Journal Entries for Beginers - The Empress

[Inana]

1-. CARD NAME/DECK – The Empress. (Rider-Waite & Camoin Marseille).
Im using both decks while studying the cards, so what i write its based on one or on the other.

2-. IMPRESSIONS/INSIGHTS
The First thought on the Empress is: she is The Mother. The association comes with the qualities of a mother: affection, protection, patience, understanding ... She is a majestic middle-aged woman, she is powerfull and firm but isnt harsh. She looks indulgent and caring.

In the R-W she is outdoors, surrounded by trees and cereals. Reminds Ceres or any other agriculture godess. Is Mother Earth. The feminine energy of the world.The Empress is about sowing the seeds and take care of them, with time passing, attention and patience you will see them growing. This is her power: the growing power. Any creation needs a material place where to start and an initial spark, but it also needs perseverance and caring. No project or living entity can grow withouth attention and dedication and this is what the Empress reminds.

The shield she wears in this deck carries the sign of Venus on it.This is the symbol of love, but also the symbol of the woman. She is very earthly, very different from the High Priestess. She carries the mistery of life, but sees it like something very natural. Is the things she can touch the ones she matters about, the practical ones.

In Marseilles deck she is looking to the future with a sweet look on her eyes. The face is more gentle, but the scepter and the eagle in the shield add a contrast to this. She has authority and dignity, inspires respect.

The Empress is a determinated woman, but can be weak in her inside, she is vulnerable. Can be hurted easily and she doesnt like to be alone.

3-. KEYWORDS
- Mother. Pregnant. Housemistress. Wife. Woman.
- Perseverance. Dedication. Attention to details. Patience. Taking care of something. Sensibility.
- To be waiting for something. Long term projects or goals. Success after hard work.
- Earthly side of life. Abundance. Prosperity. Hapiness. Birth.
- Nature. Vegetation. Spring.

4-. WHAT THE CHARACTER ON THE CARD SAYS
- Pay attention to your projects and take care of them.
- Show your love to the others.
- Enjoy living.


I like to see both the good and bad sides on each card, and im having difficulty with finding the bad or less beneficial points of this one. Someone can help me with this?

[mermaid1622]

Originally posted by Inana
1-. CARD NAME/DECK – The Empress. (Rider-Waite & Camoin Marseille).

(snip)

I like to see both the good and bad sides on each card, and im having difficulty with finding the bad or less beneficial points of this one. Someone can help me with this?

Thank you for your contribution! I enjoyed what you shared.

On the negative side, I consider things such as "too much mothering" and "Mother Nature gone wild." For example, too much mothering can be smothering. Nature is certainly not always gentle or like being in a well-tended garden. Things growing out of control can be like a cancer. Sometimes The Empress means to me "too much of a good thing."

Does that help?

mermaid1622

[Inana]

Hi Mermaid!

Yes, that helps. Thanks.

For one side, can be like a mother trying to care all the time of her child and not letting freedom to the kid to his own development. This can overwhelm the child and have the mother too much worried about everything.
And on other side, also can be like having something getting bigger and complicated with no control. Like a snowball in motion.

Makes sense.

[Indigo_lady]

[B]1-. CARD NAME/DECK – The Empress. The Witches Tarot.


2-. IMPRESSIONS/INSIGHTS

The empress strikes me as the new mother. You know this glow pregnant/ new mothers have ? That's how I feel she's portrayed in this deck

Description

It's a young blond woman sitting on the grass, springtime. In the background you can see both the sun and the moon shining, clear blue skies, and a tree full of small pinkish (though I would call all the "pinkish" details fucsia). The empress is in the center of the card, sitting on the green grass looking at you. She's wearing her crown, long BLOND hair, She's wearing a pink gown, very imperio type, that lets her very curvy feminine body show, she looks pregnant too. Over that she's wearing a red cape and she's holding a white lilly in her left hand. She's barefoot. There are also pink and white lillies on the grass, a beautiful field. And the two spheres on each side of the card representing the spheres of life... She has a necklace hanging from her neck with the Venus symbol.

She looks like someone who is in control, but control out of love, not for the sake of power or running the show. Obvious she's a mother, and one with everything in her hands at the moment to be a very good one


3-. KEYWORDS

- motherhood, new projects, taking care of someone or smth, giving birth to someone or smth

- love in the most pure sense

- femininity ... I feel that of all the cards this is the one that really identifies with femininity and all the ideas associated with it

- The need to put a lot of effort, care and time into any project ur undertaking right now (just as a mother should with her children

- a smooth transition

- nature

Negative and positive aspects

As mermaid said, it's a matter of taking the characteristics of this card a bit to the extreme... controling too much for example... thought I think there is also some over indulgence in the picture there as well

Although this card brings us back to nature, I think it also speaks of not day dreaming too much, of "keeping it real" ... It's just that in the depiction of the empress in my deck it reminds me of a hippy in a festival

my two cents... somehow I had 2001 ideas in my head and they just vanished, my mood came down so quick and weird...

anyways.. nice to see the journals up again

[LittleWing]

i must say - i am learning loads - this is a great thread!!

DECK = COSMIC TAROT

FIRST IMPRESSIONS - warm, soft, open, approachable. she is beautiful, young and fertile. She looks strond, yet vunerable. she is wealthy and comfortable.

IMAGERY & INSIGHT - she touches her ear/face - showing her sensual side. she wears aminal print/skin - showing luxury and sexiness. she is surrounded by nature - earthy, mother nature. her earing sparkles - shows she has charisma.

KEYWORDS - wife, mother, woman. love, dedication, happiness.
caring for projects/others. (can show indulgence)

[LittleWing]

if any of you can look on the cosmic card (i dont know the link - sorry) - anyway - there is a sphere in the bottom left corner in 2 colours - but i do not know what this means.

the only other deck i have are marseilles - the similarity could be the sphere on the top of her staff in this card,

can anyone shed any light??

[Inana]

This is a link to a image of this card on cosmic tarot.
http://www.geocities.com/mirkwood222/cosmic2.html

Mmmmh... that sphere looks like the Earth to my eyes.

[LittleWing]

thank you inana. it does look like the earth - which would make perfect sense - but i was wondering if any of you had a similar things on your decks that was a sphere shape but meant something other than this?

i shall interpret it as the earth if i do not come accross another significance.

[LadyMedusa]

First impressions- She looks pregnant to me the cut of the clothes and just something about her demeanor. The scepter and shield represent power. The throne that she is in authority.

Thoughts and Insights- Her pregnancy represents fertility both of physical and spiritual planes. There is an abundance of green springtime, growth, nature.The red jacket is a vibrant strong color. Her shield has an image of the Bizantine (sp) eagle 2 heads faceing opposite directions on a red backdrop. She is the emotional strength anchoring her family. She appears open and relaxed, approachable, willing to listen and give advice. She seems to model the traits of of guidance, patience, strength, in a very matriarchal way.

Keywords
Feminine Strength
Mother
Wisdom
Fertility

[Kiama]

Deck: Robin Wood
Card Title: Empress

Impressions/Insights:

This has to be one of my favourite cards in this deck... The card is so colourful and peaceful, and it just seems to burst with vitality and life. Which is very apt, considering the woman in this card is heavily pregnant and seems to be bursting with vitality and life aswell! There is alot of nature symbology in this card, and the Empress herself is dressed in very earthy colours: Green, yellow. I think this is showing her link to the Mother Goddess, and shows how she is a creative card: The Mother archetype creates and gives life, and here we see the woman spinning, creating something. She is in the final stages of pregnancy, and I think this pregnancy could refer to metaphorical pregnancies: Ideas, projects, goals, etc... Anything which we work hard to make happen. In this way I think it means in a reading that the querent is 'pregnant' with their idea or goal, and ready to take it into the final stages of completion. Ready to give birth to it, if you will. Now, birth by it's very nature is never easy, so any project we try to bring to fruition may well have it's difficulties... Labour pains so to speak! But it'll be worth it in the end. There are poppies in this card, which to me symbolise sacrifice, and speaks to me of how we often need to put our all into the creaqtive process, we need to sacrifice ourselves to it in order to bring it to birth. Indeed, before modern medicine became really advanced, many women gave their lives in childbirth, a sort of sacrifice I think. This card I also see as 'Universal Love', and when we love something so much, we often feel we could sacrifice ourself for it. So, this poppy represents the hardwork and sacrifice that goes into creating something really worthwhile.

There is corn behind the woman, which to me is a symbol of abundance and fertility: In a reading, this card might indicate that the querent is going through a particularly fruitful time in their lives, where they have many many ideas and the ability to bring them to birth.

In the foreground of the card is a basket of fruit, indicating abundance and 'fruits of your labours' again to me, and a beehive... Bees to me symbolise creativity aswell, since they work hard to create honey.

There are lots of hearts in this card: Around the woman's neck and on a shield pinned to the tree. This speaks to me of the 'Universal Love' I spoke of earlier... It's a bit like the love of a Mother, where no matter what the child does, the Mother will always love it... This is what Universal Love to me is. Loving peopel unconditionally, caring about their wellbeing, and just loving them. So, this could mean in a reading that you just need to accept the situation, and respond with love.

In the heart shield is also the female symbol (The circle with the cross coming off the bottom of it) which to me speaks of the femininity of the Empress... She is comfortable with who she is, her sexuality, her womanhood.

I also can't help but notice how richly attired she is: She has fur covering the seat she is sitting on, a royal purple cloack, golden sleev edges, and silver circlet, and sparkly headscarf... She seems like a woman who likes her luxuries! Beautiful things are what she likes, and she knows how to enjoy life's pleasures.

The tree behind her is a birch tree, which in tree lore is symbolic of birth, since it is a tree that sheds it's bark to let the new bark show through. (A bit like a snake with it's skin) Bringing ideas and projects to birth again comes to mind.

The fact that she is pregnant shows that she is sexually active, and thus a sensual person (This links in with the luxury she is surrounded by). In Wiccan terms, the Mother aspect of the Triple Goddess is also the sexual aspect of Her: She isn't just wife and mother, but lover aswell. Sometimes I feel these days that many peopel view Mothers as sterile and unsexual... It is such a shame.

Keywords:

Birth
Gestation of ideas and projects
Sexuality
Sensuality
Luxury
Love
Creation
Fertility
Abundance
Fecundity
Mother Earth

What the character in the card says:

Learn to love deeply, properly, without judgement
Create the world how you want it
Don't be afraid to put in the work to bring about the fruition of your plans
Treat yourself like and Empress! Because you have the power to create, to love, to nurture and to grow... These things are synonymous with being a Creatrix.