Free Tarot Readings
THE EMPRESS
III The Empress
Here we see a matronly woman seated out of doors. She is crowned and carries a sceptre in one hand. A shield emblazoned with an eagle is also shown, sometimes cradled in her arm, other times resting by her foot. She looks prosperous and sedate.
Whether or not this image incorporates any historical allusions is not known, although it is possible that she was modelled on one of the famous Empresses of Byzantium, or on one of the members of the Hohenstaufen dynasty which exerted a powerful influence on the course of Medieval history.
The Empress is assigned the number three, the number of synthesis and harmony. It represents the resolving of the tension created by duality through the birth of a third, unifying principle.
Three is therefore the number of childbirth, new life, fecundation and material productivity. Whereas two indicates the extension of time from the past to the future, three adds the dimension of space, symbolising the creation of phenomena in time.
The Empress is the great Mother Goddess, the source of all living things. She embodies the super-abundant creative forces of nature, together with the benign feminine wisdom of the Queen of Life. Her concerns are essentially those of the physical plane. She is the ruler of paradise on earth, and her pregnant figure reveals her role as guardian of childbirth and motherhood.
She is the descendant of earth goddesses such as the Greek Demeter or the Sumerian Ishtar, deities which probably preceded the masculine-orientated pantheons of the Classical world. They were the patronesses of Mystery cults such as that of Eleusis, at which the sacred dramas of death and the renewal of life were played out for the benefit of initiates. Eleusis was dedicated to the myth of the corngoddess Demeter and her daughter Persephone, who was carried off to the underworld as the bride of Hades or Pluto, only to be allowed to return to the upper regions for eight months of the year in order that summer might return and life continue.
Demeter and Persephone were the goddesses of life and death, suggesting a parallel with the Tarot images of The Empress and The Papess, the light and dark sides of creation.
The power of the Empress is passive, feminine, not active intellectual control as exercised by the Magician. Her weapons are emotion and feeling, not thought.
In the spiritual sphere she represents that faith which springs from the comfort of material things and an emotional appreciation of the workings of nature. She brings about spiritual awakening through devotion to physical work and creation, and like the Papess she functions as one of the paths that lead to deeper levels of awareness.
This aspect of the Empress is shown by her shield bearing the device of an eagle.
The eagle is the soul enthroned in nature.
Here the seeker after wisdom encounters his second challenge. He must learn to discern the workings of heaven in the things of earth, and come to realise that the material universe is nothing less than the luminous garment of the divine.
In the mundane world she represents feeling. The function of feeling in this sense refers to a kind of judgement—not judgement in the sense of a conclusion reached by a process of thought, but
rather an intuitive sorting out and applying of values to things. This ability is generally more highly developed in women than in men, although some men do exhibit it in an advanced form.
The Empress is the ultimate feeling type, who rules her complex realm by a delicately balanced discrimination based on her sense of values.
The woman who has a developed sense of feeling reveals it in a similar manner; she is a fair and sympathetic mother, dedicated to the well-being of her family, and she makes a warm and helpful member of the community. She is adept at handling people and getting the best out of them, and reveals a deep understanding of their problems and difficulties.
The Empress can also manifest through the male sex. If her gifts are allowed to enrich the conscious mind like the golden fruits of the cornucopia she reveals herself as the beautiful Lady who inspires her worshippers with devotion to her Ideal, or whose image arouses chivalrous thoughts in the hearts of men.
Like the Papess, the negative aspect of the Empress is often revealed through the male sex. The young man's first experience of women is in the person of his mother, and he focuses upon her all the attributes of the Empress. In some cases this initial projection is so powerful that it lingers thoughout life, colouring and distorting all subsequent relations with women and imprisoning the mind in an emotional strait-jacket that stunts its proper growth. Under this aspect the Empress becomes Kali, the dark goddess who consumes her own children.
