3. THE EMPRESS
THE EMPRESS TAROT CARD MEANING
TAROT KEY MEANINGS
Light Seer (Upright): prolific creativity and creation, fertility, unity, motherhood, sensuality, nurturing, abundance, luxury, empathy, unconditional love, birthing desires and realities, a new family, a new relationship or a new business
Shadow Seer (Reversed): infertility, emotional overwhelm and shut down, the need to look after your health and nurture yourself, the tendency to be overbearing, disharmony, negligence, focusing too much on the material aspects of life, a perfect time to look for (and move towards!) that which inspires you
THE EMPRESS OVERVIEW
The Gaian Empress looks out over the earth, her favourite creation, and she sends out a low nurturing hum from deep within her core. A hum of love. Of grounding energy. Of positive answers and outcomes. Her echo reverberates through the fish that swim around her and into the ground beneath her, and she watches it all as it teems to life with infinite creator potential. With an exhale of love, she leans on her moon scepter and sends gravitational harmony to the oceans and earth. She reminds us that the earth is abundantly fertile, and that it can evolve and co-create whatever it can imagine for itself: Forests. Oceans. Health. Romance. Epic love stories. Soul-nurturing creativity and every miracle of life you can imagine.
You are love. You are ruler. You are nurturer. You are creativity and the miracle of life entwined. You are all of these things, and you are safe to breathe life into the world that you desire to birth.
MESSAGE FROM THE EMPRESS
The Empress reminds you that you have the fertility of the Divine Goddess within you, as well as the imagination to envision and create your life with more love, more connection, more healing, and more abundance. Feel free to take her literally – with her full belly and dynamic warmth on display, she offers a nod to your positive outcome and to your ability to birth this thing which you desire. In romance, she often signals a yes, and affirms that you are on the right track in your endeavors. She suggests the need to nourish your soul with compassion and care. Shine some earth-mama unconditional Universe love down on your situation! She suggests a time of profound healing and blessings, and reminds us that her bountiful abundance is always available to us. Simply look around you, and you’ll find her regenerative beauty everywhere! This Empress energy expands within every breath you draw, so take a moment to expand into divine creation. (Deep breath in, my love.) Allow it to swell, and remember that no excuses are bigger than the magic of life itself. No blockages are too big for her Gaian miracles. If you are feeling a lack of inspiration or not able to see the infinite possibilities that are popping from every cell swimming around in your energy body, it’s the perfect time to ground your ideas and seek to heal your physical temple. Embody her radiating creativity, and continue to move in the direction of that which whispers yes. This card often affirms that you are evolving in the right direction, so keep growing, beautiful seer, and work with the nature of your situation instead of against it.
QUESTIONS FOR THE SEER
• What areas of your life need more nurturing, and what areas of your current situation are asking to be held, mothered and nurtured?
• Do you feel unconditional love for the steps you have taken up until now? And what would unconditional self-compassion allow you to birth?
• Sensuality and creativity are gifts from the Gaian Empress. You get to decide what seeds you plant in your creative cave and which ones you birth. You get to decide which ones to water and tend. You decide how long you wait before the harvest, and how you share the harvest with those around you. Are you nurturing outcomes as best you can? What have you been growing in the light and in the dark?
Finish this sentence: I am ready to give birth to ____________.
@kayticreator To me this means surrender to fate... I have a hard time connecting to mother cards due to my infertility
journey. I think the Empress should honor all mothers. Mothers of ideas. Mothers of animals. Mothers of
the Earth. There are so many different mothers than ones who birth human babies. They need to be honored too.
@whispersfromthebroomcloset Contentment, peace, love for what’s growing inside her.
@kl_hicks She took my breath away! She is extending an open invitation to co-create a world through and with
love. She is THE care-taker, projecting and inviting safety to those seeking connection beyond themselves.
@andrea_leda I love this card. Immediately upon seeing her I don’t see a woman playing a role of creation, I see Mother Earth’s reminder that embodiment of nurturing is the ground from which ALL is born. If we can strip
the reduced role of a fertile female, I see the entirety of the feminine, the Yin, allowing form and shape to exist,
the Yang. The Empress is our reminder that care is paramount to sustaining life, not from the desire to fill up an
empty vessel but to express abundance in her already fullest form.
@the_curious_artist_ Unabashed and content with what SHE is growing (manifesting) for she knows that she is
creating her world and what is currently needed in it with absolute serenity.
@tarotcat777 She feels vibrant, vulnerable and golden. I love that her nipple is showing. It represents
sustenance and sensuality and she has on red lipstick.
@ _seekerspirit_ This card is beautiful, but I personally have trouble connecting with the pregnant images
of the Empress. I just can’t seem to get past it, and it really bothers me as someone who never wants to have
children. I’d rather see an Empress painting or cooking, or anything other than being physically pregnant. That’s
not a criticism of your beautiful work! It’s just my issues with the Empress!
@kristi.lee.serafin I would prefer not to see a pregnant Empress and I am a mother of 4. I would rather see her
creating Life in other forms. Tuning into her sensuality and womb chakra for other growth.
@wildgnosis She’s birthing the world, but is also already the world, full and complete in herself. The oceans
stream off her shoulders, continents wind down her hips.
@newmoonmystic I love the water and fish energy around her. It is like she is being completely comforted by
emotional abundance as she uses the guidance and energy of the universe to create her world. She is creating
with such love.
@maidentomotherphotoart I find her incredibly beautiful. Full of power and potential. I’m fascinated by some
comments of not connecting with her. Whether we literally birth children or not, as women, we are still creators
with the portal of creation literally within us. I love that you stood by her in the way she wanted to be depicted
regardless of your struggles. So very healing.
@amandine_descartes She still takes care of herself although she is carrying the world within her...
@thesoulways She’s created even as she’s creator. She’s a sacred world all onto herself. She holds all the forces
of the creation within her and wakens that spark within others through her awareness and receiving and giving.
She is the embodiment of compassion.
@madnessnlace She’s beautiful. I’ve had three children and each pregnancy came with its own set of challenges
and hurts. I want to say I relate to her, but I can’t right off. She will be good for shadow work.
@x0x_dani_x0x My favourite so far. I adore your definition and it resonates with me on a deep level. I am one
that loves the pregnant empress.. birth, beginnings and creation sum the empress up for me.
@dawntayafullilove She makes me feel empowered and strong. She has a calmness to her and sense of love for
everything around her. She is how I view Mother Nature.
@asta_lander This is such an interesting conversation. I painted a pregnant woman sitting in the grass breathing
in life and I wrote about the deep stirrings from within a woman to birth things. I wrote about my grief as I
lost my fertility through menopause. But in my 50s I have birthed art. And it feels big and glorious and full of
new life. I am pregnant with possibility. I loved carrying new life in my belly...now from deep in that belly I create
my pieces.
