thorhammer
As with all the cards in this deck, this is RWS or traditionally flavoured, but is an immensely complex treatment of the Empress archetype. The woman portrayed is, at once, Bathsheba and Vala (the "emanation" or female counterpart of the Zoa of Music and passion, Luvah).
As Vala, she seduced Albion and caused his fall; thus is she the instrument of corruption and temtpation. She gave birth to Urizen from this union, and we see him here on her left. This placement signifies that the product of an ill-advised action - a fall from grace - is doomed, consigned to oblivion (as represented here by the water of illusion). For Urizen here gazes up at her as she leads him into the water, heedless of where his feet take him. One thinks of mermaids and the siern song. Hence, Atu III has a sinister side to her very nature; not evil, but unconsciously wanton and the challenge of spiritual gravity, of entropy, of inexorable Chaos, pulling at the soul.
As Bathsheba, she is pictured with the doomed first child of her adulterous union with (King) David. That child was consigned, also, to oblivion; we are told that because of the iniquity of the act God punished the couple by taking the child's life. There are hints of the conept of inhereted (Original) sin here. The second child is Solomon, who was, of course, a great King and legendary magickian. It is he who has slipped the yoke of temptation and he struggles agains his mother's arm, trying to show her that the water is oblivion, is illusion. Water, as the Hebrew Mem, links us back to the Hanged Man of other Tarots (and there is the numerological link - 12 -> 1+2=3). The Hanged Man in the Thoth Tarot is submerged headfirst in the water of illusion, held up by his foot. He is drowning in illusion, and must strive to see beyond the water that surrounds him. Hence, this card, III Nature, warns against seeing natural beauty or the fecundity of Nature as the ultimate power, for thus does one truncate one's journey and become mired in the Cycle of Matter.
But the card is not without its redeeming features, of course. Bathsheba is a byword for beauty, which inspires and uplifts; here she is protrayed as a loving, attentive mother, her nakedness symbolising her guilelessness. We are told that the roses by Solomon symbolise glory, while the lillies by Urizen are sorrow. Hence, she steers her sons between vanity and sorrow. But both flowers also symbolise love and sensuality, and so she is linked to the pleasures of the physical world. Her position between the two boys, one facing toward and one away from us, makes of her a link between opposing forces; Nature is the alchemy by which energy is transformed.
The borders are verdant, creative wonderlands of pleasure. The figures move out of the darkness toward the light (except Solomon, whose path lies, as a magickian, back through the night to a different light). This points to the increasingly tangible nature within the Cycle of Matter of the Nature/Empress archetype.
\m/ Kat
As Vala, she seduced Albion and caused his fall; thus is she the instrument of corruption and temtpation. She gave birth to Urizen from this union, and we see him here on her left. This placement signifies that the product of an ill-advised action - a fall from grace - is doomed, consigned to oblivion (as represented here by the water of illusion). For Urizen here gazes up at her as she leads him into the water, heedless of where his feet take him. One thinks of mermaids and the siern song. Hence, Atu III has a sinister side to her very nature; not evil, but unconsciously wanton and the challenge of spiritual gravity, of entropy, of inexorable Chaos, pulling at the soul.
As Bathsheba, she is pictured with the doomed first child of her adulterous union with (King) David. That child was consigned, also, to oblivion; we are told that because of the iniquity of the act God punished the couple by taking the child's life. There are hints of the conept of inhereted (Original) sin here. The second child is Solomon, who was, of course, a great King and legendary magickian. It is he who has slipped the yoke of temptation and he struggles agains his mother's arm, trying to show her that the water is oblivion, is illusion. Water, as the Hebrew Mem, links us back to the Hanged Man of other Tarots (and there is the numerological link - 12 -> 1+2=3). The Hanged Man in the Thoth Tarot is submerged headfirst in the water of illusion, held up by his foot. He is drowning in illusion, and must strive to see beyond the water that surrounds him. Hence, this card, III Nature, warns against seeing natural beauty or the fecundity of Nature as the ultimate power, for thus does one truncate one's journey and become mired in the Cycle of Matter.
But the card is not without its redeeming features, of course. Bathsheba is a byword for beauty, which inspires and uplifts; here she is protrayed as a loving, attentive mother, her nakedness symbolising her guilelessness. We are told that the roses by Solomon symbolise glory, while the lillies by Urizen are sorrow. Hence, she steers her sons between vanity and sorrow. But both flowers also symbolise love and sensuality, and so she is linked to the pleasures of the physical world. Her position between the two boys, one facing toward and one away from us, makes of her a link between opposing forces; Nature is the alchemy by which energy is transformed.
The borders are verdant, creative wonderlands of pleasure. The figures move out of the darkness toward the light (except Solomon, whose path lies, as a magickian, back through the night to a different light). This points to the increasingly tangible nature within the Cycle of Matter of the Nature/Empress archetype.
\m/ Kat
