The Empress — Tarot Card Meaning

Upright

Fruitfulness, action, initiative, length of days; the unknown, clandestine; also difficulty, doubt, ignorance.

Reversed

Light, truth, the unravelling of involved matters, public rejoicings; according to another reading, vacillation.

Reflection

Light
Nurturing yourself and others Bearing fruit Celebrating your body Bearing (literal or figurative) children Reveling in luxury Mothering those around you in positive ways Enjoying your sexuality Getting things done

Shadow
Overindulging Being greedy Smothering someone with attention Debilitating someone by being overprotective Inhibiting productivity by obsessing on productivity Being overcome by addictive behavior

Symbolism

A stately figure, seated, having rich vestments and royal aspect, as of a daughter of heaven and earth. Her diadem is of twelve stars, gathered in a cluster. The symbol of Venus is on the shield which rests near her. A field of corn is ripening in front of her, and beyond there is a fall of water. The sceptre which she bears is surmounted by the globe of this world. She is the inferior Garden of Eden, the Earthly Paradise, all that is symbolized by the visible house of man. She is not Regina coeli, but she is still refugium peccatorum, the fruitful mother of thousands. There are also certain aspects in which she has been correctly described as desire and the wings thereof, as the woman clothed with the sun, as Gloria Mundi and the veil of the Sanctum Sanctorum; but she is not, I may add, the soul that has attained wings, unless all the symbolism is counted up another and unusual way. She is above all things universal fecundity and the outer sense of the Word.

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