The Empress
a.k.a. The Daughter of the Mighty Ones.
Card Number: Three
Rulership: Venus
Hebrew letter: Daleth
Translation: Door
The path of the Empress runs between Chokmah (knowledge) and Binah (understanding). This puts her between the initial manifestation of the dual current represented by the two outside pillars of the tree (expressed as the Masculine and Feminine sides of the Tree). This path forms the base of the Supernal Triangle. This makes her the Mother of Creation, for, without a connection between the dualities (and the manifestation of duality itself) there could be no creation.
The number three: Evolution; Space; Unanimity; Unity, the All, multiplication; Saturn; Binah (object); Egyptian djed. Synthesis, construction. Abundance, fruitfulness.
Venus: Planet of enjoyment, appreciation, gratitude and allegiance. Planet of love, beauty and sex; the unification of male and female. Without these Venusian attributes, there is no reason for living.
Daleth: Signifies the breast and bosom. It is the emblem of the universal quaternity, the origin of all physical existence. Symbolically, every nourishing substance, and abundance of all manner of things. It expresses division, and all things divisible.
Numerically: D + L + Th, which is 4 + 30 + 9 = 43 or 7. (btw: L is Lamed, and Th is Teth).
43: A number of orgasm, especially the male.
7 we will see in the Chariot.
In readings:
dignified: Fertility, abundance, material wealth. Domestic stability and maternal care. Creativity in all things, and depending on surrounding cards, security and growth. Marriage and pregnancy sometimes (again, depending on surrounding cards).
reversed: Domestic upheaval. Sterility and unwanted pregnancy (sometimes). Often, stifled or blocked creativity. Infertility or promiscuity.
Mythological links: Venus, Aphrodite, Hathor. Freyja. All goddesses of love and agriculture. All god/desse/s of the attraction between the positive and negative.
Metaphysical musings: The Empress seems fairly straight forward with little to hide. She is the Mother of the collective, the force that allows for manifestation to unfold from the unpolarized force stemming from Kether. In forming the base of the first triangle of the Tree, she provides the stage upon which the dual current plays. As such, it is from her womb and with the milk of her bosom that the Earth, the Universe, and it's inhabitants are birthed and nourished. She is the abundance of creation, and without her there would be nothing. She is what allows a homogeneous force to become dichotomized for the sake of existence: the beginning would have fizzled away long ago without her. She is the door through which tomorrow makes its entry.
Above all she is love. Love for all things great and small, beautiful and ugly, good and evil. She is pure unconditional love incarnate. She accepts and supports any and all things that are found within creation as all things are her children (although I am sure that she would like to see less conflict and more harmony amongst her offspring). |
