Who is this woman who would rule our lives? What does she matter in the scheme of things? She is The Empress. What does she call us to do in our lives? When this card turns up in your readings, what message are you being given?
The Empress is not the High Priestess. She is not the Veiled Mystery. Rather, she is the open heart of the mother. Her nature is care for those weaker than herself who are truly in need. She is an earth mother personified.
I have two cards in front of me. One is the Empress from the Tarot of the Old Path; the other is the Empress from Frank Fradella Adventure Tarot. These are my two personal favorite decks to use for reading. Both offer similar messages but are rather different in how they convey that information.
The ToTOP Empress is very green and yellow overall. Those are the predominant colors. Her gown is green and yellow. Her hair is blonde with a gold and flowered crown. Our very pregnant empress rests in a high backed throne while holding a young infant to her breasts. She has the shield of Venus to her left as well as the sign of Venus about her neck. IN her right hand she has a sceptre with an opened lotus. To her right sits a hare and a pomegranate while a moth flies up towards her feet. Her left foot extends bare from her gown. There are daisies, possibly mistletoe and three cherries there as well. Then there is wheat to her left with a lamb gazing fondly at her. A blue bird perches upon her throne. There is an English robin on the shield of Venus as well. Two more blue birds fly above her. In the background, across a small stream, a roebuck stag stands just behind a tree.
Then you have the FF Empress. This card is very magenta! The Empress here is dressed in an off-the-shoulder number of magenta. She has a cord tied at her waist and is obviously not with child. Her right hand has a sceptre that is sheer energy. A cauldron sits to her right while three blue birds are perched in the foreground. Her throne is a grassy hummock under a large tree. She is covered by a shimmering energy field.
The two cards both speak of fertility to me but in different ways. The ToTOP Empress is the old-fashioned fertility... motherhood, birth, creation of life as demonstrated by the hare and the lamb. But the FF Empress talks about fertility as it occurs in our own minds in terms of imagination and creativity. The cauldron in this card must reference Cerridwen's Cauldron of Change for me.
It is interesting to me that both women are seated on the left side of the card looking to the right. This would indicate the left/feminine/receptive side of things and enhances the idea that this is a card of womanhood.
It is hard to pull the ToTOP Empress and not be drawn into a discussion of motherhood and female sexuality. The heavy Venus influence in this card can not be avoided. I prefer the FF Empress for this reason. She is less encumbered by society's ideals of motherhood. She is being a mother to herself in this card. For all the best nurturers have learned this lesson: If you don't take care of yourself, no one else will and then who will take care of them?
2/22/2005 (c) Stephanie Arwen Lynch Beck