Umbrae said:
Yesssssss…but with the Moon, there's another aspect of womanhood, and human sexuality that's being ignored.
On one hand you have the cocktail waitress.
On another – you have Erin Brockovich (who used sexuality, not sex to bring corporations to their knees – an interesting image…).
Both would be represented by the High Priestess – and the fourth and usually ignored phase of the moon.
Um, no, I'd say they're both Empresses. There is abundance, practical/human creativity (as compared to HPS otherworldly/poetic creativity) and earthiness in them.
The phases of the moon are a bit problematic in Tarot given that we've got the Empress. If the HPS was just a Moon Goddess, then we'd say she was the four phases: Maiden, Mother, Crone and that dark of the Moon mystery. Mother would include that Venus aspect you mention, the motherly but sexy Cocktail Waitress that calls you "hon" and wants to know if she can get you something more. Erin Brockovich, caring about people as if they're her children even as she wears provocative clothing.
BUT in the Tarot we have The Empress there. The Demeter/Ceres/Venus as an Earth goddess. This removes (if you will) that particular aspect from the HPS and hands it to the Empress.
The HPS can represent the womb--aka the mystery of pregnancy, but the MOM is the Empress. And that includes the Cocktail Waitress who has two kids and looks after them with all her maternal might even while she also enjoys herself with a customer or two after work. That sort of EARTHY sensuality is all Empress.
And, thus, the HPS' moon remains in the sky, emblematic of mystery (including the mystery of the womb), secrets, psychic power and the sexuality of all that, rather than the earthy maternal sexuality it WOULD have if the HPS was the ONLY emblem of femininity in the deck.
In the case of the HPS, we might say that the four phases of the moon are: Selene (Sky--moon goddess), Artemis (Earth--goddess of the hunt/childbirth), Prosephone (underworld goddess) and Hecate (the cross-roads between all three--ghost/witch goddess).
The Mother aspect of the moon has been, for all intents and purposes, appropriated by the Empress. Just my humble opinion there.
