Only Endless Memory

Monday, December 1, 2008

The Empress

I am continuing with my Tarot updates with The Empress. I have yet to hear from the surgeon about surgery on my back. I have been thinking seriously about not having the surgery as I have been feeling better, but have not had a chance to talk to the surgeon to arrange anything with him, so things are very much up in the air. I have no idea what is going on for the holidays. Bah Humbug!

The Empress

The Empress is the matriarch of the family. She is an older mother, not the mother with child, but more the mother whose children have grown into their teens and she is keeper of the house. While she can be demanding, she is also fair. She holds great knowledge, but it is not always easy to get it from her as she knows that the most important lessons we learn we must learn on our own.

The Empress is a number three card which usually suggests a situation involving more then one person or a group. It can also signify a delay or a partial success and then a wait before the situation can come to fruition.

In the Fantastical Creature Tarot, the card shows an older woman wearing a gown with a pattern of vines on it. It is covered by a blue cloak with gold trim. A headband keeps her hair from her eyes, but otherwise it flows loose behind her. A radiance surrounds her. At her feet there are some ferns and some rocks with spiral patterns and three apples. A rabbit sits on a nearby rock and above her head a raven flies. Behind her is a tree with gnarled roots.

I find this card very interesting because of all the symbols in it. The raven itself is a symbol of occult knowledge. It is also seen as a harbinger of death. The tree, especially the one with the gnarled roots strikes me as a tree of life image. The tree of life expresses both life and death in it. Apples are seen as a symbol of knowledge and wisdom. Rabbits symbolize fertility, while spirals are another symbol of the cycle of life as well as a symbol of the divine female.

All of these symbols together seem to suggest a lot toward knowledge and also gaining this learning through transformation. This may be a bit outside of the norm for other Empress cards, but with the amount of death or transformation symbolism I see in this card, I have to say that transformation is part of the learning process that comes with the wisdom that must be gained.

In keeping up with reversals, I think that the thing to worry about here would be to be overwhelmed by all the little details. The opposite is also possible, to focus too much on yourself and to not see the lessons outside of yourself that you need to learn. I think it could go either way, and that would vary on the reading.

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Posted by Badger :: 11:06 PM :: 0 Comments:

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