The Empress Tarot Card Meanings
The Empress’s Upright & Reversed Meanings
Ideas: Immaturity, infertility, self-care
Traits: Frugal, moderate, modest, patient, prudent, rational, uncreative
Emotions: Embarrassment, frustration, neglect, shame, uneasiness
- Actions:
- Balancing saving and spending
- Developing motherly qualities within yourself
- Enjoying worldly pleasures sparingly
- Honing your creativity skills
- Improving your body and health
- Saving resources for higher priority activities
- Taking care of your needs first
- Working your way through obstacles
Ideas: Fertility, fruition, luxury, productivity
Traits: Aesthetic, attractive, creative, elegant, generous, healthy, maternal, resourceful, sensual, warm
Emotions: Caring, contentment, enjoyment, love, optimism, pleasure
- Actions:
- Celebrating your body
- Collecting or obtaining resources
- Getting things done
- Mothering those around you in positive ways
- Nurturing yourself and others
- Producing positive results
- Reveling in luxury
Ideas: Addiction, show-off, vanity
Traits: Conceited, extravagant, greedy, impulsive, indulgent, money-minded, obsessive
Emotions: Envy, jealousy, lust, pride
- Actions:
- Admiring your own appearance
- Being overcome by addictive behavior
- Catering for others but yourself
- Debilitating someone by being overprotective
- Inhibiting productivity by obsessing on productivity
- Overindulging in material things
- Showing off with expensive things
- Smothering someone with attention
The Empress’s Advice
Personal Growth
Your attitudes towards women (and your insights into your own feminine qualities) are likely rooted in early experiences. How can you emulate the best female role models you’ve encountered? How can you transcend female influences that harm or hold you back?
Relationship
Without going overboard, revel in your sensuality. Take care you don’t produce more than you intended; the moment is pregnant with possibility. Be lavish with demonstrations of affection. Watch for what a friend or partner needs, and then supply it in abundance.
Career
Now is the time to get things done. Wrap up projects. Ask for resources. Meet deadlines. Move ahead. During this time of growth and expansion, be sure you have the skills and training you need. In the meantime, don’t mistake a headlong rush for focused, verifiable progress.
Spirituality
Women are the figurative and literal door to this world. This moment, too, can be a door for you—a threshold you cross into a new awareness. Watch for physical ways to express your spiritual insights. Reconnect with nurturing, feminine images of divinity, including nature.
The Empress’s Symbols & Insights
Venus
The familiar planetary symbol for Venus often appears in illustrations for Trump 3, stressing the Empress’s association with domesticity, motherhood, and female sexuality. What course of action might these themes suggest?
The Scepter and Crown
The Empress’s scepter (a symbol of authority) is topped by a cross and an orb, a sign of earthly dominion. In Rider–Waite–Smith-influenced images, the Empress wears a diadem of 12 stars, suggesting her dominion over the circle of the year. What do you have dominion over?
The Cushioned Throne
Unlike the rigid stone throne of the Emperor, the Empress is often depicted on a cushioned throne, emphasizing themes of luxury. How might themes of comfort or indulgence impact your situation?
Pregnancy/Ripeness
A universal sign for fertility is pregnancy; in many decks, the Empress is pregnant, emphasizing themes of fertility and productivity. In your situation, what outcome struggles to be born?
The Rushing Stream
Unlike the vast, still, reflective body of water often shown behind the Priestess, the Empress is often seen near a rushing stream or waterfall. Is it time to put your intuition into motion?
More About The Empress Tarot Card
- Predictions
- Pregnancy is in the cards.
- An opportunity to be involved in luxurious sexuality is coming.
- Beware of a tendency towards addiction.
- Timing
- Within seven and one half months
- Affirmation
- “I am abundant and fertile in all areas of my life.”
- Archetype
- The mother
- Hebrew Alphabet
- Daleth/Door/4
- Numerology Number
- 3
(the result: expression, productivity, output) - Astrology Element
- Earth
- Astrology Planet
- Venus
- Myths/Spirits
- Gaia, Mother Earth, Ishtar, Demeter—mature, reproductive female divinity in every form
- Also Aphrodite and Turan
- Storyline
- A motherly or nurturing figure reminds the main character of the core values that are the essence of his or her character.
- Questions to Ask
- What would a concerned and capable mother do?
- What can I do that would emphasize growth?
- How can I celebrate my own sensuality and sexuality?
- Related Pages
- Tarot Card Meanings Guide
- Tarot Birth Card Meanings
- Exploring Today’s Tarot
- Consulting the Tarot
- Traditional Tarot Card Meanings
- Thirteen Fun Things to Do with Tarot Cards
- Where to Go to Learn More
