REVERSALS: The Empress Reversed

Thirteen

The Empress is all about creation. It's about planting the seed, nuturing it, growing it. It's about patience and "motherhood" in all it's facets, with the Empress as the ultimate mother--both the caring motherly kind, and the more distant, elegant kind, but in either case, the hen watching over her brood. Note that there is always a danger of the Empress "over-watering" the plants or having trouble, as moms do, letting their children go when the time comes.

1) Opposite: Using negatives of the card reversed, we get neglect instead of attention. The woman who doesn't water her plants--or doesn't pay attention ot her children. There is a danger in the upright Empress of smothering the child. In the reversed Empress, the danger is that she won't nuture the child enough. No affection, no protection, no care to make sure the child grows right.

Here is the woman who take a child to a restaurant, and then ignores the kid as he goes racing up and down, playing under tables, interfering with the staff, getting into trouble.

This can go for anything, not just children. Neglecting a business or project that OUGHT to be dear to one's heart, ought to be one's *baby* but you just "Don't have the patience for it."

2) Blocked: This goes one step further, I think, then the opposite. In this case, the Empress' nurturing, growing energy is blocked. It is almost as if the child were not merely neglected, but abandoned. There is no desire to help anything grow. The watering can is left to rust.

All the instincts of the Empress--knowing when to transplant that tree to a new pot so it can spread its roots, knowing when to prune it, fertilize it, are blocked. In this instance, the querent doesn't know how to help their business, children, or project grow and develop. They may be clueless, have no such intincts and need outside help--or they may need to find a way to re-discover their mothering intincts.

3) Upsidedown: Turn the Rider-Waite image upsidedown and we not only unseat the Empress, we uproot all her trees and scatter all her grain. Her crown of stars falls off her head, and the stream (the one that starts in the HPS card), drains away. Her feet are no long planted on the Earth.

If we turn this card upsidedown we go farther than just not being able to grow--we tear out what is already growing and living and kill it. We uproot everything, including the Empress. Viewing this card upsidedown gives us perhaps the most terrible interpetation of it, the wonton destruction of all that's growing and thriving and beautiful. This is the card that might come up when discussing the cutting down of rainforests or desecration of natural landscapes--or anything beautiful. The destruction of works or art, of someone business or home or family.

The nurturing isn't merely blocked--it's actively, wontonly destroyed. This is abuse, violence maybe. Growth isn't merely neglected or stopped, it is actively, vindictively prevented.
 

michmm

I look at the Upright Empress as the card of "bearing fruits" or as denoting "Fertility"...
Would the Reversed Empress denote infertility ?????
 

michmm

Also, the card of the Upright Empress is the card of a mother – this person is caring, giving, selfless, nurturing, gives without expecting anything in return, whereas the card of the Reversed Empress denotes a very materialistic woman, one who probably wants something in return for what she may do / has done.
 

Jewel-ry

This is a great group Thirteen as I have always been an avid supporter of your basics series.

I just wanted to say that when my sister-in-law went into labour I did a spread and this was one of the cards which came up...however it was reversed. I saw it as a delay in her motherhood and she had the baby three days later!

:)
 

Baroli

The Emp. Reversed.

I see a person with depression, sadness, not wanting to do anything, a procrastinator, very unstable, weepy. Just a generally unhappy person. A maternal person, who's energy is blocked so she just doesn't care. Apathy towards others, projects, anything.

Baroli
 

Thirteen

Jewel-ry said:
I just wanted to say that when my sister-in-law went into labour I did a spread and this was one of the cards which came up...however it was reversed. I saw it as a delay in her motherhood and she had the baby three days later!
Nice read on that one! Perfect example of reading a reversed card as blocked energy.
 

Sushi

If the Empress upright means motherly nuturing, then reversed it can be weaning. It can seem really cruel at the time, but it's necessary to move to solid food.
 

Thirteen

Upright Empress CAN wean a child

Sushi said:
If the Empress upright means motherly nuturing, then reversed it can be weaning. It can seem really cruel at the time, but it's necessary to move to solid food.
I would have a hard time reading the reversed Empress this way *because* nuturing means feeding the child what the child needs, not just breast feeding. It also implies that the Empress doesn't know what she's doing. The upright Empress can be overindulgent. But at her VERY BEST, the upright Empress knows exactly what to do to make her garden--and children grow. And she knows exactly when to do it.

This means that she knows when to withhold as well as give. A *good* mother knows when and how to wean her child because it's time to nurture them with solid food. A good mother knows when to let them cry rather than running in to comfort them because this helps them grow. She even knows, when the time comes, how to discipline her child, quietly, patiently, firmly. She understands that her children need limits and rules and regular time tables.

While the Emperor's organization is external, the Empress' is intenal, but she is just as organized in her own way. She is connected to the Earth and the seasons and, when upright, certainly knows when it's the right time to do whatever needs doing; like a mother bird who knows when it's time to push her chicks out of the nest. She keeps to a softer but no less regular schedule. This means she will do what's right and necessary to help her child grow, even the things which seem cruel.

A reversed Empress would likely have her baby on formula rather than breast feeding as breast feeding is too much trouble. And she would likely let the child have the bottle for as long as they like so as to keep them quiet and not bothering her. She is the reverse of the nuturing mother, meaning irresponsible or just clueless. She is out of sync with nature, with it's timetable and internal organization. Hence, she does NOT know how to wean a child.

That, at least, would be my take on the subject.
 

Bazaa

Hm, I don't know if it's allowed to bring back up an "old" thread, but here it goes:
Could the reversed Empress mean forbidden love? I don't know how to explain why that makes some sense to me, but I once read about that meaning and somehow it got stuck on my head, it's the first thing that I think whenever the reversed Empress shows up, when the "logical" meanings would be the ones pointed out here.
 

Demon Goddess

Bazaa said:
Hm, I don't know if it's allowed to bring back up an "old" thread, but here it goes:
Could the reversed Empress mean forbidden love? I don't know how to explain why that makes some sense to me, but I once read about that meaning and somehow it got stuck on my head, it's the first thing that I think whenever the reversed Empress shows up, when the "logical" meanings would be the ones pointed out here.

If by "forbidden love" you meant something like incest... um... that makes sense to me. shudder.