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GODDESS#10

THE EMPRESS CARD The two moons are at the centre of two circles. The lower moon is waning the upper moon is waxing therefore where the two circles meet is the dark of the moon. Also if these circles were circles of the Zodiac they would meet in Scorpio and Taurus respectively. Both the dark of the moon and Scorpio are the same symbols on a different plane. EMPRESS=119=CREATION The Empress is Queen of Queens and thus nearer to the Goddess. The lunar Scorpio symbolism suggests that there is a link between menstrual blood and creation. There is a shield at the bottom right hand of the card. Depicted upon the shield are two birds that look like Baphomet in the way they are joined at the base. One bird appears to be feeding the other suggesting that their duality is an illusion as they are joined together at the base. At the bottom left of the card is a swan feeding its young on the blood of its breast. Both of these symbols involve the resolution of duality and the creation of duality.

Creation is the illusion of duality, self and not self throughout the whole of nature. The shape of the figure is curious in that it is Lamed shaped. The Empress as Queen of Queens suggests that she should exemplify the female cycle and that it is somehow at the roots of creation. The Art card has this woman on the right hand side, as in the Lovers card. It is said that these cards including Adjustment are very important Alchemical cards. In some ways the Alchemical marriage is the wedding of the tame and the wild in some curious way. It is a look at nature and an invitation to understand it and thus reconcile oneself to it. All these cards represent a duality but it isn’t the duality of male and female, it is the duality of female and female. Indeed in the Tarot man is a very suspect character indeed. Man carries a seed idea but as he can only be born of woman that original idea that he represents must be female in content and aspiration.

There are many three feather symbols at the bottom of the card and underneath the Throne is ‘‘The Secret Rose’’, all symbols of the activities of the Goddess. The shield suggests the division for love’s sake and its reunion through a kiss and possible sexual joining. Around the waist of the Empress is the Belt of the Zodiac. All the symbols in the card appear to represent a particular point of the woman’s fertility cycle - that of the menstrual bleed. It also represents the resolution of duality through the union of two females. One at maximum fertility TAURUS and one bleeding SCORPIO, this seems to be the significance of the two moons, the fact that they meet at the dark of the moon suggests that this is the time the ritual should be performed. The card is governed by Venus suggesting that the process of creation does not require a male.

The ideas seem to be a resume of the Christ birth story but here is concealed the time that the rituals should be performed. At the point where the two circles meet is a Lotus wand of four petals FOUR=54=SNAKE. This seems to indicate the ritual to be performed at this time. The Lotus wand is the weapon of an Adeptus Minor, he who is established in Tiphareth an initiate of the Christian mysteries and yet the wand only has four petals. The number four is very significant. It is the first character of II76 and spelt in full = 54=SNAKE, SET. This suggests the nature of the ritual. FOUR=54=SNAKE. The circles do not meet at the four petals but in the middle of the wand suggesting that the snake takes precedence over all aspects of the Ritual. It is not snake but the Snake as the Empress is not a Queen but the Queen of Queens this is snake of Snakes. THE SNAKE=107=SUN+VENUS another indication of the Christian creation story.

The Sun conjunct Venus formula gives the pentagram symbol of the five days menstrual bleed. The base of the wand is between Gemini and Cancer on the belt of the Empress, suggesting that the source of the power of the wand is the Lovers and the Chariot. The Goddess divided for love’s sake: the fourth house is Cancer=78=NUIT and Gemini the Lovers who are divided. Another meaning could be an indication of the time the ritual should be performed. The Lotus wand symbol of the minor adept is an initiate of the mysteries of The Sun, therefore this is the position of the sun at the creation ritual. The four petalled Lotus is at the solar plexus of the Empress, the snake at the heart or ‘‘The heart girt with a Serpent’’. The Empress card appears to give the nature of the ritual to be performed at the dark of the moon between Gemini and Cancer with one priestess bleeding and the other fertile. Mary Magdalene and the Virgin Mary, but the Snake suggests a further specific time, the period of Sun conjunct Venus. The result of the Ritual seems to be the Secret Rose that appears at the base of the Throne. The time to perform the creation ritual is during Sun conjunct Venus at the dark of the moon when the Sun is between Gemini and Cancer using two Priestesses, one bleeding the other fertile. The red elixir and the white elixir in the Art card.