Spring Tarot Archetype: The Empress
My personal witchcraft and spiritual practices are deeply rooted in the natural rhythms and cycles of the seasons. Springtime is already beginning to burst forth here in North Carolina, with daffodils and periwinkle popping up in the yards and redbuds and dogwoods showing the first signs of little buds on the branch tips.
With the underlying themes of transition, rebirth, and new life, the spring season closely connects to the Empress from the Major Arcana. It can be easy to brush past this powerful archetype of the divine feminine* as a one-dimensional symbol of fertility, but there’s a lot more to her. Much like the spring (and autumn) season, there’s an underlying message of balance. The death that precedes birth, the gestation that occurs in darkness before emerging into the light.
This is a lovely reminder that the seeds we plant grow beneath the surface within the dark, damp soil of the earth. Bursting forth into the light can be tumultuous at times. It can feel like that breakthrough might never arrive, but through sheer force, willpower, and determination, the seedlings push past that layer of topsoil and begin to unfold.
Instead of existing as a guardian between the physical and spiritual realms, she fully embodies the connection between them—not a gatekeeper, but the literal threshold between them. The Empress has the power to both bring new life from the spiritual into the physical and walk with the souls who have lived back to the spiritual world when the time comes. This is the eternal cycle of balance—life and death.
The Empress tells you of the multitudes contained within you. The abundance of this archetype exists not only as a wealth of material resources but also as the depth and breadth of your inner resources, infinitely connecting you with the universe, the divine. It is through both your light and your dark that you are able to tap into your inherent, creative power to collaborate with the universe.
If you look closely at the Empress’s gown, you’ll notice that pomegranates are bedazzling her dress. There’s also an abundance of wheat in the background and foreground of the traditional Waite-Smith illustration. Many connect these symbols to the tale of Demeter and her daughter, Persephone, a psychopomp, a goddess of spring and the underworld. The story of the Mesopotamian Goddess Innana precedes and parallels the Greek myth with her journey to the underworld, sending the world into winter, and her return, reawakening life here on earth.
A psychopomp is a being or entity that guides spirits from this world to the next after the physical body dies. From the Morrigan to the Whippoorwill, psychopomps take many different forms, from deities to animals, and exist in different cultures around the world.
In both pieces of lore, the lessons of life cycles, hope and grief, light and dark, death and fertility remind us that all of these aspects coexist within one another and the world around us. This archetype calls us to embrace pleasure alongside sorrow. That hope sprouts forth even during and after the dark times.
She reminds us that the wheel of the year continues to turn, and with each spin, we come back a little wiser, a little (or a lot) changed, and that while the cycles remain the same, the world and the self reemerge a little different than we’ve ever been before.
Want to explore the spring themes within the tarot a little more deeply?
Join me for the Spring Into Tarot Workshop at Graduate Chapel Hill on Wednesday, March 20, at 6 PM. Limited seats are available. Save your spot here.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Erin Harker (she/her) is a hedge witch who delights in the magick of hearth and home. She believes in a world filled with wonder and that there's magick in each of us and everything we do - even our simple, everyday tasks.
Despite working with tarot and witchcraft for over 25 years, she only recently came out of the broom closet when she launched The Magick Makers in early 2020.
Based in Durham, North Carolina, this charmed space is a witch shop and community where modern witches and craft-curious folks can inspire and supply their everyday magick. She is also the author of SPELLbook, a seasonal publication and upcoming book, and the fairy godmother behind, Kindred Club.
As she continues to explore her ancestral roots and identity, she’s found a passion for self-discovery through hearthcraft, tarot, symbology, and other esoteric practices.