The Empress – Meanings & Interpretation – Major Arcana

The Empress’s Meaning In A Tarot Reading

The Empress tarot card of the Rider Waite deck is the supreme mother, fecundity, and the source of creation personified at this moment. Her crown and scepter signify her ruler-ship over all things, and the shield she bears is often shown to bear the mark of Venus, goddess of love and beauty. She is surrounded by a wheat field, signifying great fertility and the comforts of home.

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The Empress is the penultimate symbol of the feminine principle, especially during the mother phase of a woman’s life. She is the caretaker, guardian, and nurturing hand. She is the giver of life, encouraging its celebration and nurturing.

The Empress Tarot Card Meanings – Upright

Overview:

The Empress card of the Major Arcana presents great fruitfulness in your life, fertility in its most literal aspect, or fertile ground for things to grow. She is the herald of life to be celebrated, to encourage its growth. Now is a time for starting new things. Now is a time of abundance. When the Empress is present, no one wants, and no one goes untended. The mother, in her greatest aspect, caretaker of all.

Past Events:

You have been living a life of abundance, not of wealth, but a life worth living. You have either been surrounded by good things or living in a time when your plans are ready to be planted and nurtured into life. This is a sign that that time has passed and moved on to its next phase.

Present Events:

If you have plans you are working on, start laying the seeds now. Life is ripe for you to take advantage and begin the process of growth and expansion of your dreams.

The Empress mother is watching over you, and you are well taken care of, so start your projects now! Incidentally, if you’re wondering if you’re pregnant and this card shows up? It’s almost certainly yes!

Future Events:

You are on the verge of a very productive time. Sometime soon, opportunities will present themselves that will be perfect for laying the seeds of your plans.

If you are in a hard time now, you will find some succor and surcease coming, likely at the hand of another. Fear not. In the coming time, you will be seen and cared for.

The Empress Tarot Card Meanings – Reversed

Overview:

Here is the Empress in her tyranny, crushing the efforts of those she rules over. This is the oppression of life, the reticent ground not giving forth life. Efforts at this time will be for naught and shot through with struggles of every kind. Now is not the time for progress, now is the time for inaction to let the worst pass.

Past Events:

You have been struggling in your life with your goals and projects, every move you make has been held back by one form of obstacle or another, and you feel like you’re not getting anywhere.

You keep jumping obstacles, but on the other side is another one. This period is passing, but up until this point, you have largely been struggling in vain. The time was not right.

Present Events:

You are finding yourself in a period of great difficulty. The Empresses stand against you. Your plans are all for naught. She stands as a tyrant in your life, ruling all things and choking out all plans with difficulty. Whatever projects you’re working on right now, set them on the back burner, now is not the time.

Future Events:

Prepare yourself now, for the time is coming when all your efforts will be for naught. Winter is coming, and you should prepare now to weather it.

The Empress will stand against you, and the plans you will make or currently have will not work out. Set them down, let the field go fallow, and wait for better days rather than waste your energy against her.

Associated Colors:

Green for abundance and growth

Meditation For The Empress – Upright

When you reach the point of tarot meditation, you may feel the Empress card reach up and pull you lovingly in. The warm embrace of a mother’s arms will surround you, and the feeling of being lovingly protected and encouraged will follow.

In this meditation of the Empress tarot card, you will find an abundant field, orchards in growth, and well-shepherded flocks of animals. All is bright and in bloom and abundance, and all the good things of life are present.

There may be other people around, mostly childlike in their appearance and all well-fed, happy, and content. They may be going about the business of tending and preparing the soil for growth, planting seeds, and making sure all is ready.

Somewhere amidst the orchards, fields, or manor house that you may find will be the Empress, lounging comfortably in a place where she can oversee all. She is firm but loving, making sure that all things are ready for her children.

Also, she will see that everyone is well-seen and taken care of. She may take notice of you. If so, listen well and speak politely.

Tarot Meditation Techniques For The Empress Upright Card

She is the universal mother figure and loves all equally but knows when discipline is due. She may have motherly words of advice for you or may merely acknowledge your presence.

While you are there, observe the order of the place and how things are being conducted and prepared. Somewhere within this Major Arcana card’s message is one especially for you, something for you to take away.

It may be verbal, it may be obvious, and it may be symbolic, but whatever it is, you will know it when you see it, even if you don’t know its meaning.

If you keep a tarot journal, write what you felt, your emotions, and what struck you as important. Pay attention to the details of getting stuff ready.

Report what stood out to you, where you feel you could make improvements, or affirm already being ready. The lesson of the Empress tarot card meditation is love, fecundity, and growth. Remember that as you look for the lesson, you take it with you.

Associated Colors:

White for the dormancy of winter

Meditation For The Empress – Reversed

The tone of the meditation on the Empress tarot card is reversed position is futility, dormancy, and obstacles. Keep that in mind when you select the music. Once you have an environment conducive to uninterrupted meditation, place the card in front of you, light the incense and candle, and take a few breaths to the center.

Rest your eyes upon this Major Arcana card, taking in its imagery without truly attempting to ‘see’ it. You may very well feel the card resisting your attempts to begin your meditation. This is normal, accept the sense of futility and flow within.

Within, you will find a world in an unnatural winter. Everything is in stasis. All things are lost. You may see the bodies of animals that had sought shelter but were lost in the winter snows.

Tarot Meditation Techniques For The Empress Reversed Card

You will see the failed attempts at fires started and a myriad of half-built constructions, their completion forever delayed.

Everywhere you will see the results of poor planning, terrible luck, and failed ambitions. This is the Empress Tyrants’ realm.

As you travel throughout, you will find her, no longer in her chamber but actively seeking out the work of her people. You will see them driven before her lash as she rides a high steed of terrifying proportions.

She will drive them before her, away from their work, or on to Sisyphean tasks in their nature. You should hide from her gaze and learn what you can from seclusion.

Techniques

As you look about, keep your eyes open for things that seem familiar to you, indicators of a task you may be working on or have worked on in the past that is in a state of failure.

All your efforts have been brought to naught. All you can do at this time is wait for spring to come and the return of the Empress Mother.

It’s best to note down your thoughts in a tarot journal. Pay special attention to where you’ve missed the signs or pushed on despite evidence that your efforts were hopeless.

The lesson of this Major Arcana tarot card is that it is not knowing when to stop when to rest, and wait for the right time. This is what you will learn from this meditation.

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