There are so many different ways in which the Empress tarot card can be read that it is hard to list all of them. It all depends on where the arcanum is placed, the two or four cards that surround it, sometimes it also depends on the use of numerology - I don't use it, though. And even the synthesis of cards when doable counts towards its meaning.
As you can see it is almost impossible to provide you with and exhaustive list of potential interpretations.
However, I can list a few of the different ways you can read the arcanum. These will help you with your very own psychic readings and those of your very own fortune-teller.
One of the things I do when I call a clairvoyant that makes use of cards for predictions, is that I ask which cards she/he pulled on the table. Then I take note and after the call, I check out the actual meanings so as to compare with my own knowledge.
Different manners to read the Empress tarot
The place of the card is very important when you read it. If it is placed to the right of a card, it influences this card with its own significations. If it is placed to the left of a card, it is influenced by the card that is placed to its right. Complicated, eh.
A real example may be clearer, I think.
In this reading, you have the Empress to the left and the Wheel of Fortune to the right.
This means that the 10th arcanum will influence the meaning of the 3rd arcanum.
The Empress is the woman, the mother, knowledge, decisions, good news. The Wheel of fortune highlights the meaning of the Empress: things are going to turn out good.
Good decisions are made. Good choices. Good news are on the way. Some money might even reach your bank account soon. And so on. All meanings depend on all thecards that are spread of course. Here we only have two cards. But they are used to illustrate the way you are supposed to read them.
Here we have the Wheel of Fortune first and the Empress to its right.
It is thus the 3rd arcanum that will influence the meaning of the 10th.
The Wheel is synonym to luck, good things, change (for the best or the worst), things that are always moving.
The Empress symbolizes female elements. This association is, once again positive. However, instead of in our previous reading, this association tells us that a woman may be responsible for the way things are going to be. A woman may help you get out the trap you fell in. If you are a man, depressed because of any kind of failure, one could conceive that your wife is going to give you the push you need. It can also be a mother that is helping her child, or just a mother that is providing advice, money...
Meanings of the Empress depends on neighboring arcana
Now in both spreads illustrated above, we don't see other arcana, we can't thus make more specific predictions. But as you can see, the place of the card that is supposed to be read is important and it can be once the main card, once the secundary one.
Obviously if I place an arcanum next to the Empress in the second image, it will influence it in the same way the 3rd arcanum influenced the 10th.
Let's say that I place the Emperor in a love spread. Then the Wheel means that things are settling, good decisions are made, a woman and a man are about to partner in life. It may also relate to something entirely different if fourth, a fifth, etc. arcanum is added to the spread.
I hope that this short additional course is going to help you better understand how tarot cards work. And I'll see you in a next installment.
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