Tarot card meanings · Major Arcana 3
What does The Empress mean in tarot?
In A. E. Waite's Pictorial Key to the Tarot (1910), the Empress upright means “Fruitfulness, action, initiative, length of days; the unknown, clandestine; also difficulty, doubt, ignorance”, and reversed “Light, truth, the unravelling of involved matters, public rejoicings”.
Upright
Fruitfulness, action, initiative, length of days; the unknown, clandestine; also difficulty, doubt, ignorance.Waite, The Pictorial Key to the Tarot, Part 3
Reversed
Light, truth, the unravelling of involved matters, public rejoicings.Waite, The Pictorial Key to the Tarot, Part 3
What does the picture show?
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.Waite, The Pictorial Key to the Tarot, Part 2
Where does the Empress fall in a reading?
The Empress belongs to the Major Arcana. On this site you draw three cards, which take three of the places in the ten-card method Waite describes: “This covers him”, “This crosses him”, “This is before him”. The same card reads differently in each place, and the I Ching cast beside it may agree or disagree.
Ask one question. Draw three cards, and cast an I Ching hexagram beside them to see where East and West agree. Free.
Draw three cardsWaite's words are quoted as printed, and left out where they speak of money, law, illness or disaster. The pictures are the 1909 deck drawn by Pamela Colman Smith. For entertainment and self-reflection.