THE EMPRESS
By Cal Garrison
In the Rider-Waite Deck, The Empress is depicted as a beautiful, blonde, earth-mother — and there is no doubt that she is, indeed, 'The Goddess'. Wearing a gown patterned with flowers that appear to be a cross between red roses and the Venus symbol, she sits upon a red-cushioned throne. The landscape that fills up the rest of the image tells us that nature is her domain. In the background we see a forest of green trees against a yellow sky. On the right a blue stream flows out through the trees into a waterfall that appears to be watering a field of wheat in the foreground. The Empress presides over this scene. It is obvious that she is the queen of the natural world and everything that emanates from it.
This idea is supported by the presence of a plaque that leans against the left side of her throne. On its surface we see the Venus glyph. The symbol tells us that The Empress has something to do with love in all its forms. While we can take this to mean that she is an emblem for romance, the imagery goes much deeper than that.
In esoteric astrology Venus is considered to be the main control panel for this solar system. It sources everything that manifests on the earthly plane. Love is the binding force that Venus employs to hold it all in place — even gravity and magnetism are emanations of love. So what first appears to be a pretty picture of a beautiful woman in a bucolic setting is really an image of the universal life force, or the creative urge that lives and breathes inside everything.
On her head The Empress wears a crown made up of twelve stars. According to some interpreters the stars represent the twelve signs of the Zodiac. While this is the most obvious conclusion, it's also quite possible that they symbolize different expressions of The Goddess — 'She' has more than one face, after all. Diana, Aphrodite, Athena, Isis, Sekhmet, Astarte, Kali, Shakti, Hera, Lillith, Gaia, and Demeter — each one of these archetypes is different, but each one is an emblem for a specific type of Goddess energy. We can't fully understand The Empress until we accept the fact that the Goddess has multiple personalities.
When The Empress appears upright in a layout her essential creativity is the first thing the reader needs to think about. Very often she is there to say, 'nurture your creative gifts', and it is usually the case that the querent has talents or artistic abilities that they need to develop and bring to fruition. But her creative energy can also translate in its most literal sense, and it's not uncommon for The Empress to show up to announce a pregnancy.
This card is also a strong indication of domestic harmony, happy relationships, and a warm, comfortable environment. There can be a general sense of inner and outer security, and an overall feeling of well being. The things that make us feel at peace with our selves and life are intangible and often fleeting, but when the querent is blessed in that way there is usually an awareness of how fortunate they are. If you're reading for someone and you sense that this aspect of The Empress is at the forefront, all you have to say is, 'count your blessings and be grateful for them. Times like this are precious'.
There is always a sexual element with this card. Unlike The High Priestess whose sexuality leans more toward the sacred, The Empress holds space for the earthier expression of that impulse. She tells us to enjoy ourselves, to revel in our physicality, and to experience more fully the sheer joy of sex. In her upright position she is saying, 'this part of our lives is as important and needs to be nurtured as much as everything else we do. Our wholeness depends on it'.
As an emblem for the Great Earth Mother, it is impossible to read this card without considering the idea of 'mothering'. Sometimes The Empress shows up to say that we need to spend more time nurturing our selves and/or those close to us. This can apply to situations as well as people. There are times when we wonder whether we need to keep feeding a particular state of affairs or if it would be better to back off. The upright Empress is a signal that the situation requires more nourishment and that it won't bear fruit unless we continue to fertilize it with more care and attention.
The image of the beautiful, blonde goddess can mislead us into thinking that The Empress is a benign, totally receptive, acquiescent creature. While she does at times express her self in that why she is by no means limited only to it — every face of the Goddess belongs to this card and any one of them may need expression at any given time. Part of interpreting The Empress involves knowing which aspect of the Goddess is in the driver's seat.
Lillith's rage at being subverted may be unacceptable to us, but her screeches and her refusal to be subservient have their place and are as appropriate in some situations as Aphrodite's desire to love and be loved is in others. And Kali's destructive force needs to be called up at times when 'the Mother in us' needs to be strong enough to terminate a pregnancy, or take someone off life support. Hera's face may come to the surface every now and then just to remind everyone that what's good for the goose is good for the gander — but if it's Diana's turn to express her self, the idea of equality in relationships becomes totally irrelevant because that aspect of the Goddess doesn't even want a partner! Reading The Empress accurately requires not only a thorough understanding of all of the feminine archetypes, it also involves having the ability to tell the querent which one is presenting it self based on the rest of the imagery in the layout.
In her reversed position The Empress suggests that the querent is involved in a situation where they are being either overly nurturing or overly dependent. Someone's 'need factor' has gone over the top. In the overly nurturing scenario, when we decide to take care of people the choice is usually made out of love — but if in our efforts to support others they become dependent on us, it's not good for anyone.
Telling someone that they need to stop babying a loved one is often met with a pile of excuses as to why it's impossible for them to alter their behavior. There's always an underlying issue here and it isn't about 'the baby' — it's about the querent and their need to be needed. Once you explain to them that what they are doing is serving their interests and actually weakening the person they have come to feel so responsible for, they usually get the picture.
In the overly dependent scenario, the reversed Empress can represent the idea that the querent is expecting life or others to take care of them. The Welfare cheat, the kept woman, the 'Toy Boy', the man who at 40 still lives at home with Mommy (or some semblance of her) and relies on her to feed and clothe him — anyone whose lack of personal strength makes it impossible for them to put out any effort on their own behalf, can be sitting in front of you when the reversed Empress shows up. Talking to them is usually an exercise in futility. After all, they think they have it made. The only way you can pry their eyes open is to ask them how fulfilling it feels to maintain their position and point out that they might as well be living in a play pen. If they want to grow and evolve they need to get a grip on their dependency issues.
The healthy form of sexual energy that The Empress expresses so naturally in her upright position gets twisted and exaggerated in a negative way when she's reversed. Sex without love, sex used as a substitute for nurturance, promiscuity in all its forms — all of these behaviors exist as possibilities when this card shows its dark side. They surface as symptoms of what is essentially a deep sense of loneliness and disconnection from life. If the querent is too reserved to discuss their sex-capades you can address the issue by just saying that, 'it would help you to remember who you are. Have more respect for your life force and know that you are never alone. Go out into nature and talk to God. This will remind you what you are connected to'.
The reversed Empress can also show up when the querent has suffered enough trial and tribulation to warrant feelings of bitterness and doubt. Derailed by adversity they have lost touch with their joy and their sense of safety in the world. As the reader, if you sense this is what's going on, you can point out to them that the path to enlightenment and Truth is paved with disillusionment. In cases like this the message is, 'it's time to grow up. Stop whining about your shattered illusions and try to figure out what all of this heartache is teaching you'.
Every face of the Goddess gets distorted when The Empress is reversed. Her multiple personalities show up as whatever corresponds to their 'Evil Twin'. Instead of expressing as a free-spirited woman, Diana becomes a rabid, female chauvinist. Hera forgets about equal rights and turns into a domineering fishwife. Kali's destructive force goes haywire. She becomes a loose cannon who maintains control by destroying everything in sight. Lillith gets revengeful to the extreme and uses third-party interference to seed scenarios of jealousy and competition — and Aphrodite morphs into a lazy, good for nothing parasite who plays off her looks and uses sex to get what she wants. Identifying which 'bitch' is expressing her self requires a lot of tact and a well-rounded knowledge of each archetype. The rest of the cards in the spread and the dialogue you establish with the querent will help you to determine, 'which witch is which'.
Most of the tarot literature does not address the deeper meanings of The Empress. My experience has shown me that she is much more the just a pretty face or a bland symbol for domestic bliss. In these times of change, as the power of the female re-emerges to wake us up, her image calls us to understand more about the true nature of creativity, the importance of trust, harmony, and peace, the essence of 'mothering' in all its forms, and the many faces of the Goddess. The Empress lives inside each one of us. Plumbing her depths and allowing our experience to reveal every aspect of her expression in our lives will teach all of us what we have yet to discover about both the dark and the light side of the Divine Feminine.
About Cal Garrison
Cal is a writer with four books to her credit. �The Old Girls� Book of Spells�, �The Old Girls� Book of Dreams�, and her latest book, �Witch On the Go� were published by RedWheel/Weiser Press and are available in bookstores or on Amazon.com. In addition to her own work, she also writes for Slim Spurling. Her first book with Slim, �Slim Spurling�s Universe� is being followed up by their second book together which, with any luck, will be out in 2008—2009.
A professional astrologer with 35 years experience Cal has cast over 6000 charts and is one of the best in her field. She is also an expert on the Tarot. When she�s not running the Spirit of Ma'at office, or working on her books, Cal spends her time doing in depth astrology and tarot readings for people all over the country.
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