A Message from The Empress of the Tarot

Abundance

The Empress, who impressed me with her inner and outer beauty.

It’s been years since I picked up my Rider-Waite Tarot deck and looked at the collection of highly colourful characters and scenes, but today, for some unknown reason, I do.

As I shuffle, catching glimpses of the intriguing cards, I recall a suggestion which a lot of Tarot books recommend for those beginning to explore their meanings. That is, to select a card that you are drawn to, that you sense has a message for you, and tune into what that message is.

I bypass The Fool – pictured by a young man in a short tunic and boots, gazing into the sky as he blithely wanders towards a cliff edge, his head full of a dangerous mixture of faith and folly. He always carries a message for me!

But as an older woman, I’m looking for something different today. What else can I be, besides The (Perpetual) Fool?

Suddenly I spy something of interest. The Empress! I pull her out of the pack, push my keyboard out of the way and place her in front of me.

The Empress is sitting on a cushioned seat in a field of ripe wheat. There’s a row of tall trees behind her, a stream forming a waterfall to her left, and above is a sky full of sunshine.  She wears a crown of stars and holds a sceptre, two things I’ve never owned and never will.

After putting aside regret at my commonplaceness, I notice that her knees aren’t together.

I hear my mother’s stricture:

‘A lady always sits with her knees together, Marlane!’

Mum had obviously never seen this Empress! Of course, her fulsome white robe, dotted with halved pomegranates, flows over her parted knees and pools on the ground around her feet, but this parted-knees pose shows she’s open, inviting life in as well as pouring out abundance.

Abundance is her traditional message, along with fruitfulness, motherhood, generous gifts of nature, the season of spring, and beauty.

I sense that her message for me today is about having an abundant life.

Is my life abundant?

I ponder this awhile.

It certainly is. I live in the country, surrounded with lush bushland, birdlife and warm breezes. I am healthy and so are my children and grandchildren. There’s a bit of money in the bank, and when I last questioned him, my husband said he loved me.

So much for outer abundance. But what about my inner abundance?

I ask myself this because when I get out the magnifying glass that lives in my top desk drawer, and look closely at her eyes, I see that they are open but she isn’t looking at me. She’s looking to her right. And yet I get the impression that she is also looking inward, as if taking notice not only of all the abundance around her, but the abundance her heart also holds.

Ah! This detail is helpful. Being drawn to The Empress today isn’t about me figuring out how to afford a flowing gown, a crown and a sceptre, but about accessing what my heart holds.

The heart doesn’t contain transient gifts like wheat seeds, fruit trees, flowing water and sunlight. It contains timeless treasures like selflessness, generosity, gratitude and compassion.

I put down the magnifying glass and slip The Empress back in the pack, glad I’d spotted her today, appreciating her eternal message.

From now on, while no longer being overly concerned about keeping my knees together like my mother taught me, I’ll not only be aware of, and open to, the abundance that is flowing all around me. I’ll also tune into my heart to find the abundance that is nestling within, ready to be shared.

The Empress reminds me that there is abundance around and within me, when I take the time to look,

With love, Marlane