An empty crossroads on a heath at night, a leaning signpost and poppy heads in the verge.

The tarot · III

The Empress

Daughter of the Mighty Ones

The face of III, The Empress, engraved in gold on black, with its title, Daughter of the Mighty Ones.

Abundance, beauty and the creative power of love.

Upright

Growth, fertility and pleasure. Something you have nurtured is ready to bloom, whether a project, a relationship or a family. Let yourself enjoy the senses; beauty is a form of intelligence here.

Reversed

Smothering, creative block or neglecting your own needs while tending everyone else’s garden.

Show the spirits

The spirit work

Kedemel is the spirit of Venus under the intelligence Hagiel. Work with this card on a Friday, with flowers, copper or rose. Aphrodite, it’s said, answers gratitude more quickly than requests.

A question to sit with

What in my life wants to be nourished rather than managed?

Where the card sits

Correspondences

Path14, Chokmah to Binah
Hebrew letterDaleth, the door, value 4
AstrologyVenus, planet
Presiding powerAphrodite, golden one, risen from the foam
Governing angelsArchangel Anael; intelligence Hagiel
SpiritKedemel, spirit of Venus; Olympic spirit Hagith
Sealthe sigil of Kedemel on the kamea of Venus
RuneBerkano, the birch: birth, nurture and growth
The Empress in the guidebookAll seventy-eight cards

The Sablerune Tarot

In the making

Seventy-eight cards in fine gold line. Hear when the deck is ready to hold.

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Notes on sources

The meanings, the questions and the correspondences are the guidebook’s own. The paths, letters and astrology follow the Golden Dawn’s attributions; the angels are the Shem ha-Mephorash, as the deck gives them; the spirits, shown only when you ask for them, are the seventy-two of the Goetia. Where each comes from, and what is old and what is modern, is set out in the guidebook’s Notes on sources and seals.