The High Priestess

Aimless I strolled, my head was weary
Rain fell in torrents from the sky
The parting fog revealed a shelter
A House of God to keep me dry
Although I shunned the pomp displayed here
Images of Saints with dumbfound stare
I still embraced the quiet reclusion
Of Saintes Maries de la Mer
As I fled the pious splendour
Beneath the walls, a cave I found
Adorned in flowers humbly blooming
A sacred place in earthen ground
My eyes were drawn towards a figure
Its wooden shape appealed to me
A woman dressed in humble garments
Her skin as black as ebony
Under its wooden gaze I stumbled
My heart felt heavy as a boulder
As suddenly I sensed a grip
A wrinkled hand that touched my shoulder
As if from nowhere she appeared
A gypsy woman looked at me
Her dry bones told of time's corrosion
Her black eyes as deep as the sea
"Black Sara wants to tell her story
To lift the dust from history
I'll look behind the veil to find
What the cards have in store for thee"

To a creaking gypsy wagon
She led me in this starless night
Dense fumes of incense hazed my senses
Reality waned in candlelight
And on a cloth of velvet fabric
The woman placed the central card
"The High Priestess reveals her secret
She shows from where our journey starts..."

"This is what crosses what we saw"
She uttered in ecstatic chant
And placed across the central image
The Dogma of the Hierophant...