In Valentin Tomberg’s Meditations on the Tarot, he reminds us of a story from Acts in the New Testament in which Peter is sent to Aeneas, who is unable to rise from bed, paralyzed. Peter says “Jesus heals you,” and Aeneas is healed and gets up and makes his bed. Is this a miracle? No, for Tomberg this is what he calls “sacred magic,” magic that happens as a practice, by humans, in this world. Peter may be seen as an intermediary but without him Aeneas is not healed.
I recently began attending a weekly group on tarot hosted by Jessica Dore, which came to me magically during this grieving time. Each week we focus on one tarot card, with a few reading prompts, and in a share/witness format, we each speak for approximately three minutes about what the card means to us. Jessica has one of the most rigorous and unique minds writing today, but this format does not encourage intellectual discussion. It encourages sharing and listening, not responding. It feels like a gift of sacred magic, a psychic salve. This week we talked about the Empress, who I’ve discovered is a tool for recognizing our corporeality, our humanity, our practice of magic on this earth. She is a reminder that we are all born and we all die, and that is human.
The Empress also reminds us that the sacred magic we practice on this earth, of this earth, is no weaker than the spiritual power of the High Priestess. Tomberg calls the sacred magic of The Empress “the child of mysticism.” (p.58) This idea has helped me as I remember lowering Amy’s body into her grave, the dirt, the wet grass, her washed body, the return of us mortals to the earth. The beauty of the ceremony will stay with me.
Pamela Colman Smith’s depiction of The Empress makes me smile because the heart with the sign for woman in it is a political reminder and statement for women’s suffrage, which she fought for. It feels 1970’s though it was drawn in 1909. I think Pixie (as Pamela was called) brought her life and the issues she felt strongly about into her illustrations in little ways here and there, but this is blatant, and I love it.
The earlier Marseilles Tarot depicts The Empress as an actual Empress from the Holy Roman Empire (the eagle on the shield). Although the depictions are somewhat changed in later decks with addition of so much greenery and a more maternal feel, the idea remains the same. The Empress is of this earth, someone who moves through the world with crown, sceptre, shield, and throne, all demonstrating her indisputable place in the world.
Finally, sacred magic as the work we do on this earth manifested as love for others is integral to this card. It is no mistake that the Empress in post 19th century decks is associated with Mother Earth, Gaia, and the nurturing of others and this planet, the micro to the macro, the local to the global, the whisper in the ear, the eulogy to masses, the kiss on the cheek.
How does the Empress speak to you?
How does she show up in your life?
xo Hanna
*Valentin Tomberg, Meditations on the Tarot