Tarot Card Comparisons: The Thoth Tarot-Key 3-The Empress & The SpellCaster's Tarot- Key 3- The Empress

The Empress represents the Universal Womb, in which all manifestation is gestated. As I have said before in past blogs, she is the Path of Daleth (means-Door) that spans between Chokma (All Father) and Binah (All Mother) and is a Transitional state of Psychic Energy. The 2nd Sephiroth-Chokma, is a Hebrew feminine noun, and has the capacity to emanate the "Pure female" (called Virgin Goddess); However, the 3rd Sephiroth-The Empress/Path of Daleth, is the merging of the Intelligent Energy states masculine and feminine; of Chokma and Binah. She is the pregnant balance of incubation and passivity. It is this Door/Daleth that effects the transition from One into Many, thus being the Gate of Heaven and/or Mother Nature.

I have always called the Empress, "The Womb with a View" as she transforms all idea into form, by "will to form". She represents both the Universal Mother and  Earth Mother, and almost every culture, ancient and new, has some form or name for her. She is the Mother of Gods, usually symbolized as the Moon, which is both light and dark, life and death and shown on the Thoth Card is Cresent and dark form. She often gives birth to an intermediary deity, such as Christ, Osiris, Mithras, Odin etc., usually Sun gods who rule the earth in her name. Hence she is often shown pregnant. However, on the Thoth Card, she is shown as a White Swan, nuturing her young from the blood of her breast. For, it is Mother's blood that we are all made of.

At this high-Supernal Triangle-stage on the Qabalistic Tarot Tree of Life, 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. Both the SpellCaster's and the Thoth Tarot, also us sacred geometry, along with alchemical, astrological and Qabalistic symbols, which stimulate subjective thought. 

The Empress is often called the "Mother of Light" since the Dark Fiery Energy of Chokma, enters the Womb that is the High Priestess, who gestates the egg of Akasha, while The All Mother as the Empress passes through Her as a "birth-door" (Vagina), the form of light that we can see. Hence, she is often seen drawn on traditional tarot with a light face (Empress) and dark face (High Priestess).

  One often finds that the Thoth Tarot, concentrates more on the Deep Occult, while the SpellCaster's Tarot concentrates its art on the art of the Rider-Waite-Smith style, but with a more modern twist.

Therefore, the Empress is both light and dark and as did Juno/Janus the Roman Goddess and later God of communication ( the Latin janua means door) which is the passage of ideas, and was said to control the affairs of men. The Roman patriarchal-two faced god, Janus was originally the goddess- Juno, who bore the "Gate of Heaven"  title of the Sanctuary Screen in Christian Churches, derived from the yoni "gate" of Juno that was "veiled" by the hymen (a god) in her own Temples.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: Hymen (god)       

Hymen (Ancient Greek: Ὑμήν), Hymenaios or Hymenaeus, in ancient Greece, was a god of marriage ceremonies, inspiring feasts and song. Related to the god's name, a hymenaios is a genre of Greek lyric poetry sung during the procession of the bride to the groom's house in which the god is addressed, in contrast to the Epithalamium, which was sung at the nuptial threshold. He was one of the winged love gods, Erotes.

He was the son of a muse, Clio or Calliope or Urania or Terpsichore.

   As the "god of Weddings" the female hymen, really needs no great explanation of human sexual traditions.

As a personification of the Gate Way to Heaven, Juno had two outwardly facing faces, one for Life and the other for Death. The Tarot Empress is also known as Mother Sun and Mother Moon (High Priestess)...they are both the same metaphoric description of the Intelligent Energy that builds Worlds out of Light through the gestating power of Knowledge and the birthing power of Understanding.

Yet, the primary goddess-form related to the Empress is 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 so beautiful and compelling that we can be in danger of losing sight of the whole by the dazzle of the parts. This is about what we do with the human body----as spirit, Fiery energy,  we supply the whole of emotion (energy in motion) to our forms, but often the individual emotional parts become so hypnotic that we forget the Whole Self for the focus of the parts. We become servants to the senses that dazzle us with beauty, and forget that we are The Beautiful Dark that Operates "The Forms veiled in Light". It behooves us to state:  "I AM the Spirit and thus, the Life of the Body. The body is an alive simulation of Life".

As Aphrodite-Venus, the Tarot Empress is the Goddess of Love. In fact, the symbol of Venus encompasses the entire Tree of Life which expresses the truth 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). God 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.  The study of the Empress card is indeed needed for the Self-Knowledge of the student Qabalist.

-Eli

It can never be overstated that these cards or keys, represent states of conscious energy that comprise our Psyche of Whole-Self, which is a collective represented by the 78 tarot cards.

In The Tarot- key 3, The Empress, is the symbol of the universal principle of love with wisdom. She is a symbol of our ability to extend love and receive love. In Jungian psychology, she is the anima, the feminine nature.

As seen on the Thoth card,the moon is a western symbol for the feminine-magnetic-nature that is receptive to the male-electric-expressive-nature, usually symbolized as the sun. The images of the Moon waxing and waning, on the Thoth Card represent the dual faces of the Empress; Life and Death. The blue lotus, that is represented on the Thoth Empress card, is the Eastern symbol for wisdom. She is the yin energy of the orient. Key 3 reminds us that love with wisdom is the capacity to nurture and support ourselves in equal proportion to how we nurture and support others. The Pelican feeding her young from the blood of her breast represents, the Mother's blood that nurtures us all. 

The Qabalistic  Tarot- The Empress-Key 3, is attributed to Daleth, the Hebrew letter that means Door, and is ruled by the vibrations of the Planet Venus.

On the face of it, the Empress is a compliment to the Emperor-Key 4, Hence, the Thoth Tarot Empress and Emperor are designed so that the Empress and the Emperor face each other. However the Empress's attributes are more Macrocosmic and Universal as compared to his more Microcosmic and material attributes of the Emperor. Hence, he is shown on the SpellCaster's Tarot as the Bull of Heaven, which also represents  the sacred animal of earth.

The path of Daleth (on the Hermetic Qabalah Tree of Life) unites the All-Father and All- Mother, Chokma (2-Wisdom) and Binah (3-Understanding). Despite the number sequence, this is not saying one came before the other, rather Chokma -Wisdom and Binah- Understanding are inseparable and simultaneous. For when the Kether (Crown) became I AM---so became existence which is the United combination of Feminine and Masculine.

Also showing this spontaneous union of the Divine Anima and Animus, there is the astrological  symbol of Venus, on the bottom right of the Thoth Card and the Anglo Saxon Rune of "Ing-Waz" on the SpellCaster's Empress's shield. "Ing-Waz" or "Ing", stands for Harmony, love, beauty, approval, etc., which are all attributes of Venus.

The Doctrine implied here, is that the fundamental formula for the Universal creation is Love (The Law of Attraction). 

The Magnetic Womb, and Women is difficult to summarize in one word. Therefore the Greek quote."Many-throned, many-minded, many-wiled, daughter of Zeus", points us into the direction of the mystery that is "The Womb With A View" (I-magi-nation).

The Empress, is both the Highest Spiritual and lowest of  material qualities (as above, so below) as she is the Mother of Form on all planes of existence while  she is also the Alchemical SALT which is one of the three forms of alchemical energy (Mercury and Sulfur are the other two). Salt is seen as the inactive part of Nature (Womb-egg) that must be stimulated by Sulfur (Phallus-semen) to maintain the whirling (spiral) equilibrium of the Universe. The Arms and torso of the Thoth Deck Empress illustration consequently suggests the shape of the Alchemical symbol of Salt.

The Empress Tarot card of both the Thoth and SpellCaster's Tarot, shows a women in crown, Hathor like on the Thoth and a crown of Stars and Wheat on the head of the SpellCaster's Empress.Illustrating she is both Fertile and royal. The Stars on the SpellCaster's Empress, suggest she is the Ruler of the Zodiac, and "the Gate of Heaven" is shown in the background.  The Thoth Empress is  wearing vestments of  the Imperial, seated upon a throne. On the Thoth Card, Her throne uprights suggest blue twisted flames symbolic of Her birth from Water, the Feminine Element that is Magnetic. 

Clutched in the right hand of the Thoth Empress stands a Lotus of Isis; suggesting the Passive Power of the Feminine (the Power that Contains). The roots of the Lotus are in the Earth beneath the Water itself, but its petals are open to the Sun, suggesting the belly of the chalice, i.e. the Holy Grail. She is then the Living Form of the Holy Grail

( Graäl) sanctified by the blood of the Sun (the Sun ejaculates energy which she accepts; semen is of blood).  Perched on the Thoth Empress's Throne uprights are a sparrow and a dove, her most sacred birds. On her robe are the Royal Bees and dominoes surrounded by continuous spiraling lines. Her girdle is the Zodiac. The symbol of the Womb's Love of Form is everywhere similar on this card.

The SpellCaster's Empress's left hand holds the scepter and orb with cross, of Royal Empire rule and power. The flowers, in the far background suggest the five petaled Sacred Rose, The Rose-Mari, a symbol for the "Yoni of Mari", the early Ocean Goddess of Mesopotamia and surrounding area. Later the Rose-Mari became the Western symbol of the "Holy Graäl. This symbol not only shows her fecund nature but also states she is the All Mother Form Creator. Her ample breasts, show she is a nurturing mother. In the sky, behind the Gate of Heaven, is the solar golden oval, of her "husband". 

The tapestry beneath the Thoth Empress's Throne is embroidered Fleur-de-lys and fishes (fishes being the symbol of the First Matter) and also the Secret Rose which is at the base of the Throne. This is the Rose-Mari, a sacred symbol/Grail of the ancient Goddess Mari-The Ocean Goddess, who was seen as the Womb of all Life on Earth. On this card there are no contradictions; what seems to contradict are held in equilibrium by the revolving moons shown on this card.

The heraldry of the Empress is two fold. On her right is a Swan feeding its own young with blood from its heart. On her left, is the white Eagle of the Alchemist-The Philosophic mercury which symbolizes the "first Matter" and/or "first semen"( Meditation and study, will clarify the deeper meanings of this Heraldry). The Swan can be identified as The Great Mother, whose "hearts blood" nurtures her offspring as her "Daughter/Queen who becomes the Mother  of many". The understanding of this Hermetic symbolism is as deep as the Ocean, and that is the why and wherefore of path initiations. Love is not a human emotion for it emotes form the Ocean of The Universal Collective Unconscious, from which all Life became. To seek love, is to deny being  love; rather we are Love who Creates Itself as off-spring, i.e. "Self Reflection". 

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