The Empress

Artist: Laney Schwartz

The Empress traditionally symbolizes femininity, motherhood, creativity and love. To me, this card is about connection to yourself and the world around you, especially the Earth. Motherhood relates to balance and the life cycle in nature: from created, to creating, to returning to the earth. In this way the card is also related to the Death card, which signals change. This element also draws upon yourself to be creative; to imagine and to make. This card calls upon you to appreciate and show love to yourself and your creative side as you go through both your professional and personal lives. It also calls upon you to show love to the world around you as people and nature alike are going through very turbulent times. Femininity, as a feature of this card, shows the ideas society has about what it is to be “woman-like.” It does not require femininity of the viewer/reader, but rather implies the necessity of understanding the way you fit into the world around you and to think critically about how you react to its expectations.