The Empress III

Keywords & phrases

• Feminine power and strength
• Creativity/the creative spark – birthing of ideas and enterprises
• Passion, sex and female sexuality
• Nurturing
• Self-care
• Mother/mother nature
• Abundance, fecundity
• Nature’s cycles
• Female cycles – menstruation, menopause
• Fertility, pregnancy, birth, motherhood

First impressions

She is the very picture of lushness and healthy vitality. A potent feminine/feminist energy. Mature woman, confident in her sexuality.

What is happening in the card?

The Empress sits on her throne set in a wheat field ready for harvest. The deep forest, lush and green is in the background where a waterfall can also be seen.

She is mother (nature) sitting strong in her power, in her element. She wears a crown of stars on her fair head and a white robe decorated with pomegranates. In her right hand she holds a sceptre and at her feet is her shield bearing the symbol of Venus.

The Empress looks directly out at us – generous, warm and self-possessed.

How can we relate to this card?

Anyone who has cared for or nurtured another living being can relate to this card. Anyone who has received such nurturing and care has also experienced the energy of the Empress.  She is the archetypal mother, the bosom of your family and friends. She is safety. 

She also provides the creative spark for any enterprise or endeavour.

Message & affirmations

Today and every day I show up in my life and my relationships with an open heart, with passion and drive, courage and compassion, patience and faith, love and forgiveness. And the most important of these, of course, is LOVE.

Love for myself, for my fellow man, the planet and all its creatures.

My personal experiences of this card

If I need a little hand with mothering, I turn to the Empress.

Or she pops up (jumps out) with her sceptre and starry crown when I need to be reminded of my role as the nurturer, the caregiver and the grownup in my relationship with my daughter.

Classic Empresses that we know and love: Beyoncé.

Events, situations & readings

In a relationship spread:
Fertile ground for a loving, sexually fulfilling (and productive) relationship.

In a personal/spiritual development spread:
Self-care and nurturing.

In a career spread:
She represents the creative spark and bodes well for any enterprize.

People & interaction with other cards

The Empress could represent your mother, aunt or any other strong, supportive feminine energy in your life.  She could also be appearing as you in any creative, nurturing or mothering role.

With the Queen of Pentacles, there is a definite hint of pregnancy.

Questions, prompts & insights

Who needs some care and nurturing right now? Can you provide that for someone who needs it in your life? And who is taking care of you?

What are you birthing in your life at the moment? Ideas? Projects? Children?

Featured decks & credits:
Main image from The Rider Waite Tarot.

The animated image of The Empress is part of an ongoing AI art Tarot project by Still Small Voice Tarot.