Tag: The Empress

The Fool’s Journey Through the Major Arcana: SunFest: The Empress

Posted C. LaVielleLeave a commentPosted in Major arcana, Tarot, The Hero's Journey

Empress: Hello, my children. And yes, you are the children of my body, for I am the Earth. The rivers, lakes, and oceans are my blood. The mountains are my bones and the rolling hills are my breasts, belly, and bottom. The wind is my breath. The fiery passion of the volcano and the raging storm reveal my awesome power. From me all things are born and unto me all things return. And I am all the goddesses, and all the queens, and all the mothers, and all the women who have ever walked the earth. I am fertility and abundance. And I am famine. I am love and comfort. And I am hunger and isolation. I challenge you to examine your relationships with your mother and grandmother, your sisters, your feminine lovers, and your wives; because they intimately affect how you attract and manifest abundance, and how you love, nurture, and find comfort in yourself and others. My divine love and blessings to you,… Read More »

Moonshine and the Major Arcana

Posted C. LaVielle2 CommentsPosted in Major arcana, Tarot, The Hero's Journey

The Moon is all about the way we interface with the unknown, or the unconscious , or the astral plane, or the spirit world, or the realms of gods, daemons, and demons, or parallel universes. These are the strange and frightening worlds every hero must travel to complete his or her quest. Since the keys of the major arcana trace the story arc of this journey, The Moon is a pivotal card, casting its eerie shadows over many of the other keys. The card most obviously connected to The Moon is The High Priestess because the planet attributed to this card is the Moon. To make absolutely sure you get the connection most depictions of this card are loaded with lunar images. The High Priestess is the guardian of the threshold between the known and the unknown, the conscious and the unconscious mind, the hero’s ordinary world and the world he must enter to complete his quest. She can either help or hinder him as… Read More »

The Virgin Mary, Isis, The High Priestess, and the Empress

Posted C. LaVielle11 CommentsPosted in Major arcana, Tarot, Uncategorized

It seems like a huge patriarchal rip-off that neither the Roman Catholic Church, the Greek Orthodox Church, nor the Russian Orthodox Church considers the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Mother of Christ, to be divine. They caution their flocks that they may honor and venerate Mary, but they must not worship her. In all fairness, she was a mortal. By all accounts, a nice Jewish girl that would have made a good wife for any doting mother’s son—until voila! The Immaculate Conception. This move is not without precedent. Seducing mortal women was one of Zeus’s favorite pastimes. But the key word here is seduced. At least Leda got to enjoy it. God didn’t seduce Mary. He didn’t even offer polite conversation. All she got was a visit from his messenger, the Archangel Gabriel, who said, “Honey, you’re pregnant. In nine months you will bear God’s son. Take good care of him so that he can grow up and be crucified.” She did. And he did. Mary… Read More »

The Empress, The Goddess, and The Earth

Posted C. LaVielle2 CommentsPosted in Major arcana

The Empress is the symbol of the Great Mother, and the Great Mother is the Earth. It’s her body. The rivers, lakes and oceans are her blood, the mountains are her bones, the rolling hills are her breasts, belly, and buttocks, and the wind is her breath. Every pagan knows this. But knowing something intellectually is not the same as knowing it with all your senses. I learned this lesson several years ago in Enna, Sicily as I stood on The Rocca di Cerere (Rock of Ceres) and looked out over a checkerboard of miles and miles of newly planted wheat fields. It was the Mediterranean growing season. Persephone had returned from the underworld and Demeter’s love and joy were pouring out of the earth. Magic swirled up out of that rock and tap-danced through my body. I felt like a flash drive that was plugged into the Mother Computer, downloading file after file of nourishing knowledge that would take years to assimilate. The town… Read More »

The Tarot Major Arcana and the Hero’s Journey: The Empress

Posted C. LaVielleLeave a commentPosted in Major arcana, Tarot, The Hero's Journey, Uncategorized

The year is just a smidgen of the way past Fall Equinox, The Harvest Festival. The farmer’s markets are bursting with fresh, local apples, pears, Italian plums, winter squashes of all shapes and colors, piles of bright orange pumpkins, tomatoes (finally), corn, wild crafted mushrooms, and golden, raw honey. For such a chilly summer, the northwest harvest has been bountiful—except for tomatoes. If the weather holds, even the grape harvest should be excellent, but late. What better time to talk about The Empress? She is The Great Mother, Mother Earth, Mother Nature, the nurturer; the one who showers us with beauty and bounty and reminds us that, yes indeed, there is plenty to go around if we’d all just behave ourselves and share. She lounges in the midst of a beautiful garden of ripe wheat, the universal symbol of nourishment. The waterfall behind her reminds us of her counterpart, The High Priestess, the ever virgin, mysterious guardian of the secrets behind the veil. But there… Read More »