What empress and five of swords have in common?

The couple broke up 6 months ago and had no contact since. They are both seing someone else but she still loves him and wants him back and she wanted to know whether they will get back together.

She got empress in future position and sun as a final outcome and even though the empress is supposed to be a very good card in a relationship reading, i am always confused with that one (maybe because she is alone in the card). So I told her that i really don't know whether they will get back together or not but the cards are very good and she will be happy in any case . But that was not good enough for her, so few days later we did it again and empress came again in the future position, ten of cups as final outcome and even 3 of cups as advice! I told her again that I really don't know whether it is going to be with him or not but that she should relax, enjoy her life, and everything would be fine . Well as that yet again didn't answer her question, i took a clarifier for empress and got 5 of swords!!!

I see clarifiers as things that two cards have in common rather that additional information and i am struggling to find anything in common apart from standing up for yourself and possibly taking a better care of yourself... 5s is also a stage card which makes the comparison even more confusing! Any thoughts please? I have been thinking about it for days now and is bothering me!!

Maybe because the girl itself is of an emoress type (as much as someone can be) that I wasn't sure whether the cards are telling her that their relationship will evolve (go to desired direction) ot that she will put herself together and be 'the empress' that she can be... Also i have read on this forum that several people had empress as an outcome and never got back with their exes...

Butterfly1 said:

Well as that yet again didn't answer her question, i took a clarifier for empress and got 5 of swords!!!

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Given your story, I don't think that 5/Swords was a clarifier. I think it was a message from the deck to your sitter: "Stop arguing with your reader! You're not going to get the answer you want. Accept the answer you got."

Your deck has your back and is standing up for you

Thirteen said:

Given your story, I don't think that 5/Swords was a clarifier. I think it was a message from the deck to your sitter: "Stop arguing with your reader! You're not going to get the answer you want. Accept the answer you got."

Your deck has your back and is standing up for you

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that is funny
But the thing is that i am not sure that i am reading it right. Is it possible that if reading is about specific person (her ex) that the cards would completely exclude him out of the reading and suggest that she might be happy with someone else? That would be the answer to a different question (more general love question). I am afraid that i am failing to give the answer rather than the cards...

Also out of curiosity, can we be creative enough to find a common ground for the two cards? It is a challenge and that is why I can't drop it

Thirteen response is probably spot on.

But I would like to suggest a possible variety. Please take it with a grain of salt though as I'm less experienced.

Clarifiers in my readings show a different perspective or a combining influence.
But I do see common ground between those cards.

A traditional meaning of the empress is the holy nurturing, caring mother archetype. There is more to her though, like the fancy lady in a flowing robe on opulent cushions or nature. This the demanding and domineering side of this card.
The 5 of swords can be about dominance and winning over.

Whatever there might be out for the querent will be perfectly satisfying. Maybe a relationship where she can have her ways and possibly make the rules. Does not change your interpretation but reinforces it.

The only tiny bit of correlation I can see is an astrological one. The Empress corresponds to the planet Venus in the form of compassion, and the 5 of Swords corresponds to Venus in Aquarius, but if there is any compassion there, it's buried in the abstract humanitarian zeal of the social reformer. If anything, the 5 of Swords is likely to cut social benefits, not increase them - or maybe "right-size" them is a nice, non-confrontational Venusian term.

Well, I had this combination coming up for femdommes and feminism in the past. More than once, left me puzzled for a good while. Edit: I felt shy saying this earlier on and its just a variety.

Well, this was a yes/no question right? Are they going to get back together again. And as you know, the tarot rarely answers yes/no questions (and why do a whole spread if it was a yes/no question? Why not one card: yes or no?). But really, that wasn't what you or she wanted to know. The REAL question, and the one I think your cards are answering is "HOW can she get them back together again?" Because that is what she wants. And that is what the cards would pick up on.

I think the cards are saying, in answer to that question, that in the near future she will be alone, but will also have learned to be patient, nurturing and giving...unlike she is in the present where she is demanding and impatient This doesn't mean there's no hope of them getting together. It means that she has to learn patience, like a woman with a baby, before there CAN BE hope of them getting back together. Rekindling the romance, getting it to grow again, isn't going to happen in an instant. It will take time. And it's certainly not going to happen until she becomes the Empress.

Or, if you like, until BOTH sides become the Empress. Meaning willing to nurture what they love about each other and help that to mature. This goes right along with the 5/Swords. 5/Swords is "loss" but also learning how to deal with loss. Meaning realizing that you weren't ready to fight. You weren't ready to lose either. You learn humility. Again, both parties have to learn that the old relationship needs more "practice." You can't succeed at it if you rush in (like that one swordsman again the larger one), all unprepared because you think it's going to be oh-so-easy to restore it.

This is what you friend will learn and be in the near future. Not so impatient. No so desperate to have what she wants now, now, NOW! And it may well take, as in the 5/Swords, a humiliating defeat for her to realize this. The cards offered an optimistic view of that future. But her impatience led to that clarifier that says, "you will get to a place of patience and giving rather than taking, but it may require you experience defeat first...."

If I bind/clarify cards I always bind it to what the person is actually feeling or going through.

I feel your client is a person who is used to getting what she wants. The empress representating her in the reading says that. I feel the 5 of swords appeared that if she isn't so pushy perhaps towards her partner there will be a chance. You catch more bees with honey than you do with vinegar.

I sense you need to tell her to look beyond the relationship. Re evaluate it and consider whether right now would be the best time to head back into the relationship. The empress is telling her she needs to indulge in herself and get some kind of confidence back, I sense she is not entirely "herself" which is causing her to have somewhat an "entitled" phase e.g. i want him back, will we be together etc.. I personally would tell her not at the current moment. However you mentioned the sun as an outcome for her, she needs to be aware that clarity and happiness is around the corner for her if she focuses on herself.

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I totally missed your comment on they're both seeing other people.

As I mentioned before, this entitlement she is going through and the reason I feel the 5 of swords appeared is likely from a jealous position. In the card (5 of swords) I feel she is the one who has been defeated, perhaps she didn't expect to find someone so soon.

I don't know. I am just reading intuitively. Keep me updated.

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Isobel Gaudie said:

Well, I had this combination coming up for femdommes and feminism in the past. More than once, left me puzzled for a good while. Edit: I felt shy saying this earlier on and its just a variety.

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Hi Isobel, don't be shy Especially not with unorthodox takes – it opens new horizons and inspires new ways of thinking (ideas outside of the box)