III – The Empress Tarot Card

Divine Mother. Earth Goddess. Goddess of Love.

Pythagoras considered 3 the first “real” number, and in the tarot deck, The Empress tarot card takes the non tangible essences of The Magician and The High Priestess and brings them into physical reality with a third, whole new being.

The Empress tarot card represents the divine mother, literally or metaphorically: fertility, creativity, bringing forth and giving birth to something new into the universe. In Greek mythology, she is mighty Aphrodite, and Venus incarnate to the Romans, the lover and nurturer. In Latin, Venus translates directly as “sexual love” and “sexual desire,” hence the association of her name to romantic and sexual love.

While The Empress embodies sex, beauty, enticement, and seduction in the most literal sense, she is much more than a love goddess. With the number three assigned to her, The Empress tarot card represents two opposites coming together to create a whole new being. She is the artists’ muse, divine inspiration, and the balance of extremes.

“Venus is the power that we invoke in spring, in the garden, when things begin growing. And we call the evening star Venus… Under the sliding star signs she fills the ship-laden sea and the fruitful earth with her being; through her the generations are conceived and rise up to see the sun; from her the storm clouds flee; to her the earth, the skillful maker, offers flowers. The wide levels of the sea smile at her, and all the quiet sky shines and streams with light.”

Ursula Le Guin

The Empress represents creativity and the unconditional love of the mother and the muse. In The Empress, divine intention becomes concrete reality in giving birth physically or spiritually.