Every week, the Fool advances and learns. This week, he's arrived at the third stop in his journey: the Empress card. As I start each week with a new card, I'm trying to emulate the Fool, trying to learn as he learns. The Magician emphasized the importance of balance. The High Priestess reminds us to connect with our inner wisdom and power.
The Empress represents fertility and growth. She is all things material and nourishing. From her springs forth creation and abundance. She is the Earth Mother.
When I started working with the card this week, I felt strangely blocked. I couldn't seem to connect with her. I know that creativity places deep roots. I know the process toward creation takes time. It takes nourishment. It demands patience.
I even dreamt myself as the Empress, large with child and ready to create. Still, in my dream, I wandered from place to place so ready to give birth but unable to do so. Even in my dreams, I was blocked.
I took my son to City Park. We wandered over the bridges, fled from the aggressive geese, and spent some time under the large sheltering oaks, so beautiful in their grandeur and their timeless wisdom. I realized that the Earth Mother is so like the ancient trees. She digs her roots down deep. Time and patience are her allies, not her foes.
From those roots grows something so magnificent and so beautiful. We just have to wait for it.
I can't force my creativity. I can't nourish from an empty vessel. I have to be patient. I have to sit with my imagination and be open to the voices of ancient wisdom. The work will come when it's ready. Art will be born on its timetable, not mine.
Even as the Fool needs to learn patience, so do I. Abundance and creativity are available to me, but not on demand. I need to sink my roots in deep and let the potentiality grow, nourishing it patiently and lovingly.
I can be the Empress, but only if I open myself to the world around me, remembering to be grateful for all that I have and all that I might yet become.