3. The Empress

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THE EMPRESS.

   

THE EMPRESS.

3. ג

3rd Hebrew letter (Gimel).

ORIGIN OF THE SYMBOLISM OF THE THIRD CARD OF THE TAROT.

The hieroglyphic meaning of the letter Gimel is the throat, the hand of man half closed in the act of prehension. Hence it signifies all that incloses, all that is hollow, a canal, an inclosure. The throat is the spot where the words conceived in the brain are formed, or I might almost say embodied, therefore the Gimel is the symbol of the material envelopment of spiritual forms, of organic generation under all its forms, of all the ideas springing from the corporeal organs or their actions.

Generation is the mystery by which the spirit unites itself to matter, by which the Divine becomes Human.

The signification of Venus-Urania, to which this card corresponds, is easily understood by the above explanations.

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THE THIRD CARD OF THE TAROT.

The Empress.

This symbol would therefore signify ideas of generation, of embodiment in all the worlds.

A woman seen full face.

The human being becomes corporeal in the womb of a woman.

This woman is represented with wings, or in the centre of a radiating sun.

The idea of the spirituality of the vivifying Principle of all beings.

She holds an eagle in her right hand.

The eagle is the symbol of the soul and of life (Holy Spirit).

In the left hand she bears a sceptre forming the astrological sign of Venus.

The sceptre is held in the left hand to indicate the passive influence, which Nature, Venus-Urania, or the woman exercises in the generation of beings.

She wears a crown with twelve points, or twelve stars.

The sign of the diffusion of the vivifying Principle through all the worlds and of the sun, through the Zodiac.

The third card of the Tarot shows the result of the reciprocal action of the two first terms neutralizing each other in one principle. It is the Neuter Element of Wronski, the basis of every system of reality.

The absolute creative force, or Osiris, and the absolute preservative force, or Isis, neutralize themselves in the

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equilibrist force, which contains in itself the two very different properties of the two first forms.

In God this would be the equilibrium of the Father and of the Son, or--

God the Holy Ghost
HORUS
The universal vivifying force.

In Man this would be the equilibrium of the Adam-Eve--

Adam-Eve
Or HUMANITY.

In the Universe this would be the equilibrium of Natura naturans and of Natura naturata--

THE WORLD
Conceived like a being.

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3. ג

The Empress.

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The creative principle and the receptive principle, having, by their mutual action, given birth to the transforming principle, a complete entity is created.

The term which now follows will correspond with the second he of the sacred word, and will consequently indicate the passage from one series to the other.