World / Empress
Imagery — Things to Look at and Contemplate:
Postures — dancing / sitting
(Graceful and in motion vs. stately and still)
Colors — gold, green, purple, light blue and flesh tone / yellow,
gold, green, red and white
(Soft, complex and subtle vs. bright, simple and intense)
Clothing — draped nude / loosely robed
(Unselfconsciously theatrical vs. formally modest)
Symbols — wreath with lemniscates, four beasts, sash, wreath in hair and wands / crown, pearls, wreath in hair, orb and scepter, trees, river and wheat
(mythic and allegorical vs. ceremonial and natural)
Foreground Figures — the same blonde female in each card
(two aspects of the divine feminine, as beginning (Empress)
and ending (World) of the creative process)
Astrology:
Saturn (World) — time, orderliness, grand and stately progress, the contractions of birth and death
Venus (Empress) — love, beauty, the creativity of nature, nurturing and protective motherhood
Predilection:
Intensely outward, open and active vs.
Filled with creative but unexpressed potential
Disciplined and regular vs. Chaotic and unpredictable
Natural and adaptable vs. Formal and inwardly certain
The World and The Empress have in common clear minds and presence in the moment. In crown and wreath and hand-held symbols they share a sense of high purpose. In the gold of ornament and detail they have a common concern for spiritual elevation. They contrast as active and settled, as expressive and reserved, as personal and formal, as symmetrical and organic.
The World brings measure to The Empress' abundance; she brings orderly conclusion to The Empress' fertile beginning. The World's energy and openness balances The Empress' immobility and formality.
Unintegrated and imperfectly realized, The World can be awkward and inappropriate, brazen and overbearing, heavy-handed and destructive, stiffly traditional and unimaginative.
The Empress can be wildly self-indulgent, unaware of and unconcerned with consequences. She can be vain, overbearing and autocratic, and use weakness, whimsy and helplessness to manipulate people and events.
Together they can be spontaneous and graceful, beautiful and proportionate. Between them, things do what they were born to do, live as they were meant to live, and last as long as they were meant to last. Between them, destinies are realized and completed.
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More Birth Card Notes:
Wheel of Fortune / Magician
Justice / High Priestess
Hanged Man / Empress
Death / Emperor
Temperance / Hierophant
Devil / Lovers
Tower / Chariot
Star / Strength
Moon / Hermit
Sun / Wheel / Magician
Judgement / High Priestess
Birth Card icon by Robert M. Place, Copyright The Tarot School.
Card images are from the Universal Waite Tarot Deck, Copyright US Games Inc.