The Empress
A Major Arcana card, The Empress is numbered three in the tarot deck. She sits upon a throne near a forest, surrounded by pillows of comfort and items of luxury. Not a cold or heartless type of ruler, she represents affection and soft sentiments.
Unlike her match, The Emperor, The Empress is compassionate, motherly, and feminine. She has a tender touch and a highly creative personality. Lastly, she represents fertility and consideration for her family, herself, and her kingdoms.
Symbolism
When interpreting tarot cards, it’s essential to take a look at several features. The first is most obviously the symbols contained within the cards. Many things qualify as being symbolic, while everything in tarot cards have some symbolic meaning.
Tarot symbols include the colors, number of the card, and the scenery. The character within the card is a focal point, including the gender role, facial expressions, appearance, and body language. The climate, weather, and elements also play a role. Finally, symbols can be animals, tools, or any other objects on the card.
Number
While The Empress is numbered three in the tarot deck, it’s actually the fourth card in the Major Arcana. This is because The Fool, which is the first card, is numbered zero. However, the fact that this card is numbered three means that it should be studied in numerology with the meaning of the three.
In numerology, the number three signifies creativity, expression, and the arts. Three is associated with communication and the ability to blend in any social environments, finding something in common with nearly everyone. Versatile and optimistic, threes suggest easiness, playfulness, lightheartedness, magnetism, and finding joy in various situations in life.
Color
The Empress appears in front of a sunny, yellow background, which portrays her optimistic nature. Likewise, the Venus symbol is highlighted with yellow, showing that she finds joy in her abundance. Likewise, yellow can also be found on the crops at her feet.
Having white in her gown and crown might mean that The Empress is a pure leader, with the good of all in her mind when making decisions as a leader. There’s more white on her heart, meaning that there’s a sense of innocence about her.
The contrast of the red on the white of her gown represents her high ranking status. With the color red on her pillows, this could say that she has an attachment to life. Therefore, she possesses a passionate respect for her own vitality and the material world.
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Symbols
Having a heart to her right, this is likely meant to reflect the compassion and motherliness of The Empress. However, this heart is specifically marked with the symbol of Venus inside of it. Venus is known for beauty, luxury, and sensuality.
Surrounded by pillows, it’s easy to see that The Empress enjoys her comfort items. Yet, being shown with a scepter in her hand and crown on her head, the illustrator of the deck clearly wanted to instill the idea of authority, power, and leadership within the character. This reveals that there’s more to our empress than merely tenderness.
Interpretation of The Empress
The Empress is the feminine counterpart to The Emperor, which is tarot card number four. Together, they represent the balanced nature of feminine and masculine leaders of any empire, aka home. Not only are they rulers, but they rule multiple kingdoms, unlike kings and queens, while remaining considerate and level-headed.
Alone, The Empress, is an image of grace, motherhood, and soft sentiments. She prefers to enjoy life and indulge in the comfortable lifestyle and luxury she’s been bestowed, while remaining appreciative for it. Unlikely the type of ruler to abuse her power, The Empress is a remarkably loving leader, often reminding others to relax and to remember to enjoy life through all the senses.
Drawing The Empress Card
While The Empress means a certain thing alone, she takes on a slightly different tone within a reading, depending on the placement she’s in. Likewise, her position could represent either her upright meaning or the reversed. As always, if a card is drawn in the revered position, it means that there’s still potential for the upright meaning to develop, while it’s being blocked by the shadow characteristics of the card. Let’s take a look at the upright and the reversed positions of The Empress card in a tarot reading.
The Empress Upright
Keywords: Abundance, Comfort, Joy, Sensuality, and Grace
Whenever The Empress appears in a tarot reading in the upright position, she reminds us how much abundance we really have within our lives. Perhaps we didn’t realize it in the past, but we’re now able to see our riches and luxuries. Finally, we can relax and enjoy the comfort of the material world.
Having quiet confidence, The Empress also says that we have been putting more effort into taking care of ourselves. Something has reminded us that we’re worth nurturing our own bodies. As a result, our self-worth continues to develop positively.
Feeling connected to those within our lives, The Empress suggests that we’re moving gracefully. We take pleasure in sharing with others. There’s a softness to us that is inviting and warm, where those that we love must know that they’re safe with us. This helps us to feel inspired, which means that our creative juices are flowing with ease!
The Empress Reversed
Keywords: Pessimism, Bitterness, Infertility, Distance, and Neglect
If The Empress card is drawn in the reversed position within a tarot reading, this often suggests that we have adopted a pessimistic attitude toward life. Something, someone, or both has led us to feeling bitter and resentful. Perhaps we’re disappointed by circumstances and the direction life has unexpectedly led us.
There’s a possibility that we’ve dealt with the infertility or believing that we’re infertile. As a result, whether we’re a man or a woman, this may have us questioning our worthiness within the world. We could feel useless and purposeless at a deep, unconscious level, giving up on ourselves.
As a result, we may create distance between ourselves and the people in our lives that we once held closely. Meanwhile, our poor self-worth likely indicates that we’ve begun to neglect our own body and no longer have the desire to nurture others either. Unfortunately, this is causing us to have creative blocks as we’re unknowingly settling for a frequency that validates our negative self-perception. However, The Empress wants to remind us that we’re always worth love, comfort, and pleasure!
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