TRUMP 3 - THE EMPRESS
1 + 2 = 3. That is the essence of this card. God the Father (Tarot #1 the Magician) plus God the Mother (Tarot #2 the High Priestess) combine and eternally mate to produce Mother Nature. The Empress is Mother Nature. She is vast. She is huge beyond all human comprehension. The first three Tarot cards are spiritual, non-physical powers. Here in Tarot #3, the Empress is material reality. Of course, the Empress embodies non-material realities such as life, which is not based upon a chemical substance but is rather a spirit and a presence from the non-physical domains. Mother Nature is, in fact, the actual creation--the entire known universe.
On this card, we see an eternally young woman holding in her right hand an orb with a crown of 12 stars, and dressed in a gown covered in pomegranates. She reclines on a pillow behind which there is a red scroll of some form. We see the shield with a symbol on it. Behind her there are many trees and a river of water flowing down from the mountains.
There is much deep and great symbolism here. The orb in her right hand symbolizes the Sun, and the crown of stars on her head obviously symbolizes the zodiac. As we have said before, the Sun is the source of all of our power. It is the source of all life on this earth and is the single most controlling influence in any of our lives. Without the Sun and without the constant stream of energy that comes from the Sun, we would be nothing. Later, we will discuss a Tarot card devoted exclusively to the Sun. At that point, we will begin to examine the spiritual symbolism of the Sun.
The crown of stars on the Empress's head points to all of the stars in the heavens. This indicates her vast and incomprehensible size. Astronomers have been able to measure the Empress at approximately 12 billion light years. That is how big around she is. What does that mean? A light year is how far light travels in one year. Light traveling at 186,000 miles every second in one year covers 6 trillion miles. That is 6 thousand billion--one light year. Our best telescopes have let us see out to 12 billion light years away. That means that light travels at 6 trillion miles every year for 12 billion years. So how wide is Mother Nature? 12 billion multiplied by 6 trillion. We do not have a name for a number that large.
That is only the macro-cosmic scale. On the micro-cosmic scale, she is every bit as vast. The term “atom” means “not able to be cut.” It was an idea, theorized by the early Greeks, that there must be some fundamental building block of nature that would not be able to be divided into separate parts. At last count, there were over 200 sub-atomic particles. Inside of this teeniest-tiniest thing which we call an atom, we have found over 200 separate components. So if you take the 12 billion light years; all of the incomprehensible stars; all of the photons, electrons, and atoms inside of the universe; and, inside of every one of those atoms there are hundreds of tiny sub-atomic particles, you will see that Mother Nature has a depth and breadth and scope, the likes of which we cannot possibly fathom.
She is, for all practical purposes, infinite. And mankind finds itself apparently right in the center of the cosmos in terms of the size scale. To expand to the size of the universe, you must go up to approximately 30 orders of magnitude. An order of magnitude is multiplying by 10. So if you multiply the size of a human being by 10x10x10 (1000), you have gone up 3 orders of magnitude. The universe is approximately 30 orders of magnitude. The tiniest sub-atomic particles we have discovered are likewise on the order of 30 orders of magnitude smaller than a person, divided by 10, divided by 10, divided by 10. We, then, in many ways are the focus and the center of creation. We are the balancing point. This will become clearer as we examine other cards.
Mother Nature, vast and incredible, lies on a pillow which is actually a pregnancy pillow. On the card, Mother Nature is eternally pregnant. She is always giving birth. And though we often care not to think about it, she is also always dying. A curious thought that has arisen within the western traditions that is, that if everything was perfect, nothing would die. If that were true, somehow Adam and Eve would sit there in the Garden of Eden, and no leaf would fall from a tree. No snail would decompose, and Adam and Eve would live in those physical mortal frames forever and ever and ever. This is actually a very silly idea.
There is eternal life. There are realms of the universe which are infinite and eternal and cannot and will not die. Those realms we have already discussed. The Fool stands so completely outside of time and space that he/she is not even manifest in any positive or negative sense. The Fool cannot be harmed in any way--cannot be created or destroyed, cannot be born or die. So too with God the Father and God the Mother.
Mother Nature herself may also be eternal. As far as we can tell, God may forever exist as creator, preserver and sustainer of a physical creation. The message of the Fool is that He does not have to, but it is entirely possible that He/She will. Within the realm of nature, within the empire of the empress, life of the bio-organisms is not possible without death. Birth and death are natural parts of the same flow, and absolutely everything requires the death of something else in order to have life continue to cycle. Only when the leaves die, fall from the tree, and return to the soil, can the soil be replenished with the nutrients necessary to give new trees. It is only through the consumption of something else that each bio-organism is able to live. Therefore, while the Empress is eternally pregnant, she is eternally dying. This completely natural cycle should not be feared.
The pomegranates symbolize fertility, as we discussed previously on the High Priestess card. The multitude of species on this planet alone is an incomprehensibly large number. From the tiniest single cell bacteria to the largest trees and whales, Mother Nature is forever prolific in expanding the numbers and combinations and permutations of the dance of God, which is the creation.
The shield behind her has much significance. We see on it the symbol of the woman. This is also the symbol of Venus, which is why the shield is in the shape of a heart. God is love, and that love is communicated through nature. The Empress is eternal love. Love is a term which many of us know, but so few of us are able to define. The best I can do is to state that love is experienced union, whether we talk about loving to eat a potato chip, loving our children, or loving God. While we may have three very different domains for that love, they are all shared in a commonality based upon union, oneness.
Religion means union. It means to bind together again. We have lost harmony. We have lost oneness, and we must rediscover it. That is the message of religion; that is the message of the Bible. All of human interaction can be seen as a war between culture and nature. For the Empress, this sometimes does not appear to be very nice. There are floods; there are fires; there are earthquakes. There is pestilence, starvation, extreme heat and extreme cold. Sometimes the Empress has such cruel love that we are repelled, so we wage war, mankind against the elements, seeking to enshroud ourselves in a universe of man-made culture, man-made fabrics, man-made walls, man-made existence. Even in our modern industrial society, this war wages on to overcome the limits of biology, the weather systems, the limits of geography, and the limits of natural resources. In this way, we see one of the other essential factors of this card--that of creativity.
Placed inside of humanity, we have the capacity to be co-creators with God, as above-so below. All those attributes which are within God, are within us. It could not be otherwise as we've said before. Since we are a part of God, everything in God must be reflected inside of us in one way or other. Therefore God's intelligence, God's power, and God's creativity reside in a small degree in each one of us.
The Empress is a card of creativity--procreation, creativity and blossoming. At times, we often use our creative powers in our war against Mother Nature, but the Empress reminds us that nature seeks not to be at war against us, but seeks rather for us to come to be one with her. Through love, we may regain harmony and rediscover the lost union. Can we build houses in a place that will not be subjected to floods? Can we learn how to control things in such a way that we are not so suspect to disease? Is there perhaps a higher message or greater truth that no matter what happens here in the physical realm, no matter what happens within manifest creation, it is all simply a play and a dance? Just as the hero in a movie can be hurt, crushed, cut, can bleed, or sometimes even die, it is still only a movie--it is still only a play. That is the message of the Fool. The only thing that is eternal, the only thing that is in fact real, is the Fool. Everything else is a voluntary, self limiting of the Fool’s own energies by the rest of those powers which the Fool has placed into the universe. The message we must learn is that the body is not to be worshipped. The message we must learn is that the entire sum total of physical reality, the entire glorious created universe, as vast and as unfathomably glorious as she is, is nothing more than shadows dancing upon the face of the Arik Anpin.
And, the Empress seeks to remind us of that every now and then with an earth tremor, an asteroid, an eclipse, or a fire. This is not to say that human beings are not hurt. This is not to say that we should not try to strive for greater harmony and love with nature. But it is to say, that we must learn to go beyond worshipping the creation, because the creation always seeks to point to the creator. That is the purpose of the scroll behind the Empress--that little red scroll behind the pillow that she is leaning on. What is that? Do you know? That is a Torah scroll. The High Priestess sits with the Torah on her lap. The Empress sits with the Torah completely encased. You see in a Jewish temple, the Torah is handwritten on a scroll. That scroll is placed inside of a pillow, is covered with a dress, and is adorned with various symbols to indicate the power of the Torah. During the high point of Jewish worship, a song is sung, the scroll is taken out of the Ark, undressed, read and then dressed again. That is what that red pillow-like thing behind the empress really is. That is a Torah scroll, much more concealed than in the High Priestess card. What does this mean? It is very clear in the Bible in Psalms 19 and in many other places that the heavens declare the glory of God, and the earth shows His handiwork. Just as nature always seeks to remind us that nature is not eternal, and that nothing which happens on this plane of manifestation is of any lasting significance, so too everything in this creation is pointing us back to God. How can this be?
You my dear reader are learning much about me through what I have created in this writing. As you continue to read and absorb my words, you may not actually learn anything about the Tarot cards because it is possible that every single thing I have said is completely wrong. However, you are unfailingly learning much about me. Every word I have chosen, every syllable and every turn of phrase is an extension of me, and as you dwell in and study my creation, my creation is a testimony to all that I am. Certainly there is much to me that is not in this writing, but everything in this writing comes entirely from me. In the same way, the totality of God is far beyond the physical creation. Just as me writing this is a very small part of my life, so too, God creating the entire universe is a very small part of God's life. However, everything that is here indicates something about God.
God's nature and attributes, Paul said in the book of Romans, can be clearly seen and understood through what has been made. Taken to its most extreme form, every plant, every animal, every star is a testimony to God. Every mathematical equation and every scientific discovery is a revelation about God. This process of discovery is what we come to in the next card--the Emperor.
The Empress is creativity. She is the subconscious. She is wisdom. She is the pre-rational side of us, and the Empress is a presentational communication regarding the nature of God.
The Emperor moves us into the realm of discursive thought and reason and the scientific process. We will see much more about him in the next chapter.
One of the most important factors of this entire card is the river of water flowing through the forest and coming down to be with the Empress. This indicates the energy flowing from the cards above. Remember how we talked about the Fool, and as he falls, he becomes the Magician? The Magician points his wand up towards the Fool and points his other finger down toward the Empress. The High Priestess receives the Magician’s power, and the bottom of her robe turns into water. That water we see flowing through the trees to become a pool by the feet of the Empress.
God and nature are one. There is a harmony. There is a union. Jesus talked about streams of living water--that water to become animated with the power and presence of God--hat water to flow through us, to resuscitate us, and re-attune our spirits with nature and with God. There is great imagery wherein the High Priestess's robe turns into the stream of water which becomes the Empress.
Without water, as we've said before, nothing can live. And water, simple H2O, on this planet is one of the rarest substances in the entire known universe. This water flowing down indicates the invocation of God. There are two terms we need to define at this point: the involution and the evolution.
Involution is where the powers of God come into creation and become fully aware. Evolution occurs when those powers begin to return to the god-head. This is the breath of God. As God breathes out, so too He/She breathes in.
The first half of the Tarot cards in the Major Arcana are dedicated to the involution of God. The last half are dedicated to the evolution of God. Here is how the involution works.
We've already seen many of the instances. The first moment of creation is a contemplation of the Fool upon himself. As he thinks upon himself, he becomes the Magician, God the Father, and God the Mother. They combine to create the universe. Through pure, divine will, the will is placed within consciousness which is symbolized in the Emperor. That consciousness is placed within a desire/emotion realm. It is touched with life and placed into a human physical body.
So when we discuss human beings as being mind, body and spirit, sometimes the terms become confusing. Soul, refers to the totality of your non-physical being. Spirit refers to the spark of God which animates your soul. So the spark of God clothes itself in a will which enables you, which enables the spirit, to focus itself and point itself in different directions. That will becomes conscious. That consciousness is clothed with desire and repulsion. It is animated and placed inside of a physical vehicle. Every single act that you perform involves all of your vehicles. Simply reading this document is an invocation of all of your vehicles. Your spirit wills to read this. You then must focus your mind upon it. You must desire to do so. You complete the cycle by physically moving your eyes across the page. You can think about it and want to do it, but sit there with your eyes closed and not read. The sum total of your vehicles--physical, animated, desire, mental and spirit--must all work in harmony, or nothing that you do will prosper. Nothing that you do can even happen. We call Mother Nature the Empress because she is in fact in a position of great honor. She rules; she has dominion; she has power; she has much expression. She is not to be ignored. We must honor and respect her, and as we see these living waters flow down, we see the involution of God in the creative process.
The principle, as above-so below, is seen no more clearly than in the book of Genesis wherein we have in the first chapter an accounting of the creation of the earth--creation of the world. If you re-read the first chapter of Genesis, not from the standpoint of the physical elements, but from the standpoint of the spiritual realities which are symbolized by physical elements, you will see therein the very clear description of the creation of a perfect human being. The light represents the spark of God. The earth represents our bodies. The waters represent our emotions. Separating the higher waters from the lower waters means that we recognize those earthly desires and the difference between those and the higher more exulted desires. The air lives in between.
Thus, again we have the symbols of the fire and the water and the air and the earth. Our spirit, our minds, our emotions, our bodies, and over the course of time, the water becomes alive and our souls become pure. We see that the air becomes animated with the birds, and our minds are able to soar in the heavens and see the truth of God, until finally we become perfect, made in the image of God. That is what we are heading for--that original perfection that we had is the perfection which we will have. It has not gone away; it will not disappear. It is merely waiting for us to reclaim it. We will learn much more about this in the Tarot cards to come.
To summarize then, the Empress is nature. The Empress is the glorious, infinite creation. The Empress is eternally pregnant. She is eternally giving birth; she is eternally dying. The Empress is eternally the same. She is connected to the Magician and the High Priestess above. Because 1 + 2 will always equal 3, she is the concealed Torah. All of the revelations of God have been placed into a storybook which we call the universe--a storybook meant for us to read.
She is creativity; she is the subconscious; she is wisdom. Above all, she is love. She reminds us that when we are in harmony with her, regardless of what happens to the body, we ultimately can never be hurt.
