Anna K 3. The Empress

Briar Rose

Anna K. 3. The Empress

A full bodied woman sits next to a birch tree, surrounded by lush green trees and plants, and loving animals at her feet and shoulder. There is a white and black checkered floor at her bare feet.

The book expresses 'The Empress is the archetypal "Mother." 'She means growth and vibrancy, fertillity, body and nature,etc...'

I see the Empress as a person that lives with Harmony.

I don't understand the black and white floor. I am sure it must represent something important emotionally.
 

victoria.star

this empress is chilling for me,
as i believe she ought to be.
as a mother card, she embodies not only life but also the darker forces of nature.
her facial expression is tricksy, tread lightly she seems to say, i might not be all i appear.
but welcome, welcome, for there is no other route.
(one of my favorite cards so far, though, as i mentioned, she chills me)
 

Dr.Girlfriend

III- The Empress

Oh, the Empress. VS, I agree with you completely: "tricksy" really captures the expression on her face.
She wears her power very differently from the High Priestess. In the RW she looks so completely benign and goddess-like. She's a very different kind of goddess, here, with equal power to create AND destroy.
She's one with Nature; in fact, she IS nature. She creates life from her own body and she feeds life with her body (those breasts!). She's messy and not polite, like life. She's coarse and unrefined. She's "out there" - she is what she is, unapologetically. She's "in your face."
Unlike the High Priestess, who seems compassionate, the Empress looks like she's DISpassionate. She does what she does, regardless of what you think or how it affects you. She is the Mother of tsunamis and earthquakes as well as the harvest. Her power is truly impersonal - it's not about you, personally, it's just nature being nature, and nature will do whatever it does with you regardless of what you want or how you feel about it.
For all these reasons, the interpretation of this card seems quite different to me than the RW Empress. And, like Anna's other portrayals, much more expressive of the dark and light sides of this archetype.
It's not clear to me right now how I would interpret this card based on how I'm seeing it (without book interpretations). I'm going to have to sit with it more and see how it comes together for me. Maybe other people's interpretations will help me formulate my own. If someone drew this card in a reading, what would I offer them about it? What might it say to them about their own life/situation? I'm not sure. The Empress is withholding that information from me right now. She's letting me know that SHE'S in control, not me. Maybe I have to work harder to understand her, or maybe not work at all. Maybe it's right under my nose.
And then that checkerboard floor, clearly manmade in a scene that is otherwise completely natural. Black and white checks do not exist in nature, in fact are quite opposite from anything natural. Clearly a human creation, which her bare foot touches. Also, a floor like that would generally be found inside a dwelling or building, not outside in the middle of nature.
It seems incongruous, out of place, yet there it is.
I also just noticed what looks like 2 owls, one on her left arm and one at her feet. Owls generally symbolize wisdom, yet in reality they are wild and fierce birds. I had a close encounter with an owl once, and it actually scared the s... out of me! It had such strong predator energy, and it was looking at me like I was prey. Another expression of nature just doing what it does, completely impersonally.
Isn't it interesting, btw, (I also just noticed), that Anna places the Empress in the light of day, not darkness, when she herself (the Empress, not Anna) emanates a real sense of darkness. Again, the union of the opposites. Maybe that's also what the checkered floor represents, something about the union of opposites. (looking ahead, the Emperor is also on a black and white checkered floor, and Justice is on a black and white floor, too).
I feel myself getting mentally tired so I'm going to stop here, but I may come back to this later because it hasn't 'clicked' for me, although I see so much in it.
Looking forward to other impressions ...
 

Sulis

I don't really like this Empress, she's one of the cards in the deck that I just don't get on with but it's probably because she just doesn't look very beautiful; she looks quite scary in fact and that's not really a bad thing for an Empress.
She is a ruler so she's no pushover and I certainly don't think that this lady looks like someone could come along and tell her what to do.

She's surrounded by growth and abundance and I think that the checked floor links her to The Emperor and reminds us that she is a ruler and so there are rules that must be abided by. The square pattern also reminds us that she is earthy (in many decks she's The Earth Goddess); her bare feet tell us that she is grounded so no matter how emotional or sensuous she is she still has a grounding in reality.

She's nurturing and caring and she lives her life with the aid of all five senses but there is also an edge to this empress; she's vaguely sinister which shows her dark side. This isn't a lady who you'd want to mess with.

Here's an image of the card: http://i147.photobucket.com/albums/r298/tarotsulis/Anna K Tarot/03_empress.jpg
 

etherial dreams

I have to say....as much as I adore the deck, which I really really do, the Empress is my only disappointment. I LOVE the Empress card and it represents something so beautiful,motherhood, yet this woman does not seem motherly or caring at all-apart from her heaving breasts! :) that's the only card I don't get and I wish it had been different. But it isnt so I am just going to have to learn to accept it as it is
 

Mariana

etherial dreams said:
yet this woman does not seem motherly or caring at all-apart from her heaving breasts!
But she's suckling a baby, isn't she? That darker pink think resting on her arm is a baby's head, isn't it? It took me a while to see it, but now I'm quite certain she's holding a baby...
 

Sulis

Mariana said:
But she's suckling a baby, isn't she? That darker pink think resting on her arm is a baby's head, isn't it? It took me a while to see it, but now I'm quite certain she's holding a baby...
Yes, I think she could be suckling a baby too.
 

etherial dreams

hm interesting- I never noticed that until now!
 

Satori

She is definitely suckling a baby!!! Which I never saw before. I would look at the card and know I was missing something, and then, I just couldn't figure it out.

OK, jumping in here because I do have the deck! I was LUCKY enough to get it from Aulruna, in trade, for her attendance at my workshop. I feel like I lucked out.

I adore this deck. I think it is by far perhaps my favorite of all RWS clones. I just find it....accessible.

I agree with Sulis...of all cards in the deck, this one stopped me cold. But I've read the thread and looked at the scan, and I have developed some of my insights about this card. I can live with this Empress now. I don't know yet if I can trust her all the time...only time will tell.

This Empress is like a human who is also part swine. She has a very swine-like quality to her...and so I think of her as a shapeshifter, as the pig with the apple in it's mouth come to life as a woman. That she has a baby, suckling the baby, she looks like she has worked hard, is resting, but something about her is not right, almost twisted, like her heart has no warmth in it. She isn't into the baby, she is doing something, a chore, one more chore, like she has to. She is responsible....but she seems to wait...for what? The Greenman? The forest? The moment she can rip off her clothes and root in the compost?

She knows something we don't. She seems to be so sweaty and dirty...like she is part earth...like she cooks really well, but she smells, she is ripe. So I seem plenty and I see gluttony. I see the voluptuous and fecund turning to rot and to decay.

She seems poised on the edge of something wonderful and something horrible.
 

Yasmin

I agree Satori...I like this deck because it is very accessible!

There is something compelling yet repelling about this Empress. I see her in a very different light than in other RWS decks. Earthy and swine-ish are good descriptors because of the traits Satori described. Very interesting card indeed!