Empress

Numerical Value : 3
Esoteric Title : Daughter of the Mighty Ones
Path 14 : Daleth (Door)
Chokmah – Binah
Planet : Venus
Double Letter : Peace – War
Sepher Yetzirah : Illuminating Intelligence

The Empress is the goddess of creation, giving life and taking it away. She is the Solar feminine, consciousness creating union. As the creative and destructive aspect of feminine energy, she is continuously conceiving new life in infinite variety and consuming it again it in death. As the motive power of love, she inspires creativity and passion of all kinds. When we love what we do our work shines. When we feel love for ourselves and for all created life forms, we become happy and productive. Love is the great creative energy of life, and so the Empress rules over all creation effortlessly. Who else but the great goddess can make things make themselves? She doesn’t bother forming men from clay, but simply delegates the endless perpetuation of material existence to the powers of attraction and reproduction.

The Empress is ruled by the planet Venus, or Aphrodite, who is a goddess of Love, in the broadest and highest sense. She rules not only sexual attraction, but the love between friends and colleagues, and even the love of an artist for their work. As passion in all its manifestations, her gift is the power to create new forms in any realm. She is the carrier of the dream who fertilises our aspirations. The mysterious phenomena of magnetic attraction goes much deeper than physical sexuality, and is an urge that is both psychological and spiritual. It is a desire to know and be known, the need of the soul for energetic interchange on higher levels. In the words of Dion Fortune, the cult of Aphrodite was “concerned with the subtle interaction of the life force between two factors; the curious flow and return, the stimulus and reaction, which plays so important a part of relations between the sexes, but extends far beyond the sphere of sex.”

The Empress is the Illuminating Intelligence, who fills us with enlightenment and inspiration. This title is a suggestion of her Solar Goddess origins, which are very clearly symbolised in this card, by her head dress and by the sun rising behind her. The Solar feminine is the life giving energy of the suns rays, which makes all things grow and heals our wounds and sorrows. The sun gives to all without favour, and under its blissful warmth we all come together joyously to create society and family. Its brilliant light gifts us with the power to see reality for what it is, and work with it constructively for the greater good. It can also bring death and drought, and so it has much in common with the great goddess. It’s very easy to understand why Sun Goddesses were so common throughout the ancient world and also why they have been so ruthlessly suppressed by the patriarchy.

The pink bat wings of this Empress are reminiscent of a birth canal, and they reach out to embrace the whole world. Her fingers elongating into wing bones represent our universal connection in spirit, and also reference the mega bat totem of the artist. She presides over the union of the waters of emotion with the fecund earth of material existence, the result of which is unlimited fertility, which is why a waterfall framed by lush vegetation forms her back drop. In the mythology of the Mesopotamian goddess Inanna, an earlier and more powerful version of Aphrodite, the rite of her sacred marriage to the vegetation god Dumuzi ensured the seasons harvest would be fruitful. Inanna was a goddess of both Love and War, reflecting the full spectrum of feminine divinity. Originally the deity was both dark and light, and only later became divided. The passions can lead to conflict as well as union, and in fact the two often come together, hence the meaning of the double letter of this card, Peace and War. If we are honest the desire to make love and the desire to fight are not so very different, either in intent or in result. The feminine archetype needs to be rebalanced by remembering its warrior aspect. Its all very well to hope for peace and kindness and love, but we also must be ready to fight when we have to. All nature must struggle to survive, and we are no exception.

Both the dove and the serpent are connected with the Tree of Life, the dove being the representative of the higher worlds and the serpent that of the lower chthonic realm. They are also often characterised as two types of love energy, one passive and the other aggressive, Agape and Eros. The dove represents the ability to give life and it appears in Christianity as a symbol of the Holy Spirit, which is fertilising the womb of the Grail in the Ace of Cups. The “Holy Spirit” has usurped the throne of Asherah, the original feminine divinity in the Hebrew triad. Father, Son and Holy Ghost are represented in the Qabalah by Chokmah, Tiphareth and Binah respectively, and Binah is very much the sephirah of the goddess. In this card the dove is perching on an alchemical symbol for Salt, which is the attribution of the Empress and the function of feeling. Salt represents Love and Tears and its properties are bitterness and wisdom. It also refers to the great primordial sea of Binah from which all life emerged. Tears and sorrow are bitter but they teach wisdom. Binah is ruled by Saturn and this is reflected in its emphasis on material restrictions. The gift of life is also a responsibility, and often a very demanding and limiting one.

The Hebrew letter that rules this card is Daleth, the Door or the Womb. The Empress is the womb of nature in all its abundant fruitful glory. She is all mothering and sublimely beautiful but also quite ruthless and brutal. Being born is the beginning of dying because what lives must inevitably die. So the door of Daleth goes both ways, being the Gate of Heaven from which all life emerges and through which it returns to dust. The path of Daleth on the Tree goes from Binah to Chokmah, linking the All Mother with the All Father, and forming a cross with the path of the High Priestess. Metaphorically she is the outpouring of life energy that results from the equilibration of the feminine and masculine polarities, natural creation in all its glory. Her crown is a flaming solar symbol of her ancient origins as a Sun Goddess, and it is surrounded by the twelve stars of the zodiac. Her gown is the green of the sphere of Netzach, which is the sphere of Venus. The number three refers to the product of the union between the one and the two, and is traditionally the number of the goddess.

If we want to have a future, we must learn the art of the gardener and the healer and become the faithful stewards of all creation. Our mechanistic, money driven society is toxic to anyone with a heart and soul, male or female, and at the core of its dysfunction is a lack of respect for our own feminine side, for the feminine divinity or archetype, and for Mother Earth herself. In order for us to evolve as individuals and as a species we must all learn to respect and value our creativity, and our emotional connection to the planet and all its inhabitants. Acknowledging the intrinsic spiritual unity and material interdependence of all life on Earth is the only hope we have to ensure our survival and the preservation of this beautiful planet. This profound realisation is the gift of consciousness, the illumination of the Solar feminine.

The values and qualities of the Empress are integral to our well being. She is compassionate, loving, and sensitive to the needs of all, with her arms open to embrace the world. There is a great power in her vulnerability, and in her uninhibited gift of love, especially when she remembers to include herself in her loving and caring, and establish healthy boundaries. An unbalanced manifestation of the Empress can result in an excess of self sacrifice, and a tendency to smother and over protect. It’s important not to try and compensate for the lack of Empress ability in others by doing everything for them. The power to nurture and create is available to all of us regardless of gender, and we don’t do anyone any favours when we allow them to avoid developing it. Our souls are bisexual, and we all have a feminine side and a masculine side. A balanced, sane individual has integrated both equally and actualised all four modes of self expression; intuition, feeling, thinking and sensation.

The Empress is a very powerful and demanding influence, requiring us to get real with our dreams and plant them into fertile earth. She judges by results and is not impressed by big talk and empty promises. She can also be a destructive and limiting force, because she binds souls into form and in doing so dooms us to experience death. This might be why our society has pushed her to the edges of consciousness, and denied the Goddess in our religion. We fear the Mother archetype, because she consumes us and controls us and we spend our formative years trying to escape her. Life is a journey in which we run from her grasp and then are unwillingly returned into her arms, and there is no escaping that fate, so we might as well relax and allow life to unfold as it wishes. The first lesson of creativity is the humble acceptance of what is given to us. We cannot consciously control or will our creations, but simply prepare to receive them. We prepare our tools, hone our skills and wait for the inspiration to arrive.

The great goddess is an inexorable force of nature who makes a mockery of our pretensions of mastery and control. We are free to act on our desires, but we do not choose our desires. Due to our cultural conditioning, when we envision the divine feminine we see only her light aspect, loving and maternal, but the truth is there is a much more elemental and sexual side to her. A limitless sexual energy and a limitless creative potential, which truly scare those not able to freely express their own elemental nature. Love is not just nurturing, it is all consuming, and often quite destructive. When people fear the feminine within, they fear loss of control and the forces of chaos. And yet it is from that chaos that all creativity and life energy emerges. Without surrender we become barren and lifeless. The divine feminine is the forces of nature, our animal passion, and the deep underlying connection to all life and to the Earth itself. It is the root chakra, the source of all our power and material existence.

The Magus

MAGUS

Numerical Value : 1
Esoteric Title : Magus of Power
Path 12 : Beth (House)
Kether – Binah
Planet : Mercury
Double Letter : Life – Death
Sepher Yetzirah : Intelligence of Transparency

The Magus inspires the transmission and exchange of new ideas and information, and potentiates our powers of communication. He has the ability to charm and persuade with words, resolving dualities and bridging separation. The Intelligence of Transparency suggests a revelation of inner truth that only honest communication can provide. It is a great unifying power teaching us that we are all One. Everyone we communicate with has some contribution to make to our (mutual) liberation. Staying open to new ideas and information is what keeps us vital and alive.

The staff of the Magus is planted firmly in the earth, underlining the vital importance of grounding ourselves in reality and cultivating our earth contacts before attempting to rise on the spiritual plane. When our channels are open the energy flows through us coming from above and below in a continuous life giving loop. This is the circuit of kundalini symbolised by the two snakes on the staff of the spine. “As above, so below”, the great mantra of Esotericism indicates that earthly forces are just as sacred as those of the spirit and that the godhood resides within each incarnated soul. Communicating directly with the godhood within is a prerequisite to any kind of creative work and establishing this contact through meditation and receptivity gifts us with wisdom and purpose.

The magic of communication creates connections between individuals, and interaction causes sparks of transformation to fly and catch fire, leading to a collective shift in consciousness and the evolution of the species. This is why the internet is such a powerful and revolutionary medium, allowing an unprecedented dissemination of esoteric knowledge as well as unlimited interpersonal connections. It seems to have accelerated the pace of change and transformation, both for better and for worse. The web is the natural element of the Magus archetype but its wise to remember to earth ourselves regularly by returning to nature and to the pleasures and demands of material reality. Without a solid connection to the earth the Magus cannot function as an effective channel for higher forces.

The Magus is adept at influencing and manipulating worldly affairs, and enjoys sprinkling the glittering dust of illusion and glamour to enchant and beguile the populace. In traditional interpretations he is often depicted as playing the conman to the dupe of the Fool. The Trickster figure in mythology represents the collective shadow, and is both a source of mayhem and chaos and of healing and enlightenment. We manifest the Trickster archetype in our own personal shadow, which is the source of our unconscious self sabotaging behaviour. Our inner Trickster often seems malicious and senselessly destructive, but when brought into conscious awareness it becomes the main source of our spiritual development and psychological healing. Its role is to stimulate the evolution of our consciousness. The bewildering and paradoxical nature of this idea reflects the innate contradictions within our own psyche. Every profound concept describes an energetic union of opposing forces.

The Magus is known as the Juggler, because he is so adept at keeping an infinite number of ideas and connections in the air at once. The ability to happily maintain contradictory ideas at the one time is the mark of a truly developed mind. At the base of the card is a five pointed star with the symbols of the four elements around it, plus the symbol for Aether at the top, the elusive fifth element. Aether is associated with the Major Arcana, while the four elements represent the suits of the Minors. The elements are the tools of the Magus, which he juggles to manifest his magic. 

The Hebrew letter of the card is Beth, which means house or dwelling place of spirit in the world of duality and illusion. The symbol of the house is a reminder of the earthly foundations that stabilise and centre our spiritual aspirations. The aim of existence is to make of ourselves a house fit for spirit to live in, a process of building our inner temple. The path of Beth leads from Kether to Binah and forms a roof over the Tree together with the path of the Fool (Aleph). The Word of Beth is a container for the elemental life breath of the Fool. As the path from ineffable Kether to the form building sphere of Binah it brings spirit directly into the material world, which is why the double letter is Life and Death. The house of Beth also symbolises the shelter and accommodation that mankind has found in co-operation and team efforts, for which communication is essential. Our skills with words and with writing have made us the dominant species on the planet. Recorded and transmitted knowledge has lead to the evolution of our uniquely self conscious species.

The card is attributed to Philosophic Mercury which in Alchemy is the dynamic transformational quality present in a substance. Mercury resolves the duality of Sulfur and Salt and so is associated with the equilibrating middle pillar of the Tree and with the white
sphere of Kether. It is associated with the deity Mercury or Hermes, known as the God of Communication and Exchange and the Lord of Illusion. Hermes symbolises balance and reciprocity and is a communicator between worlds, bringing the wisdom of the Gods to mankind and guiding us from this world into the next (a psychopomp). He is a later manifestation of the Egyptian god Thoth and the Mesopotamian god Ningizzhida, who was the original owner of the staff entwined with two snakes, and who was himself a Snake God. This staff is known as a Caduceus, and is a heralds staff as befitting the Messenger of the Gods. Its two intertwined snakes are traditionally dark and light, good and evil, wound into harmony around a central staff or in some legends copulating. The symbol of the twin spiralling snakes is also associated with the shape of our DNA in which the wisdom of all our ancestors is encoded. It is this intrinsic information that is revealed in altered states of consciousness.

The Caduceus also fits very well into the Tree of Life. If you consider the winged globe at the top of the staff as Kether, the shape and the intersections of the snakes and the staff correspond to the arrangement of the spheres of the Qabalah. The central pillar of the Tree is represented by the staff and the two snakes are the pillars of severity and mercy. The Caduceus is a symbol of a fully actuated individual who has realised and reconciled the divided and repressed elements of their personality, and found the Middle Way of harmony and balance. The snakes are the Yin and the Yang, the dark and the light, the angel and the animal which resides in us all. The androgynous Magus must accept and embrace all these contradictions in order to become a channel for divine power to manifest.

On a personal level meditating on the Magus teaches us to become aware of the power of our communications and to use them wisely. Our words can easily betray us, revealing our intentions in unintended ways. Words are destructive because once something has been named and defined it is diminished and contained. The most powerful and profound truths are always ineffable. It’s wise to make our communications mindful and to the point as they are magical acts with consequences. Concentration and clear focus are what gives our words and intentions the power to transform. The quality of our communication reflects the quality of thought behind it. Furthermore words must be spoken with genuine emotion in order to be effective and meaningful. It is a weakness to become disconnected from our emotions, and it diminishes the power and effectiveness of our communication, and our ability to honestly connect with others.

In my version of the card the winged globe of the Caduceus has become a flying fox with a flowering heart. The flying fox is a highly intelligent and social winged primate, the perfect symbol of the evolving human being. It is also my personal totem and magical companion and appears throughout the deck. The symbols of Yin and Yang and of Chaos and of the blossoming five petalled Rose of consciousness are lined along the length of the staff. These symbolise the diverse combination of mysteries that have informed my path of creation. The path of Beth is a receptive one, and leads to the sphere of Binah and so the hands of the Magus have eyes after the fashion of the Qat Inanna, the ancient symbol of the hand of the Mesopotamian goddess Inanna. They signify that the Magus is acting from a place of conscious awareness, as do the myriad eyes of his peacock coat. He is the manifestation of the Peacock Angel, the mythical result of the combined will of the divine twins. The divine twins represent the two outer pillars of the Tree of Life, and the uprights of the doorway of transformation. The Magus is a card of resolving opposites and bridging worlds, the great force of unification.

© Sarah Wheatley 2017