Upright: The Great Mother/Goddess, Protection, Desire, Elegance, A creative and protective woman, Wealth, marriage, and fertility. Often indicates great luxury. Anything is possible. Creativity and growth abounds. Pregnancy and sensuality. A passionate approach to life, love and happiness.
Reversed: The Wicked Stepmother, A stifled artist. Scattering of resources. Infertility of all things. Psychological problems leading to instability. Less passionate and more rational.
Message of The Empress:
I am your greatest champion and will always encourage you on every step of your journey. You are safe within my nurturing arms and you will always feel my touch. I will listen to you and love you forever. I see the potential within. You and I are entwined in the eternal fabric of life. Let's create extraordinary possibilities together.
The Empress is complete intelligence with manifested compassion, Your body is her temple and She expresses Herself in all your creative pursuits. The Empress is the mother archetype who provides and creates life and also protects, supports, educates, and cares. She radiates strength, conviction, and authority. The Empress represents the transformation of knowledge into action. While the High Priestess contemplated this knowledge, The Empress expresses it and uses it for the benefit of all.
""I manifest my creations with joy. I protect and nourish.""
How does the knowledge I’ve accumulated, all the spiritual practices I have done benefitted my community? What am I leaving for the world?
How can I heal the broken relationships in my family?
The Empress as an Action:
As an action to take, the Empress encourages you to plant your seeds, water, fertilize, and weed your garden and you will be rewarded with a good harvest. Don't wait for others to do the work. You reap what you sow.
The Empress as Advice :
When the Empress card comes up in a spread in the position as advice, She reminds you to listen to the wise women in your life who can help you manage your resources--time, money and skills.
The Empress as Desires in a Person:
comfort, support, and nourishing.
The Empress as Desires in a Situation :
The Empress represents a persons feelings of love, either maternal, compassionate, and/or passionate as long as this person has your best interests at heart. In a reverse or negative reading the person wants to control your actions or thoughts.
The Empress as Feelings about a Situation :
Feeling positive towards a situation
The Empress as Feelings for Someone :
Feeling positive towards another.
The Empress as an Outcome:
use the power of 3, Her number, to reconcile differences, create new out of old, and continuity out of disruption.
The Empress as a Person:
your Mother or mother figure, your aunts, or the women with authority in your life. You must weigh their suggestions with the wisdom of your own experience and heart.
The Empress as Timing:
The Empress is ruled by Venus who rules both Taurus(April 21st to May 20th) and Libra(September 21st to October 20th). Since the Empress presides over conception, gestation, and birth, Her timing has to do everything in its own time. You cannot force the issue. Pay attention to natural progression.
The Empress as Yes/No:
Yes
Archetype: Mother Nature
Astrology: Venus. Venus in Taurus
Element: Earth
Rune: Berkana “Birch” symbol of growth and the Great Goddess
Stones: Jasper(mother of all stones), Carnelian, peridot, turquoise
Tree of Life (Kabbalah): The horizontal axis between Chokmah and Binah.
Numerology: 3 = the merging of opposites into a unity
Ogham tree and Letter: Hawthorne Huathe/H
Plant/Fragrance/Essential Oil: Jezebel Root/Louisiana Iris, Dong Quai, Hazel, Olive, Sunflower, Rose oil, sandalwood oil, clary sage oil
Day/Sabbath/Ritual: Spring Festival. Beltane. Full moon in May. The Eleusinian mysteries.I Ching: 48 Ching--”The Well”
Brigid Bright,
Embrace the Light,
Within, without,
Erase all Doubt.
For Spring is near, The season turns,
Revealing Winter's inner burn.
Though Earth was sleeping, quiet, serene,
And Winter white hid all that's green,
Her Spirit moved the thoughts of all
In wait for Springtime's urgent call.
For time is moving ever faster,
Discoveries Great to sad Disasters,
And we must hold to all that's True,
The Oldest Old, the Newest New.
The Heat of Brigid's Triple Fires,
Burn brightly in a Holy pyre,
We honor Brigid's Triple Flames,
Recite in gratitude Her Names,
For smithcraft's meeting body's needs,
For shelter, transport, daily ease,
For beauty in both home and dress,
For in our work, our mind's progress.
For healing arts of herb and hand,
For quickening of the fallow land,
For multiplying flocks and herds,
For tempering counselors' soothing words.
For inspiration in all Art,
We pray for more of Brigid's Heart,
And let us bless the World this spring,
With all these gifts, Our Lady brings.
Earth Mother, Star Mother,
You, who are called by a thousand names,
May all remember
We are cells in your body
And dance together.
You are the grain and the loaf
That sustains us each day,
And as you are patient with our struggles to learn,
So shall we be patient with ourselves and each other.
We are radiant light
And sacred Dark.
--the balance--
You are the embrace that heartens
And the freedom beyond fear.
Within you we are born,
We grow, live, and die--.
You bring us around the circle to rebirth,
Within us,
You dance forever.
Although science stops at the borders of logic. Nature does not. It blossoms even where no theories have yet penetrated.
C. G. Young. Jung
May my body be a prayer stick for the world.
Joan Halifax