Welcome to day three of Tarot Week here at White Rose of Avalon my Darlings! As it is also Femme Fatale Friday, I have chosen to discuss a Major Arcana Card, but one I have covered in the past. For this post, I will be focusing on the Empress Archetype and how we can embrace her energy in our lives.
The Empress is at her heart the Sovereignty Goddess who is the Sovereignty of the Land made manifest in physical form. The Empress is the Faery Woman tending the Well or embodying the land which draws in all those around her with her lush and nurturing energy. She is the ideal Lover, Mother, and Queen figure, as she is aligned with the abundance and fertility of the land itself! So the archetype of the Empress is very much the Lover Goddess who makes the marriage to the King to bless him with the right to rule. Clearly from the Celtic perspective, the Empress is connected to the Flower Bride and May Queen-types of Sovereignty Goddesses. I find that any Celtic Goddess that has a love connection and embodies some of that Venusian energy has a connection to the Empress archetype.
Most prominently in Welsh and English folklore, I would state that Blodeuwedd, Guinevere, Iseult, and Rhiannon are Goddesses aligned with the Empress archetype. In Ireland, Maeve and Aine certainly embody that Venusian Empress energy. In French and German folklore, Melsuine has Empress energy as well. The connection between these Goddesses and the Empress energy is well-utilized in certain Tarot decks. For example, The Arthurian Tarot has Guinevere as the Empress card, solidifying the nature of the Empress and Flower Bride being linked. Another ideal example is The Llewellyn Tarot, which has Rhiannon on the Empress card, showing the connection to Sovereignty of the land being inherently part of the Empress archetype!
When we look outside of Celtic lore, the Empress archetype is well-established with the energies of many Love Goddesses, as the Empress is a Lover and a very abundant and fertile archetype! In Greece, Aphrodite is a prime embodiment of the Empress’s energy. In Rome, Venus is connected to the Empress. Finally, I will mention Freya of the Norse pantheon can certainly be linked with Empress energy.
The Empress archetype is clearly one that overlaps many of the other archetypes I work with closely. As in the Goddesses in Everywoman breakdown of Jungian archetypes, I am clearly an Aphrodite archetype, with a strong secondary Persephone archetype. I have written a lot about my connection to the Mermaid archetype, likely the strongest archetype present in my life for longer than I can remember, and the Empress in her sexual, fertile, and abundant energy does have some of the Mermaid’s nature about her!
At the end of the day, the Empress is lush, sensuous, sexual, nurturing, and very much a great leader and partner. She is the energy to call upon when you want to feel great in your own skin, be able to take care of your loved ones, inspire creativity in others, and tap into your own creative spark! We can embrace the Empress energy by building a relationship with any of the Goddesses discussed in this post, taking time out to truly love ourselves, and spending time with our dearest loved ones. There is something alchemical and magickal about the Empress, even though she is the Divine Feminine in the material realm, versus the High Priestess as the Divine Feminine in the spiritual realms as a channel for esoteric knowledge. The alchemy and magick of the Empress lie in the magickal energy of Mother Earth and the endless emotion and compassion of the Waters of the Earthly realm! At once sexual and maternal, at once fertile and inspiring, at once earthy and watery. She is the deeply embodied Divine Feminine who can help us heal our wounds around our sexualities!
I think she is the ideal archetype to cover for the end of Aphrodite April, and in the lead-up to Beltane, a holiday very connected to Empress energy! I hope you have enjoyed this Tarot Week Femme Fatale Friday look at the Empress as an archetype. What is your favorite way to tap into Empress energy? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below!
Note on Image: The image at the top of the post is a lovely Empress image that truly embodies the Queen aspect of the Empress archetype. I found the image on https://www.redbubble.com/i/postcard/The-Empress-III-Tarot-Card-Major-Arcana-by-Arcane-Arts/145573584.V7PMD.
Tarot Note: I have a page offering tarot and oracle readings for those interested in these services! I am very happy to be offering these readings to my treasured readers at White Rose of Avalon! Link to page: https://whiteroseofavalon.life/tarot-and-oracle-readings/
Further Reading
- The Only Tarot Book You’ll Ever Need by Skye Alexander
- Ladies of the Lake by John & Caitlin Matthews
- The Arthurian Tarot by John & Caitlin Matthews
- The Llewellyn Tarot by Anna-Marie Ferguson
- Goddesses in Everywoman by Jean Shinoda Bolen
White Rose of Avalon 