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"The physician should speak of that which is invisible. What is visible should belong to his\her knowledge, and one should recognize illnesses, just as anyone who is not a physician can recognize them from their symptoms. But this is far form making one a physician; one becomes a physician only when one knows that which is unnamed, invisible, and immaterial, yet has its effect."
-Paracelsus, sixteenth century.
We are perhaps the only culture that does not understand the language of the body as an expression of sound, art, color, scent, and imagination. Listening to the body, caring for it and understanding its signals are unfortunately modalities of medicine recognized mostly by the alternative healing community. Thomas Moore in "Care Of The Soul" offers this astute statement about our modern medicine: "Modern medicine literalizes the invisible. It trusts the microscope to reveal the roots of illness, but the microscope doesn't look far enough within. The Paracelsian physician would take into account the invisible factors at work in illness-emotions, thoughts, personal history, relationship, longing, fear, desire, and so on." We chase away the mystery of the body and rob individuals of the role they most need to play in their personal healing journey; that being the creative incentive to imagine the body well again, or to spiritually strengthen their union with the wounded aspect within. This allows the wounded God Self to heal the wounded Human Self.
Our world is full of dis-ease; we have no room to explore the invisible, the ineffable, or the sublime. Until we re-connect with the High Self or the Soul of humanity, and follow the guidance of its intelligent nature, we will hunger for the lost part of our Divine Self and we will never know the truth within the words, HEAL THY SELF.
In the royal road to wisdom, the Tarot offers The High Priestess as a guide toward inner balance and insight. Owning the power of the number two, she is the equilibrating factor between the great forces of duality. She represents the upper portion of the central pillar of the Tree of Life which connects the world of the gods with the world of humans. She attunes us to the signals of our environment and ushers us into the mysterious. She offers us memory in an effort to help us clarify our selves, our values, and our culture. She calls upon the intuitive channel that connects spirit and body.
The caduceus is, noncoincidentally, used as the symbol for the medical profession. It is a winged staff carried by Mercury, (memory), and it represents the ascent and decent of universal energies. This force has the power to unite body and spirit and thus holds great potential to heal. Classical Greek writers claimed that this magic staff had enough healing power to raise even the dead from Hades and bring them back to the light of day. We find this invisible healing power to be the gift that the High Priestess offers, for she is the goddesses of vision and faith. She reminds us that we can live with Soul and merge its light into Body Intelligence.
As we move toward a new millennium our culture will be challenged to open once again to higher consciousness where we utilize the poetic as well as the literal. Healing can become an art, an expression of the wounded healer, and the human body will be a respected vessel mirroring and honoring the God/Goddess Self. The High Priestess has been called "Maga" which comes from the Indo-European root magh which means "to be able". Magh is also the root for magic. With the tools of the magician and the vision to understand higher knowledge, The High Priestess enables us to gather our healing forces within, and with her guidance we can maximize the potential to create a new paradigm in health and medicine, one that embraces both body and soul.
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