Comparative Tarot 03: The Empress

[Rose Lalonde]

The Empress

 

Please see the discussion thread if you'd like some background about the study group.

 

If you post about more than one deck, please add a separate post below for each to make it easier to index. You can write about the same deck someone else did.

 

As a visual start, here are the Tarot de Marseille Camoin-Jodorowsky, the RWS, and the Thoth. (You don't have to compare your deck with these, though, if you have another deck in mind.)

 

If you'd like to add a small image of the card you're discussing that would be great. If not we can google it.

Feedback on comments about this card are welcome here! For general questions and suggestions, please use the discussion thread.

 

 

Green Witch Tarot

Medieval Cat Tarot

Rosetta Tarot

Slow Holler

Tarot Mucha

Tarot of the Hidden Realm

Victorian Fairy Tarot

[GreenFaerie]

I've been trying to catch up with the threads, and here I am doing the first reply for this one! That's . . . kind of exciting and stressful at the same time. :)

 

The Empress in the VFT is surrounded by her children and is all about family, which is totally appropriate for the Victorians. It's no accident that this fairy queen mother is wearing a crown and carrying a scepter; Victoria made a reign out of being the "mother of England." Victorian women were supposed to be completely devoted to families, children, and nurturing, creating a loving home space for the citizens of the nation to be educated in and (eventually) to retreat to. Notice that the fairy children cling to her full skirts; if you really want to get into historical iconography, you could argue that this is analagous to Victoria's skirts encompassing and protecting the whole of the British Empire.

 

(Sorry. This is academic me blathering on; while my focus is the U. S., I work in the second half of the Victorian period, so I'm aware of a lot of what is going on in Britain at the time.)

 

While the idea of empire makes us all cringe a little bit (apartheid, anyone?), in this lovely picture it isn't an insult. Women ruled the empire of the home, and were queens of the family, and that nurturing quality, the ability to love, shape, and teach future citizens, is what gave them power. (It was also what gave them the ability to work in the public realm, under the guise of "social housekeeping.") This beautiful, intimidating, powerful faerie will protect and nurture her children at all costs, and their growth and maturation is her harvest. Realize that the children can also be metaphorical - whatever your passion is, whatever you bring into the world and nurture, the Empress is there to aid you.

 

Finally, a note from the guidebook: "The scepter she carries is a magic wand that bestows abundant blessings of sustaining love. She knows her duty and accepts it graciously and without false modesty. The Empress is not reluctant to wield power, but it is power wielded with generosity and devotion to her family and her subjects." 

[Rose Lalonde]

I like Queen Victoria (and her voluminous skirts! :) ) as the duel emphasis on Empress as mother and Empress as ruler. If I get an unlikely free moment before I leave on my trip, I'd like to post about Tabula Mundi here, and one of the reasons as that that card has some common ground with the VF in her duel emphasis of heart full of honey and the queen bee as ruler. Great post, thanks.

[Bookworm]

Here is the Empress from the Rosetta. She bears a lot of obvious similarities to the Thoth (her alchemical shield, her position between the waxing and waning moon, her lotus scepter), but she is a much more human figure, and she is also a much more human figure than the Priestess from the Rosetta. This Empress looks right at us, her hand on her round, pregnant belly, her bare foot peeking out from under her skirt. She is a nature goddess and the ultimate symbol of the mother, nature and abundance.  She's my favorite of the Rosetta Majors so far.

[Lantana]

 

I actually have a pretty good relationship with my own mother, but all of my current best friends have had horrible experiences with their own, to the point of getting attached to mine. This is a common theme in queer cultures, as we are often cast out and/or abused by our blood families, and that can create a disconnect between us and the way the Tarot often describes the Empress. She is supposed to symbolize our own mother and the ways she both nurtured and disciplined us, but what happens to that idea for those of us with abusive, or neglectful, or absent mother figures in our formative years?

 

Queer and trans culture is big on chosen families. We often find and create families within our friendships, our activist communities, or even via "adoption" from the family of a friend or partner. The Kindred is about those unconventional families, often as diverse and complex as the home for the creatures shown in the card, but pulled together by something much stronger than blood. It's a card representative of anyone who may be a nurturing influence in our lives, detached from gender or biological relation, and how we may do the same for others in turn.

 

 

[GreenFaerie]

Lantana - YES. All the yes. I am lucky enough to have a good relationship with my own mother (and my family in general), but I am also a queer person who has a lot of chosen family, and some of my most nurturing relationships are with those people. It's a lovely way to look at the Empress. :)

 

(Also, this is a lovely card! I wasn't crazy about some of the pics I saw of the Slow Holler, but that particular card is stunning.)

[GreenFaerie]

I like Queen Victoria (and her voluminous skirts! :) ) as the duel emphasis on Empress as mother and Empress as ruler. If I get an unlikely free moment before I leave on my trip, I'd like to post about Tabula Mundi here, and one of the reasons as that that card has some common ground with the VF in her duel emphasis of heart full of honey and the queen bee as ruler. Great post, thanks.

 

You're welcome! I'm glad you enjoyed the post - one of the reasons I like this card so much is I find it easy to see all the associations of the Empress in this particular image. Ruler, mother, nurturer, protector - all of those show up very clearly. :) I'd love to hear your thoughts on the Tabula Mundi; I'm not familiar with that Empress, so a comparison would be very fun.

[GreenFaerie]

I finally have a moment this morning to get back to these threads and hopefully post a few more cards. :)

 

The Empress from Tarot of the Hidden Realm is physically young, but she strikes me as an old soul, and everything about her speaks of the harvest, to me. She has a thoughtful, inward look on her face, as if she's absorbing all teh beauty around her and taking in all the abundance that she's worked so hard to bring to fruition. Her skirt full of apples and the wheat that she carries speak of a full harvest, of beautiful things coming to life. The butterfly on her sleeve seems to trust her, and the butterfly itself is a symbol of transformation and maturation. This is a young woman who has a full heart of love for all of the things about her, and who is sure to do her best to nurture everything.

[GreenFaerie]

The Empress of the Tarot Mucha is probably the most "typical" RWS Empress I have, and I actually like her because the whole image reminds me of Demeter, the Greek goddess of agriculture, harvest, fertility of the earth, and sacred law. Demeter is also a powerful mother figure; she withheld the rains and let the harvests die when Hades abducted her daughter to the Underworld. She did not restore the earth until her daughter was returned to her. Mothers nurture, yes (whether they are nurturing children or art or buildings or some other contribution to the world), but they can also be agents of death when those children are threatened. The Empress has a dark side, and this particular card helps me remember that.

[GreenFaerie]

Since I posted the Horned God in the Emperor thread, I decided it was only fair to come back and post his consort, the Earth Mother. :) I enjoy this image - the Earth Mother, here, is pregnant, another sign of fertility and abundance, and a nod to her mating with the Horned God and continuing the next generation. Like the younger Empress in the Tarot of the Hidden Realm, she carries wheat and produce, a cornucopia full of apples and vegetables. This is not the potentially vengeful Demeter, or even the fairy empress, who can seem far away and unattainable (as fairies can) when she isn't being warm. This earth mother is all warmth, and the earth isn't hers to rule, but to care for and work in tandem with.

[Onaorkal]

The Empress card of the Medieval Cat Tarot shows the Empress with her 2 children, something we don't see that often.

 

I guess that showing the Empress pregnant really emphasizes the 'fertility' aspect of the card, but showing her caring about her offspring is even better in my opinion.

We can still assume the children are hers, so we still get the fertility aspect, but by showing multiple children you can also add the meaning of abundance.

With her hands (paws) on their head, we get the meanings of caring and protection as well.

 

I also like how one of the kittens is holding a staff and the other one a shield. They are typical elements of the Empress card (found in the 3 'main' decks) but here they add another layer ; I feel like the kittens are playing at 'being adults' / 'being Emperor and Empress' and their mother seems to be proud of them.

 

Instead of the Venus symbol on the shield (like in the RWS), there is a red flower, but it seems that many red flowers and fruits are associated with Venus anyway.