The Empress – The Crystal Tarot
Using myths, fairytales and stories is a great way to build a rapport with your Tarot cards, and can add great depth and meaning to your interpretations. Telling Tales is a series of blog posts in which I share the stories that I associate with the cards.
I’ve been thinking recently about gender representations and archetypes within the Tarot, and how they might correlate with the people I know in my daily life. While musing on this, I realised that the archetype of the strong mother isn’t immediately apparent in the imagery of the cards: most “aggressive” cards tend to come with male characters. This just doesn’t fit with my view of the world! I know my mother would tear down the sky to protect me, and I have friends with children who have fought battles with schools, governments and other parents to ensure that their child is safe and supported.
This realisation lead me to reassess the ultimate matriarch Tarot card: The Empress. Usually I associate The Empress with Demeter (a tale I will tell in another post), but I began to question if there was a myth that would express motherhood and fierceness, that would still apply to the card. And in my search, I found one.
Read on to discover how The Empress learned to snarl as Sekhmet, the Egyptian Goddess of divine retribution.
Empress – Ancient Egyptian Deck
Once upon a time in Egypt, Hathor was the daughter of the Sun god Ra and the goddess of mothers and women, beauty and music. Life and sexuality were her domain, but as The Lady of the West she carried the souls of the dead to their final resting place.
And so life went on, until war broke out in Egypt. North fought against South and South attacked North, until the fury of the humans turned skywards and they began to plan the murder of Ra.
Ra was furious, and so too was his mother: she gave her eye to Hathor and thus transformed the gentle, loving goddess into lion-headed Sekhmet.
Sekhmet
Sekhmet burned with a mother’s fury and a daughter’s rage that the people of Egypt would dare plot to kill Ra, and the fire of her anger scorched Egypt: she slew North and South indescriminately. Ra grew fearful. The new goddess he had created was more powerful than he had imagined, and so he devised a plan: he filled the Nile with a beer that had been stained crimson.
Sekhmet, mistaking the red alcohol for blood, lowered her head to the water and drank long and deep. So deep, in fact, that she became intoxicated and fell into a drunken sleep.
While the fierce goddess slept, Ra returned her to her original form as Hathor.
The people of Egypt could squabble amongst themselves to their heart’s content, but if their blood-lust ever turned upon Ra, then destructive Lady Sekhmet would be unleashed upon the land once more.
Empress – Thoth Tarot
How the Story Relates to the Card
In the beginning of the story, Hathor is the perfect Egyptian representation of the Empress: she is the patron goddess of mothers and is associated with milk and honey. Like Aphrodite (whose symbol – Venus – is often depicted somewhere on the Empress card), she is the deity of beauty and love and lust.
But when Ra is threatened, his mother lends Hathor her eye to create Sekhmet: the mother, fearful of her child’s safety, collaborates with Hathor, the daughter who wishes to protect her father, to create the divine embodiment of fierceness in order to protect her family.
Although this fierce mother archetype isn’t overtly symbolised within the Empress, she is still in there!
In a Reading
If The Empress appears in a challenging position (or even reversed), but the interpretation of luxurious woman turned sour just doesn’t seem to fit, it could be that the cards are telling you to tap into the fierce side of the Empress: the mother who will make any sacrifice to protect what is important to her. This will be especially true if other leonine cards are present in the spread: for example, Strength or The Queen of Wands (who has a little cat at her feet).
Strength – Ukiyo-e Tarot
Now, just because The Empress is the card of mothers, doesn’t mean that what you’re called to protect is a child: if the Sekhmet aspect of The Empress appears in your reading, ask yourself if anyone is taking liberties, or crossing your boundaries; in which case what you need to protect is yourself. Alternatively, you might feel passionately about protecting an endangered species, or defending the environment. Whatever battle you need to face, The Empress’ shadow side (Sekhmet) is right there with you, giving you strength and lending you her roar.
Strength – Ancient Egypt Tarot
