Hebrew Name: Daleth (door, womb)
A door or gate is an opening and passageway which both admits and bars
passage. A door or gate has the following associations:
"defense, protection, preservation, conservation, [...] ingress and egress,
transmission, diffusion, dissemination, division, partition,
administration" 1 Daleth is also symbolic of the womb, the
gateway of life.
As a double letter, Daleth is attributed to the opposites of Wisdom and Folly. Our ideas and mental creations may be wise or foolish depending upon both the quality of the initial seed thought or premise, and upon our subconscious response.2
Qabalistic Intelligence: The Luminous
Intelligence
Creative Imagination, images, and ideas which emerge from subconsciousness
into self-conscious awareness are illuminating. You get an
"idea" and the light bulb turns on.
Astrological Correspondence: Venus
Venus is the planet of love and pleasure. Venus presides over love,
child birth, art, beauty, adornment and decoration, affection, and
friendship.
Number: 3
Three is symbolic of "Multiplication, development, growth, unfoldment,
therefore expression."3
Color / Note: Green / F#
Symbolism:
(Summarized from "The Tarot", by P.F.Case)4
The Scene: A matronly woman sits amidst a garden of growing wheat.
The Empress: She is Venus, goddess of Love, Beauty, Growth, and Fruitfulness, and she is pregnant. She's the result of the union of the Magician (self-consciousness) and the High Priestess (subconsciousness). She is the feminine Mother principle continuously giving birth to form.
Her Crown: Contains twelve stars representing the twelve signs of the Zodiac. This symbolizes that subconsciousness, while influenced by suggestions from self-consciousness, is also open to the influx of power from the Super-Conscious level.
The Pearl Necklace: Symbolizes the seven interior stars or chakras. They are strung in order at the throat level, meaning that it's at the Venus (Love) center that the seven interior stars are brought into orderly correlation so that the forces flowing through them may be controlled. The Empress is she who sets in order, and she establishes this order and control through Love.
The Scepter: Symbol of Dominion.
The heart shaped Shield: She lovingly protects her children, motivated by unconditional Love. Creative Imagination protects, like the protective womb, gestating and then giving birth.
The Ripened Wheat: The completion of a cycle of growth where previous seed forms have been multiplied.
The Seat: Ornate - symbolizing that Art is the result of imagination.
The Stream & Waterfall: Stream symbolizes libido which is modified and directed by the Magician. Waterfall shows the interpenetrating Ying/Yang interaction.
The Cypress Trees: Sacred to the Goddess Venus.
The challenge is to consciously apply the principle of Imagination to everyday life:
 | Creativity: By selecting right images, you plant refined, positive seed thoughts with then multiply and grow into concrete mental images. |
| Imagination: Images are essential to the fulfillment of desire, for you can't achieve what you can't imagine. |
In "Living the Tarot", Amber Jayanti provides some suggestions for integration and application of The Empress:
| The imagery of the Empress can be used as a reminder to: [Nurture yourself and others.] [Help your creativity by helping stir and abundant flow of mental imagery.] |
| Ask yourself the following questions: 5 What is gestating within me? What feelings need to be expressed? Who or what am I mothering, smothering, or enabling? How might dealing with my feelings help release and stimulate my creative energies? What Ideas, projects, etc., are requiring my creative energies? |
Illustrations from the Universal Waite Tarot Deck reproduced by permission of
U.S. Games Systems, Inc., Stamford, CT 06902 USA. Copyright ©1990 by U.S. Games
Systems, Inc. Further reproduction prohibited.