Tarot Card Comparisons: The Thoth Tarot- key 3-The Empress & The Wild Wood Tarot- Key 3- The Green Woman

The Empress or Green Woman represents the Universal Womb, in which all manifestation is gestated. She is the Path of Daleth, a Hebrew letter that means-Door. The Path of Daleth or Dalet spans between Chokma (All Father) and Binah (All Mother) and is a Transitional state of Psychic Energy.Just as Chokma has the capacity to emanate the "Pure female" (called Virgin Goddess) the Empress/Path of Daleth, is the merging of the Intelligent Energy states of Chokma and Binah. She is the pregnant balance of incubation and passivity. It is this Door that effects the transition from One into Many, thus being the Gate of Heaven.

I have always called the Empress, "The Womb with a View" as she transforms idea into form. She is Earth Mother and/or The Green Woman, as well, for almost every culture has some form or name of her. She is the Mother of Gods and often gives birth to an intermediary deity, such as Christ,Osiris, Mithras, Odin etc., who rules the earth.

At this high and very subjective -Supernal Triangle-stage in the Tarot, words are always metaphorical and the pictures alone unconsciously  communicate a great deal of information about the forces and forms more than any word can conceive. Thus it is recommended that these Trump Cards be used as mandalas for meditation.

The Empress is often called the "Mother of Light" since the Dark Fiery Energy of Chokma passes through her as a door that, transmits the thoughts of Chokma into visible forms of light.  She is often seen drawn with a light face and a dark face, as was the 2 faced god Janus, the Roman God of communication.  The Latin janua means door, therefor Janus, is the passage of  divine ideas, that controlled the affairs of men. Janus was originally a Solar Deity and the Empress is also known as Mother Sun...they are both the same metaphoric description of the Intelligent Energy that builds thought into Worlds.

Yet,  the primary god-form related to the Empress was in Edwardin times, Venus-Aphrodite, who in Greek Mythology arose from the Ocean naked, riding a scallop shell. When ever she stepped on land flowers grew, and thus we also know the Empress  in terms of  luxurious proliferation making each facet of Nature beautiful and compelling that we can be in danger of losing sight of the whole by the dazzle of the parts. Now, with the resurgence of the Pagan ideology, She is the Green Woman.

 

As souls or Psyche, we supply the whole of emotion (energy in motion) to our forms, but often the individual emotional reactions become so hypnotic they dazzel our personality enough to forget the Whole Self's intention for emotion. We become servants to what dazzles us with beauty, or fear and forget that we are The Beauty that Operates Form. We are Spirit and thus, the Life of the alive and the communication of Energy-in-Motion to form, is from the  Anima or Empress or the Green Woman.

The Empress is the Goddess of Love and the symbol of Venus encompasses the entire Tree of Life which expresses the fact that Love is the formative energy of the Tree of Life---i.e. The Universe; However, Venus maybe subjective in the Supernal Triangle, but She is also objective as a Sephira--Netzach which is a part of the  Astral Triangle of Personality. There is a very profound mystery here, as there are three planetary forces that find their objective expression in the Sephira low (meaning density) on the Qabalistic Tree of Life while their subjective expressions called paths, are found at the opposite extreme of the Supernal Triangle.[Hod-Mercury, The Magician; Yesod-Moon, The High Priestess; and Netzach-Venus, The Empress]. To me the mystery of Life and the Alive finds solution here. Remember that Life loves its forms....as any mother knows, the child is more important than anything else to her! The Empress expressed thought into forms and through the administration of the Sun- center of Tiphareth (6th Sephiroth/Beauty). The Divine Creative creates the universe  by

continuous  thought and/or infinite dream, and as "God's Image" and/or demiurge, human kind creates reality by constantly thinking and dreaming of it as well, making us "images of the Divine Creative" and/or simulations of the One.

 To reiterate:THE Thoth Tarot- Key 3- THE EMPRESS, and/or the Green Woman is the Path of Daleth-meaning-Door, and Her planet is Venus. THE EMPRESS or GREEN WOMAN, is also called the "Gate way to Heaven", as She is the transitional state of energy between  the Above and the Below. The effect of this transition is from One into many, so the key to this card is multiplicity.

If one looks at Thoth Priestess card, Key 2 of major arcana, they'll observe a simple diaphanous robe, while that of The Empress is appropriately covered with all the jewels of creation.  The Wild Wood Tarot's Green Woman, Key 2, is decorated in the same way, yet her jewels are those of the green forest's flora and fauna.

The celebration of the Green Woman is traditionally on June 21, the Mid-Summer Solstice, as she is the earthly manifestation of the Solar Feminine. Therefore, she also wears around her neck the golden Celtic Gorget that depicts the sun throughout the year.

Filled with the milk of love and nurturing, the Golden Caldron, with the Sheela-na-gig on its frontal side, represents the life force (e-motion)  of all woman.

The Green Woman encompasses the female aspect of energy that is both wild and green.

As a Hermetic Qabalist, I am painfully aware of the inadequacy of anthropomorphic symbolism when describing the Supernal Triangle, the As Above, yet Tarot pictures unconsciously communicate a great deal of information that words can only flail at.

Hence, the images represented in the Empress or Green Woman cards are an attempt to convey the concept of pure fruition. As an exercise towards this goal of understanding, the initiate must try to conceive of pure energy-in-motion, which is a feeling that has no subject or object, neither love nor hate, but which is the raw material of both; a kind of Lust without need of result. Armed with such an understanding, the initiate may begin to understand something of the Great Binah,The Great Mother, The Empress and/or the Green Woman, who is the Illuminating Intelligence or Birth Mother of Ideas through transitional state of Understanding.  She is Mother Nature. 

All that is Life on Earth is the providence of The Green Woman or Empress, as she builds life forms around the Spirit of Life, establishing the Laws of the Universe that have to do with restriction and formation. She is the Supernal Female Force. She is also Venus-Aphrodite the Goddess of Love; Love is the Law.

On the Tree of Life, The Luminous Intelligence of Chokmah, becomes the Illuminating Intelligence of  The Empress, inferring filling up and emitting Light, thus bestowing the title of Mother of Light on the Great Mother and/or the Solar Femine of the Green Woman. 

She is a Door, and one may pass through a door in any direction, to pass through Her on the Return Path, is to pass into Supreme Darkness. The  dual dynamic of the Door, has often been shown as Janus, the Roman Two-Faced god;each face looking in opposite directions. In fact the Latin word janua means door and this god was stated by the Romans, to have presided over communications and the affairs of men. Here then, as Janus resides over the passage of ideas so does the Empress or Green Woman. Originally, Janus was a Solar Entity, and The Empress is a Solar Entity, so the comparison is not only viable but pertinent as well, so anything that can be said about Janus can be said about The Empress/Green Woman as well, even though she is often anthropomorphized as Venus-Aphrodite.

The Luxurious Proliferation of Nature  with each facet so compelling, being both beautiful and hypnotic, it is possible for the student to lose sight of the Overview of the Path of Daleth. This point was acknowledge by A. Crowley in his Book of Thoth, where he warned,"..the student who is dazzled by any given  manifestation may be led astray. In no other card is it so necessary to disregard the parts and to concentrate upon the whole". 

We know that the Venus-Aphrodite is the "Goddess of Love" as is the Green Woman, but many forgot that She is also named the "Goddess of Desire". Desire, being born with the most abstract principle of Form, holds a very specific meaning for the Student of the Mysteries, as to feel is to desire, but to unite wholly with the Universe, requires the "want of nothing", and desire is just "Being". Thus, the coming to or the leaving of material desire is another aspect of the Door Way that is the Empress or Green Woman -- Path of Daleth.The Thoth Empress or Wild Wood Green Woman,  looks to be all nurturing and light, however, the darkened crescent of the Moon, on the Thoth tarot, suggests transformation or change and to Qabalists She is known as the Mother of Life and Death. Growth and destruction are concurrent Empress/Green Woman- activities, just as old cells die and new cells are born in a daily cycle in your physical body

The transparent bubbles shown in front of the Thoth Empress image, represent the veil that we must pass through to realize the Path of Daleth (Door), to pass beyond the veil is to cross into a completely new level of conscious energy, where her natural laws no longer apply. The veil is a dramatic separation of imagined reality and what is Real.

By now, the able initiate knows that the Divine Creative is the Mind that created the Universe by thought. We do the same thing, as "images of god", we create reality by imagining it. Whatever we create in our personal minds, becomes our individual life. This is an often ridiculed concept or precept of both metaphysics and the mysteries; However, ridicule does not an understanding make, and as a Personality attains greater Self-Awareness, the implications  of responsibility for what one thinks become most profound!

The Thoth Tarot Empress, is  illustrated in the alchemical sigil of Salt, that is the inactive  principle which is activated by the alchemical Sulfur (Emperor), maintaining

the whirling (Spiral) balance of the Universe. The design of the Alchemical symbol of Salt, is a circle with a line bisecting it horizontally, as is  shown in the positioning of her arms and if you put the Empress and the Emperor, side by side, her on the Left and Him on the right, there faces are looking at each other.

This is the position of Yab Yum, illustrating the Tibetan word that means, Goddess God, face to face, as well as, the activating activity of communication.  The twisted blue shapes, on the Thoth Empress card, represent flames and her birth from Water, which we know to represent consciousness. The Living Holy Grail, is the Lotus like chalice in her hand. At her waist is the  Zodiacal girdle or belt, above her head are the dove and sparrow , both are  birds of Venus.  At her feet is a white pelican that is feeding her own young with her own flesh which is a common symbol of the Great Mother, for even not so great mothers, build the young from their own flesh and all children pump mother's blood through their own veins.

The white eagle shield corresponds to that red eagle shield of the Emperor. 

To reiterate:The alchemical references for the Supernal Triangle are, THE MAGUS, who is Mercury, THE EMPRESS  who is

Salt, THE EMPEROR, who is Sulfur. These Three are the Paths of Psyche, united on the Tree of Life that turn our leaden consciousness into the Golden Intelligence of the Son (Sun), i.e. the Divine Child. The only blocking veil to this end, is Desire consciousness.  We must lose the reality of the  "I Want's" known as "Wanna-Be's" and become the I AM's of our original inheritance.

As always, words make the reality of their meanings seem so simple, but in truth, the simplest words are the most subjective, such as IT, or I .  One must cross the emptiness of want, of sense, of sight, before one can visit the Great Mother, who creates the Am of us all.

In this set of card correspondences, a reader might think that The Hierophant (High Priest) and the  Priestess association would be more appropriate; However, in many ancient societies, the Empress and Priestess where one and the same, as were the Emperor and the High Priest. This assured to them the necessary pure blood line.

Thank you for your interest, comments and supportive donations. Much appreciated! May you live long and prosper!