In the lives of women we can see five distinct phases; birth, the onset of menstruation, motherhood, menopause and death. The Empress represents the middle of this pentad; she is the nurturing mother who is the fertile and creative queen of the world. She is the down-to-earth version of the cosmic World card, which also symbolizes the creative mother in the maiden-mother-crone triad of the triple Goddess. The numbers five - related to the Empress - and three - related to the World - have always been connected to the ancient Goddess, and by extension, to woman.

This Empress is a pregnant woman from the fertile crescent between the two great rivers Tigris and Euphrates, where historic civilization came into being. Her advanced pregnancy is symbolic of the Goddess' gift of life to us and to our planet. She is the mother of all the world, whose creativity is as limitless as the stars and galaxy. Pregnancy is the ultimate symbol of creativity; the birth of a new person who embodies all of the potential of its parents is a fundamentally magical act, and yet it is the most natural of things. This marvelous creativity and productivity is the root meaning of the Empress card.

The Empress wears red because she personifies the bleeding and fertile woman, and red is the color of her life-blood. Red is a symbol of the living creature and the passions of life, and represents action that leads to creative change. The border of spirals at the hem of her garment is a symbol of the continuity of life, as it endlessly repeats its pattern through each generation. Her crown of twelve red roses also symbolizes passion for life. The red-robed Empress personifies a thirteenth rose, to symbolize a lunar year of thirteen moons in one solar cycle. This symbol is repeated in the twelve stars that frame the full moon. Twelve five-pointed stars are often seen in artistic representations of important creation Goddesses, including the Virgin Mary.

The ancient lunar calendar, which measured time by the thirteen moons in a solar cycle (rather than the twelve solar months in our year) was associated with Goddess-centered religions that honored the moon, and by extension, with women and with women's culture and creativity. The unlucky connotation of the number thirteen arose through suspicious fear of the changeable moon and of the creativity of women in later patriarchal times. The moon, after all, was associated with mortality and with the fear that arose from facing death. You may also see death's face in the image of the full moon of the Empress card. Death is the creative cauldron from which we all emerge; as the green plant of spring emanates from the soil made fertile by the bodies of those that went before, and as original matter was created in the fiery heart of stars and in their death, the earth has now been given life. As a part of this continuum, the Mother Goddess shows us where we have come from and where we will go.

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The natural throne of this Empress is an island between two small streams, representing the rivers Tigress and Euphrates. The island formed by their confluence reminds us of the back of the great turtle, who appears in many creation myths. In these tales the earth is held up on the back of a huge tortoise, just as the Mother Empress is seated on the back of her turtle island. The island is an important focus for this card: imagine you are looking down from above at the hills and river in the picture. (insert drawing) As you can see it is a picture of a pregnant woman, about to give birth: the island and Empress represent crowning infant in the yoni of the Goddess Earth, the large central hill is her belly, the smaller hills represent her breasts. The river which pours forth around the little island becomes the blood of birth, which nourished the infant in its period of growing creativity inside the mother's body. The moon above is symbolic of the head of the woman and its shining rays form a crown, similar to that of the cow Goddess Hathor. The river island was also important in ancient times as a common location for oracular shrines; because of its yoni-like shape and association with the water through which the little island bore an obvious connection to the great mother Goddess who, as the creator and destroyer of life, knew both past and future.

The basket of eggs that rests on the little hillock is a symbol of the womb of woman filled with the diversity of the four races of humankind, which the colored eggs represent. Baskets are a common symbol of the Goddess and her protective womb. They are often woven of willow wood, a tree particularly sacred to the Goddess. The willow grows near the water, which was ruled by the changing moon, whose phases reflect the cycles of the fertile women.# It was women that harvested and used the resilient willow in basket weaving and the baskets they made are symbolic of the harvest, in which the produce is gathered and returned to the homes to nourish the children. The egg itself is a potent symbol of creativity and growth, representing the undifferentiated potential of life. The symbol of the egg reappears on the World card, where it represents birth and wholeness in its connection to motherhood.

In the hand of the Empress we see an apple cut crosswise to reveal the five pointed star inside it. The apple is a very ancient symbol for the Goddess. It was a nurturing fruit whose five-petaled flower also bore her representative star. The apple is an ancient symbol of fertility and love. It was often symbolic of marriage, which presumably led to children. Even in the Old Testament the apple became the fruit of knowledge - meaning carnal knowledge - an attribute of the Mother Goddess, for whom sex has always been a gift and a sacred rite. Behind the Empress the two trees express nature's productivity, as the apple moves from blossom to fruit through the spring and summer, reflecting the changes on the hills as the seasons fade from green to harvest gold. These are her seasons: the season of fertility, of birth and then of harvest.

In interpretation this card represents elemental creativity and the actualization of creation. It is birth and creativity in every realm of life. Thus, it represents feminine creativity, symbolized by pregnancy and birth, by growing things; flowers and eggs and in abundant harvest. The Empress is symbolized in every good meal and happy home; she is evident in artwork and music that flow into creation. When this card is a part of your reading it symbolizes love and joy in life, and in the process of creativity. It symbolizes the healthful nurturing we must put into our creative actions. It is a card of being with children and in mothering or nurturing them and the joy we feel in their independent creativity. It is a good time to focus on projects that require creative solutions. Projects that are begun under the tutelage of the fertile Empress are likely to succeed, just as the she bears fruit out of her own body.