She Holds the Keys

From the Tarot of the Abyss, the High Priestess; from the Lantern Oracle, Voice:

During meditation, we create a refuge in which we can better discern and understand what’s going on in our constantly shifting private landscape. —Lauren Krauze

I appreciate that Tourian's Priestess also has a set of keys (often assigned only to the Hierophant). Her yin-yang symbol applies to the aggressive self-will of the ego; it wants to do what's best for us but it lacks essential information because its strategies were formulated at a young age. This mental construct looks for pleasure and avoids discomfort, unaware that horrible consequences can come from some pleasures and good things may come from discomfort. Yet we each have a higher nature - which the priestess helps us access through meditation. It sees with clarity, without preference or prejudice. The Voice card is a nudge to speak one's truth, and so I will give my personal thoughts on meditation. There is a mindfulness movement that seeks to bring calm and comfort to people, to help them de-stress and experience bliss. There is absolutely nothing wrong with this, unless it is passed off as a spiritual practice. McMindfulness serves the ego, wanting only what feels good. A meditation practice helps us discern the habitual thought and emotional patterns that create suffering in our lives and in those around us. It requires us to change, not sink back in our comfy recliners.

None of us dreamed that mindfulness would become so popular or even lucrative, much less that it would be used as a way to keep millions of us sleeping soundly through some of the worst cultural excesses in human history, all while fooling us into thinking we were awake and quiet.

—Clark Strand