Empress Page

Empress
Completed June 4, 2000
Medium: Cut-and-paste collage with computer generated title

        Simply put, the Empress represents for me the Mother aspect of the triune Divine Feminine.   If I may be permitted a short rant in the process of describing a tarot card, I believe that one of the greatest mistakes humanity has made - and certainly one of the greatest injustices to women - is the trend which has evolved over time to separate the earthy, fertile nature of the feminine from any connection with divinity.
        A patriarchal society and its traditional religions tend to either ignore the fertile quality of femininity (Witness that women society idealizes as beautiful and "sexy" rarely look as though they are, or ever have been, pregnant.) or sanitize it (Even though Mary was the mother of Christ, she is now venerated more for her "purity" and "virginity" than for the state of motherhood.).
        I wanted my Empress card to reunite the concepts of divinity and fertility.   Therefore I searched until I found a strong and beautiful feminine image that captured the idea of divinity - she is crowned with stars - and then surrounded her with abundant and very literal symbols of fertility - fruitfulness and flowering.
        The woman on the card is from a painting called "Star of Heaven" by Robert Edward Hughes, a pre-Raphaelite artist. You can learn a little more about Hughes, and see more of his work, at one of my favorite online art sites, ArtMagick.
        The fruit and flowers were clipped from various magazines and catalogs. The title font is Lucinda Calligraphy.

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