Maria Naturans

Virgo Maria Potens
III The Empress
Sacred Mysteries of Mary Tarot deck

Here Mary is the strong,  powerful and positive Feminine, 

Empress and Mother of the World.

She is pregnant with Life and the absolute abundance of creativity

and beauty and she is the womb of potential 

for ever-returning life;  the possibility of birthing 

sustaining and fertile life both within the psyche,

the spiritual and the physical.

The Empress
The Mysteries of Mary tarot deck  www.hergracesacredart.com

Mary as the Empress embodies the powerful feminine force which is within

both the masculine and the feminine.  This strength is not limited to the masculine

action of this world. The receptivity of the feminine does not make

her only submissive and dependent and the activity

of the masculine does not make it only divisive and cutting.

The strong positive feminine power within the Soul and

within the person, is often regarded as wild and chaotic

and it is also mostly deeply feared and our culture

believes that she should be controlled and harnessed

for our own use and benefit.

In a simplistic fashion, mother nature is seen

as the pure expression of the powerful feminine.

But mother nature, and our instinctual nature, is only a

part of the feminine power.  The soul is, and in earlier times,

the Holy Spirit was as well, most often depicted as a woman

and if the soul is only seen as a wild force of nature which

should be dominated and controlled, where does that leave us

as human beings?  And where does that put women

in this world of organisation and structure?  And

what happens to traditionally womanly values

and enterprises and to whom is the mothering of

the world relegated?   We end up with a world in

which the ideal and image of a
 positive nurturing mother and the powerful empress 

is completely absent.

She is surrounded by the symbols of the Mother of Nature
and the Mother as Earth as known to mankind

through the ages and throughout many cultures.
  She is standing in the stream of living waters, 

as they are eternally birthing through her.

She has the bee, the Queen bee, the sheafs of wheat, bunches

of grapes and is standing on a mountain covered in roses.

She is the Queen Bee surrounded by bees.
In the ancient world those who worshipped Demeter and Artemis 

were referred to as 'bees' or 'melissas'.

The bee was also a symbol of Potnia, also referred to as the

pure Mother Bee in the Minoan mysteries.

The priestess at the sacred site of Delphi was known as

the 'honey bee' and honey has many sacred and profound metaphysical

and physical properties and metaphoric meaning.

In Samuel 1 "Jonathan... put forth the end of the rod 

that was in his hand, and dipped it in a honey comb, 

and put his hand to his mouth; and his eyes were enlightened."

The Empress
The Mysteries of Mary tarot deck http://www.hergracesacredart.com

Mary as The Empress embodies the great positive

Mother of the World.  Through her courageous

acts of meekness and mercy she manifests

the positive feminine force in this world.

She is the icon and symbol of our own

positive feminine strength and courage

and of the great mothering power that we possess.

We are capable of great acts of kindness,

we are capable of staying present in life with an open

heart and being present to our own vulnerability

and allowing the infinite waters of compassion

to flow through us to all of creation and to all living creatures,

including ourselves.

blessings

Hettienne