The Empress and the Power of Communication
Creativity and communication live in symbiosis. We enter Arcane number III.
WORDS, WORDS
A few years ago, our institutions decided that due to the spread of an as yet unidentified virus, we should all remain locked in our homes. Under the pretext that hospitals were flooded with people with respiratory complications, we were only allowed to leave our location if we had a document stating the reason for our move.
Nevertheless, I experienced that period very well. At the time, I lived in a flat adjacent to that of my brother's family, so we shared almost all our time together. In the evenings we played with an old Playstation that we had dusted off for the occasion or watched TV series with the grandchildren. During the day I worked, sometimes stopping in the middle of the afternoon and then resuming without any anxiety after dinner. Sometimes I would work for up to twelve hours, yet it didn't weigh me down at all, in fact I was terribly productive. With my sister-in-law I did yoga and occasionally exercised on the bench with some fitness equipment I had bought some time before. I could write a whole story about those two months, but this is not the appropriate forum. Who knows, maybe in the future I might think about it.
However, the thing I would like to emphasise is the fact that that situation opened up endless avenues for me. I felt fertile on a creative level and being a musician, I wrote several guitar and vocal pieces. I started to follow several programmes on YouTube and came into contact with several popularisers who at that time had smelt something wrong with the dominant narrative.
After the ‘shutdown’ I started making videos with a small camera I had bought just before the bailamme began, motivated by the intention of creating a podcast. In the absence of a topic to cover, that experience seemed to arrive on purpose to provide it to me on a silver platter.
I started doing video live broadcasts where I invited representatives from the world of alternative information. These were personalities that few people knew, except for those rare earthlings who decided not to watch TV from time to time and independently find information on current affairs. A few months later I opened a YouTube channel that dealt with topics such as sport, cinema, current affairs, music and art in general. I am currently no longer active on that front, but the possibility of returning to create some new content in the future is not precluded.
At the same time, I have a new role at the company I currently work for. In fact, I am a lecturer in a kind of in-house academy where young people are trained in order to introduce them to our industry. I found myself teaching the logic behind the software that the company I work for produces. A job that I immediately felt fit me like a glove and that at the time of writing this article continues to give me enormous gratification. It is an activity that makes me happy and above all fruitful from all points of view, the feeling of gaining more and more vigour at the end of each teaching experience being tangible.
Looking back, there have been many occasions in life that have provided me with clues as to what could be my path, assuming of course that this could actually be THE path, or at least, one of the possible paths. Until a few years ago I was giving guitar lessons, for example. In my previous job I trained customers in the correct use of graphics configuration software. At university, I enrolled in a faculty that assumed teaching in schools as its main career outlet.
I deduce, therefore, that life repeatedly placed before my eyes a predisposition that I was probably unable to qualify at the time: communication.
Spreading information, confronting, speaking, imparting knowledge. These are all activities that I now practice regularly, I could say almost daily. I realise with increasing conviction that every event or fact of reality I come into contact always and inextricably leads me back to that dimension. And I don't mind this at all.
THE CREATIVE FORCE: THE EMPRESS
The world of communication cannot do without the creative dimension. An informer who dispenses knowledge aseptically, without any imaginative motivation, is simply a repeater. Is there anything wrong with this? Absolutely not. However, we are not in the realm of communication here. When I come into contact with a piece of information, whatever its nature, inevitably that piece of information acquires all my experience and of course I make it my own.
It is a kind of do ut des. A win-win. The creative form lies in the ability to forward that data seasoned with the sum of my experiences, which will make it unique and unrepeatable, if not available to be shaped in turn by someone else's experience.
Music is an extraordinary example of this creative process. Probably if it weren't for Jimi Hendrix I wouldn't own a Fender Stratocaster today and I wouldn't love black music and the blues so much. A lot of my compositions in the past have been inspired by his music, and it is undeniable that my songs carry the essence of Jimi Hendrix and all his creative baggage.
We can therefore say that communication and creativity go hand in hand. They are one indispensable to the other. Two sides of the same coin.
The Major Arcana that most embodies this principle is the Empress, or Arcana number III. It represents a woman with a crown seated on a throne. She holds in her hands a sceptre and a shield with an eagle depicted. She is looking to her left and her gaze is actually directed at Arcanum number IIII, the Emperor, her one and only great ally. The Empress is part of the first tarological macro-sequence and is positioned after the Papess on Arcanum number II, bearer of themes such as expressive closure, accumulation of knowledge and study. The crowned woman gathers the information of the Papess and transforms it into a creative matrix, albeit with a principle of instinctive inexperience.
The first quadrant, among the many possible readings, may in fact represent the first part of an individual's life, understood as an incarnated soul that makes its experience within matter. Therefore the Arcana ranging from number I, the Juggler, to number IIII, the Emperor, speak to us of strong potential, but little preparation. They represent the incarnation of the child soul, still inexperienced, which without trudging makes its way in the world.
Having reached Arcanum III, the soul is ready to practise the knowledge it has gathered. It transforms its curiosity into matter. It opens up openings in the creative dimension and it is not for nothing that people with a III in the ‘important’ numbers carry with them that impatience typical of the artist who must give voice to the art he incarnates. The female archetypal matrix accentuates this aspect even more, woman being a life-giving biological implant. A creativity of the belly, totally uncontrolled and therefore sometimes a source of malaise.
An Empress who does not nourish and at the same time bestow her virtues will tend to turn off the taps of communication, becoming silent and with obvious relational difficulties.
The III is a still incomplete archetype of that mother who will find her totality in the cosmos with Arcanum XVIII, the Moon, an emanation of welcome and empathy. The III creates relationships and connects those who are unable to interact. In a sense it represents a conduit in understanding, a notary of nature, a peacemaker. The Empress experienced in conflict closes her vocabulary, does not speak or has problems with diction. Stuttering or problems with the throat and vocal cords are typical biological activations in an Empress who cannot find her place in the world.
THE CROWN
Being a very powerful female archetype, on a genealogical level it brings back memories of difficult gestations, sometimes miscarriages or unplanned and/or unwanted children. The Arcanum presents a shield depicting an eagle with an almost broken wing, once again underlining the immature dimension in which it flutters. The upward-pointing sceptre stands for power and awareness and emphasises the fact that the Empress is ready to go into action, putting into action all the knowledge acquired by the Papess. The Crown speaks of power, a peculiarity of the first quadrant that finds its complete form in Arcane IIII, the Emperor. The Crown is found in various schools of thought and in this regard I find interesting the exposition I found at the following link and which I reproduce below:
The symbolic image of the crown on the head represents the seat of spiritual power and as the image of eternity. The crown, in many traditions, is a peculiarity of divinity.In ancient times, crowns were used in a variety of ceremonies (including funerals) and at festivals, as a sign of union between the living and the dead, between ancestors and descendants; the connection with ancestor worship, thus giving an idea of the crown as a symbol of immortality.Then over time, the original meaning of the crown image was expanded. For instance, in ancient Greece, crowns were awarded to the winners of games in honour of the mythical hero Pelops.Later still, laurel wreaths were awarded during the Olympic Games, as royal prizes, as a sign of glory and then, in ancient Rome, the laurel wreath of victory in war (the crown of triumph) became an attribute of Caesar, as a badge of honour and greatness.
https://www.gongoff.com/
In the Tree of Life of the Hebrew Quabbalàh, the crown is associated with the first Sefirah, Kether, the path that, according to tradition, gives life to all that is manifestation, even though it is not itself manifest. Standing on top of the head, the crown would not be part of the physical world and would therefore be a symbol that has neither form nor time. It represents non-existence. An emanation. Something that is inaccessible to the one who goes through earthly life, but not unreachable. I do not want to go into this specifically now, firstly because I am not sufficiently prepared on the subject and secondly because it is such a broad topic that an entire lifetime would probably not be enough to delve into it in its entirety. However, the fact that the Empress carries a symbol of the divine-creative matrix yearns for the fact that she declines her very existence towards something higher. The attainment of a goal that in the position she is in, she is certainly not able to grasp. This does not represent a limitation of course, on the contrary it is a continuous induction to movement, another typical peculiarity of the III.
The Empress accelerates stale processes, it is the set of cables used to charge the car's battery, connecting it with that of another car.
To conclude, the Empress uses voice, communication. It is her way of making contact and she does it through a creative process. She is also a sidekick. She acts as a wingman within the nest. If experienced in conflict in the love relationship she experiences the feeling of abuse as the Papessa, or tends to seek a third party. They are difficult figures to subdue. They decide, or there is no way. In particular, if this number is present in the deep-seated personality or in the basic conflict on the map, they can be particularly challenging personalities to relate to. Sometimes they hold a couple together. For a III the most vital thing is to talk.
‘Words have the power to destroy and to create. When words are sincere and kind they can change the world. ‘
BUDDHA