The Potentiator of the Mind

[Nau7ik]

Interesting interpretations for this card.

The connection that this part of your has to your sub-logos is a very close one: you can imagine your Higher Self working through your unconscious mind as depicted by the High Priestess in order to reveal to you that which you most want to see.

You’re right in perceiving (very perceptive observation) that the Higher Self (higher mind) works through the subconscious mind. However the High Priestess is not the higher mind. Higher guidance comes through the subconscious mind to the conscious mind.
This is actually shown in the esoteric version of the Lovers card, Key 6. We have to remember that each Tarot archetype is a thing in and of itself. Key 2, the High Priestess, is a pure unmixed archetype as it is, representing the unconscious mind. Key 6 shows us the relation of superconscious guidance through the subconscious which is realized in the conscious mind (the Magician, Adam).


This is the esoteric version by the Builders of the Adytum.

Adam (the Magician) looks to Eve and Eve (the high priestess and the empress) looks to the Angel Raphael. The influence of the life-breath (Air-Raphael) descends upon both figures.

The woman looks towards the Angel, the man toward the woman. The self-conscious intellectual mind, although it is the determining factor in personal consciousness, does not become directly aware of superconsciousness. Self-consciousness, as the symbolism of Key 1 shows, does receive and transmit the powers of superconsciousness; but conscious awareness of the nature of those powers comes from careful observation of the activities of subconsciousness. Powers are developed within, and the subconscious “within” is the woman. From that within they are educated, or drawn forth, in response to self-conscious impulses, and their manifestation is in the field of self-consciousness (the without). Development comes by response of the inner to the outer.
...
Personal happiness, health and success depend on harmonious co-operation of these two modes of mental activity. To secure this harmony, we must understand that both are expressions of a power superior to either. We must also see that subconsciousness is the mode which, in response to suggestions originated and framed by self-consciousness, brings us into personal relationship with this superior power.
Furthermore, the relationship between self-consciousness and subconsciousness should be one of loving intimacy. Hence the two figures are nude. They veil nothing from each other. [...]

Again, since love is the ideal relation between the two modes of consciousness, this picture warns us against any attempt to bully or coerce subconsciousness. Persuade subconsciousness, and it will do anything for you. Endeavor to drive it harshly, and you set into operation the law of reversed effort, so that you get a result just the opposite to that at which you aim.

Discrimination, then, is the key to the establishment of happy co-operation between the two modes of personal consciousness. The burden falls on self-consciousness, because it is the framer of suggestion. If it be careless and lax in observation, or harsh and driving in giving commands to subconsciousness, the results are destructive. On the other hand, if self-conscious intellect perceives the true relation among the three modes of consciousness, as symbolized in Key 6, it will be able to frame a series of suggestions which will make it the recipient of superconscious guidance, through the agency of subconsciousness.

—The Tarot, Paul Foster Case