archetype of the empress

The Empress is an ancient archetype, found in the traditional Tarot deck, and known throughout history in many cultures.

And the Empress that’s beckoning us… who's been overseeing and guiding our Counsel's formation and care, is one that began to reveal inside Sharon's body. At the pinnacle of her menopausal midlife journey. Which is a time when a woman’s system and life reorganizes itself, re-absorbing and redefining all she has birthed into the world, to replenish and rebirth her own system.

In ancient Chinese Medicine, each organ is connected to a symbolic ‘character’ with qualities that honor its primary function. The Empress is the guardian of the heart, which is considered a Yin (feminine) organ. When it's functioning optimally, the Empress is a benevolent leader of the entire system.

All other organs are designed to support and protect the functioning of the heart. The Empress is the central figure within a highly refined and purposeful system, to which all things organize and orchestrate around.

Tending to her well-being and care, and honoring how all other organs are naturally designed to respect and keep the whole system thriving, is key to our living and loving as a collective species.

In the Chinese tradition, the heart is the center of perception itself, and of our self-awareness. It is where our consciousness takes root.

In essence, it is where the soul will find entry into our deepest wholeness, taking up residence within us. This lends to a greater understanding of the significance of The Empress at the Heart of all Life.

During an intensive 7+ year perimenopausal/menopausal passage, Sharon began to hear the Empress’ call, speaking to her about the body’s alchemical order as microcosm for the thriving order of our planet. She heard and saw the Empress revealing a more aligned “order” for her own system to coalesce around. In healthy protection for her heart – the center of all life – to thrive within. The Empress invited her into greater allowance. An allowance of the vast cosmos within her body, in restoration of her deepest fulfillment. Through this process, it naturally began to reveal how to honor this within everyday life, holding a space for the Empress Counsel to form.

In the natural world, there is organic order at play everywhere.

The more we notice this, it emulates and magnifies the order inside our own bodies, and the potential we have to relate to each other and all of life through our ‘sacred purpose’. Not one that the mind can understand. Yet one that the inner organizing system of our bodies IS on board with.

Through years of gardening and urban farming, Sharon witnessed various species working towards and supporting ‘one purpose.’ The most visceral example was when she’d sit and commune with the bees. It was an embodied experience of everyone ‘protecting and serving the queen at center.’

Though it was not actually about the queen, as a figure of ego-filled high and mighty purpose. It was about what she was devoted to… a harmonic order within the collective system that she honored and emanated through her own body. Through a practical, respectful understanding and instinctual wisdom for how to keep the hive and everyone individually thriving.

This is the legend of the Empress. Calling us here today. Beckoning the order of our own bee-ing directly into our bodies, lives, careers, homes and communities.