Can the Empress be a bit cold and detached?

Hi,

I have always seen, up to now, the upright Empress as a lovely person who can be nurturing, artistic, good looking, caring, compassionate, who loves children.

I think that the ''Empress qualities'' can also be applied to males.

Personally, I often see her tarot equal/male reference as the Emperor. From what I have seen in the archives, the Emperor has a reputation for being controlling and dictatorial (besides his qualities: knowing where he is going, a true leader, opinionated...).

However, I was wondering if the Empress can also show some ''negative traits'' like every other Tarot card, and which one.

I am asking because part of a larger reading, I asked how my feeling were going to develop for someone over time for which I feel very detached and I got this card.

I am just curious to see which ''challenging or different attributes'' you can assess to this soft card. I am seeing a new meaning here where: an Empress can also nurture herself (instead of other people) and taken to an extreme, she might also display selfishness with her Venusian and earthy attributes, in some circumstances.

Any thought is welcome!

The Empress can totally be all about her. She wants to lounge around and eat strawberries....and oh..."I'm so beautiful, can some fetch me some groceries...and while you're out....some diamonds...oh...wait...your feelings....did I forget your birthday, daddy! Let me just give it to you with sex " I mean, she is the Queen of all the other Queens...right? So I could see a very Marie Antoinette personality coming from her...."What, the townspeople are hungry? But I need shoes!"

She can also be the pin-up girl, the mother, the sex pot, and sometimes an overbearing mother when surrounded by the right cards.

She can also be the "other woman", the kept woman (empress + 9 of pents) and even the woman all the other women want to be.

She can be the movie star, a singer, a dancer....

Archetypically she is the mother and pregnancy card.

Mother is one archetype for the empress.

And lord, many mothers are exactly like that. Mothers can be totally negative, cold, manipulative, unkind, narcissistic, scheming..... I know this. I have one such mother.

ANY archetype can have positive and negative sides.

This is why I read reversals x

I don't see the Empress as cold and detached! That is the High Priestess. She is warm and nurturing and femininity. However I think she has two negative sides or things to look out for. The first is that she can be the smothering Mother, the Mum who wipes your face with a tissue at the school gate and embarrasses you! She won't let her children be independent (if you read reversals, the Rx Empress won't give anytime for herself, she is always helping others and forgets herself!). The second negative about her is the opposite (Rodney talks about it in this old thread here), she is clingy and needy and needs other people all the time!

Her negatives are ultimately not knowing when to stop being nurturing and caring and understanding boundaries!

Laurelle and Gregory, I can see what you mean when women or mothers are pretentious, selfish and show some negative traits/behavior related to the Empress

Sppokyboo22, I also read reversals This card came up upright and I am trying to find a negative/different meaning to it for the first time

Daniel, I looked at the thread you recommended and I could see that other people sees the Empress as someone who gives too much to others and neglect herself to make others happy.

In my situation, I was surprised to get this card when asking how my feelings will develop for someone over time. We don't see each others and I like to use tarot to shed a light on my current feelings for inner reflection. That is why I am asking about ''negative'' attributes from the Empress. If I feel distant with this person, I don't understand why I got the Empress as how my feelings will develop. It could be that

a) I will focus on myself more and nurture my life

b) I really don't see why or how I could feel more nurturing towards that person in the future, hence I asked if the Empress could feel more cold and distant (focus on herself) to get alternative meanings.

For sure, her negative attribute of selfishness brought by others does not apply to me. So I was also interested to see, in general, if the Empress can have some negative attributes like the Emperor that I am not aware of.

spookyboo22 said:

This is why I read reversals x

Click to expand...

No, you don't necessarily to physically reverse cards, just be aware of the possibilities.

The Empress can be the smother mother.

I'll go with pampering oneself....and perhaps being shopaholic...with the excuse that you're not /really/ buying that for yourself...so and so would really like it, look good in it, benefit from it etc. without really having the intent to give it to that person. Because once you have it home it finds a place in your life. My daughter's grandmother is like that....if she really likes something she gets it, and if she needs to, she uses one of her grandchildren as a reason to get it.

And pampering yourself can go to extremes.

gregory said:

Mother is one archetype for the empress.

And lord, many mothers are exactly like that. Mothers can be totally negative, cold, manipulative, unkind, narcissistic, scheming..... I know this. I have one such mother.

ANY archetype can have positive and negative sides.

Click to expand...

I was just about to post very nearly the same thing. My own mother often reminds me of this card--the negative side of the Empress card. And, sadly, she is also negative, cold, manipulative, unkind, narcissistic and scheming too!

and also, I will add my mother can also be clingy and needy, like Daniel mentioned. needy for constant praise from others and has the need to always be revered as "AN EMPRESS".

canid said:

The Empress can be the smother mother.

Click to expand...

yep. and she can be a REAL MOTHER!

But, she can also be the good mom--but I have to say I think I most often see her like above.