Much as we might both “fear** and love” the magnificence of the ocean swell, so is it meet and right to fear and love the Divine source and awe-inspiring immensity behind and in and through whom all that is has its being and before whom the most immense of earth-bound oceans is but a drop. The fiery sulphorous red and the airy mercurial blue pillars before which the (2) High Priestess is seated are expressive of the double perspective of “love” and “fear,” of “mercy” and “severity,” of masculine and feminine principles which the (0) Fool encounters after leaving the house of the (1) Magician.
**NOTE: “Fear” is a translation of the Hebrew word, יראה (yir-ah), which is inclusive of a sense of “awe” or “reverence.
Source: firmisrael.org
The (2) High Priestess shows the (0) Fool the inner path of the heart and teaches him that his outer manifestation is a faithful reflection of what he is within, for “as a man thinketh, so is he.”
Indeed, we can think of the (2) High Priestess as overseeing and facilitating the connection between the intellectual and the emotional, the heart and the brain.
During the Second Week after Trinity we can follow the (0) Fool on his inner journey by listening to a narration of As A Man Thinketh, by James Allen.
The Collect
O Lord, who never failest to help and govern them whom thou dost bring up in thy steadfast fear and love: Keep us, we beseech thee, under the protection of thy good providence, and make us to have a perpetual fear and love of thy holy name; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Book of Common Prayer
Old Testament Reading
As he thinketh in his heart, so is he.
Proverbs 23: 7
New Testament Reading
Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.
John 3:5
Liturgical Affirmation
Ego sum lux mundi.
Ego sapientia habito in consilio et eruditis intersum cogitationibus.
I am the light of the world. I, Wisdom, dwell in counsel and am found among erudite contemplations.
As A Man Thinketh
Listen to this narration of James Allen’s classic, As A Man Thinketh as an extended meditation for this week:
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