The Empress
- III -
"Celebrate life's grandeur... its brilliance... its magnificence..."
Description
The Empress is the archetype of feminine strength and motherhood. The Empress represents abundance and natural forces at work within the world, as well as the search for sharing with others that abundance. The Empress often understands the value of the senses we share, and the richness that fulfilling them can impart unto a person. Health, beauty, understanding of natural forces, and caring for others are all things the Empress often finds easy, though beware the furious Empress. When they lose what they cherish, an Empress can be formidable indeed, willing to go to the ends of the world to set things right again.
Not all Empresses are so nurturing. Reversed, the card can represent neglect, perhaps due to a lack of caring, or perhaps just due a lack of patience to do what ought to be done. These Empresses may be self-centered, or lack entirely the instincts that ought to be second-nature to them. Still other representatives of this type turn completely the generative aspect of the Empress on its head: while destruction, with a purpose, might fall within the purview of the Upright Empress, there is no purpose here. This Empress tears down what grows for the sake of tearing it down.
Sample Personae
- Titania, the Queen of the Fairies from Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream"
- Brigid, the Irish goddess of the hearth and craftmanship
- Skadi, a Frost Giantess called the Snowshoe goddess
Example Persona-Users/Shadow-Possessed
Upright Traits
Mothering, Fertility, Sexuality, Abundance, Material prosperity, Pleasure, Comfort, Power, Nature, Delight, Desire, Physical attraction, Health, Sensuality, Beauty, Satisfaction. The one who's always taking care of her friends and making sure they're in good shape, who will rip anyone who threatens or harms them to shreds.
Reversed Traits
OPPOSITE: Neglect, Lack of nurturing, Lack of patience, Lack of interest, Self-absorption. The mother who takes her child to a restaurant, then ignores it even when it misbehaves. BLOCKED: Abandonment, Inability to make things grow or expand, Incompetence, Lack of maternal nature. The mother who intentionally left her child somewhere and never came back. UPSIDE-DOWN: Abuse, Violence, Destructive instinct, Tearing nature up by the roots. The mother who smothered her child because it wouldn't stop crying.
