To prepare these weekly meditations I engage both my intellect – by reading Marcia Macino’s entry on the card in her Best Tarot Practices – and my intuition. I have a few different techniques for taping intuitively into the card and for the Empress I used one of the simplest: taking a “long, loving look” at the card. (For the extend description of this process, you can listen to me on Donnaleigh de la Rose’s newest Beyond World’s offering: Meditative Moments.)
As I gazed at the card, I was struck by how the Empress and her world is all flow. I was drawn first to the water flowing behind her and then the red of the velvet robes rippling caught my eye. The blue reminded me of the High Priestess while red called to mind the Magician. The Empress creates her world by joining the flow of these two different energies together. She is receptive to what is, brings it into her self, and applies her will to shaping something new, necessary, beautiful. The Empress is sitting in the card, but you can imagine that just moments before she was busy at work producing the flow seen in the card.
The start of Chapter 42 of the Tao Te Ching has always spoken to me of the reality of the Empress and even more so now that I have had my eyes opened to her fabulous flow:
The Tao gives birth to One. One gives birth to Two. Two gives birth to Three. Three gives birth to all things.
All things have their backs to the female and stand facing the male. When male and female combine, all things achieve harmony.
Translation: Stephen Mitchell
So what flow might the Empress help you activate if you invited her more into your life? Hmm, seems like a question that you might ask the Tarot itself! Feel free to answer in the comments.
This Wednesday, October 12th, we’ll be journeying with Emperor. Perhaps he will help us when our flow gets out of control! If you want to dial into this tele-meditation that starts at 8:30pm ET, just send me an e-mail (carolyn – at – artofchangetarot – dot- com)
(Note: Image is Rider-Waite Smith Empress ® US Games Systems, Used with permission of U.S. Games Systems, Inc.)