(Excerpt from the book, Waiting on the Bench)
Another chapter from my upcoming book, Waiting on the Bench.
I hope you will enjoy reading it.
The Empress is usually associated with the Emperor, she is the Emperor’s consort.
While the Emperor is often considered the father figure, the Empress has been viewed as the mother figure.
However, when it comes to exploring her attributes, they often overlap with those of Strength and the Priestess.
Ptolemaic astrology distorted gender attribution by arbitrarily assigning genders based on a dualistic model. Thus, Leo, in the Tarot deck represented by the Strength card, has been misinterpreted as being masculine. However, applying the correct pattern, which results from the Three Qualities, the feminine signs are the Fixed ones, respectively: Taurus, Leo, Scorpio, and Aquarius. Thus, the Empress is Taurus, an Earth sign, and Strength is Leo, a Fire sign.
Yet, in the classic interpretation of the Empress, she also often displays fiery Leo traits.
In the early Visconti decks, the Empress is portrayed wearing a crown and dressed in gold and ermine, with a jousting shield in one hand and the baton of command in the other. The field features the Imperial Eagle, imprinted in black, the emblem of the Visconti family since the coronation of Gian Galeazzo Visconti as Duke in 1395.
The Emperor and the Empress as a couple express the duality according to the Bible:
“Two are better than one,
Because they have a good return for their labour:
If either of them falls down,
one can help the other up.
But pity anyone who falls
and has no one to help them up.” (Ecclesiastes 4:9-10, NIV)
Thus, the Empress rules alongside the Emperor, yet, as the Emperor watch over the physical world, she deals with the matters of the soul.
Full chapter is available exclusively on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/posts/134173412/
#tarot #unifiedesoterictarot #attilakarpathy #empress
