Key 3. The Empress.
Visual Symbolism: The Empress is depicted as a matronly woman usually seated outdoors. She wears a crown and carries a sceptre as symbols of the regalia of her office as queen of the land. She appears prosperous, sedate and content. There is lavishness to her costume. The symbol of femininity is on a heart shaped shield next to her. Rich ripe corn grows up around her symbolising her role as nurture and harvester. A stream flows behind her symbolising her harmonious flow. Her robs are richly decorated with what appears to be pomegranates linking this card with the High Priestess before it.
Key Images: The crown and sceptre represent the Empresses dominion of authority over her lands. The richness of her costume symbolises her material stability. The lushness of nature around her symbolises fertility, abundance and fruitfulness. Her matronly appearance symbolises her fertile motherhood, domestic stability and her enjoyment of pleasures. The rich ripe corn shows her to be a nurture and provider for her lands and her family.
Divinatory Meanings: Upright: The Empress is the mother goddess, the source of life itself. She represents abundant creative forces of nature and an abundance of feminine wisdom. She is the Queen of life. She is passive, feminine as apposed to the active intellectual control expressed by the Mage. Comfort from material things and appreciation of the workings of nature. She represents the birth of the Fools idea. She is feelings and their functions. Adept at handling people and getting the best from them, she makes a good guide to follow. She has a deep understanding of problems and she is empathic to most situations. She reaps the harvest of past efforts and is rewarded with material gain. She is the embodiment of physical and emotional concern, conservation and development of life itself. She can represent both actual physical birth and also the birth of a new idea. Fertility, abundance, fruitfulness and motherhood. The Empress indicates domestic stability, sympathetic honesty, maternal care and protection. Comfort or inspiration gained through contact with nature. She offers reassurance and a sense of security that is obtained through pleasures of the senses. She is a symbol of growth, a firm foundation for future progress. She shows domestic happiness, emotional aims and ambitions.
Reversed: Domestic upheaval, over protectiveness, sterility or unwanted pregnancy. The Empress reversed is all that she is not when happily seated. Psychic alienation and poverty. She can represent the end of a love affair, disharmony, disillusionment, dissipation and a waste of material resources. In this position she is instability and the lack of psychic awareness.
The Importance of the Number: Given the number of 3 this card is the number of childbirth, new life and fecundation and material productivity. It is the number of creation of the phenomena in time. It is representative of the celebration and joy of life itself. Outgoing, joy of life, imaginative, enthusiastic. Symbolic of energy and ideas in action. Having a good time.
Path Position on the Qabalistic Tree of Life: Situated on the pathway between Chokmah and Binah this card represents harmony. It is the first of the pathways that link the opposing pillars together directly to create physical movement towards actuality. Fertility that comes from combining the masculine force and the feminine form. A joining of wisdom and understanding to create knowledge. This card represents synthesis and harmony, the resolving of tension created by duality through the birth of a third unifying principle. It is the pathway of birth, new life, and fecundation and material productivity. It is the creation of phenomena in time, and a source of life itself. It is the abundant creative force of nature and an abundance of moulding form. A passive approach as opposed to the active intellectual control expressed by the Magician.