Gendering in the Tarot

Hi everyone!

How do you feel about the gendering inherent in tarot archetypes?

The High Priestess. The Empress. The Emperor. The Hierophant. The woman usually depicted in The Star card. The Wands and Swords as traditionally "masculine"; the Cups and Pentacles as "feminine." All of these archetypes (and obviously all the others you can think of) can be discussed here.

Are the depictions of these archetypes limiting? Threatening? Empowering? Comforting?

A couple examples of my own personal experiences and observations to get things going:

My mother is a very overtly feminine-presenting woman. Makeup, dresses, what have you. She also truly believes that her greatest purposes lie in the roles she has fulfilled as a wife and mother. Not surprising to me, then, that she is very drawn to The Empress card (she loves the Rider-Waite-Smith deck and its version). I gave her a poster of it and she loves it to bits!

I am a woman whose birth card (and favorite card in general) is The Emperor. It makes me feel stable, strong, and in-control. However, many refer to it as a "phallic" card, and one that is "dominating," "oppressive in its structure" (shadow-side), and "outwardly-acting/organizing" (as opposed to 'intuitively-thinking,' like a High Priestess?). I can gather these traits from some Emperor cards, but it's odd to associate those traits specifically with the gender/sex of male, isn't it? Especially when I am a woman and relate so strongly to the card. So sometimes this card and I have an interesting relationship, depending on an artist's depiction or how I'm feeling that day.

I hope this thread doesn't get too out of hand! I know gender and sexuality can be hot topics for many. I am focusing more on the "gender" aspect of Tarot here, but this is certainly inextricably linked to sexuality as well. Hence the rampant heteronormativity of the tarot. Thank you.

My birth card is the Emperor as well Funny enough I always 'feel' like a female emperor. So in some ways, seeing a male emperor doesn't feel contradictory to my female-ness. Because I am female but with a lot of 'yang'. If that make sense

The Happy Squirrel said:

My birth card is the Emperor as well Funny enough I always 'feel' like a female emperor. So in some ways, seeing a male emperor doesn't feel contradictory to my female-ness. Because I am female but with a lot of 'yang'. If that make sense

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Oh it certainly does! I feel the same, though I definitely identify more with "yin-ness."

I don't necessarily think that femininity and organization/structure are in opposition or paradoxical, so that correlation can feel odd. I think that's a succinct version of what I mean.

Tarot uses archetypes that humanity has known and used for centuries (if not millenia). The "person" cards in the Major Arcana are represented the way they are due to a historic interpretation of the archetypes, which includes linking Moon energies with women and Sun energies with men.

I'm sure men have a similar question ("but I'm ALSO intuitive, why does it have to be the High PriestESS... but I'm ALSO creative, why does it have to be the emprESS..."). It is important to remember, I think, that we are talking about energies, attributions and archetypes - not the emergence of genitalia.

I take a note of the gender but I keep really open minded, any card can represent anyone I have found and tarot doesn't work so well when you start restricting it. Like when people ask yes or no questions, forcing genders just seems to stop everything it can throw out in advice and insight.

So I look at every card to represent anyone and leave gender and sexuality out of it. The Court Cards seem to swap from the real sitters genders in my readings quite a lot but they all have a placement in the system and a message. I often get Queen's and Cups and feminine Majors representing me, this is not because of my sexuality or that I am feminine as a man, it's because that is the energy around me currently or that is my position at that time or they reflect my personality

danieljuk said:

I take a note of the gender but I keep really open minded, any card can represent anyone I have found and tarot doesn't work so well when you start restricting it. Like when people ask yes or no questions, forcing genders just seems to stop everything it can throw out in advice and insight.

So I look at every card to represent anyone and leave gender and sexuality out of it. The Court Cards seem to swap from the real sitters genders in my readings quite a lot but they all have a placement in the system and a message. I often get Queen's and Cups and feminine Majors representing me, this is not because of my sexuality or that I am feminine as a man, it's because that is the energy around me currently or that is my position at that time or they reflect my personality

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I am absolutely with Daniel here. They are archetypes, not individuals. The only card I have occasionally had any kind of issue with has been the lovers - ONLY because when I was reading for one lesbian in particular (though gay men have mentioned it) she got wildly upset and said I was being homophobic when I suggested it could have anything to do with partners because for HER it couldn't POSSIBLY, so it MUST be something else, or was I trying to turn her - and so on. Don't read for HER any more....

Funny enough, although I am female I found feminized or overly feminized decks to be uncomfortable to work with. I know they were created as a reaction to the more patrilineal tradition from which all the symbolism came from, so fair enough. I also found the Dark Goddess to be a comfort to work with so I am by no means making a generalisation. But since we are talking about this....

I also don't think of actual gender but rather archetypes and personality traits. I can understand when querents get confused or even upset about it. The Emperor I guess is me as well as my birth sign is Aries but I don't identify as masculine.

I don't see a problem with the gendering in the major arcana with most of the cards. What does distract me is that all cards that speak of sexuality are mostly female - the High Priestess, The Empress, Strength. Somehow there are no sexual connotations in their male counterparts. While Strength could be depicted as male and is sometimes.

It's like the typical old pattern: the ruling and logical mind is male, the body and emotions are female. While I don't see this as a problem when reading, I definetly would appreciate a breaking up of this in modern decks. For example by adding some kind of sexual symbolism to the male cards (like, for example, in the Mary-El, which openly addresses sexual symbolism in some cards).

It could seem I'm obsessed with sex! [emoji13] But the more I read about psychology, archetypes and modern magick, the more I'm convinced that this is a very strong topic in culture, influencing most of mankind's symbolism.

I don't have any problem with genders in Tarot, mostly because I don't see them as actual genders at all, and for me, the apparent masculine/feminine dichotomy is just a traditional, albeit slightly outdated and often confusing, shorthand for 'acting/receiving' energies.

I guess something like 'tool/resource' may describe those energies more precisely, but then it would minimize the emotional impact of Tarot down to that of a manufacturing manual. That's why I much prefer Kings, Queens, Emperors, and Popesses.