Examining our relationships to current events
I sought a message for us, collectively and as individuals, about our relationships to the some of the current events in the world. My heart was lifted by the card we were given. The Empress. What could be more generous and to the point?
Before we dive into the rich world of The Empress, I’d like to offer a little background on my Tarot illustrations, as shown here. I do not photograph my Tarot cards, nor other items of spiritual practice. So, to show you the Tarot, I have to draw the Tarot! Drawing with chalk suits the temporal aspects of divination. Cleaning the slate becomes part of the process.
The Reading
Rider-Waite Coleman-Smith, first published in 1910.
Deck:
Question:
What do we, collectively and as individuals, need to ask ourselves about our relationships to the current (and very challenging) events of the world?
Astrological Circumstances:
I cast the reading on July 2nd, during the Waxing Gibbous Moon in Sagittarius in a cloud of sweetgrass and white sage in the evening, with healing intentions. May it harm none.
The Card:
The Empress. Tarot Card III (3) of the Major Arcana. (rulership Venus, Taurus, Libra)
Physical Description:
Card Three, The Empress, shows a serenely radiant figure on a velvety throne, surrounded by wheat and other grain crops, in a setting of natural abundance. In my drawing of the card, I clothed The Empress figure in the finery of my grandparents, with the heavily adorned wheat and rose crown (pártás) of my family’s region. The headdress is connected to an even older tradition of wearing antlers for ceremonies and gatherings. Over time, elaborate embroidery and embellishments replaced the antlers, still symbolizing creativity, fertility, the archetype of the feminine – all things we encounter with The Empress card in the Tarot.
Metaphysical Description:
Ruled by Venus, The Empress brings our core values to the table. We are advised to examine our deepest values. What is most important to you and why? What are you nurturing and why? What attitudes can you stop nurturing?
Major Arcana III relates to: all Goddess archetypes including Mary Mother of God, creativity, abundance, fertility, mothering, pregnancy. What is your relationship to matriarchy? What do women you love advise you to do and what to value?
The shadow sides of The Empress include: the suppression of female energy and imbalanced values, jealousy, being blocked, being unable to produce, cheapness, being unprincipled, problems recognizing female leadership, overindulgence in luxury.
Advice:
Seek and listen to the advice of experienced women. Embrace and re-balance the feminine principle, in your ways of protest and all other parts of life. Examine your core values. Recognize and find abundance and distribute wealth according to your core values. Find where luxury and complacency lie and manage those pockets of wealth into available resources for what you care to nurture. Find utter creativity even in the dark. Remember how sacred is the act of birth, and the life that follows. Value women and follow their lead.
In the realm of the globulars – Ancient companions of the Milky Way
