The Empress/Death. The Empress is my significator, and she has not shown up in a spread for me for a while. She represents the physical world and all the pleasures associated with it, but these pleasures are pure and natural in their entirety. She also represents creation, and she seems to be the direct opposite of Death. However, Death is very much connected to birth, which is connected to creativity. After all, both Death and birth describe a major and all-consuming transition away from all that is familiar and into all that is new and yet unexperienced. Today I am being told to think about this connection.

My Thoth card for today is The Lovers. Big choices, and a day filled with inspiration and intuition. Thoth sees this card as the Great Rite, the marriage of two complete beings in order to create something new. Hmmmm . . . there is that concept again. Creation, birth, and corresponding death, all presented within the Major Arcana. Personally, I see this card as a “nudge” from Archangel Uriel, a sort of “hey, look over here!” or a clearing of the throat to indicate one’s presence. Big stuff today!!

Wow, that is some Tarot throw!! I have been feeling once again as if something bog is right over the horizon, just out of sigh, but approaching slowly. This is exciting to me; every time I feel something like this, really good things happen! Because of the powerful Major Arcana cards, including my significator, I feel the need to delve a little deeper into the cards.

Here is what I found, besides the usual Tarot keyword information:

The Empress: Number 3 (creation of something new based on the energies of 1 and 2, three is ruled by Jupiter, educated, wise, happy, free flow of energy), Daleth (door or womb), Venus (love, sensual pleasure and attraction)

Death: Number 13 (the test, all or nothing, can be seen as the center point if the 12 zodiac signs are placed in a circle), Mem (water), fixed water sign, 8th House, introverted/negative/feminine, ruled by Mars or Pluto.

The Lovers: Number 6 (vertical and horizontal balance, harmony, the arts, free flow of energy, six is ruled by Venus), Zayin (sword with two edges), Gemini (adaptable, witty, intellectual), mutable air sign, 3rd House, extroverted/positive/masculine, ruled by Mercury. Interesting that Gemini ends on summer solstice.

If The Empress is there as a “heads up” to me, I can see her as a sort of touchstone to the other two cards. The Empress/Death combination is about transitions, about walking through a doorway; The Empress is about birth or beginnings and Death is about death or endings. Bookends, or a choice? The Empress/The Lovers combination is almost too much to contemplate. They both tell of creation; The Empress as the number 3 card, and The Lovers within the meaning of the card, and they both correspond to the planet Venus in some way, The Empress within the meaning of the card, and The Lovers within the meaning of the number of the card. They are about experiences and about choices. Death/The Lovers, just for the heck of it, this combination has some interesting commonalities. Both are about the free flow of energies, each is of the opposite gender energy, with Death being feminine and inner, and The Lovers being masculine and outer.

Then there is the Archangel Uriel/The Lovers combination. If The Lovers is there as a “heads up” to me, and The Empress/Death are there as two different versions of the concept of walking through a gate or doorway (and if I remember that the one thing that has always appeared within any meditations involving Uriel is death) . . . whoa! No wonder I feel something big approaching!!

Last night we had the first meeting of what I call the Pagan Brain Trust. Imagine this: five experienced Pagans of different traditions/focuses with open and curious minds, getting together to sit and talk. It took us two hours for each of us to give a little bio! No one is a beginner, no one is interested in becoming a coven (that would be a deal breaker for me; just not interested because I already have a coven: Sacred Mists), and everyone is eager to work hard and learn from each other. We are going to try to meet every month, and this group has big possibilities!

$