The Empress has a great self-awareness. She is very aware that she functions as a symbol, and she is comfortable with her role....The Empress is the card which represents the concept which many call the Great Mother: she who is the Queen of Life. She also represents birth, the heterosexual woman and intuition over intellect....The Empress is strongly related to time, cycles, being born and dying, seasons. Demeter is a good classical example of the Empress.
--http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Acropolis/2282/tarot/3.htm

Her throne is one built of endurance, tenacity, loyalty and sheer determination. She stands for the mother, and for the daughter.....who will in turn become mother. ...In recent times we have tended to overlook the importance of the innate strength in womanhood. We can get blinded by the dynamic power inherent in male strength, and completely forget the necessity for the counter-balancing influence of female power. There's nothing mushy about this power - it's no accident that many Goddesses are regarded as destroyers - but it is infinitely different to male strength. The entire dynamic of its expression is unique and enduring. --http://www.angelpaths.com/majors/empress2.html

While the Magician is the primal spark, the idea made real, and the High Priestess is the one who gives the idea a form, the Empress is the womb where it gestates and grows till it is ready to be born....The Empress card is one of the easier trumps to read. She's Mother. Generally, Mother in a good sense. Patient, loving, giving, generous. --http://www.aeclectic.net/basics/empress.html

This Empress is a pregnant woman from the fertile crescent between the two great rivers Tigris and Euphrates, where historic civilization came into being...The Empress wears red because she personifies the bleeding and fertile woman, and red is the color of her life-blood. Red is a symbol of the living creature and the passions of life, and represents action that leads to creative change. --http://www.mcn.org/b/thewheel/EmpressText.html

Here is also found initial sensation. This is the first really physical experience of the world that The Fool has entered. The Empress has a rich understanding of the world based on her five senses. In a reading, The Empress represents pregnancy, actual or metaphorical. --http://occult_symbolism.tripod.com/tarot/trumps/empress.html

I am the keeper of hearths.
Barley is mine, and corn.
Kitchens warm by my decree,
malt gives rise to heady mead,
bread is born of wheat and fire.
....
I am the priestess now wed.
Creation is mine, and growth.
--http://www.eosdev.com/Illustrations_Quotes/Cyndi/eos_fool_empress.htm

The Empress is the only card in the Tarot that shows a simple natural unstructured scene as a background. --http://www.psyche.com/psyche/tarot/trumps/empress.html

Maltese Cross: Union of the spiritual with the material ; Lotus: Represents the feminine, passive power ; Revolving Moons: Represents the need for opposition to maintain balance --http://www.tryskelion.com/empress.htm

She is fertility of both the species and of the universe itself. --http://www.earlham.edu/~rinehca/tarot/empress.htm

She blesses, she rules, she loves, she creates, and she sustains all that is in her empire... --http://www.lunaea.com/tarot/tarottour/tour3.html

Is it sad that I had to go look up what the next card after the Priestess is? Yes, yes, I believe it is. I obviously haven't been doing nearly enough work on this. Did a reading last night with my old Rider/Waites and it made absolutely no sense. Absurd.

So. The Empress.

Pretty straightforward matriarchal figure, here. Now, of course, to find appropriate images and all, but pretty straightforward, I should think.

Intuition, intuition...how does one visualize intuition? (Now I see why all these cards have cats on them.) Cat...lightbulb, flash of light...subtlety (how does one visualize subtlety, while you're at it?) ...sharp lines, firmness...does intuition have a color? Green or purple. Greenish-purple? No, that's ugly...green, I think. Maybe a full moon...

Oh, and a couple other decks' interpretations...
In my B5, this is Ivanova, which almost works but not quite. In HP, this is Fawkes, or as I said, Trelawney. Hmm...I kind of like a phoenix in this one. It looks like a relatively normal bird at first glance, but it's not. Hmm.

Notes on the High Priestess...

"Now lets unveil this card a bit. The symbolism is poignant, so lets give birth to our deeper understanding. Notice the veil of pomegranates behind her. What is it? Joe Steve Swick III has demonstrated something remarkable to me concerning this card. Pomegranates are symbols of fertility, which aptly fits the Goddess as a Fertility Goddess of Life. But there is something hidden here. Hathor, the Egyptian Goddess gave birth to the Egyptian Sun God Ra as we shall see here shortly in our translation and analysis of the Egyptian Book of the Dead Chapter 17. But look again at the veil and see what it is. This is the Tree of Life of the Qabalah!" --http://www2.ida.net/graphics/shirtail/tarot.htm

"The High Priestess performs the rites of initiation into the new world that was announced by the Magician. She holds the key to understanding this world. Her knowledge is intuitive. When the High Priestess guides you, you will come to a deep understanding of your inner self....This card often appears when you are just beginning to explore occult mysteries. The High Priestess opens your third eye or inner vision and teaches you on a subconscious level. Her chant is the voice of intuition." --http://members.shaw.ca/betawaves/tarot/trumps/priestess.html

"Motto:
Statu variabilis (Steadfast in changing)
Deities:
Artemis, Diana; Hecate; Luna; Isis; Persephone. " --http://www.cs.utk.edu/~mclennan/BA/PT/M4.html

"In the depths of the forest, you meet the High Priestess on the path, her snake coiling around her neck, moving from the source of her sexuality to her right hand and passing over her heart, symbolizing the wisdom she offers that comes from deepest inner knowing. Her familiar, a blue-eyed temple cat, lies at her feet, symbol of the mystery and devotion contained in silence. Power sparkles all around the priestess as she stands on the ancient forest path. Her gaze invites:
Come, learn the ways of magic... surrender to the wisdom that is within you, as I have done... open to the unseen, and come naked to the mysteries... " --http://www.lunaea.com/tarot/tarottour/tour2.html

" The High Priestess represents your virgin self, the part of you that belongs to no one but you. When she shows her face, you are being asked to have conversations with that virgin self, to go within and listen to the counsel of your own holy guardian angel. Bring your question to the virgin self, but not your responsibilities and worries. Ask what your path is now, but do not put conditions on the answer, like money, or preference. You can sort that out later, after the inner truth is heard." --http://www.writerinthewindow.com/high_priestess.htm

"This card represents the esoteric, intuitive, and things unseen. The High Priestess finds knowledge that isn't clearly visible to most. She visits you in your dreams, shows up in your artwork, and points things out to you through any of the arts of divination, such as torot, astrology, and numerology. She reminds you to dig a little deeper and to trust your intuitions -- there's far more there than what meets the eye!" --http://www.catryce.com/MysticCat/Tarot/2.html

"Recall the Magician who uses the outer tools available to him- here, with the High Priestess, the tools are within. The subconscious mind, that energy which moves of its own accord and is made up of our memories, as well as the memories of all mankind that we inherit as humans. This card reminds us that the energy inside is the core source of what can help us progress." --http://roswell.fortunecity.com/leehigh/340/shadow/shadow8.htm

Okay, a few things...while I still adore the symbolism of the original Rider-Waite, I just never really got Quabalistic magic, and so I probably will have to get rid of most of that stuff. Still like the pillars, though...I think I'm using the trees from Tolkein's sketch of the Gate into Moria for them. :D

Second, yeah, the Magician needs to be male...there's a balance of masculine/feminine in the Major Arcana, and I kind of want to keep it there. Thing is, I *know* I redid the card to have a male figure in it, but I did it in my trial version of PSP7, which has now run out, and I was dumb and didn't save it as anything other than a PSP7 file, and now I can't open it!! Grrr!

As to the Priestess...hmm... I'm having visions of that old black lady from Stephen King's The Stand. Not sure if she quite fits my image, though. Must think on this.