III - The Empress

Description:

The Empress from the Tarot of the Spirit is a regal, blonde-haired motherly figure sitting on a black throne.  She is dressed in a loose white robe, over a yellow and green shimmering gown.  She appears to be pregnant.  High around her waist is a green belt with alternating upward and downward pointing triangles.  The Empress wears a shawl of red roses around her robe.  At her throat is a necklace with a single round white circle. 

Around the head of the Empress is a white halo, ringed in yellow.  Surrounding the halo is a crown of ten white lilies, their stamen looking like flames.  A bald eagle encircles her head and crown. 

In the right hand of the Empress is a dove, and in her left hand she holds a staff in the shape of the symbol for Venus.  A gold upward pointing triangle is behind the top of the throne, its base points starting at her right and left hands, with the center at the crown of her head. 

Symbology:

The Empress is attributed to the Fourteenth Path on the Tree of Life, between Chokmah (Father, Force) and Binah (Mother, Form).  The gold triangle at the top of the throne represents the Supernal Triangle: Kether / Chokmah / Binah, or Potential / Force / Form.  The triangles also appear on her belt.  The eagle represents the Empress’ connection to Kether, as the messenger of the Light. 

The dove in the right hand of the Empress symbolizes inner peace, and her connection to the world of creatures.  The symbol of Venus in her left hand is the sign of the Goddess of Love, the beautiful attractor.  The shawl of red roses represents desire, while the white lilies on her crown indicate purity and spirituality. 

Divinatory Meaning:
(from "Tarot of the Spirit" companion book, by Pamela Eakins) 

• You are opening to all sensuality, revel in the delights of the senses

• A great beauty is revealed

• All is perfection

• All is receptive

• The things of earth are voluptuously welcoming at this time

• You are moving with the flow

• Earth is your dominion, all things of nature flow naturally to you

• You find comfort among birds, beasts and fellow and sister travelers

• There is no need to control

• The Key at this time is to remember that imagination is everything

Personal Reflections:

The mind and spirit of God is revealed and evolved through the creative process.  The spiritual force is transmitted and implanted in the womb of the Empress, where it is nurtured and transformed, then creatively released in a new form. 

The Hebrew letter attributed to the Empress is Daleth, which means “door”.  The Empress is a two-way door: from her womb emerges all creation, and yet all creatures must return through this door via death on the return to the great spirit.  The creative seed is released into the dark womb, for the chance of union.  The birth, although laborious, is joy.  “This is the creation of the world, that the pain of division is as nothing, and the joy of dissolution all. – The Book of the Law/A. Crowley”.