3. The Empress
The Nutshell
Upright
The Empress represents a period of growth that stems from care, attention, and consistency. This card often appears when you’re investing time and energy into something that requires long-term nurturing, whether that’s a project, a relationship, your health, or your personal development. There’s a strong emphasis on creating stability through daily habits, tending to your environment, and honouring what supports your well-being. It encourages receptivity rather than control, and a commitment to allowing things to unfold in their own time. Whilst an independent archetype, The Empress knows that to create means the alchemical blending with others that’s based on mutual trust, intention and respect.
Keywords: Growth, support, care, receptivity, consistency, development, well-being
Translation: Something is developing. Give it the time, space, and attention it needs.
Reversed
When The Empress appears reversed, it may point to imbalance in how energy is being distributed. You might be prioritising others’ needs at the expense of your own, or overextending yourself in ways that leave little room for restoration. In some cases, it reflects creative frustration, a lack of motivation, or a disconnect from your physical needs. The card prompts a return to the foundational care of rest, nourishment, boundaries… and a reassessment of where and how your energy is being spent.
Keywords: Depletion, imbalance, neglect, creative block, over-extension, disconnection
Translation: Reassess where your energy is going. Support begins with meeting your own needs.
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’ influence is magnetic and invites you to create from a place of ease. She’s the planet of good taste 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-entrepreneur-chef-accountant. 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, and aesthetic flair. These signs invite us to enjoy the tangible world without guilt; beauty, touch, creativity and connection as divine acts.
Numerologically: Three is the number of creation, expansion and things moving after the turning inward of the High Priestess. It’s where an idea becomes form and a spark becomes 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 sanctum.
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. You’ve been tending to everything but yourself - checking in on colleagues, managing household responsibilities, and trying to offer support where it’s needed. Despite your efforts, tasks pile up, relationships feel strained, and even small acts of care feel like obligations. Exhaustion sets in, and your own needs remain unacknowledged.
Adjusting the Knobs
You begin to recognise where your limits are. You offer support, but notice when it depletes you. You attempt to engage creatively or reconnect with your body through food, rest, or movement, but the results are inconsistent. You’re working hard, but things aren’t easy yet. However, you’re noticing the imbalance.
Unsubscribed from Self-Sabotage
You finally water your plants, moisturise with intention, and remember to eat lunch before 3pm. You follow through on small, restorative actions and make time for yourself. You give without expectation and start to release guilt around needing space or rest. Your attention turns inward for repair.
Writing the TED Talk
You’re flourishing and you don’t even have to leave the house. You move through your day with clarity and responsiveness; creative work flows, your space feels supportive, and your relationships feel mutual. There’s time for both effort and pause. What you give has roots in what you’ve already tended to in yourself. The pace is sustainable, and your presence at work, home, and with others feels steady and whole.
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. 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 weeding?
3. Let Venus and Taurus be your guides
– Where are you being asked to soothe 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 emotional care-giving. It's the Empress in practice: offering yourself the kindness you extend to others, instead of the inner criticism you reserve for yourself because of impossible standards you’ve inherited. Resilience is rooted in care that starts with how you treat yourself.
So 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? Tanning skin?
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?
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 spoke 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 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.