The Empress - Beauty and Bounty

Embracing the feminine is embodied in the Empress card. She is the epitome and symbol of motherhood, possesses the wisdom of nature, and she lives life with creative abundance, imagination and luxury. The Great Mother sets the standard for honouring and nurturing ourselves, imparting an understanding of living in our physical bodies and knowing that we are both creatures of the spirit, but also of the earth. She asks us to nourish life.

Embracing our light and dark instinctual nature is encountered in meeting the Empress. Our bodies are both valuable and precious which are worthy of being cared for as being part of nature, rooted and in natural life.

Without the Empress we cannot appreciate our physical selves, living in a purely intellectual world without being grounded in reality. She provides for us a connection to safety and a trust in life.

Ten of Pentacles - Stability & Foundation

Life is fleeting, and very often unstable in that we can't control what happens. We don't ever know what the future has in store. I have come to understand and believe the only stability we really have is within ourselves, that flows from the well spring of faith, to find meaning in whatever happens and it is wise to learn about how to develop trust, faith and persistence.

If we are fortunate enough to be blessed with good health, we will hopefully enjoy our lives into an older age. We can come to a point in life, were we don't have to wait until we are an elder to have many lessons learned under our belts, and content and find stability in the now.

Here in the Ten of Pentacles we see an older man, Daedalus, closely surrounded by generations of his family, representing  a dynasty of sorts. He now has a legacy that he can pass down to his loved ones. There is a sense of permanence, security and safety in what he has achieved personally and professionally. He has much to impart to others with wisdom, and perhaps in material possessions, which will endure, and be passed on to others because has built a good foundation from a life well lived.

The Ten of Pentacles is a card of hope and optimism in a world that seems unstable, and without strong foundation.

The Empress - Bountiful & Beautiful

Seems lately I have a number of female friends, myself included, who are thinking about their mothers. Perhaps being mid Summer when things are in bloom and growing our thoughts are drawn to the Empress the Mother of All who represents abundance and luxury.
The Empress is ruled by Venus the Roman goddess of love.

We learn how to become women from our mothers, who nurture, protect and love us always, unconditionally, even from beyond the grave.  She connects us with the feeling of safety and trust in life. Our mothers live deep within the small of our heart of hearts.

The Empress provides creativity, imagination, and fertile growth.
 I do not see the Empress as perfection, but as a real woman, who is of the earth. She knows the suffering, and the joy, and she is perfect in her imperfection . She encourages us to celebrate who we are, as we are, as real women.

We may not be mothers biologically, but we can still provide those mothering qualities toward others, and toward ourselves. Without the inner experience of the Great Mother within , we can not bring any thing into fruition. We need to understand how to be patient, and gentle with ourselves and others.

Walker Evans - Photograph