The Empress

The 3rd Key

Colour: Emerald Green
Sound: F Sharp
Planet: Venus
DOUBLE LETTER: Wisdom / Folly

This Path connects Understanding with Wisdom. It is the mediating path of the Supreme Spiritual Self. The Path on which the mother and the father interact. She can therefore be likened to being the universal womb in which all of manifestation is gestated. To Mother Nature overseeing creation.

The Great Mother is inextricably linked with Earth. She is all that is natural to the formation of life on earth. She builds life forms around spirit. She establishes the laws of the macrocosm and gives birth to the microcosm. To the Empress growth and destruction are concurrent activities. As is reflected in the human body, old cells die as new cells are constantly being born. The three-fold process of growth, destruction and renewal. To understand the Empress is to be able to manipulate this process.

She is also linked to Venus or Aphrodite the Goddess of love. According to Greek mythology Aphrodite rose naked from the foam of the sea riding a scallop and wherever she stepped on land, flowers grew. Due to the hypnotic and compelling nature of the card, Crowley warns that in no other card is it more important to disregard the parts and concentrate on the whole.

Daleth is attributed to this card and means door. She is the door that effects the transition from One into many. To pass through her on the path of return is to enter the Supreme Darkness. One can off course pass a door in either direction and therefore she can also be the mother of light. She is a transitional state of energy between the Above and Below which has been called the gate of heaven.

Depicted on the card is a stream of water flowing downward on the right, this is the water from which Aphrodite was born, activated by the will of the Magician. It represents the continuous process whereby the pristine consciousness of the High Priestess gives rise to the unconscious thought patterns of the Empress. In the microcosm this is our imagination, our ability to create mental forms and to structure concepts. In the macrocosm these are the images general to the human race.

Just as God creates the universe by continuous thought, we do the same. We create our reality by imagining it, by thinking it into being. All that we create in our minds becomes.