Welcome back to White Rose of Avalon my Darlings. Today’s post is about the Empress in Tarot as an archetype and how it relates to Faery Queen’s energy! In particular, I will be focusing on the Empress and Summer Faery Queen’s energies, as the Summer Solstice is this week.
The Empress is all about fertility, abundance, prosperity, and fruitful endeavors. This combines very nicely with the abundant energy of Summer! As far as the Faery Queen’s energy, the Empress is very much an archetype aligned with the Faery Queen of Sovereignty whose marriage to a King ensures his rule is blessed by the land herself. This very energy of the Empress as Faery Queen and granter of Sovereignty is why some Celtic-based decks feature Faery Queens like Guinevere and Rhiannon on the card, like in The Arthurian Tarot by John and Caitlin Matthews and The Llewellyn Tarot by Anna-Marie Ferguson.
Both Guinevere and Rhiannon fill the role of Sovereignty Goddess and Faery Queen whose marriage to the King cements his right to rule in the beginning of their tales. Guinevere’s marriage to Arthur is what fully established him as King, not just the pulling of the Sword from the Stone, because in order to rule you must not only be armed but also have a Queen. When we look at Guinevere as a Faery Queen, we see that she is the representative of the Land made Manifest, so her marriage to Arthur is the Land giving her blessing to the King’s reign. This is why when Arthur’s interest in his wife waned, and she grew to love another, Camelot fell, as the blessing of the Land was forfeit if Arthur did not value his Queen! Rhiannon came forth from the Otherworld of Annwn to meet Pwyll because she wanted to marry him instead of the man to whom she had been betrothed. Pwyll gladly agreed to this union, but it took Rhiannon’s brilliant knowledge of magick and Faery customs to get them officially married, as Pwyll was unwise in how he answered a request at their original marriage feast. This meant that Rhiannon had to give him a magickal bag to come to her marriage feast with her unwanted suitor in order to trick him into the bag and state his willingness to give up his claim on Rhiannon’s hand in marriage. It is when Pwyll married Rhiannon that his right to rule is fully cemented, and the birth of his son showed the rule to be a blessed one. Pwyll was smart to refuse to set aside Rhiannon when she was accused of infanticide, instead punishing her, since when their son was returned, he had not lost the blessing of the land! As for Rhiannon’s unjust punishment, that was something she suffered with her head held high, teaching us the importance of dignity in the face of injustice, with dignity being another marker of Empress energy.
Both of these Faery Queens and bestowers of Sovereignty are put through unfair trials during their tenure as Queen, as many variants of the Arthuriad show Guinevere nearly burned at the stake for her affair with Lancelot, and she later retired to a nunnery (which I also see as an unjust ending). It is no surprise that when Tarot deck writers and artists are basing the decks on the Arthurian legends and The Mabinogion they choose these two incredibly powerful Faery Queens to represent the energy of the Empress! Of course, Faery Queen Goddesses are much more complex than representing a single archetype, but examining each archetype they fit into is a great way of developing a greater understanding of the Queen herself. In fact, that is a large part of why I wanted to write this post exploring how these two great Faery Queens, whose energy can be easily linked to the bright energy of Summer, relate to the Empress Archetype. I find exploring the archetypes related to Goddesses to be a great way to deepen into relationship with the Divine Feminine, and explore each facet of the complexity of the Goddess!
I hope you have enjoyed this look at how the Empress Archetype relates to Faery Queens like Guinevere and Rhiannon. What is your favorite story of a Faery Queen marrying a King to cement his reign? What is your favorite version of the Empress card? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below!
Note on Image: The image at the top of the post is Guinevere on the Empress card in Legend: The Arthurian Tarot, which I unfortunately do not own yet, as it has been out of print for years. I found the image on https://www.pinterest.com/pin/346495765061210387/.
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
- The Arthurian Tarot by John and Caitlin Matthews
- The Llewellyn Tarot by Anna-Marie Ferguson
- The Mabinogion translated by Sioned Davies
- Le Morte D’Arthur by Sir Thomas Malory
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