WhiteBirchWoman
Wow. A lot of people sure know how to miss a point.
It wasn't said that the Empress never ever ever means literal pregnancy. What was said was that the Empress =/= pregnant. And that's true. Whether or not the card refers to a literal pregnancy depends on the question being asked, the location of the card in the spread, and the cards surrounding it.
It CAN mean that someone is pregnant. But it won't necessarily mean that every time. It _is_ a common misconception from what I've seen that the Empress card refers to pregnancy. This is just as erroneous as assuming that the Death card refers always to literal death.
The card can also mean that someone DESIRES to be pregant. Or that someone is ACTIVELY TRYING TO BECOME pregnant. It could also mean that someone MIGHT become pregnant in the future. It can even refer to metaphorical pregnancies: birth of a new project, for instance. The phrase "fruits of labor" comes to mind. Finally achieving a long-awaited goal that has defined someone's life for a considerable amount of time.
I own three decks and none of them, when I look at the card, suggested pregnancy to me while I was studying them for the concepts I immediately associated with the pictures. Granted, some of my associations were derived from knowing what the card is traditionally said to represent, and with my associations of the word Empress itself. So I include pregnancy as one possible meaning when I record my impressions. But more often than not that particular meaning is far, far down on the bottom of my list.
With that out of the way now, here's my two cents concerning your post, though much of it is just echoing what has already been said:
The cards are not a tool like a Ouija board, allowing an external entity, separate from yourself, to communicate with you. They are a tool to help your subconscious communicate directly to you. So the responses you get are going to be directly and greatly affected by your own mind. Talking to your cards while you are in a state of agitation ABOUT the subject which is causing you distress is probably not the greatest idea. If you are going to use the cards to gain insight on a matter that is causing you a great deal of anxiety, it would serve you well to put yourself in a calm state of mind first and try to maintain as much objectivity as possible. Otherwise your cards may very well not do anything but spew your darkest worries right back at you.
There's also the theory that the cards themselves never lie, are never wrong, but your interpretation, now, that's another matter. It could be that you were so focused on having your fear confirmed that you only heard what you expected to hear, so to speak.
Personally I think it's pointless to ask the cards a yes/no question of that sort. If you want a yes/no oracle, you're better off using a pendulum. Cards are more for in depth exploration of issues rather than cut and dry yes/no responses. Also, while I can certainly see there being a time and place to ask the cards this kind of question, I don't thin the situation as you described was it. The cards are NOT meant to be asked questions you can figure out for yourself by getting a pregnancy test. I'm inclined to think that your cards were chastising you.
Oh, and asking the cards the same question repeatedly isn't the solution either. It's one thing to use subsequent spreads to clarify the first one; quite another to keep asking the cards the same question. I'm curious: What would you have done if you had gotten a different answer every time you drew a spread? First yes, then no, then yes again? More to the point, why did you not like the first response you were given? Asking the cards the same question till you get an answer you WANT is not the way to use them.
Now, here's my take on what happened. I'm assuming you've heard the adage about being told not to think about pink elephants. You can't HELP but think about them. You already suspected your girlfriend was pregnant. You believed it so strongly, in fact--basing this on what you've written--that you used your cards expecting them to tell you what you already knew. All your energy was focused on your girlfriend whom you strongly feared to be pregnant. The cards, picking up on the charged energy of the fear behind your question, gave you the card that represented your fear: a pregnant girlfriend. So the Empress DID represent pregnancy, but rather than showing you what was actually happening with your girlfriend, it was reflecting your innermost fear.
Read enough posts in theses forums and you'll notice that tarot cards often don't show us what IS or what WILL/MAY be, but reflect on what we WISH FOR or FEAR above all else. It's not at all uncommon for a card to come up in a spread that doesn't represent past or future events, but that reflects a querents deepest concerns, even those that the querent may not be aware of. This is one of the best uses of the tarot: helping us to discover things about ourselves we would not otherwise realize. So it should hardly be surprising, if there's something bothering you to the extent that it has become an all-pervasive worry, that the cards will regurgitate this fear right back at you, especially if it's the only thing you can focus on while trying to do a reading.
I should also say that I agree that since you, by your own admission, are new to tarot, it is hugely irresponsible to do readings about other people. Even those close to you. In this, again, I believe the cards were chastising you. For this kind of pressing worry, rather than ask the cards if your girlfriend was pregnant, the obvious thing to do would have been to ask her to get a pregnancy test and just leave the cards out of it. After all, what sense at all is there in asking the card that kind of question if you're going to get a more reliable test done _anyway_? What DID it profit you to do this, when the cards told you one thing and the test proved your interpretation wrong?
While you are learning, stick to readings for yourself. STRICTLY for yourself. Don't confuse this reading as being about you just because it involved a situation that could strongly affect your life. Until you're more confident in your ability to draw accurate interpretations, you need to reserve your inquiries to situations that deal SOLELY with you.
You've already gotten a dose of what can potentially happen otherwise.
It wasn't said that the Empress never ever ever means literal pregnancy. What was said was that the Empress =/= pregnant. And that's true. Whether or not the card refers to a literal pregnancy depends on the question being asked, the location of the card in the spread, and the cards surrounding it.
It CAN mean that someone is pregnant. But it won't necessarily mean that every time. It _is_ a common misconception from what I've seen that the Empress card refers to pregnancy. This is just as erroneous as assuming that the Death card refers always to literal death.
The card can also mean that someone DESIRES to be pregant. Or that someone is ACTIVELY TRYING TO BECOME pregnant. It could also mean that someone MIGHT become pregnant in the future. It can even refer to metaphorical pregnancies: birth of a new project, for instance. The phrase "fruits of labor" comes to mind. Finally achieving a long-awaited goal that has defined someone's life for a considerable amount of time.
I own three decks and none of them, when I look at the card, suggested pregnancy to me while I was studying them for the concepts I immediately associated with the pictures. Granted, some of my associations were derived from knowing what the card is traditionally said to represent, and with my associations of the word Empress itself. So I include pregnancy as one possible meaning when I record my impressions. But more often than not that particular meaning is far, far down on the bottom of my list.
With that out of the way now, here's my two cents concerning your post, though much of it is just echoing what has already been said:
The cards are not a tool like a Ouija board, allowing an external entity, separate from yourself, to communicate with you. They are a tool to help your subconscious communicate directly to you. So the responses you get are going to be directly and greatly affected by your own mind. Talking to your cards while you are in a state of agitation ABOUT the subject which is causing you distress is probably not the greatest idea. If you are going to use the cards to gain insight on a matter that is causing you a great deal of anxiety, it would serve you well to put yourself in a calm state of mind first and try to maintain as much objectivity as possible. Otherwise your cards may very well not do anything but spew your darkest worries right back at you.
There's also the theory that the cards themselves never lie, are never wrong, but your interpretation, now, that's another matter. It could be that you were so focused on having your fear confirmed that you only heard what you expected to hear, so to speak.
Personally I think it's pointless to ask the cards a yes/no question of that sort. If you want a yes/no oracle, you're better off using a pendulum. Cards are more for in depth exploration of issues rather than cut and dry yes/no responses. Also, while I can certainly see there being a time and place to ask the cards this kind of question, I don't thin the situation as you described was it. The cards are NOT meant to be asked questions you can figure out for yourself by getting a pregnancy test. I'm inclined to think that your cards were chastising you.
Oh, and asking the cards the same question repeatedly isn't the solution either. It's one thing to use subsequent spreads to clarify the first one; quite another to keep asking the cards the same question. I'm curious: What would you have done if you had gotten a different answer every time you drew a spread? First yes, then no, then yes again? More to the point, why did you not like the first response you were given? Asking the cards the same question till you get an answer you WANT is not the way to use them.
Now, here's my take on what happened. I'm assuming you've heard the adage about being told not to think about pink elephants. You can't HELP but think about them. You already suspected your girlfriend was pregnant. You believed it so strongly, in fact--basing this on what you've written--that you used your cards expecting them to tell you what you already knew. All your energy was focused on your girlfriend whom you strongly feared to be pregnant. The cards, picking up on the charged energy of the fear behind your question, gave you the card that represented your fear: a pregnant girlfriend. So the Empress DID represent pregnancy, but rather than showing you what was actually happening with your girlfriend, it was reflecting your innermost fear.
Read enough posts in theses forums and you'll notice that tarot cards often don't show us what IS or what WILL/MAY be, but reflect on what we WISH FOR or FEAR above all else. It's not at all uncommon for a card to come up in a spread that doesn't represent past or future events, but that reflects a querents deepest concerns, even those that the querent may not be aware of. This is one of the best uses of the tarot: helping us to discover things about ourselves we would not otherwise realize. So it should hardly be surprising, if there's something bothering you to the extent that it has become an all-pervasive worry, that the cards will regurgitate this fear right back at you, especially if it's the only thing you can focus on while trying to do a reading.
I should also say that I agree that since you, by your own admission, are new to tarot, it is hugely irresponsible to do readings about other people. Even those close to you. In this, again, I believe the cards were chastising you. For this kind of pressing worry, rather than ask the cards if your girlfriend was pregnant, the obvious thing to do would have been to ask her to get a pregnancy test and just leave the cards out of it. After all, what sense at all is there in asking the card that kind of question if you're going to get a more reliable test done _anyway_? What DID it profit you to do this, when the cards told you one thing and the test proved your interpretation wrong?
While you are learning, stick to readings for yourself. STRICTLY for yourself. Don't confuse this reading as being about you just because it involved a situation that could strongly affect your life. Until you're more confident in your ability to draw accurate interpretations, you need to reserve your inquiries to situations that deal SOLELY with you.
You've already gotten a dose of what can potentially happen otherwise.
