The Empress
The Empress is fertile abundance and the creative power of nature, nurturing ideas, bodies, and relationships into full and generous growth.
Major Arcana III
Upright keywords
- abundance
- fertility
- nurturing
- creativity
- sensuality
- nature
Meaning when upright
The Empress presides over growth: grain ripening, projects coming to fruit, bodies and relationships flourishing under care. She is the creative principle at its most generous, connected to pleasure, beauty, comfort, and the senses. In a reading she often signals fertility in its widest sense, whether a pregnancy, a creative work, or a venture that needs nurturing to thrive. She reminds you that growth takes time, warmth, and patience rather than force.
On the card
- crown of twelve stars
- The twelve signs of the zodiac and months of the year; Waite links her to the woman clothed with the sun.
- heart-shaped shield bearing the symbol of Venus
- Love, beauty, and the feminine principle; Venus is her planetary ruler.
- field of ripening grain before her
- Harvest, fertility, and abundance brought forth from the earth; Waite's field of corn.
- scepter topped with a globe
- Her dominion over the natural world; Waite calls it the globe of this world.
- waterfall and stream behind her
- The flow of life and emotion that nourishes growth.
- grove of tall trees
- Nature's vitality and the sheltering, fertile garden she rules.
- robe patterned with pomegranates
- Fertility and abundance, echoing the pomegranates on the High Priestess's veil.
- rich red cushions on her throne
- Comfort, ease, and the pleasures of the senses.
In Waite’s words
A stately figure, seated, having rich vestments and royal aspect, as of a daughter of heaven and earth. Her diadem is of twelve stars, gathered in a cluster. The symbol of Venus is on the shield which rests near her. A field of corn is ripening in front of her, and beyond there is a fall of water. The sceptre which she bears is surmounted by the globe of this world. She is the inferior Garden of Eden, the Earthly Paradise, all that is symbolized by the visible house of man. She is not Regina coeli, but she is still refugium peccatorum, the fruitful mother of thousands. There are also certain aspects in which she has been correctly described as desire and the wings thereof, as the woman clothed with the sun, as Gloria Mundi and the veil of the Sanctum Sanctorum; but she is not, I may add, the soul that has attained wings, unless all the symbolism is counted up another and unusual way. She is above all things universal fecundity and the outer sense of the Word. This is obvious, because there is no direct message which has been given to man like that which is borne by woman; but she does not herself carry its interpretation.
In another order of ideas, the card of the Empress signifies the door or gate by which an entrance is obtained into this life, as into the Garden of Venus; and then the way which leads out therefrom, into that which is beyond, is the secret known to the High Priestess: it is communicated by her to the elect. Most old attributions of this card are completely wrong on the symbolism—as, for example, its identification with the Word, Divine Nature, the Triad, and so forth.
- Divinatory meaning
Fruitfulness, action, initiative, length of days; the unknown, clandestine; also difficulty, doubt, ignorance.
- Reversed
Light, truth, the unravelling of involved matters, public rejoicings; according to another reading, vacillation.
Correspondences
- Element
- Earth
- Astrology
- Venus
- Hebrew letter
- Daleth (ד)
- Path on the Tree of Life
- Path 14: Chokmah – Binah
- Number
- Three is growth and creation, two producing a third; the Empress is the fertile fruit of the Magician's will and the High Priestess's receptivity.
To reflect on
- What in my life is ready to be nurtured into growth?
- How well do I care for my own body and senses?
- Where am I forcing something that needs time to ripen?
In your readings
Hasn’t appeared in your readings yet.
Ask about this card
Marguerite, the traditionalist, answers from Waite’s text, what is drawn on the card and its correspondences. You can choose another reader in settings.