As a Mother, one of my all time favorite things to do is talk about my children. I love to talk about how smart, beautiful, funny, perfect and just like me they are. One of my fondest memories was sharing king crab legs with my little girl. I was sitting at the table cracking them open and dipping them in thick drippy butter. She crept up and said, “Mommy, I want some.” As I broke the leg open and pulled out the soft center she oooed and aaahed. I dipped it into the butter and she opened her teeny mouth wide. As the new tastes overtook her baby palate her eyes lit up and she smiled a huge tiny toothed smile. “Oh, Mommy, Monsters are delishusssh!!!” When she was small she used to chase fireflies and yell, “My babies! My babies!!” And, when it comes to her little brother, she’s just like the cartoon character Elmira. She wants to hug and squeeze the stuffing right out of him, and he won’t make a move without her. I call her my little Empress.
The Empress is the 3rd card in the Major Arcana. She represents a mother figure and the positive aspects of domesticity and stability. On the Empress card she is seen pregnant or with a child to emphasize her role as a mom. She wears a crown of 12 stars, you’ll see corn/wheat in carvings or surrounding her to represent harvest/fertility, and the crescent moon symbolic of Isis. Other great mothers, for example Mary and Demeter are oftentimes referred to as the Empress. Venus is also significant to this card.
When The Empress shows her face in a spread it can be indicative of a mother, wife, sister, or some other important woman in the home. The Empress might also represent a female business owner or the need to foster a great idea or plan. If she appears inverted this can refer to an ex-wife, being smothered/over mothered, possibly an unfaithful wife. However, remember, the question and the surrounding cards help to define this for the querent.
The Queen of Cups is very similar to the Empress but she does have her own definitions. She is a favorite lady, a wife, a lady led by emotions, a dreamer, a poet, and a secret keeper. Inverted she may be over dramatic, nosy, gossipy, addicted, indulgent, and spoiled. On the card she is a very pretty blonde haired woman, usually in red (Queen of Hearts). If reading about someone’s physical traits blonde, possibly plump, pretty and maybe (but not limited to) being over 40, are the characteristics you’d translate.
In career spreads she may represent a counselor, therapist, or a secretary/support staff.
In my relationship spreads, the Empress and the Queen of Cups may refer to wives, girlfriends and objects of affection. If you reference the blog The High Priestess and the Queen of Wands, you should be able to compare and contrast the dynamic of triangular relationships. If you can’t yet wrap your mind around the ins and outs of the dynamic because your heart won’t let you, you really need to get a reading to not only see how things will be, but WHY.
One of my most definitive memorable readings was one I did around 1989/90. I was learning a deck and had positioned myself in a discreet spot at one of the areas newer coffee houses. A very thin, dark haired woman came up to me and said, “So, yew think yer a tay-row readuh.” I don’t even know what I said to her to get her to sit down, maybe I said nothing, but I do know that she ordered me to tell her things no one else would know. So, I laid out the cards and out popped all these people. It wasn’t just person after person though. It was one man in contrast to one woman. Another man in contrast to another woman. Then another. Then another. Perhaps another. The next thing I know she’s rearing her head back and laughing this maniacal laugh, revealing what had to have been anywhere between 500 to 1000 teeth. I really think there were rows, but you know me…
“So, yew really are readin’ the TAY-ROW,” she said with a very deep, over-exaggerated southern drawl. After my terror subsided, I read more to her of what I had spread before us. As it turns out, all these people were her and her thousands of luvuhs (ok, 6 serious ones). “I loved them awl!” She declared and then began to open up about each one and the twists and turns of their fates. I remember this because it was the first time I was paid well for a reading. I’d like to say, “I can’t tell you who it was but you can find her memoirs on the shelves,” and give hints…but she was just an ordinary lady with an extraordinary life.
*Please try to remember that we as individuals are not always represented by the same card in every reading. For example, if you are inquiring about your career, you may appear as the Queen of Cups. However, if you are inquiring about relationships, you may appear as the High Priestess. If you are asking about a married guy you have a crush on, you may appear as a Magician, etc.
