~ Welcome to The Oracle, a monthly divination to open the archetypal field through a blend of tarot and dreamwork ~
This month, we are exploring The Empress tarot card, reimagining her through the lens of the Great Mother archetype. Often associated with themes of fertility, abundance, creative potential and the life-giving aspects of nature, The Empress holds a special place for many of us, a grounding figure who cradles us in times of need and searching.
Through a Jungian lens, though, we understand that all archetypes contain a multiplicity of expressions, as Jung puts it,
“Just as all archetypes have a positive, favourable, bright side that points upwards, so also they have one that points downwards, partly negative and unfavourable, partly chthonic, but for the rest merely neutral.”
— Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious (CW 9 pt. I)
Even in her reversed position, The Empress is often interpreted as a block of creative energy, a failed gestation of something emergent, a leaning too deeply into the qualities of the nurturing mother.
This creates an archetypal split, driving The Empress' dark, underworld richness into the shadow. This is where the Great Mother comes into play, for her mythologies, symbols and dynamics are full of the bivalent polarity we seek. For example:
Demeter, the Greek goddess of the harvest, represents the wealth of the earth in ripening wheat and fertile fields lush with crops. She guides the sacred rhythms of agriculture; in this form, she is the Mother who provides. But in her grief and strife at the loss of her daughter, she withholds the gifts of nature. The land begins to wither, famine reigns, there is no bounty to sustain humanity, only death. In this form, she is the Mother who withholds, the dark and destructive power that lies just under the surface.
Here we see the ambivalence inherent in the Great Mother archetype: in one moment she nourishes, in the next, she brings ruin. One is never untethered from the other; they are inseparable parts of the whole. Where can we find these same threads in The Empress, and in turn, in ourselves?
By attending to them, we open to the fullness of life, learning where to give and where to hold back. We become fluent in our psychic descents, our depressive falls, our sense of unbecoming, understanding that these too are tied to cycles of rebirth and their mysteries. We strengthen the matrix of being, tending the threads of relational connection, cultivating ease and embodiment. Our gardens bloom, and when the seasons turn, we welcome winter’s cold embrace.
To know the Great Mother is to know these paradoxes and live them out. Let us be reminded of these themes when The Empress greets us in our inner work journeys.
And now, let us turn towards The Oracle’s words as guidance for the weeks ahead…
What areas of life is The Empress and Great Mother calling our attention to this month?
V of Pentacles: Hardship in the material realm and ground of life; lack and isolation; in search of resources and support
II of Wands (reversed): Hesitation while on the thresholds of change; life energy withheld; fear of expansion
Temperance: Blending and integration; synthesis of opposing forces; reconciliation
The Oracle has offered us two images of the chthonic, shadowed qualities of the Great Mother, so our inner work this month must turn towards these underworld themes with reverence.