3. The Empress

Fertility, motherly virtues. Feminine progress. Level ~ headed and practical. Mother Nature, the all-mother. Pregnancy, Nest-builder, the faithful wife. Reversed, poverty, over-protectiveness. Delay. Unwanted pregnancy or barrenness.

The Empress is the mother. She makes the home and keeps it comfortable. She lets her husband deal with The BIG issues, like what to do with Foreign Policy, while she sees to it that the family has clean clothes and food and that the fire is going. She is a source of comfort and discipline. Her children tun to her when they are hurt or sick or in trouble, and she soothes and cares for and helps them. She is Vesta, Hera, and Demeter.

Reversed, she is Demeter mourning for Persephone. There is no comfort at home; the fire is out, Mother has left. Fertility is absent; no babies will be born. She is no longer the faithful wife, but the whore. Children are unwanted. Alternatively, she ties her children to her, becomes a smother- mother. She will not let them become independent. Of course children grow up but, she says, hers are only babies still. Why, the youngest is only 30- much too young to leave home!