Empress Reversed

Hellooo everybody, need a bit of help with this card, have never really understood what this card means reversed, and in a recent reading I had done, it came up reversed, ...I know one meaning is fertility problems; any other ideas? -The Empress card, to me, has always been a lovely card, but reversed I'm not so sure as to its true meaning..thanks everybody,

Alice xx

Hi Alice 23!!

I must say that i´m not good to see one isolate card, because all have own manners to read tarot, and mine is always watch the surronding cards.


I see the empress rv like:Failure, disinterest, hesitation, coldness, submission, dependence, lack, sterility, harms feminine influences, infedilidade, apathy, wastefulness.

I hope you see some things that can help you.

I think of the Empress as Mother--and reversals as blockage of that archetype--so consider how the mothering/nurturing instinct is being blocked or expressed inappropriately (could be too much--smothering--or too little--neglect).

I'm so glad we got this thread started because I actually got the Empress Rx in a reading that I done tonight. So, I had to do a little research. In 78 Degrees it has a couple of meaning on Empress Rx. One is neglecting emotions and the other meaning was new intellectual awareness on a problem or situation. And Gnostic Tarot by Lee Irwin had described in a nutshell what Light2000 said.
So, anyway, that is what some of the book meanings gave if it helps anybody.

A Delayed Pregnancy

The Empress Reversed can also mean that a project is stewing away but not ready yet for manifestation. In that sense it can be a very positive card, great things are brewing in the background and when they are ready - look out!

Reversals are weird ... and something I am trying to come to terms with too. Seems that they can mean too much of the energy associated with the archetype, or too little, or the opposite. I think a lot depends on where it is in a spread. If I get really stuck trying to make sense out of one, I go the clarifier card route. I've found that it can be helpful in expanding on the issue and digging out the meaning to select a card or two to clarify the reversed card.

If you take just one key word for the Empress, like fertility ... reversed, it could be infertility ... it could be excessively fertile. It could be a reminder that you have forgotten to take your birth control pills. It could be saying that now is not the time to pursue that project or try for pregnancy, and you need to wait 9 months. It could mean that, if you are trying to get pregnant, forget it, because you already are ...or you have started menopause - the variations are endless, and that is with only one key word. So ... context and question and spread placement are really important and your gut feeling.

This from someone who always groans in horror when she gets a reversal and goes instantly brain dead.

mythos

When I get reversals I usually describe the card in detail as it is upright, then somehow realise what its trying to say reversed. For the Empress...being pregnant for the first time, I can imagine what she's going through quite well. She's been waiting for this, she's trying to be patient, she's gone through morning sickness, and emotional ups and downs, she's cried herself to sleep at nights, she's wondered whether she'll be a good mother. Now, she has to sleep on one side that may not be comfortable for her, she may toss and turn at night, wake up with an aching back no matter what she does. But at the same time, there are the nights, when she'll lay awake at night on her back, put her hand over her stomach, and feel the baby kick....and smile in maternal joy. She's waiting, and finally the time is getting close for the waiting to be over, any day now she'll go from maiden to mother in her life stages.
But darnit, the card is reversed....waiting may seem like its over, but the project isn't ready to be completed yet, there's some detail yet left undone, its still in there, waiting for something to develop correctly.

I recently was doing a reading concerning a friend of mine ( a guy) , the question being a general one, and the spread being one which sets up a sort of background of the querent, detailing their strengths, weaknesses and personality. The empress reversed appeared in the "weakness" position for this man. The first thought that came to me was that he did not know how to easily express love and caring for others. Having known him for years and even at one point, being more than friends with him, I know this to be true. He does not like to display emotion, nor is he able to discuss the way he feels without being VERY uncomfortable, so it's like whoever he is with at the moment romantically must inevitably end up starving for love and affection. This is a direct inversion of the abundance of nurturing love and the ease with which it is expressed, that the upright card represents. Another issue of the empress reversed as previously mentioned by others, is the "smothering" energy. He is a man who loves his mother dearly, but she gets in the way of him making decisions independent of her influence. Everything she says to him is law, and he worships her and she, him. When we were together it made me sick actually..at one point a couple of their exchanges were too much for me..it bordered on incestuous. (Needless to say this added to my desire to scramble out of that relationship. I've since found he's better as my friend and i'm better off not being too close to him. )
But in short, he is a "mama's boy". So I would just reiterate what others have said and say that the empress reversed can either mean not ENOUGH nurturing and love, or too MUCH of it, to the point where one person is unable to cut the umblical cord so to speak.
There are of course other meanings, sex without love, unwanted pregnancy blah blah blah. However for ME, the empress, when she's reversed, usually means that either someone is not giving/ getting love despite the fact that it is desperately needed, OR it means that someone is a lil co-dependent and should strengthen his/herself as an individual in order to just BE naturally, to find their own essence, as the upright Empress represents.

Thanks all for your replies! Very interesting. The question - which would have been handy to tell everybody (doh lol) was regarding a chap and whether a romance would happen. The card in the position of where to start was the empress reversed, so maybe in this position its saying I need to gain some awareness with him or get to know him better....as we certainly dont know each other well........thanks all! Feel free to add anybody if they have any ideas too

Alice x

Imbalance or blockage (heart) of emotional energy manifesting at one extreme as someone cut off from their feelings or unable to express them for other reasons such as self disgust hence rx can represent sex without love or asexuality, also inability to love, nurture and care for the self therefore inability to receive or extend those things to others along with failure to thrive due to cutting oneself off from love, the very source which should sustain us hence stagnation rules and emotional instability is evident along with rejection, suppression or ridged control of physical and sexual appetites. Eating disorders and emotionally instability, Bi-polar disorder.