MAJOR ARCANA
The Empress Tarot Meanings
The Empress is the vessel for the divine feminine, she is the ruler of all our deepest emotion and compassion. She is sure of herself and a caring mother figure to others. She is not afraid to love and be loved, having complete confidence in her worth and expressing deep love and respect for those around her.
The Empress tarot card is most commonly associated with the goddess Venus and is linked with fertility and mother nature. Alongside certain cards, she can suggest marriage or most likely, a pregnancy. She is a comforting presence in any reading and can symbolise a time where you will receive an abundance of that which promises to nurture you. This could be love or material things.
The Empress Upright Meanings
When you draw The Empress in an upright position, it is very positive and suggests a pivotal time where love, abundance and compassion will be extremely important for you. Some other properties of The Empress tarot card are:
Nurturing
Fertility
Abundance
Divine Feminine
Self Expression
Universal Knowledge
In the upright position, The Empress is often a sign that you’ll soon be receiving an abundance of something you’ve been in need of on an emotional and spiritual level. This will most often be a material or a physical gift, such as money, a family or a new career opportunity.
The Empress Reversed Meanings
When The Empress is reversed, she can represent a few different things depending on her position and the cards that surround her. Some of the most common are:
Disease
Overbearing
Dependence
Creative Blockages
The Empress is a creator, but she does so with ease, she allows things to develop naturally. This means that when she is reversed, you may be trying to control things too much. This feeling can also be linked to other areas, such as trying to get pregnant, smothering someone with love and depending on others to make us happy.
Reading The Empress in a spread
The Empress is honestly one of my favourite cards because she has that warm, comforting, homely energy that makes you feel all warm and fuzzy inside. She is the mother of the tarot and so I always find it helpful to think of a stereotypical motherly archetype whenever she pops up. That just helps to think about what she would say to me at the moment, what advice and words of comfort would she give. Let’s have a look at other ways we could frame the energy and messages of The Empress.
The Empress as an Invitation
The main invitation that The Empress offers is the invitation for more compassion and self-love. She is asking you to treat yourself like you would treat those closest to you, something we often struggle to do. When she pops up, it can be a clear sign that we’re not being kind enough or that we need to really focus on our wellbeing at this time.
For The Empress, this invitation could be the following:
An invitation to spend some time on yourself and your emotional wellbeing
An invitation to nurture specific energy that you are experiencing
An invitation to connect with your divine feminine energy
An invitation to explore how you could be more authentic and true to yourself
The Empress as Sage Advice
When thinking about the advice of The Empress, think about what advice a deeply loving, compassionate and caring mother would offer you. She is the most nurturing energy in the tarot deck, so keep that in mind when she pops up in your readings.
Some advice The Empress may offer is:
You can’t pour from an empty cup so spend some time taking care of your wellbeing
It is time to nurture this energy you’re feeling and explore it more deeply
In order to overcome blockages, you need to be kinder and more understanding, either to yourself, others or the situation at hand
No idea is too wild or too ‘out there’ follow those streams of creativity to the end of the line and allow them space to really flourish
The Empress as a Lesson
The Empress often teaches us the lesson of compassion, both for the self and for others. A lot of the lessons she’ll throw your way are ones of self-love, kindness and tolerance.
Some lessons that The Empress may offer you are:
You need to take a step back and see where you can be more giving and where you are being too controlling
You have the power to love yourself as much as you need and you don’t have to rely on others for self-validation
You have the divine power of creation, you just need to find your personal route to unlocking it
Everything you need to know is locked within and with a bit of patience and self-love, you’ll be able to access everything you need
The Empress as a Redirection
When The Empress appears with a message of re-direction, a lot of the time it’s because we’ve been paying too much attention to our material world and not enough time on our inner world and self. She is a gentle nudge towards more self-care and a sign that we need a bit of TLC right now and we’re not currently receiving it.
As a redirection, The Empress could symbolise a need to:
Take a break and focus on replenishing yourself. You’re in need of recharge so that you can continue to smash your goals
Look at your problem from a more compassionate POV and see where you are being too strict with yourself or others
Listen and empathise with others more. This is one that can often come up in a relationship or career reading
Step back and allow things to unfold naturally
The Number of Three
The Empress is a card that embodies nurture, love and growth. The number three within numerology is all about growth and expansion, something that providing a nurturing hand and unconditional love is integral to.
We can only expand when we have a safe environment to do so and the number three is that safe space. It offers room to grow but not too much room that we would get lost or turned around while trying to take that step out of our comfort zones. Which is exactly the energy The Empress offers in the Tarot.
Astrological Venus
The Empress is ruled by the planet Venus, the planet of love. People often associate Venus, whether it’s the planet or goddess, as being the ruler of all things love and romance. However, the goddess Venus is not just the goddess of love, she is also the goddess of beauty, fertility, sex, prosperity and victory.
Just like The Empress, Venus is an energy that encompasses the divine feminine. Using The Empress, we can better understand how to utilise our own divine feminine energy and use it to nurture those things in life that need our love and devotion.
The Empress Archetype
The Empress falls into the ‘lover’ archetype, it could also touch on the caregiver archetype but I always get more of a free and limitless energy to The Empress. A caregiver usually has a little more structure and stability.
The lover archetype provides a level of intimacy, it is about connecting with others. The Empress does this through her unconditional love and nurturing personality. She is a card that often appears to give us a boost of unbridled passion and affection for the people and things that matter most to us.