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The Empress and Motherhood

Every now and then I come across a deck that illustrates The Empress as a pregnant woman, describing her as a symbol of motherhood. Most people consider The Empress to be the wife of The Emperor. So it would seem to make sense that she be viewed also as a mother - a likely inevitability of her spousal condition. Unfortunately, from the perspective of The Numerical Tarot, and the All Things Are Numbers approach to tarot, this would be considered a less than accurate portrayal of the numerological essence of the number 3 - the number that is most commonly associated with The Empress card. Because of that, I almost never agree that The Empress (when given the number 3) is a good symbol for the concept of motherhood.

Yes, the woman is the womb. Yes, the number 3 is about the creation of life. But the underlying fact of the matter is, that The Empress does not actually CREATE life herself, she is merely a receptacle for life's needs. It is, in fact, the unseen universal forces of nature (God, if you insist) that CREATE life, using BOTH egg and sperm together, in the case of a human. The fact that that life then resides within a woman for a period of time, makes her a more appropriate symbol for that particular act of nature than that of a man. But, in my opinion, the real act of "motherhood" is in the incubation and gestation of pregnancy, and the nurturing, development and maturation of the life form after its birth. To me THIS is motherhood and the locus of the "maternal" instinct.

In the All Things Are Numbers world of numerology, incubation, gestation, development, maturation and growing of any kind, are all concepts that belong with the number 6. In my world, the numbers 4 and 6 both represent the mass of a theoretical model of existence that is built in your mind's eye, when you read the book All Things Are Numbers. When this model of existence is used to describe the stages of an event that takes place over time, the number 6 represents the steady augmentation of events to a point of "critical mass" where the content of that existence reaches a point at which it must express itself back into its surroundings (see Significant Signature of Nature elsewhere on this site). In the book, I give numerous examples of this signature of nature. The augmenting, developing, maturing, and growing part is always at the number 6. It is for this reason that I associate the incubation, gestation and development of motherhood with a 6, and not a 3 (the number most commonly associated with The Empress card).

NOTE: This is, of course, a horribly incomplete, one paragraph summary of a much more complex point than I have room to explain here.

But...

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If you examine the keyword charts elsewhere on this site, you will see that a 3 represents (among many things) an advent pause, as creation and manifestation are realized. I believe that this fundamental abstract concept of inevitable development is the primordial pattern that ought to be illustrated in The Empress card. In traditional tarot, superficial interpretations of Gods and Goddesses are sometimes made. Implying, or stating, that The Empress is a representation of the unseen universal forces of nature. But being a representation of the God-like, or Goddess-like forces of creation is not the same as motherhood. Being a womb, is what motherhood is about. In other words, creation is more an act of God, or Goddess (for lack of a better term) than it is an act of motherhood. Being a womb, however, means, incubation, gestation, nurturing, development, maturation and growth. All of which, are NOT concepts that I would put with a 3.

By being a symbol of the advent pause of creation, or "The Hand of God creating," one must consider the duality of a perfect creation vs. a flawed creation. Or a smooth and refined creation vs. a roughhewn and unrefined creation. By focusing on the idea of a perfect creation, we are focusing on the beauty of The Empress icon more than her potential for motherhood. I think that being a perfect creation is more to the point of a 3 than being a mother or a womb.

As an iconic symbol, derived from the mind of someone living in an age where Emperors and Empresses stood as examples of refined living, an Empress would seem to me to be a perfect symbol for that kind of ideal.

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In my world, The Empress represents BOTH the physical manifestation of tangible beauty as well as the mental (subconscious if you prefer) manifestation of intangible ideas like love. One might even say that love is the emotional equivalent to beauty, and like beauty, comes from 'The Hand of God."

When you subdivide this Major Arcana card into two numerically equivalent Minor Arcana cards, you see (in the RWS deck anyway) the physical manifestations of creation in the work of an artist in the 3 of Pentacles, and the mental manifestations of love in the happiness of the 3 of cups.

When you look for opposites to these concepts, The Hanged Man comes to represent physical imperfection and mental torture. No beauty or grace here. He is the antithesis of The Empress in every way. But in being the antithesis of the Empress, he is not the antithesis of motherhood. He is the antithesis of beauty and grace, and refined, comfortable living (I hear that being hung upside down is very uncomfortable, making this a good symbol for the opposite of The Empress' comfort).

When you subdivide The Hanged Man card into two Minor Arcana cards, you see (in the RWS deck anyway) the mental anguish The Hanged Man is going through in the 3 of Swords. And, in my deck anyway, you see the physical crudeness of a Vicious Beast in the 3 of Subtraction (Wands).

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Sometimes I think it unfortunate that tarot's inventor(s) chose the Empress, Emperor combination, because of how it has lead people to attribute motherhood with a 3, and dilute what I feel is the true essence of a 3 - beauty and creation and the refined Hand of God. But, at the same time, the Empress, Emperor combination makes sense if you consider how important it probably was for most men (and still is for many men) to have a "trophy wife" that is the embodiment of physical perfection and beauty. In a patriarchal society, pregnancy comes and goes. But for an Emperor to have an Empress wife that everyone in the kingdom could look to as a paragon of beauty was surely an important tribute to the Emperor's good taste - a measure of his greatness.

Even today, women of all kinds see themselves as paragons of beauty. This archetypal imperative to realize the nature of beauty and grace etc. resides in a 3. It has nothing whatsoever to do with motherhood. Motherhood is a completely different archetypal imperative, that resides in a completely different number (a 6).

That's why, in The Numerical Tarot, The Lovers card is changed into an icon that can be viewed as the maternal (and equidistant) equivalent to the Emperor's paternal influence - the Emperor's true wife... with The Hierophant marrying the two together at the midpoint of the number line... a holy union. See my RWS vs. Palm analysis for more on this new symmetrical design and how it changes the nature of the Empress' influence.

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Of course, in the abstract world of The Numerical Tarot, the primordial pattern of an advent pause at the moment of creation does not HAVE to be illustrated with a female form. The primordial pattern of creation is the archetype of creation, regardless of what kind of illustration is being used to "symbolize" it. And while some concepts of humanity may seem more female or more male than others, most are not that specific, when considered at the level of primordial roots.

In fact the ideas of incubation, gestation, nurturing, development, maturation and growth are not exclusively applicable to motherhood alone. So even within the realm of a 6 (where I believe these concepts belong), these primordial roots don't necessarily need a female form to give them meaning. It just happens that the incubation, gestation, nurturing, development, maturation and growth of a child within a mother's womb is a convenient example to point to, to symbolize these fundamental, primordial concepts. But in reality, there are plenty of other things besides children in wombs, that follow a similar (or isomorphic) path of incubation, gestation, nurturing, development, maturation and growth (see Significant Signature of Nature elsewhere on this site).

The Numerical Tarot, and the book All Things Are Numbers, goes to great lengths to provide a logical explanation of exactly WHY the pattern of incubation, gestation, nurturing, development, maturation and growth belong with the number 6. There is a lot more to it than I can explain here. But if you read it, and find the logic convincing, then I am convinced you will look to a 6 as the number of motherhood, and not a 3.