my description:
an Indian woman wearing a white sari and ornate headpiece sits on a giant pink lotus blossom surrounded by water. She has four arms, two playing a stringed instrument, one left hand holding a red book and the other turned palm up and facing outward.
The water around her is glowing, as if she is radiating light. Behind her are purple snowpeaked mountains.
The border around the main image shows swans (associated with Sarasvati) and dragonflies.
Sarasvati is the Hindu goddess of knowledge and the arts, symbolized by the musical instrument and book she holds. The lotus she sits on, symbolic of the soul's higher consciousness because it grows up above the mud and water from which it comes, sits on a sea surrounded by mountains... the intuitive, spiritual center in the midst of intellectual knowledge. Here, wisdom is a blend of intuition and intellect and the blending of the two generates creative expression and an aesthetic awareness.
In looking around for more detail about Sarasvati, I find connections between her and my more familiar understanding of the High Priestess. She is described as one who usually declines lavish adornment in favor of a simple white sari (though in this image, she's bedecked in jewels) and one who forgoes "the cravings of the flesh" and instead embraces wisdom, the arts, and knowledge. She is the patron of libraries and schools, and these are regarded as her temples.
Sarasvati ('one who flows') is a river goddess and was the first to emerge from Brahma, riding a swan, and co-creator with him of the World. She was his counselor, teaching him the ways of wisdom, and there is a story of how he was enamored of her but she insisted their relationship lead to higher minded things. Eventually, she found a way to cool his ardor enough to be able to be near him and they became man and wife, blending creative energy with wisdom and knowledge.
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