Learning Tarot: The Empress

Element: Earth
Planet: Venus
Numerology: 3
Timing: Winter, Waning Moon, Venus could be involved
Hebrew Letter: Daleth
Crystals: Emerald, Rose Quartz, Peridot, Turquoise,
Herbs: Corn, Myrtle, Rose, Clover, Cypress, Dong Quai, Hazel, Olive, Sunflower, Daffodil

Keywords: Fertility, Plentitude, Abundance, Creativity, Maternity, Nurturing, Strength, Capacity For Bearing Ideas Into Fruition, Success, Femininity, Fecundity

The Empress Tarot Card

The element of Earth and planet of Venus that rule this card give hints to the energetic represented by The Empress. She is the abundance of manifestation and creation through the lens of femininity and maternal energy. She births the world into creation and does so through her resplendent fertility. So where The High Priestess rules the unseen world, The Empress rules that which is Earthly, material, of physical inhabitance.

Hers is the realm of marriage, motherhood, love, and passion. There is both an emotional investment as well as a nurturing quality to her power that touches the areas of our lives that we play high human value in.

In The Empress exists the power of creation and by extension, life – the whole of what exists and pulses with the vibrancy of life. She produces, gives life, makes things happen, brigs things together, signals wealth, and natural beauty, while being self possessed and in full ownership of her authority.

Reverse Keywords: Barren, Lacuna, Omission, Unfulfilled

Reversed, this card is the obstacle, the blockage to creativity, to birthing and to manifesting. It’s the void, the unattained and the lack. In practical terms, it can be as literal as being physically barren, impoverished, infertile or having writers block.

History Of The Empress

Very little has changed for this card over the century, most of it has been in imagery, which I don’t cover much in these posts as it would be another deeper layer we go over in another series of writings. There is suspicion that the Empress was modeled after an Empress Adelaide, beatified by the Catholic Church. Empress Adalaide was the second wife of the Roman Emperor, Otto The Great and in Catholicism, St. Adalaide is the patron saint of empresses, princesses, brides, parenthood, second marriages, widows, large families, abuse victims, prisoner ad miles.

Deck Used:  Rider Waite Tarot