Yuri & Juliana: The High Priestess & Lovers Tarot Cards

Yuri & Juliana

I always get nervous when I write about Yuri or Juliana because, well, some people are very spirited. So be nice. The Min Ho and Kitty tarot reading was easy as their character cards are built in for them. The rest of the characters, well, I had to choose. Some people view any kind of constructive feedback toward a character or characters as hate. It's not EVERY character in XO Kitty needs to grow. They are teenagers after all.

The card that I chose for Yuri's journey is The High Priestess and for Juliana I chose The Lovers. I am going to break down what each individual card means, how it displays their individual journeys, and how it sets up the trials the two of them faced together as a couple. I will also leave some hope for a potential correction in the future as well.

The High Priestess

I think Yuri's journey is one that starts with the High Priestess reversed (upside down) and her journey is getting it back to right side up. In Tarot, the meaning of the card changes based on positioning. A negative card reversed has positive meanings. A positive card reversed has negative meanings. So I am going to explain The High Priestess Reversed.

The High Priestess reversed represents ignoring your inner voice. Meaning, you know what is wrong or what needs to be communicated but you are not ready or don't know how to open up. Bogged down in secrets either secrets you keep from yourself, secrets you keep from others, secrets that people are forcing you to keep, or secrets that you don't want to keep but do not know to speak the truth yet. Emotional repression. Either not being honest about what you need or the hurt you feel. Disconnection from self by distracting yourself with things that make you feel good or being overly logical or wanting to express anger over sadness.

Yuri & the High Priestess

To show the respect that I have for Yuri, I want to explain the journey that I think she is on. I think she is learning to trust her gut that the truth is not external it is instead within. That she does not need to keep things hidden anymore. She can confront her mom without being passive-aggressive, she can love loudly and proudly, she can bring disappointments/anger/frustrations to a partner without pretending it doesn't exist or being destructive, that she can be still with her emotions rather than constantly acting on impulse, and that she has a inner wisdom that she has either been taught to ignore or has not been tapped into yet.

The High Priestess is powerful when in is right side up. Yuri is powerful. The the things I just explained is the High Priestess right side up. A powerful female energy that is ready to be fully realized rather than be closeted or shamed. The mistakes that Yuri has made are not character flaws they are indeed trauma responses. She does not have the most emotionally expressive of safe parents and she has a lot of pressures from society to act a certain way. That makes listening to your inner desires, inner needs, and inner voice rather hard to navigate.

Yuri does have a thing about secrets. Not always her fault. Forced to hide her sexual identity. Forced to keep a loving relationship a secret. Secret fake relationship with Dae. A whole secret brother kept from her. Her Mom keeping lots of secrets of her own. Pretending with Juliana that everything was fine when it wasn't. Pretending with Juliana that nothing had changed when it had. Not telling Kitty that she could not help her because she was not talking to her mom. The secrets of Season 1 had to do with identity. The secrets of Season 2 had to do with trusting someone (Juliana) with who she is and who she was becoming.

People cheat for many reasons. Sometimes it is feelings for the person they cheated with. But many times it is because of self sabotage and distraction from hard conversations. Yuri changed in the time that Juliana was gone. But instead of having those hard conversations things were brushed to the side as being happy. Kitty (The Sun doing what The Sun does) highlighted the problems in the relationship when Juliana did not know how to help this new Yuri and then told Yuri which made her realize that things were not completely okay. Yuri dismissed this by saying that it did not matter to her who was the one that helped her. She did. Which then opened the door for Yuri to grow closer to Kitty (who had been there for those changes) and led to what happened. The High Priestess reversed is a dimming of one's power and light. It's time for Yuri to find her voice and command with quiet resolve. Give up control to find inner power.

Yuri's story is about navigating truth beneath the surface. Fighting battles and navigating through layers of identity, secrecy, and emotional courage**.

The Lovers

The Lovers card is a fun one, in my opinion. It signifies a journey between head and heart. Alignment between values and actions. Vulnerability, soul connection, and consequence. A moral or spiritual crossroad. It's not really a love card it is a complexity of love card if that makes sense. Sometimes its the nudge to be vulnerable and lean into something rather than allow pride to get in the way.

So... what does this have to do with Juliana? Everything. So, again, let's look at the reverse meaning to see if Juliana's journey might reflect a journey of correction. Reversed can signify a disconnection from yourself, your partner, or your values. It can also signify indecision. It can signify an imbalance of either giving too much or not receiving enough.

The Lovers - Juliana

The reason I chose this card for Juliana is that I think that she fights for love fiercely. She fought for Yuri. She wanted to live openly. She wanted honesty. She wanted Yuri to fight against her mom and defend her. Those are not horrible things to expect in a partner, but it does matter if your partner is the High Priestess navigating difficult identity questions. She took Yuri's inaction personal than began to question everything. Sometimes love must be in the front seat rather than pride. Juliana's pride was winning most of the battles.

Then after Yuri's cheating she has to make a choice between her heart and her head. To stay or to leave. To move on or to give it a chance. Because the truth is Juliana sees Yuri for who she is completely, but after she came back it seemed like Yuri was not on the same page as her.

Juliana's journey is about learning to love through her pride rather than let her pride stand in the way. Her journey is showing Yuri that when you are brave you can have something magical and when you are not brave you can lose things. That sometimes you have to be patient in love that sometimes a slow journey toward progress is still progress. I also think that depending on what the writers do it could be that there might be a switch from The Lovers card to a new card which is Temperance. Finding emotional balance and healing in love.

Yuri and Juliana

I do not think that the story between these two are over. The circumstances are what drove them apart it was not the two of them. It was the forced secrecy, the forced separation, and then the coming together as if nothing had changed. So in a way, forced happiness.

I believe Yuri when she says she loves Juliana. Her actions speak to that. When the crap hit the fan the person she wanted to save from the burning building was Juliana. The question is... will the writers choose to correct the problems with time, individual growth, and then bringing them together. Or will other futures be written. Either way... these two definitely have at least a few more chapters.