March 30-April 1, 2017: III. The Empress
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III
THE EMPRESS
(Venus)“Thou art about me & through me. Thy kisses are at once in all places. The moist folds of thy skin are open & engulfing & devouring the whole of me. Yet I am thy gate, & the shaft of thy burning & luminous love impales me & rips me & feeds me even as thy mouth, thy touch, thy womb swallows me up.”
MEDITATION COLOR: Green.
HEBREW LETTER: Daleth, door, gate; especially the yoni as Gate of Life. Greek Delta is a triangle, with all it implies.
CARD NAME: Empress (a form of “emperor” specifically chosen to convey a feminine idea) from Latin imperatrix, imperare, “command.” The Indo-European root for “priest/priestess” has exactly the same spelling and sound as that for “emperor/empress,” though they are different words: per, which in this other form means, “to produce” or “to procure.”
ESOTERIC MEANING: The Luminous Consciousness. It is the substance of that speaking silence (or brilliant flame) that is the instructor in the Secret Foundations of Holiness and of their (stages of) preparation.
TREE of LIFE: Binah to Chokmah. (Links ‘Understanding’ and ‘Wisdom’; or Intuition with Infinite Will, Neshamah with Chiah; or ‘the Mother’ with ‘the Father,’ the stream of life flowing into the matrix-womb of its material manifestation. Creative force operating in the field of unconsciousness.)
**ESOTERIC TITLE: **The Daughter of the Mighty Ones
TANTRIC & ALCHEMICAL SIGNIFICANCE: Alchemical Salt (Tamas).
DIVINATION: Love, beauty, happiness, pleasure, sensuousness, fruitfulness, success, completion, graciousness, elegance, friendship, gentleness, delight. But with very bad dignity, it means luxury, idleness, debauchery, dissipation.
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She is fertility, the matrix of creativity, and the magical imagination. She represents the door through which life and light flow like electricity magnetically induced. Her sphere is all rose and blue--lovely yet deep, gentle but unwavering in her devotion. Her lily staff could not be more upright or phallic, and her posture while reposed is not obviously receptive, other than the arm outstretched ready to cradle some new life (while still comfortably seated on her thone). She is energetic and vibrant like the tide, there is no passivity here, although she is quiet. The cross and sphere at her crown suggest the composition and formulation of the matter the Emperor later holds in hand. She often represents some matriarch, frequently revealing issues with one's feminine side (or mother), especially for males, and might suggest some emergence into adult womanhood (sometimes motherhood) for female querents.
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She is ready,
All the provisions are here at hand,
She's offering a seat at her table
A place in her bed
For someone who'll follow
The rules of the role
And when the order comes
From a voice so honey sweet
What fool could fail
To fall to his feet?
Who could be so mean
As to refuse the
Sweetness of her cup?
