In A. E. Waite's Pictorial Key to the Tarot (1910), the Empress upright means: Fruitfulness, action, initiative, length of days; the unknown, clandestine; also difficulty, doubt, ignorance. Reversed: Light, truth, the unravelling of involved matters, public rejoicings; according to another reading, vacillation.
The picture
“A stately figure, seated, having rich vestments and royal aspect, as of a daughter of heaven and earth. Her diadem is of twelve stars, gathered in a cluster. The symbol of Venus is on the shield which rests near her. A field of corn is ripening in front of her, and beyond there is a fall of water. The sceptre which she bears is surmounted by the globe of this world. She is the inferior Garden of Eden, the Earthly Paradise, all that is symbolized by the visible house of man. She is not Regina coeli, but she is still refugium peccatorum, the fruitful mother of thousands. There are also certain aspects in which she has been correctly described as desire and the wings thereof, as the woman clothed with the sun, as Gloria Mundi and the veil of the Sanctum Sanctorum; but she is not, I may add, the soul that has attained wings, unless all the symbolism is counted up another and unusual way. She is above all things universal fecundity and the outer sense of the Word. This is obvious, because there is no direct message which has been given to man like that which is borne by woman; but she does not herself carry its interpretation. In another order of ideas, the card of the Empress signifies the door or gate by which an entrance is obtained into this life, as into the Garden of Venus; and then the way which leads out therefrom, into that which is beyond, is the secret known to the High Priestess: it is communicated by her to the elect. Most old attributions of this card are completely wrong on the symbolism (as, for example, its identification with the Word, Divine Nature, the Triad, and so forth).” A. E. Waite, The Pictorial Key to the Tarot, 1910
Upright
Fruitfulness, action, initiative, length of days; the unknown, clandestine; also difficulty, doubt, ignorance.
Reversed
Light, truth, the unravelling of involved matters, public rejoicings; according to another reading, vacillation.
In one line
Fruitfulness and action: the long day of growing things. (Esbat's own summary of Waite's meaning and picture.)
Where it sits in the deck
The Empress is card III of the 22 Major Arcana, the trumps. Before it comes The High Priestess; after it, The Emperor.
In Esbat
Esbat deals a card of the day, face down until you turn it, and holds all 78 cards in the 1910 pictures with Waite's meanings, upright and reversed. The Empress can be shared as a picture. All 78 tarot card meanings.
Sources
Meanings and picture descriptions: A. E. Waite, The Pictorial Key to the Tarot (London: Rider, 1910), public domain, checked against the Wikisource transcription. Picture: Pamela Colman Smith, 1910, public domain. Like the app, this page records what the book says; it does not promise outcomes.
Last updated October 25, 2026.
Esbat: Tarot & Book of Shadows, on Google Play
A card of the day, face down until you turn it, and all 78 cards in the 1910 pictures with Waite's meanings, upright and reversed. For Android.
The High Priestess: tarot card meaning: The High Priestess tarot card meaning, upright and reversed, in A. E. Waite's own words (1910), with the original 1910 picture.
The Emperor: tarot card meaning: The Emperor tarot card meaning, upright and reversed, in A. E. Waite's own words (1910), with the original 1910 picture.
Tarot card meanings: all 78 cards: All 78 tarot card meanings, upright and reversed, in A. E. Waite's own words (1910), with Pamela Colman Smith's original pictures.