I remember I had problems painting this card: whereas The Fool, Magician and High Priestess came really easily, almost as if they had been waiting for me, I had about 3 versions of the Empress before this one appeared. She’s softer and less stylised than the others, and while the image says what’s necessary, it could have been a lot more powerful, as the Empress is the Great Goddess, the feminine principle of the universe. At one time – before the patriarchy took over – all the other gods answered to her – she was the exalted one, ‘into whose hands are committed the behests of the great gods’. In one hand she holds a sceptre to show her ability to rule, and curved in her other arm is an infant. People link her to Isis and Demeter, while in the East she might be seen as Durga.
Often the Empress appears in readings when the client needs to give her- or himself a bit of nurturing, or if she is pregnant or planning a child. (If pregnancy is an issue for the client, the card will probably appear reversed.) It’s about self-awareness and self-acceptance, a beautiful receptive energy which holds, receives and nurtures. We in the 21st century have little experience of the power of the feminine and its apparently effortless grace.
The Empress frankly enjoys sex, she exudes feminity in all its aspects. She is fecund, abundant, lush, unashamed, even ribald. She is bountiful, sensuous, receptive. She loves food, good things, the earth. In fact, she is the earth, and if you look at how the land explodes into life in spring, you’ll be witnessing her power. On the tarot path, she is the Mother … and to move on, we have to separate ourselves from her. There are a surprising number of people who never manage that. The woman who rings mother daily, sees her as a friend rather than a parent, constantly quotes her wise sayings, asks her advice; or the man who is still at home at 30 or 40, or – although married, still sees his mother as the epitomy of womanhood, will almost certainly be in thrall to the darker side of the Empress.
Because she is not always about love and light. Like the earth, she can destroy. Get on the wrong side of her and you’ll know all about it. This is the Empress in her Kali aspect: the typhoon, the earthquake, the tsunami. She can be the devouring mother, the dark side of femininity, the bitch goddess. So, reversed, the Empress can signify ensnaring, intrusive tyranny, lack of boundaries, dry sterility, martyrdom, or self-indulgence. Less negatively, she might also show that the client is neglecting him- or herself.
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