The Year of Transitioning from Empress to Emperor: from Intuition to Efficiency
2024 will be the year of the woman leader! May 2024 saw the publication of my second book in the Arcana Oracle Series, High Priestess and Empress. I thought in 2024 that the stars were aligned perfectly for women leaders to be celebrated. My book series is based on the real-life Victorian women leaders, celebrity artists and innovators who published newspapers and journals, led theater companies, directed plays, and fought for the woman’s vote. Magician and Fool, the first book in this book series, is centered around Pamela Colman Smith, a tarot deck creator. Her first two muses, the Magician and Fool, are men. In High Priestess and Empress, book number two, it’s the woman’s turn to rule. Pamela finds strength and agency through her female muses, Florence Farr and Dame Ellen Terry for her High Priestess and Empress.
In real life, Pamela discovered role models in the women around her. In her relationship with Florence Farr, the leader of the Golden Dawn magician’s group, Pamela found a mentor, a muse for her High Priestess. She had a different relationship with Ellen Terry, almost that of a surrogate mother, which fed right into the Empress muse for Pamela. Pamela created this deck of tarot cards for an offshoot of the Golden Dawn.
In July of 2024, Kamala Harris announced her campaign for president of the United States. If ever there was a time to celebrate women coming into power, I was sure my book had lined up with the time’s energy. In the first time in history, we would have a woman president! From July through August, there were ecstatic rallies, postcards and voter registration encouragement to states outside of New York. We worked hard on the symbols to communicate the campaign’s goals.
The High Priestess and Empress tarot cards are fitting symbols for a woman candidate. For the High Priestess tarot card, a learned female scholar is seated between the pillars of Solomon, holding the Torah, a Greek Christian cross on her chest, the Islamic crescent moon at her feet, crown of the Egyptian goddess on her head. The Empress is the fertile leader, pregnant as she lounges on her chaise, the creative fruits of labor around her in flora and fauna, the symbol of the love goddess Venus nearby.
But after the November election, we learned that there would be no woman president.
And here’s where the lessons of tarot can school you, especially when a tarot card is in reverse, or upside down. Then, it is said, the meaning of the reversed card is literally standing on its head. The reverse of the High Priestess card indicates a disconnect from intuition and wisdom, a need to be right rather than right in the moment. There were instances in the campaign that could be criticized for not empowering the local groups that led the resources for election. The reversal of an Empress tarot card shows a controlling or smothering behaviour towards others. This is seen in a lack of boundaries or possessiveness by a local authority, along with over-nurturing souls (symbolized by the awful meme of “Karens” who know better than anyone else.) The reversals of these cards can be interpreted as lessons why the campaign messaging did not move everyone.
In May 2025 the third book of my series, will still feature Pamela as the protagonist but with new muses, the Emperor and Hierophant. For those new to tarot, the Emperor is card five, the Hierophant, a version of a pope, is card six.
With the Emperor and Hierophant energy now in our country, I acknowledge that there is a real hunger for the focused drive of the Emperor and the structure of the Hierophant. With an Emperor and Hierophant, there is clear leadership and guidelines, with structured, authoritative and masculine energy. The Hierophant signifies established norms and conformity. If we are to follow the tarot for this era, there will also be transitions from focusing on intuition, creativity and growth to persistent discipline, efficient use of one’s energy and long-range planning.
In learning how to cope, I turn to the lessons that Pamela is learning in the third book. There will be new perspectives in the balance between intuition and discipline – a balance between an Empress and an Emperor, between a High Priestess and a Hierophant. Like Pamela, I will aim to overcome the resistance to productivity and feedback. I will work on directives to network, communicate, and to try new structures and methodologies. It’s a new world that I will be negotiating and the Emperor and Hierophant will have characteristics that I can study. Clear guidelines and better communication will be my main focus along with the end of spending energies on facets that distract me from my task at hand. Goodbye to some of social media that eats my brain and riles me up to no effect.
Does this mean I’ll still watch “Bridgerton?” Yes! I’ll read books for pleasure, not just for reviewing or understanding what’s “out there?” Books on my “To Be Read” list will also be fun, whimsical and fancy. Bring it on, Emperor and Hierophant. I’m ready to rumble! And organize!
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The next installment in the thrilling Arcana Oracle series finds heroine Pamela Colman Smith kidnapped, imprisoned, and fighting to protect her tarot deck from Aleister Crowley once again.
On tour with the Lyceum Theatre in Manchester, Pamela Colman Smith is kidnapped by a mysterious force. In captivity, she begins a relationship with her mute keeper, a strange creature at the beck and call of her nemesis, Aleister Crowley. Experiencing visions and visitations from other ethereal beings, Pamela works to escape her prison before Aleister harms another one of her muses over the ownership of her magical tarot deck.
Meanwhile, her guardian and mentor, Bram Stoker, tries to find her as he tours with the stars of the Lyceum Theatre, Pamela’s muses for the Magician and Empress cards. Alerted to Pamela’s plight, Ahmed Kamal, Pamela’s Egyptologist friend, joins Bram to come to her aid. Plotting against the mysterious forces who abducted her, Pamela must outwit and out magic Aleister, as he tries to destroy her muses and tarot deck. Learning the lessons of her Emperor and Hierophant, she must free herself and command the power manifesting from her tarot deck.
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Category: On Writing
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