rage.

Bibliography

1. Corbett, Nancy The Sacred Prostitute

Toronto: Inner City Books, 1988

2. Koltuv, Barbara The Book of Lilith

York Beach: Nicolas-Hays, Inc., 1986