Give Birth to Your Dreams

The Empress of Tarot

Do you want to give birth to a dream? The Empress in Tarot tells you how to.

The Tarot card representing the Empress is set out-of-doors. The lush, vibrant surroundings of the crowned and richly clad woman make us think of the Garden of Eden. A life-giving stream flows nearby and pomegranates decorate her gown. Corn ripens at her feet and in the background a variety of trees thrust themselves skywards.

Because of the setting, the Empress card is often associated with abundance, fertility, motherhood, harvests and prosperity.

But the joined circle-and-cross symbol of Venus carved on her cushioned throne adds a deeper meaning that can be easily overlooked.

The circle represents spirit and the cross represents matter.

This is actually a card about spirit and matter. The Empress embodies the unification of spirit and matter.

What happens when spirit and matter meet?

Creation.

All creation comes from the unification of spirit and matter.

This card is packed with symbols of creativity and transformation. The twelve stars in her crown represent inspiration. The stream pictures the flow of ideas and energy. Ripening corn and flourishing trees demonstrate growth and completion.

Just like women give birth, we can all give birth to — or manifest — ideas and dreams. In other words, we can create.

Creation begins with an idea.

In her book Big Magic, Elizabeth Gilbert wrote about the process of creation by focussing on the moment when it begins:

Ideas are a disembodied, energetic life-form. They are completely separate from us, but capable of interacting with us . . . Ideas have no material body, but they do have consciousness, and they most certainly have will. Ideas are driven by a single impulse: to be made manifest.

According to Gilbert, creativity comes from the supernatural, the mystical, the inexplicable, the surreal, the divine . . .

So, from the Empress card we learn that Creation comes from spirit in the form of an idea. The idea fosters imagination. Imagination stirs energy. Then energy — our energy — moves ideas into the known world.

Whether you plant beetroot, birth a baby, dance the bossa nova, paint balustrades, blow glass, string beads or bake bread, your creativity starts with an idea.

Mindfulness and the Empress

When the Empress appears in a spread, think of this card as representing you.

Whether you are male or female, you have the qualities of the Empress.

You are creative.

You’re surrounded with inspiration. Ideas are bouncing around the universe looking for receptive minds with energy to bring them into being.

But Gilbert says you usually don’t notice when ideas come knocking on your door because:

. . . you’re so consumed by your own dramas, anxieties, distractions, insecurities, and duties that you aren’t receptive to inspiration.

Inspiration knocks gently. You need to be mindful and quiet to hear the knock.

Be the link between what isn’t yet and what will be.

Combine spirit and matter.

Give birth to dreams.

Insight

Creativity comes when you unite the non-physical and the physical.

Dreams manifest in the physical realm when ideas and energy collide and combine.

But don’t make the mistake of getting caught up in outcomes.

It’s your role to be creative and let the world carry it where it will.

As Osho wrote in the booklet accompanying the Osho Zen Tarot cards deck:

The important thing is to be open to what wants to be expressed through you.

My next article in this series will feature the Emperor.

Foretaste: Find inner strength.

Do you have endless personal questions? In case you missed it, here’s a link to the previous article about the High Priestess and you.

With love, Marlane

Thanks for reading! I hope it helps you for the rest of your life. For more articles on mindfulness visit me at https://www.marlaneainsworth.com