3. The Empress
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Welcome to Soulchology’s worksheets, your starter-kit into an intuitive self-enquiry using tarot and astrology. I write these in my usual dry humour, which reflects the tone of my sessions too, because learning is intense enough without stripping it of humanity. A little wit makes the wisdom easier to digest!
Anyway, while full sessions include numerology, Lenormand, and therapeutic layers, these worksheets are your solo starter kit designed to get you going without frying your nervous system.
Grab your deck, take a breath and don’t overthink it. No altar required. You can read these on your lap, mid-commute, or in bed with questionable lighting. If you know current transits, great, add them in. If not, the cards still work because they’re generous like that.
And, if you shuffle really fast, they love to fling out like you’re live in an episode of Ghosts and Trevor is standing next to you.
Each sheet prompts you to connect the cards with your real life, that is, not your aspirational, one-day-when-I-journal-daily life. Pay attention to the artwork, colours, symbols, and emotional tone because tarot is layered, not linear. Study only what leaps out, don’t go looking for clues.
This isn’t about mystical perfection, it’s about noticing yourself. Your thoughts, your choices, your patterns. If you’re new to tarot and feeling twitchy about it, you might want to read my piece on Substack that gently dismantles the pressure.
My advice is to pull (or fling) your card at the end of the day, not first thing. That way, you’re reflecting and not pre-loading your brain with vague forecasts. It’s a faster way to build intuitive confidence and a more honest way to learn what the cards actually mean to you.
The Nutshell
Upright
The Empress is that friend who possesses the ability to keep a plant alive without trying, and shows up with cake and soothing words. She’s creation in full bloom; sensual, earthy and wildly unapologetic about needing comfort and beauty. She represents nurture, pleasure, fertility, the homeland, and the kind of abundance that comes from trusting natural cycles. She wants you to know that life grows through you so stop micromanaging the soil and let it.
Keywords: Creativity, abundance, nurture, beauty, sensuality, growth, natural rhythm.
Translation: Life is fertile. Take care of what’s blooming, especially if it’s you.
Reversed
When The Empress shows up reversed, it’s less “goddess of growth” and more “exhausted caregiver who forgot to water herself.” You might be over-nurturing others, neglecting your own needs, or creatively blocked because perfectionism is holding the scissors. Sometimes it shows up when you’re craving validation instead of giving it to yourself, or when you’re disconnected from your body like it’s a task manager instead of a living thing. Her reminder: you can’t pour from an empty chalice, or grow a garden in a tanning booth. Nourish yourself like you matter. Because you do.
Keywords: Creative block, over-giving, depletion, disconnection, self-neglect.
Translation: Put the love and energy where it’s most starved: back into you.
ii. Illus-traits
A quick glance at The Empress’ symbolic traits in the Rider-Waite-Smith deck - what's hidden in plain sight?
Crown of Stars – Understanding the universe, beyond just taking care of our world.
Wheat at Her Feet – Harvest and abundance. The result of cycles honoured.
Venus Symbol on Heart Shield – Love that protects as well as comforts.
Flowing Robe – Receptivity in motion. Nothing forced.
Lush Forest and Stream – Nature as source. Unfurl, because creative energy comes from connection.
iii. Influences
Planetary: Venus rules The Empress. She’s the planetary CEO of beauty, love, pleasure, art and the kind of abundance that says yes to dessert. Venus arrives to attract, to indulge, and to remind you that “soft” doesn’t mean “ineffective.” Her influence is magnetic and invites you to create from a place of ease. She’s the planet of good taste, good vibes, and knowing your worth, ideally before you burn out trying to prove it.
Natal House(s): The Second House, ruled by Venus, governs your values, resources and your relationship to self-worth, aka the internal voice that decides whether you’re buying flowers or telling yourself you don’t deserve nice things. It’s the house of material and emotional security, where your abundant mindset is either blooming or buried under guilt. The Fifth House also resonates here: creativity, pleasure, fertility, romance and child-like joy. Together, they remind you that it’s okay to enjoy life.
Astrological Sign(s): Taurus, Venus-ruled and reliably grounded, is the zodiac’s sensual gardener; slow, steady and always ready with a plate of sausage-rolls. It mirrors the Empress’ love of comfort, embodiment and sticking close to what’s real. Libra also plays a part here, bringing in harmony, balance, aesthetic flair and the ability to make even a mess look intentional. These signs invite us to enjoy the tangible world without guilt; beauty, touch, creativity and connection as divine acts, not distractions.
Numerologically: Three is the number of creation, expansion and things finally getting moving after that awkward “sitting quietly and reflecting” phase. It’s where an idea becomes a form and a spark becomes something alive. In Tarot, three brings collaboration, growth, and sometimes scattered energy, but it’s the fertile kind. With the Empress, three reminds you that making something real, whether it’s a project, a pie, or a person, starts by trusting your inner rhythm. You don’t have to rush, you just have to grow.
Element: Earth represents fertility and physical reality. The Empress embodies this abundance, showing that creation stems from stable and nurturing energy. How can you stay present and connect with what is thriving around you?
iv. A Day in the Life of The Empress
Well That Escalated Quickly
You try to “nurture” everyone and end up emotionally parenting your group chat, your coworker and your houseplants, who are all somehow still wilting. Or you buy $200 worth of art supplies to “get creative again” and spend the afternoon napping in a sunbeam instead.
Adjusting the Knobs
You bake banana bread to feel grounded and forget the baking powder. Or you lovingly make someone a gift and immediately resent them for not crying about it.
Unsubscribed from Self-Sabotage
You finally water your plants, moisturise with intention, and remember to eat lunch before 3pm. Or you wear something floral and feel 12% more powerful all day.
Writing the TED Talk
You create something beautiful, receive compliments like a queen and experience abundance that says, “I have what I need and it feels good.” You’re flourishing and you didn’t even have to leave the house.
v. Working with these Energies
Rooting into Abundance with Embodied Ease
The Empress reclines in a field of wildflowers reminding you that rest is revolutionary and essential to creation. She’s your call to nourish yourself with intelligence. When The Empress shows up, especially reversed, it’s a velvet-gloved slap to stop starving your creative self or outsourcing your value to external metrics. If you’re pushing, forcing or wilting under “shoulds,” she’s here to remind you to tend to yourself as the priority you are.
1. Return to your body, not your to-do list
– When did you last check in with how you feel instead of what you “should” do?
– Have you been nourishing yourself, or just feeding the expectations of others?
– What would it look like to choose rest without guilt?
2. Serve your creative cycle
– Are you honouring your natural rhythms or running on someone else’s calendar?
– When was the last time you created something “just because?”
– What wants to grow right now and what needs composting?
3. Let Venus and Taurus be your guides
– Where are you being asked to soften rather than strive?
– How do pleasure, presence and beauty show up in your everyday life?
– What one small act of grounded joy can help you reconnect with your power?
4. Reciprocate, reciprocate, reciprocate
– Have you been over-mothering others while under-nurturing yourself?
– Is your care coming from overflow or obligation?
– How would The Empress remind you that your own garden comes first?
5. Cultivate with patience, love and trust
– Pick something to tend to slowly be that a plant, a project or a part of yourself
– What happens when you give it consistent, gentle attention?
– Could showing up with steadiness instead of urgency bring more ease to your growth?
vi. Building Skills
Inner Nurturing Through Supportive Self-Talk
The Empress speaks to your capacity for care, creation, and the cultivation of both yourself and others. But receiving that same tenderness inwardly is a skill and as humans we’re not hardwired to be this way through default. Nurturing begins with the voice inside your head.
Consider this: Choose one encouraging phrase to carry with you today. Something like “I’m still standing,” “I deserve gentleness,” or “I know how to grow through this.” Let it be believable and something your wiser self might whisper on a hard day.
Repeat it when self-doubt creeps in, or when you're on the edge of giving up.
This is not popular psychology, it’s emotional care-giving. It's the Empress in practice: offering yourself fertile ground instead of inner criticism. Because resilience is rooted in kindness which starts with you.
Start by speaking to yourself like someone worth growing.
vii. Embodiment
Tarot is a language, but it’s also a felt experience. Embodiment is how you move it from the page into your body, your senses, your real life. This is presence. Before you try and memorise what The Empress means, feel her meaning. When you learn a card through sensation, i.e. what it smells like, where it lands in your body and how it shows up in your day, you make it personal and move beyond concept. Consider these to embody The Empress:
Smell: If The Empress were a scent, what would it be? Freshly cut flowers? Warm earth after rain? Sweet fruit on a summer day?
Body: Where do you feel it when you think about nurturing, comfort or creativity? Is it in your heart, your hands, your sacrum?
Soundtrack: What song feels like The Empress’s energy right now?
Action: What could you do today that feels nurturing, restorative, or creatively inspired?
Nature cue: Step outside. What in your surroundings reflects Empress energy? A blooming flower? A lush tree? A soft breeze?
Notice what shifts: The goal is to feel grounded, connected and abundant. Let the Empress’s energy flow through you.
viii. Your Impressions
Look at The Empress card in your own deck if possible. Take a moment to observe without overthinking.
What stands out to you most?
How does this card feel in your body or mood: grounded, abundant, calm, nurturing?
If this card whispered a sentence to you, what would it say?
ix. Intuitive Meaning
Use this space to reflect on what The Empress means to you personally:
When have you allowed yourself to receive, rest, or be nourished in a way that surprised you?
Where in your life are you ready to create or nurture something new, but haven’t yet committed?
What would it mean to trust that you are worthy of abundance and comfort, exactly as you are?
Applied insight with a three card reading using The Empress as your anchor:
What area of your life needs more nurturing or care right now?
What creative energy is asking for expression or cultivation?
What can you do today to feel more connected to your body or your senses?
Pull or shuffle-fling your cards and note your feelings. Take your time and let the answers unfold.
Write your own Keywords
Write three you words that relate to your current experience:
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x. Closing Reflection: Track Your Evolving Lens
Your relationship with each card will grow over time because it’s meant to shaped by your life. Consider the prompts below to revisit and reflect.
What I thought this card meant when I first pulled it: —————————————————
A recent experience that changed how I see it: —————————————————
How I feel about it now, in my body or life: —————————————————
What surprised me as this card kept showing up: —————————————————
One way this card is living in my life right now: —————————————————
If this card visited me today as a guide, what would it want me to remember? —————————————————
Revisit these after a week, a moon phase, or a meaningful moment. Let the card evolve as you do.
If you feel a quiet sense of recognition, curiosity and want to explore it, browse the sessions page for what feels right.