L'Impératrice: The Empress
Verse
“The Empress descends
to gently dip their feet
into the stream of consciousness
forming a connection
that sends ripples throughout the universe.
The cypress trees
who once laid down their branches for Venus
grow tall and lush once again
for the one who holds Earth
and the power of creation in their hands.”
Keywords
Upright: Femininity. Connection to Earth. Abundance. Maternal energy. Giving birth to life or new ideas.
Reversed: Creative stagnation. Lack of self-care. Need to reconnect with nature. Misplaced maternal energy. Co-dependence.
Correspondences
Planet: Venus
Aroma: Blue Tansy and Cypress
Description
The Empress is often represented as Mother Earth or Venus. In the Hermetic Tarot, they are known as the Daughter of the Mighty Ones. They are the ultimate embodiment of the qualities of the number three; creation, expression, expansion, and connection. They are the High Priestess after they dipped their feet into the stream of consciousness and became one with the physical world.
In a reading, this card expresses a connection to your feminine side. While the High Priestess referred to feminine intuition, the empress alludes to the more physical aspects of femininity; loving, nurturing, creative, and maternal. Take a moment to reflect on how abundant your life is at this moment. Nurture yourself and those around you. It may represent motherhood or take on the role of a caretaker. It can also point to pregnancy or birth, not only of children but of ideas.
The reversed may point to creative stagnation or lack of self-care. If you need a fresh perspective, it’s time to go out and reconnect with nature. You may be spending too much of your energy mothering other people and need to shift focus to taking care of yourself. In your eagerness to help you may be smothering someone, you care about without realizing it. It may be time to re-evaluate your dependence on others.
Design
For this design, I wanted the figure to kind of blend into the background and reflect the more neutral tones of the environment so that they felt very integrated into it. They are stepping forward with purpose, making ripples while being balanced and poised. Venus hovers large in the background as if this is set on one of the planet’s non-existent moons. I’ve always been really inspired by the depictions of other skies in Star Wars, so there is a lot of that kind of thing in my cards. The world of The Prism Tarot exists in a liminal space. It is inspired by reality, but just outside of it. While the figure is on a different plane than the earth we know, Earth is represented by the sphere in their right hand with two intersecting lines to represent the equator and prime meridian. This is a simplification I went with to stylistically connect cards with the same symbolism (see The Emperor, the 2 of wands). In their other hand is a pomegranate which I took from the traditional RWS imagery to represent fertility and seasons. The myth of Persephone has obviously captured the imaginations of many people, considering how much it’s been used in pop culture lately (see Hades, Lore Olympus), but it’s been important to me since 8th grade when I donned a black toga and dead flowers for our come dressed as your favorite greek deity day. So, if there is a reason to include pomegranate imagery, I will.
Key Symbols
Globe: Earth, the material realm
Pomegranate: Represents fertility, creation, and cycles. The six seeds are symbolic of the tale of Persephone.
Crown of Stars: 12 6-pointed stars represent the macrocosm, the whole of the universe, the 12 signs of the zodiac, and the 12 months of the year.
Stream: The stream of consciousness.
Cypress Trees: Sacred to Venus. Representative of life and death.
Ripples: Change and creation, gentle disruption
Venus: The ruling planet of the card
Color Theory
Orange: Creativity, Identity, Pleasure, Connection
Yellow: Instinct, Confidence, Wisdom
Green: Compassion
Blue: Clarity
