78 Weeks: Empress

[UnlikelyPlaces]

3 Empress - Diary of a Broken Soul

[As always, card images available here: http://diary.tarotsmith.net/cards/03empress.html.]

Brief card description
A beautiful, nude woman stands among roses, two serpents twining around her body, echoing the Priestess's tattoo. She holds their heads back with outstretched arms.

First impressions
Bed of roses, surrounded by serpents. Mixed messages! Beautiful, nude, not-quite-innocent woman. She holds the serpents’ heads back (dragons? Those heads look dangerous – something in the naga family, I think.), but they wind closely otherwise. The teasing hair tendrils remind me of Venus, arising from the waves. What gives birth to the Empress? Flaming symbols in the sky behind her – similar to the Magician’s cup. Danger controlled; fierce power masked in softness.

Eve – alone with the snake.


Traditional Meaning
http://www.thetarotdeck.com/2008/05/the-empress-tarot-card/

The Empress is mother, a creator, nurturing and caring for others. This card is sometimes connected with the ideas of universal fertility and the realization of inspiration. This can be of life, business, art, or any other desire. Her diadem (crown) has twelve stars corresponding to the year. She sits within a field showing her power over nature and growing things.

http://www.aeclectic.net/tarot/learn/meanings/empress.shtml

Basic Tarot Story
Having decided what shape his future will take, the Fool strides forward. But he is impatient to make his future a full-grown reality. This is when he comes upon the Empress. Her hair gold as wheat, wearing a crown of stars, and a white gown dotted with pomegranates. She rests back on her throne surrounded by an abundance of grain and a lush garden. It is possible that she is pregnant.* [* Pregnant. Well, not in the Rider-Waite deck she isn't. But she is in early decks, and it is an apt symbol for this card.]

Kneeling, the Fool relates to her his story. And she, in turn, smiles a motherly smile and gently gives him this advice: "Like newly planted grain or a child in the womb, a new life, a new love, a new creation is fragile. It requires fertile soil, patience and nurturing, it needs love and attention. Only this will bring it to fruition." Understanding at last that his future will take time to build and create, the Fool thanks the Empress and continues on his way.

Basic Tarot Meaning
The Empress is a creator, be it creation of life, of romance, of art or business. While the Magician is the primal spark, the idea made real, and the High Priestess is the one who gives the idea a form, the Empress is the womb where it gestates and grows till it is ready to be born. This is why her symbol is Venus, goddess of beautiful things as well as love. Even so, the Empress is more Demeter, goddess of abundance, then sensual Venus. She is the giver of Earthly gifts, yet at the same time, she can, in anger withhold, as Demeter did when her daughter, Persephone, was kidnapped. In fury and grief, she kept the Earth barren till her child was returned to her.

Key words

Traditional: Nurturing, womb, motherhood, fertility, love, sexuality – pure emotion

Sensuous (of the senses – not the same as sensual), passionate (both meanings)

From the artist’s website

How the Empress commands our eye to be drawn to her, yet at the same time, she holds us at arms length if we try to get too close. Just look at the two heads of the serpent if you don’t believe me. They so want to be enveloped in her soft feminine flesh and round breasts, yet she is allowing them to get only so close before holding them at bay. We know she is approachable and will invite us to share in an embrace, but at the same time she is aloof and dignified – just as an Empress should be. Nor will she expose more of herself than is appropriate. She knows where the line is between being a harlot and being a woman.

This lady does indeed have an aura of strong personal power – a power that will not be relinquished. Look at how the roses have got together to produce the carpet on which she walks. The petals know they may be crushed underfoot, yet they welcome this, knowing new life will be created in due time. Because our Empress is in fact the creator of life, but will have no qualms about destroying it also if it is to make way for new growth. With this in mind, we would do well to respect her energies and capabilities. If she feels her subjects have become passively subservient she will indeed crush them, but she will do so with compassion, believing it will lead to them returning with their own enhanced personal power and strength. I guess she will be cruel to be kind should the need arise…..

78 Degrees of Wisdom

“Opposites mingle[d] together in nature to produce the reality of the physical universe.” – the opposing principles of the Magician and the Priestess blended in the Empress/Emperor/Hierarch. “Nature, symbolized by the Empress, is the underlying reality, while her consorts, symbolized by the Emperor and the Hierarch, are human constructs.”

My Journal Notes
I’ve never liked the RWS Empress – and the traditional meanings noted here don’t help. Mother, motherly, matronly, womb-focused…there’s much more to this essentially female card than biology… I included the second quote for traditional meaning to try getting at more. The fierceness visible in the Jahanamian Empress is a big clue…

“The High Priestess represented the mental side of the female archetype; her deep intuitive understanding. The Empress is pure emotion.” [Pollack] The Empress acts on her intuition – in this way, she combines the Magician’s passion and activity with the Priestess’s intuitive knowledge. But unlike the Priestess, she is not content to retreat to the solitude of her intuition. The Empress is emotion, and what is emotion but the action of our intuition on our thoughts? The intensity of her emotions is matched by her certainty in their meaning – she is not adrift in a sea of vague daydreams but surrounded, even overwhelmed, by powerful passions driving her choices. If the Empress is threatened by negative emotions, she nonetheless has the strength of mind (as her Priestess-self) to control them and, like the snakes, hold them at a safe distance.

Looking for a fictional representative of the Empress, I connect her to a whole class of romance heroines, usually found in Regencies, where the heroine acts with great certainty and even strategy based purely on an intuitive certainty. These heroines appear to be slightly mad to others, because they take enormous risks based on no evidence whatsoever; they rely entirely on their own instincts for wisdom. I always admire these women’s certainty and their embrace of risk. They love wholeheartedly and reach out again and again, until the universe (and the hero) deliver a happily ever after. Their passionate loyalty to a dream is what drives their character.

There is a clear sexuality to the Diary’s Empress, but it’s part of the Empress’s link to the Earth, to the senses. She is unified in herself, comfortable in her physicality, confident in her personality – Magician and Priestess again. She is both, made whole.


Responses to thread posts

“She brims full of life and life revolves around her.”

The Jahanamian Empress may be the source of the serpents’ existence as well as the object of their desire. If they symbolize natural emotions, they are a double-edged sword: negative emotions may wrap her too tightly, causing harm; but if she holds them at too great a distance, she risks turning her back on her own greatest strength and taking on the Priestess’s weakness instead. The balance needed by the Empress is far more delicate than the Magician or Priestess face.

“I was thinking about how I would feel if I were one of her subjects.”

Interesting exercise – a new perspective for me. If the Jahanamian Empress is a ruler of a people, she is a mystic one. Like the elven queen or a divine prophet, anyone approaching her for a ruling would struggle.

“In the place of a Dark Lord you would have a Queen! Not dark but beautiful and terrible as the Morn! Treacherous as the Seas! Stronger than the foundations of the Earth! All shall love me and despair!” [Galadriel, tempted by the One Ring] If the Empress ruled alone, the temptation to power might prove overwhelming.

“I do not get the sense of this Empress as an Earthy Mother. She is not cold per-se—instead she is elevated above us. She is someone to be revered rather than someone who you’d want to roll around in the mud with. She touches a higher place within me. I see her as a guiding influence. I see her as a helpful guide who holds the source of life and breath and thought. She holds no secrets, only keys to the secrets that we seek to understand. She offers that key willingly; all that we need to do is ask. She may ask, “Why do you want to know?” and you had better answer her honestly. If you don’t ask with pure intent, she’ll see right through it. If you are false with her, the door is sealed and you will never know her answer.”

Yes! The Empress holds the key to the Priestess and the Magician; she has the whole heart. Perhaps a hint of Mary (Queen of Heaven, Mother of God, in Catholic language) – able to accept blessings and trials in perfect faith. Unlike Eve, she withstood the Serpent’s lure with unblemished sexuality.


Six Word Memoir

I control both life and thought.
Do you see Lilith or Mary? Mother of Demons, Mother of God.
Tormenting feelings, changing my whole world.
Know your heart, or be destroyed.

 

[sacredashes]

I control both life and thought.
Do you see Lilith or Mary? Mother of Demons, Mother of God.
Tormenting feelings, changing my whole world.
Know your heart, or be destroyed.

Yes... so she speaks to you too.

There are tales of sea serpents from all parts of the world. The ones I find beautiful are the ones known as the Naga Fish or Oar Fish.

....Oarfish are large, greatly elongated, pelagic Lampriform fishes comprising the small family Regalecidae. Found in all temperate to tropical oceans yet rarely seen, the oarfish family contains four species in two genera. One of these, the king of herrings (Regalecus glesne), is listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as the longest bony fish alive, at up to 17 metres (56 ft) in length.

The common name oarfish is presumably in reference to either their highly compressed and elongated bodies, or to the former (but now discredited) belief that the fish "row" themselves through the water with their pelvic fins. The family name Regalecidae is derived from the Latin regalis, meaning "royal". The occasional beachings of oarfish after storms, and their habit of lingering at the surface when sick or dying, make oarfish a probable source of many sea serpent tales..

The sight of them is imminent death; for the great Naga.. not the people who are fortunate enough to have seen them because these fishes come to the surface when they are near death.

Yet in the presence of the Empress, they coil around her, forming the symbol of the double helix. Here, they remind us that if the traditional meaning to this card is

.... mother, a creator, nurturing and caring for others.

... then the dark side of the soul invites us to explore the concepts of the mother who also delivers death in abortion, a destroyer, smothering, dominating, dis-enabling dream assassin. Do bear in mind, The Diary is not about passing judgments or laying blame, rather its about exploring light and shadows.

And if Mother is the name for God in the lips and hearts of little children. - William Makepeace Thackeray then All women become like their mothers. That is their tragedy. No man does. That's his. -Oscar Wilde

But if you would seek to understand YinYang, look to the Emperor as well because the Naga Fishes rise up around the Empress to form the symbol of the Ram (Aries). Though she is powerful, she hold only one of the 2 keys required to create life so without the other, there is no creation and she understands this. The masculine and feminine are two halves that form a whole.. it is not meant to be a power struggle but a union of balance and harmony.

If we seek out the Emperor, we will see that he has her in his surroundings as well. The roses sit above his throne so we know this Emperor is comfortable within himself to have her symbol above his throne; as she is comfortable having his above her throne of roses.

Now are you ready for this? They chose to put "us" before "I" but not relinquish "I" for the sake of "us".

 

[Anna]

THOTH

Card name ~ The Empress

Keyword ~ none
Element ~ Earth
Tree of Life attributions ~ Path 14, joining Chokmah 2 wisdom, to Binah 3 understanding
Astrological / other attributions ~ Hebrew letter Daleth, meaing door. The planet Venus.

First impressions
I like this card. I like the colours; pink, blue and green. It feels a long way away from the typical image of a mother figure, and also a long way from the Traditional figure of rulership in the Marseille. She looks almost like a mermaid, the way she is sitting. And it is interesting that her body is face on, but her head turn back, looking away – that position is not physically possible!

From the Book of Thoth
On the Tree of Life, Daleth is the path leading from Chokmah to Binah, uniting the Father with the Mother. The doctrine implied is that the fundamental formula of the Universe is Love.
It is impossible to summarize the meanings of the symbol of the Woman, for this very reason, she continually recurs in infinitely varied form. In this card, she is shown in her most general manifestation. She combines the highest spiritual with the lowest material qualities. For this reason, she is fitted to represent one of the 3 alchemical forms of energy, Salt. Salt is the inactive principle of Nature; Salt is matter which must be energised by Sulphur to maintain the whirling equilibrium of the Universe.

From Duquette: Daleth means door, and woman is the door of heaven when we are conceived, and the door of life when we are born.
The path of Daleth is one of only three paths on the Tree of Life that lies entirely about the Abyss. It connects the second sphira, Chokma, to the third sphira Binah. This is the hallway down which the queen of our Qabalistic fairytale tiptoes to get to the bedroom of the king. This is the path of the exchange of the unimaginable love.
At first glance, she appears to be the goddess of vegetation, which is exactly what she is.
Her right hand and arm curve delicately as if she were holding and invisible baby to her breast. Perhaps this is just a rehersal for what is to come. The Empress, if you haven’t noticed, is pregnant.

Images and Symbolism
The arms and torso suggest the shape of the alchemical symbol for Salt.
The uprights of the throne are symbolic of her birth from water, the feminine, fluid element.
In her right hand she bears the lotus of Isis; representing the feminine, or passive power.
Animal symbols – the sparrow, the dove, bees
Her girdle is the zodiac
Below her is a tapestry, embroidered with fleurs-de-lys and fish; they seem to be adoring the secret rose, which is indicated at the base of the throne.
In this card all symbols are cognate, because of the simplicity and purity of the emblem.
Two fold heraldry: The pelican of tradition feeding its young from the blood of its own heart, and the White Eagle, symbol of the alchemist.
About the pelican: by identifying the pelican herself with her offspring, with the Daughter of the formula of tetragrammation. It is because the daughter is the daughter of her mother that she can be raised to the throne. In other language, there is a continuity of life, an inheritance of blood, which binds all forms of nature together.
At the back of the card is the arch, or door – Daleth

Crowley’s divinatory meaning
Not given

Traditional meanings (Marseille/RWS)
The Marseille Empress sits facing us head on. She wears a crown, and she holds a staff and a shield. The image is one of a Ruler and leader. The consort of the Emperor; with the two cards together making an obvious and complementary pair.

From Tarotpedia: “The Empress denotes a powerful woman, and, in the tradition of the Tarot de Marseille, she is even interpreted as meaning intellectuality and the power of the mind.

For many years, I read this card in the RWS as the Mother, and as a figure of nurturing and protection. I read fertility and creation into it, and that was really the limit of my understanding of this card.

From Thirteen’s Tarot Card Meanings; “The Empress is a creator, be it creation of life, of romance, of art or business. This is why the Empress' symbol is Venus, goddess of beautiful things and gardens, as wells as sex and love. However, the Empress has more in common with Demeter, goddess of abundance. She is the giver of Earthly gifts, the great, fertile mother goddess. Yet at the same time, she can, in anger, withhold as Demeter did when her daughter, Persephone was kidnapped. In fury and grief, she kept the Earth barren till her child was returned to her.The Empress' ability to mother goes beyond the womb, however. She is patient, loving, giving, generous, devoted. The ultimate nurturer. Of course, the Empress can also be about the not so nice aspects of a mom. She can smother, not know when to let go, be possessive and jealous of those who would take away her "baby."

My take on the card
Crowley’s passage about the Pelican, and about matrilineal succession through blood, is interesting to me. I have always considered The Empress to be the Mother…. But what if she is also the daughter? “It is because the daughter is the daughter of her mother that she can be raised to the throne” The Empress, across all the decks, is nearly always depicted as a Queen or Goddess figure. But how did she become a Queen, or a Goddess? By what right did she attain those titles? To go from what Crowley has written, perhaps, it is because she is the daughter of the Mother. Perhaps it is because of the sacred bloodline passed from mother to daughter. Many of the the earliest civilisations were Matriarchal. Here in the UK, in Scotland, there were once Matriarchal Kingdoms, were succession was Matrilineal. The true role of Women was valued and understood. It was with the coming of the Christian Church (amongst other things) that women were subjugated and oppressed, and that has continued throughout history. Even today, the female gender is still suppressed and devalued.

But in the early times, royal succession was passed down the female line, and it was done so for a reason. Modern science is beginning to prove what some have know for millennia: that mitochondrial DNA can be used to trace back an individual’s bloodline to an originating ancestor, also known as Mitochondrial Eve. (Mitochondrial DNA is passed on exclusively from mother to child. A daughter will pass it to her daughter, but her son will not.) It is the blood of the mother that matters, and that blood determines nobility (ie; those of noble birth, or race).

“Mohamed my friend, it’s time to tell the world, we both know it was girl back in Bethlehem”

I am probably not making sense to anyone but myself here! But, to get back on track, if the blood matters, is the doorway (Daleth) a doorway to heaven, or in fact a doorway FROM heaven…is it the doorway through which the Noble line can be continued and the blood passed to the next generations of daughters?

And if so, then who is the Mother of the Empress? Who is the originating ancestor, or Mitochondrial Eve?
In Tarological terms; she must be the High Priestess.

Crowley also said that this card symbolises love, and that love is “the fundamental formula of the Universe”. Now, he’s already said earlier in the book, that the formula of the universe is 1 + -1=0. A positive charge and a negative charge collide and instead of cancelling each other out, they create a new “thing”. It’s the whole God / Big Bang thing – creating something from nothing. So if that’s the formula of the universe, and it can also be called “love”, then the love Crowley is talking about here must be a powerful force of energy, made up of two opposites; attraction/gravity and dispersion.

If the universe were just made up of attraction, then everything would be all stuck together in a big lump and there would be no life. Dispersion is also needed to create the balance. Attraction and dispersion – love and hate, good and evil, right and left, male and female, life and death etc. etc. Love is about these two opposing forces being in balance, and it’s about just justice in a way too. The creation of a child is the re-inaction of the creation of the whole universe, in microcosm.

These then, are some of the qualities and abilities of the daughter of the High Priestess; she has the ability to create something from nothing (symbolised as pregnancy), she has the ability to maintain balance and synthesize opposites. These are the duties she undertakes as ruler, and as one who is of noble birth. This is the power which she has inherited from the blood of her Mother. This means that the things she does are not necessarily always good and nurturing, sometimes she needs to do the very opposite. The Empress can be a creator of life, and she can be a ruthless killer (as is nature at times).

I think this card has been overlooked, or written of as “just” about motherhood. I think perhaps she is the most powerful figure in the whole deck.

 

[gregory]

Card name: Empress
First impressions
This card startled me for a minute. I looked and immediately saw a mermaid. Her lower limbs appeared at once to be a fish-tail ! the positioning and the lines. But no. OK – she is on a throne, which I can’t actually see but she is sitting, so… with her arms curved around her belly – to protect the womb ? And she holds a blue lotus blossom. Around her tall plants, with birds. She has a moon-like crown with an orb, and from it trails a veil which seems to have very clearly delineated layers. Her top half is pink, with bees and patterns; the lower, skirt, is green. To her right a waning moon; to her left a waxing one. Below the waning moon is the (alleged !) pelican, and below the waxing one is the shield, with two white eagles. It all seems rather remote, somehow. And women get sort of closed in when pregnant, so that may relate, too.

From the BoT

This card is attributed to the letter Daleth, which means a door, and it refers to the planet Venus. This card is, on the face of it, the complement of The Emperor; but her attributions are much more universal.

On the Tree of Life, Daleth is the path leading from Chokmah to Binah, uniting the Father with the Mother. Daleth is one of the three paths which are altogether above the Abyss. There is further more the alchemical symbol of Venus, the only one of the planetary symbols which comprises all the Sephiroth of the Tree of Life. The doctrine implied is that the fundamental formula of the Universe is Love. [The circle touches the Sephiroth I, 2, 4, 6, 5, 3; the Cross is formed by 6, 9, 10 and 7, 8.]

It is impossible to summarize the meanings of the symbol of the Woman, for this very reason, that she continually recurs in infinitely varied form. “Many-throned, many-minded, many-wiled, daughter of Zeus.”

(as Duquette says : Thanks a lot, Crowley !)

In this card, she is shown in her most general manifestation. She combines the highest spiritual with the lowest material qualities. For this reason, she is fitted to represent one of the three alchemical forms of energy, Salt. Salt is the inactive principle of Nature; Salt is matter which must be energized by Sulphur to maintain the whirling equilibrium of the Universe. The arms and torso of the figure consequently suggest the shape of the alchemical symbol of Salt. She represents a woman with the imperial crown and vestments, seated upon a throne, whose uprights suggest blue twisted flames symbolic of her birth from water, the feminine, fluid element. In her right hand she bears the lotus of Isis; the lotus represents the feminine, or passive power.

Its roots are in the earth beneath the water, or in the water itself, but it opens its petals to the Sun, whose image is the belly of the chalice. It is, therefore, a living form of the Holy Grail, sanctified by the blood of the Sun. Perching upon the flamelike uprights of her throne are two of her most sacred birds, the sparrow and the dove; the nub of this symbolism must be sought in the poems of Catullus and Martial. On her robe are bees; also dominos, surrounded by continuous spiral lines; the signification is everywhere similar.

About her, for a girdle, is the Zodiac.

Beneath the throne is a floor of tapestry, embroidered with fleurs-de-lys and fishes; they seem to be adoring the Secret Rose, which is indicated at the base of the throne. The significance of these symbols has already been explained. In this card all symbols are cognate, because of the simplicity and purity of the emblem. There is here no contradiction; such opposition as there seems to be is only the opposition necessary to balance. And this is shown by the revolving moons.
The heraldry of the Empress is two-fold: on the one side, the Pelican of tradition feeding its young from the blood of its own heart; on the other, the White Eagle of the Alchemist.

The White Eagle in this trump corresponds to the Red Eagle in the Consort card, the Emperor. It is here necessary to work back wards. For in these highest cards are the symbols of perfection; both the initial perfection of Nature and the final perfection of Art; not only Isis, but Nephthys. Consequently, the details of the work pertain to subsequent cards, especially Atu vi and Atu xiv.

At the back of the card is the Arch or Door, which is the interpretation of the letter Daleth. This card, summed up, may be called the Gate of Heaven. But, because of the beauty of the symbol, because of its omniform presentation, the student who is dazzled by any given manifestation may be led astray. In no other card is it so necessary to disregard the parts, to concentrate upon the whole.

Images and Symbolism
OK – most is covered above. But – the Pelican. I know it is supposed to be one – but it is far more like a swan – and that really bothers me; Frieda Harris was well travelled, and I have never understood how this happened ! Anyway – it symbolise the ultimate feminine sacrifice – giving yourself up for your children. The Empress represents the Perfect Mother. To the right (her right) of her head is a sparrow – associated with Aphrodite and Lust – she turns away from it to face the dove – symptom of purity and the Holy Spirit who impregnated the virgin mother.
The pelican, too, is placed below the waning moon, while the shield, with two eagles representing transformation and rebirth in alchemical terms – the placement suggest the death of the old God and the coming of the New Aeon.
She holds a lotus flower. There is a suggestion (in Banzhaf) that its erect stalk is phallic and represents her control over male procreative power.
Her arms are placed to represent the alchemical glyph for salt – feminine, solid and heavy.
The Maltese cross on her crown represents the four elements in perfect balance – I had no idea, and that rather excited me !
Round her waist is a golden belt with the signs of the zodiac.
Her dress is decorated with bees and dominos – apparently the dominoes may refer to a hood Christian priests used to wear – black on the outside and white inside.
The whole card is full of duality – waxing and waning, light and dark, male and female.
The card is attuned to Daleth – the door – which is the gateway to life – as a mother is when she gives birth.
Duquette sees her as surrounded by plants and grasses; Banzhaf sees them as serpentine flames. Either way there is certainly an arch-shaped door behind her.

From the Harris essays:

III. The Empress. She is seated in traditional posture. This posture represents salt, the inactive principle of nature. The lotus typifies the feminine or passive power. The Bees on the robe may be compared with the Fleur de Lys, suggesting the French origin of the symbol; the belt is the Zodiac. The Pelican may be identified with the Great Mother and her offspring. It represents the continuity of life end inheritance of blood uniting all forms 0/nature. The White Eagle typifies Alchemical Salt, and the White Tincture, of the nature of silver.

Meanings – from Wasserman:
Upright: Love. Beauty. Happiness. Pleasure. Success. Fruitfulness. Good fortune. Graciousness. Elegance. Gentleness. Ill-dignified. Dissipation. Debauchery. Idleness. Sensuality.

My impressions (appearance of the card):
She is, perhaps, Eve after the fall – a total contrast to the virginal (maybe !) Priestess. The card shows to me that there is strength in femininity, and less mystery than is shown by the figure in the Priestess. But it also seems curiously detached, to me. One of the books says she is pregnant and the foetus is visible. I can’t see it myself, and I wouldn’t be happy to, really… I am so tired of the Empress = pregnancy and motherhood.

My take (what I make of it/what I might see in a reading where I drew it)
I see it as very feminine – but not just about motherhood. Also very strong and confident. Embracing things – prepared to accept things about others, other points of view. Possibly also a choice to be made – there is so much duality here. Or at least a reconciling of varying points of view.

 

[gregory]

OMG Anna saw the mermaid too ! I thought it was just me

 

[jackdaw*]

III The Empress (Rider Waite Tarot)

First Impressions
The Empress sits in a field of ripe yellow wheat at the edge of a forest with a river running over a waterfall to a pool in the foreground. She reclines on cushions in stately comfort and wears a white and flowing gown like a granny nightgown patterned with roses and lace at the collar. A heart shaped stone or pillow at her side has the emblem of Venus ♀ on it. It’s not completely obvious in this rendition, but I believe that she is pregnant. Combined with the lush wheat growing around her, it all emphasizes fertility.

The Empress is blonde and her face is strong and serene rather than beautiful. She can handle whatever domestic crises her man and her children might send her way. But she does not strike me as the hands-on type. I see her presence, her influence, being a gentler sort. The type of parent who rules by love and will rather than by any sort of physical discipline.

She holds up a small scepter in one hand, the other rests on her knee. She is crowned with what looks like a wreath of leaves topped by twelve small white stars. This reminds us that not only is she a mother, and a woman, but a queen. But not a ruling type; she is a consort to the true ruler. So perhaps not a terribly emancipated type.

What a difference between this card and the earlier ones, Tarot de Marseille and the like. Look at the weary, bag-eyed Imperatrice. Now, she is a true partner and helpmeet to l’Empereur. She’s the busy woman to whom so many of us can relate. I made the following notes on l’Imperatrice last year (Hadar version), comparing her to the Rider Waite’s Empress:

Her hair is not coiffed and her eyes are heavy-lidded and weary, and she looks off to one side as though anxious to get away. Although she is usually depicted as pregnant, in this version she is only slightly showing, or perhaps has not gained much weight, and her gown’s smock is badly wrinkled across her belly. This rendition of l’Imperatrice makes me think of the working mother of small children. She is tired; really, she is incurably weary: her husband […] is off on yet another business trip, the kids have colds and need help with their homework, morning sickness is bad, the phone won’t stop ringing, deadlines are looming at work and the washing machine is making a worrisome sound. This is not the lush, fertile Empress of the Rider Waite deck, who reclines on cushions outdoors and is warm and nurturing. This is l’Imperatrice, the capable lady who copes with everything life can throw at her. And yet, somehow she does it. She pays the bills and runs the kingdom in her husband’s absence, she tends the children’s runny noses and dispenses hugs and spankings where needed. Maybe she’s not the sexpot and nurturing comfort-loving wife and mother, but she is the mother who rules the roost. The iron fist in the velvet glove.

Now look at Waite’s Empress. Lounging on cushions in her nightie. I’m sure she is just as indispensable to her man and her kids as l’Imperatrice, but I see her as waiting for them to come to her. Sure, then she’ll dole out generous love and attention, but she won’t be seen to get up off her arse, roll up her sleeves and start supper or teach Junior how to bait a fishhook. That’s more the field of the Queen of Pentacles. She’ll give emotional support and unconditional love by the bucketful, but she won’t get her hands dirty. And the implication of this card is that she doesn’t actually have to. One of those miraculous women you hate who seem to have it all pulled together so effortlessly. And again with the yellow! If this archetype is supposed to be ruled by Venus, if it’s supposed to be so earthbound and sensual, why is she drowning in Airy yellow?

The Empress is supposed to be the mother, the ultimate feminine archetype of fertility, abundance, comfort. But she never struck me as such, no matter how comfortable they make her look and no matter how many lush and fertile symbols they cram into it. She looks like a convalescent or invalid just getting over a lengthy illness and brought outside to breathe the fresh air and soak up the sunshine.

I sat the Empress and the High Priestess down side by side to compare. They bear comparison, being (a) two consecutive cards in the deck, and (b) two female archetypes, the two female archetypes, really. Basically, they’re almost complete opposites, save that they’re both female and both seated and both, inexplicably, have pomegranates. Two sides of the same feminine coin. Dark versus light, serious versus happy, virgin versus wife and mother, cool versus warm, night versus day, aloof versus approachable. Does Waite suppose that the two together make the ultimate “woman” archetype? That they’re two halves of the same whole? It’s an interesting point to consider.

Creator’s Notes
In The Pictorial Key to the Tarot Waite notes:

A stately figure, seated, having rich vestments and royal aspect, as of a daughter of heaven and earth. Her diadem is of twelve stars, gathered in a cluster. The symbol of Venus is on the shield which rests near her. A field of corn is ripening in front of her, and beyond there is a fall of water.

Note that in England, as in much of Europe, corn did or perhaps still does refer to any grain: wheat, barley, rye, etc.

The sceptre which she bears is surmounted by the globe of this world. She is the inferior Garden of Eden, the Earthly Paradise, all that is symbolized by the visible house of man.

Note how Waite emphasizes the Empress’ earthly aspect. She is not some airy or ethereal archetype. Not watery like the High Priestess, or airy like the Fool. Her feet are planted on the ground. She is concerned with earthly matters of her children, her subjects, and how to provide for them, not the spiritual matters and deeper mysteries of the High Priestess.

She is not Regina coeli, but she is still refugium peccatorum, the fruitful mother of thousands.

Regina coeli is Queen of Heaven, and refugium peccatorum is Refuge of Sinners; both are titles referring to the Virgin Mary. Considering her as a fruitful mother of thousands points to her role as provider, as the bounteous mother figure.

There are also certain aspects in which she has been correctly described as desire and the wings thereof, as the woman clothed with the sun, as Gloria Mundi and the veil of the Sanctum Sanctorum; but she is not, I may add, the soul that has attained wings, unless all the symbolism is counted up another and unusual way.

I agree that as an archetype the Empress is not to be considered a “soul that has attained wings”. She is not airy, spiritual or winged; this is more the domain of the High Priestess. No, the Empress is clearly an earthbound sort. But Waite sees her as being the glory of the world. The eternal mother, also hinted at by calling her the woman clothed with the sun from the Book of Revelation.

She is above all things universal fecundity and the outer sense of the Word. This is obvious, because there is no direct message which has been given to man like that which is borne by woman; but she does not herself carry its interpretation.

In another order of ideas, the card of the Empress signifies the door or gate by which an entrance is obtained into this life, as into the Garden of Venus; and then the way which leads out therefrom, into that which is beyond, is the secret known to the High Priestess: it is communicated by her to the elect.

This emphasizes her practical nature. She is not privy to the secrets, to the mysteries. But she does bear them and bring them to fruition for others to puzzle over. This connects the Maiden of the High Priestess to the Mother of the Empress. That the Empress is a sort of a gatekeeper. Or a gateway. I think he means that she is the path by which we enter the world – by which we enter the physical realm from the spiritual – from which we move on to that which is beyond: the realm of the High Priestess.

Most old attributions of this card are completely wrong on the symbolism--as, for example, its identification with the Word, Divine Nature, the Triad, and so forth.

An example of Waite’s arrogance. How centuries of card makers and occultists got it wrong. Completely wrong. But now he’s here and he’s got it all right. I believe we are supposed to thank God he’s here to fix it all for us!

Others’ Interpretations
Waite says:

3. THE EMPRESS.--Fruitfulness, action, initiative, length of days; the unknown, clandestine; also difficulty, doubt, ignorance. Reversed: Light, truth, the unravelling of involved matters, public rejoicings; according to another reading, vacillation.

Symbols and Attributes
Astrologically, she is associated with the planet Venus, the first star to appear at night and the last to fade in the morning. Does this mean that she is a light in the darkness? Venus is also the goddess of love. This is a very feminine attribute of this card, as the lover. Not simply a lover in the sexual sense, but love for her family and friends as well. Elementally she and Venus are connected to Earth. This emphasizes her ties to fertility and abundance. As one who brings the children into the world, but also as the one who feeds and clothes and provides for them.

The most relevant symbols in this card include the Empress’ surroundings, her throne and shield, the gown she wears and the crown on her head.

Unlike the High Priestess, who is indoors and hemmed in by pillars and veil, the Empress is clearly outdoors under the open sky. This serves to underline the contrast between this open archetype and the secretive, mysterious High Priestess. She sits in a field of ripening wheat, which represents abundance – the ability and resources to feed her people – and also fertility. Ripeness, fecundity. In the background are trees; they’re said to be cypress trees, which are sacred to the goddess Venus. Growing things (trees and wheat) connect the Empress to Mother Nature, as bountiful and life-giving. The river that ends in a waterfall amid the trees relates to Waite’s comment about the Empress representing an “Earthly Paradise”; some scholars consider this river to be one of the four rivers that flow from the Garden of Eden. On further thought, I wonder if the field of wheat on the edge of what might be wilderness is pointing to her resourcefulness, her ability to cultivate something out of nothing, order out of wildness.

The Empress sits on a low seat that is topped with large cushions, or perhaps made of heaped cushions. They represent comfort, luxury, and the red colour represents self-confidence, the life force of blood, and passion. Because in our usual interest in the Empress as Mother, we forget that she is also a very sensual figure; lush and earthy. At her feet beside the throne is a heart-shaped shield (stone?) that bears the glyph of Venus. This is another reflection of her astrological connection.

She wears a long white dress decorated with a pattern. To me it looks like roses, which would connect her to the Virgin Mary. Some say they’re pomegranates, but they don’t look like it to me, for all that they would be more appropriate. Ripe and round and ruby red and full of seeds, pomegranates are popular symbols of fertility. And they would tie the Empress to the myth of Demeter and Persephone, as Persephone was forced to return to the Underworld for three months of the year after eating pomegranate seeds. For those months Demeter wept and mourned her daughter, allowing the world to wither and die, bringing about winter. This ties the Empress to the bountiful Earth Mother, as well as her great love for her child(ren).

On her head she wears a leafy wreath topped with twelve stars. It could be said that these stars represent the twelve signs of the Zodiac, but more likely this is a reference to the Bible:

And there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars: And she being with child cried, travailing in birth, and pained to be delivered.

When we consider the moon at the High Priestess’ feet, we examine once again the idea that the Empress and High Priestess are two halves of the same whole. The “woman clothed with the sun” is alluded to by Waite.

My Interpretation
The Empress is supposed to be the wife and mother archetype. She is practical, comfort-loving, lush, earthly and mothering. Not one to get her hands dirty, her authority is lightly held and benevolently wielded; she is nonetheless able to provide for those people depending on her. She represents abundance and a tie to the earth and nature. She also embodies fertility. Both physical in the form of pregnancy, and creative. She is able to give birth to ideas and projects, and see them to fruition.

As a person she represents important women in one’s life: capable, nurturing, loving women, perhaps – a mother, or a man’s wife – but also those in positions of authority like a female boss or instructor. A gentle authority, but authority nonetheless.

Recolouring
Where’s the green? Yes, I know that wheat is yellow when ripe. But for a symbol of fertility and abundance I think this card should be greener. So my version will be greener. And no yellow sky (a beef of mine, I’m finding with this deck; so many yellow skies!). Rather, a blue daytime sky. This is a woman for whom the sky is always clear. But I will keep the yellow stalks and the red cushions, with a little maroon and crimson thrown in as fitting for the wife of an emperor.

I also tried to recolour the roses on her dress to better resemble the pomegranates some say they are. To me they look like roses, but pomegranates are a common symbol of fertility and abundance. No matter how I colour them, though, they still look like roses. Of course, I could squint at them and see them as strawberries. Or ladybugs. But I’ll call them pomegranates.

 

[jackdaw*]

And FWIW, I always thought the Thoth Empress was supposed to be a mermaid