III. The Empress
Nourishment for the Body, Nourishment for the Earth
The third card in the major arcana is more complicated than it seems. As a queer person who doesn’t feel aligned personally with the rhetoric on the gender binary, I have long struggled to define “masculine” and “feminine” in a way that rejects the status quo, while also fully acknowledging that masculine and feminine are two very real dichotomies that exist within the hegemonic structure.
It makes me a bit tender to think about, in this moment in time where the US government has become increasingly hostile towards trans and nonbinary folks and even the healthcare practitioners that offer them life affirming services judgement free. It seemed that in my lifetime, culturally we have made positive strides in the direction of queer identity and visibility and the clap back has been so hard and so violent. So I feel I have to begin this article with this affirmation that queer and trans lives are valid to say the least, but actually magical and necessary and interconnected forever with the earth.
So that is to say, Empress is a card which relates to Venus and the element of earth- it is a grounded energy of receiving. Without considering biological sex, femininity is an energy of tending, sustaining, nurturing, while conversely, masculine is the energy of building, constructing, protecting. Feminine flows like water, is grounded like earth, masculine energy is a spark of the flame, a gust of wind. Neither can exist without the other, both are essential for the creation of life.
I think in a lot of traditional tarot practices, The Empress brings up themes of mothering and caregiving. I don’t completely deny that interpretation in my practice. There are moments when I am reading for someone, and based on the placement of cards, The Empress suggests that actual pregnancy, motherhood, or relations with mothering figures is absolutely the theme coming up in the reading. But moreover, The Empress suggests that there may be an issue or imbalance in how a person is able to receive in their lives. Earth is often a blank slate, a place for growth, a feeling of stability or groundedness, but it is what you plant there that determines what will come to be. For this earth, and the pentacles, is about futures and the past, routine, lifestyle, and the body, not just about money the way much of pop culture tarot suggests.
The Empress asks you to be in your abundance. To ask for help. To rest. To eat well. To enjoy yourself. The Empress also asks you to seek support if you are depleted, it calls you back to self nurturance. It can be an archetype of reparenting, especially when the role model you needed wasn’t available in your younger years. The Empress is earth so she moves slowly and with intention, they are not in a rush. There is no timeline for healing, your commitment to yourself is what builds your legacy, and that is the quiet strength of The Empress archetype.
THE EMPRESS AS A LEO
Elementally, the Empress is related to earth and the planet Venus. Venusian herbs like yarrow and rose, heart openers like motherwort and linden relate to the flow of this card. But when choosing who to photograph, I chose someone whose Empress vibes have a fiery Leo edge, because I wanted The Empress to be represented by artist and events producer Jenn Hernandez.
It occurred to me when choosing an Empress that in the context of our brutal world today, we need an Empress who has a bright, fun, flashy energy, who brings a Leo vibe. We need an Empress who wants to bring people together, and whenever I thought about it, I thought of Jenn. She is a Joshua Tree based artist who frequently shows at many galleries, including having work in many shows at Milk Thistle and co-organizing the Virgin Mary themed show at La Matadora last year called Ave Maria. She also co-founded an art collective with her friends called Feral Girl Collective and is the general manager for Mon Petit Mojave, an arts organizing hosting live events of music and storytelling.
Before moving to the Joshua Tree area shortly before the Covid pandemic began, Jenn was a life long resident of the Bay Area, and worked as a music writer, photographer, nanny, and more for two decades. She says, “When I learned the Empress card was going to be my archetype, I initally wasn’t sure I was on board. Give me the sun! (I’m a Leo) But her embodiment of abundance and creativity, connection to life and community and ties to mystical realms ended up speaking to those familiar pieces of myself.”
It was funny to me that when I chose Jenn to be the Empress and she enthusiastically agreed, even thrifting for different outfits to create the image of a flashy and fun Empress, when we went out to shoot she started out very serious and quiet. “I’m sorry,” she said, early in the shoot. “I’m trying to be serious but I can’t stop laughing”
I then explained that I had chosen her to be The Empress as a Leo- this was a fun loving Empress who could host a good party- kind of like how I see the Nine of Pentacles- hard working, confident, grounded, generous. If I look at the photos I took I see the transition, at first she seemed serious, towards the end she is more free. I chose a background with moutains and fields of creosote for the background, the land in the rural Mojave between Landers and Johnson Valley, close to the infamous graffiti rocks, because of the layers of mountain you could see behind us. While desert landscapes don’t always go with the image of a lush forest and flowing stream in many interpretations of The Empress, the layerings of mountains and bounty of creosote felt like a good rendition for the Mojave Desert. In addition, I was incredibly lucky to have acquired an epic original piece by divinatory artist Mary Evans- a paper mache chair with candelabras that I painted white and used as The Empress’s throne for this photo shoot!
Below are some of the photos I took of Jenn- will be sharing more to come!
As a reminder, I’m photographing Hi-Desert artists, organizers and witches as tarot archetypes, follow along to see more as they happen! And if you’d like to support this work and film development costs, consider becoming a paid subscriber or buying prints in the print shop! All sales go to film and developing costs.