The Empress
Explanation
The Empress expresses wordly power, but not without female influences like a sense of spirituality.
Of the four wisdoms that The Magician represents she represents the wisdom of the body and of feelings. She is compared to the love and harvest Godesses.
Place in the cycle
The Empress carries the number 3. This is the number of birth, of plenty, of harvest, of summer, of the first results. The number 3 stands for joy and fun, for creativity and fantasy, for warmth and humor.
The number 3 is a magical number; 1 is a dot, 2 a line but 3 the first number that generates space. The triangle and pyramid have positive and magical qualities. Add the numer 1 (male) to the number 2 (female) and you get 3 : the child. In many old cultures the number 3 was a holy number, generating balance and harmony.
Meaning
Positive
Enjoy your good feelings and make the best of them. Recharge yourself with new energy, do fun things or be pampered by others. You've earned it.
Neutral
When the card of The Empress is drawn, it means you're in tune with yourself, you have a balance between heart and mind, you're content with yourself and feel fine by yourself.
The card indicates a happy period in your life, with strength for what lies ahead.
Because you're content with yourself, you radiate that contentness to others who may pick up on it and find you attractive because of it. The card could even indicate a pregnancy.
Negative
Be careful not to get lazy or to enjoy this time passively. The good influences of the card may pass by without you capitalizing on them.
The World
Explanation
The world is large, but not as large as the galaxy or the universe.
The person in the center of the card has completed many journeys already, and is completely at ease. Yet she continues to move, for having reached your goals is no reason to stop moving.
Place in the cycle
The World carries the number 21. As a composed number that is 3. The World is the third 3 in the Major Arcana. 3 is a reward number, so the third 3 must be even more powerful.
This card falls when you've completed all assignments, overcome all obstacles and are completely at peace with yourself due to your accomplishments. Yet Tarot wouldn't be Tarot if it didn't challenge you to enter entirely new worlds and start the process all over again.
Meaning
Positive
Use your abilities to see into yourself, others and situations. Reconnect with your inner child and go back to The Fool, the first card in the deck, to learn yet new aspects of life.
Neutral
This card doesn't get drawn often in readings. When it does, it means you're entering a very important period in your life. You've reached a point where you're able to rise above yourself, to reach new heights. You're at peace with all that has happened, and your negative emotions find a (hopefully gentle) way out by themselves.
This card is not so much negative or positive, as it is special. It's the threshold between past and future.
Negative
This might not be the moment to embark on a new journey, something in your (recent) past is as yet unsolved.
The Magician
Explanation
A magician is a master of illusions. He can create and destroy illusions.
Place in the cycle
It is the second card in the entire deck, and signifies the start from dream to practical idea.
Meaning
Positive
It's time to talk about your ideas with others and to define them a bit more clearly.
Neutral
It's time to talk about your ideas with others and to define them a bit more clearly.
Negative
Be careful that you won't be sprouting pie-in-the-sky ideas to others without following through with them.
Strength
Explanation
Strength is the second of the four midieval values. Justice, card 11, is the first, and the third, Temperance, is card 14.
Place in the cycle
In the Rider-Waite deck, the cards for Justice and Strenght have swapped places, because Waite saw links between the cards and the astrological signs Leo and Libra.
This card carries the number 8, and is the third and final assignment number. This assignment is no longer simple like the first two, but is all about standing upright in the real world.
Meaning
Positive
Stand up for yourself and don't bother yourself with others' opinions of you.
Neutral
When the card of Strength falls, you will gradually discover sides of yourself that you didn't know before. First you adjusted, now you've decided to go your own way. You are no longer bothered by the opinions of others. Even if others disapprove, you will go your own way. You stand up for yourself and accept yourself as you are. You don't have to be liked as much as you needed to be.
Negative
This card signifies a long process. When the card is drawn upside down, it usually means you're not going fast enough for real change to happen.
The Fool
Explanation
Only a fool would stand so close to the cliff's edge.
But the fool is on a high, thinks he can handle anything the world will throw at him. Here in lies both his strength and his weakness. One false step and the tumble down the rock face could be short or long. The fool doesn't even know how long, because he looks to the sky.
Place in the cycle
The fool is the first card in the deck, the new born heading out into the world, facing the different stages of development ahead. One can undergo many cycles during his or her life, the last card in the major arcana ('The World') always followed by The Fool for some new aspect of life to be discovered and experienced.
Meaning
Positive
Don't look at practicability or feasibility for a while. Open up to your desires and dreams, without immediately trying to figure out how to realize them.
Dream all you want and figure out which dreams to realize later.
Neutral
You're probably saturated by the life you now have around you.
It's time for something new, to let the child inside you boss the adult in you around a bit as it discovers these new things to explore.
Negative
Perhaps you're discouraged by your dreams, because your subconscious is telling you you're not happy with current circumstances, while your higher intellect is still OK with this situation.
The Tower
Explanation
The card of The Tower goes by different names in different Tarot games. Some call it The Tower of Destruction, or The House of God, or Tower of the Light.
Some think that The Tower gives reference to the tower of Bable, but there are no direct indications for this.
Place in the cycle
The Tower has the number 16 attached to it, composed that is 7. This is a ladder number, a number of ambition and climbing to new heights.
The composed number of this card is the same as The Chariot's, but where The Chariot represents balance, The Tower represents chaos.
You've come a long way in the cycle already. You've let go of the old to welcome the new, you've faced and overcome your fears, yet The Tower tears down whatever remains.
This card lets chaos loose into your life, so that creativity and growth can flourish. The Tower ends what The Hanged Man started. From here the journey back to the upperworld begins.
Meaning
Positive
Don't resist what happens to you, try to see it as exciting.
Neutral
Go through your fears so you will end up in kind of a freefall. You've put down your shackles and now you let go, anything becomes possible.
When the card of The Tower falls, something will happen to you that robs you of your (remaining) securities. Some things will happen to you that may scare you, but you can choose to see them as exciting.
Negative
Don't conjure up extra fears related to what happens to you. Remain able to react.
The Lovers
Explanation
Some attribute love and romance to the card of The Lovers. Others see it as finding and living with both female and male aspects of yourself.
Place in the cycle
This card carries the number 6. It is the number of protection, of stability and security. It comes after the assignment number 5, it is the reward after hard work.
The Magician announced four wisdoms. In the cards that followed, they came into view one by one. The traveler of Tarot has accumulated the baggage with which to travel. This card signifies a choice between staying with the old and familiar, or (the way of Tarot:) going to new experiences and lessons.
Meaning
Positive
Open yourself to growth towards independence.
Neutral
When the card of The Lovers is drawn, then you're ready to realize that you've gained security in yourself. You've developed a basic self confidence that enables you to look objectively to your surroundings. But you're ready to grow beyond your current realm of comfort. Your need for self reliance is increasing. This card is a process card, which means that it's effect might last for months.
Negative
Don't linger, don't get stuck in your own habits. Spring into action.
