THE EMPRESS: SARASWATI

POWERFUL EMPRESSES, SOME BEAUTIFUL, SOME RUTHLESS.

THE EMPRESS SARASWATI

The Mother of Formations

In the world there have been many Empresses, some beautiful and powerful, and others evil and powerful. Most were Consort Empresses married to ruling Emperors. However, there were a few Regnant Empresses in the ancient world, those who took on the role of Emperors for a relatively short period of time when the male heir apparent (a son or nephew) was considered too young to rule after an Emperor’s demise, or if there were no male issue, then the role was filled by a female. This was rare.

EMPRESS WU ZETIAN, MOTHER OF TYRANNY.

One such feared, ambitious, extremely politically intelligent but ruthless Empress Wu Zetian had her own quote: “Remember, when one’s aim is to achieve greatness, everyone is expendable.” She murdered her own brothers, her daughter, and all of her half-brothers, and after her husband Emperor Tang died, she persuaded her son to step down and proclaimed herself ruler of about 50 million people during the Tang Dynasty. She was the only woman in history to become a ruling Emperor of the Dragon Throne in a patriarchal society. Her husband’s concubines were immediately put to death and his favourite Qi was brutally tortured, her tongue cut out, her eyes blinded and eventually her limbs cut off, being left to die. Yet she ruled with an iron hand and China became a great nation during that time. It was said that the only one she ever loved was when she was concubine to a previous Emperor who did not leave his wife for her. She died after a coup to usurp her from power to re-establish her son to the Dragon Throne.

EMPRESS LEIZU, MOTHER OF SILK.

In contrast, there was a sweet Empress known as Leizu, the primary consort wed to the Yellow Emperor, who has temples built to her memory because of the discovery of silk. She is known as the Silkworm Mother. It was said that a cocoon fell into her tea and she noticed the long soft thread that unravelled, that she could stretch across the garden. Leizu persuaded her husband to grow a grove of mulberry trees for her, when she noticed the silk worms ate the leaves. She invented the silk loom, and started the vernal rites of sericulture, to ask for Divine help for the abundance of silk worms. For a long time the silk was only made for the Imperial Court, then later became a huge commercial enterprise for China and the building of the ‘silk roads’ so that the silk could be spread far and wide and taken across China, eventually to the world outside of China. The larvae are killed in the process but now in India they have Ahimsu silk that is only taken from the cocoons after the silk moths fly. It is cruelty free and preferable to me anyway.

QUEEN VICTORIA, EMPRESS OF INDIA, ROYAL MOTHER.

In 1877, the British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli proclaimed Queen Victoria as Empress of India during the colonial days of British rule in India. India was under control of the Crown since 1858. Queen Victoria never visited India but India came to her. Her role was to strengthen the bond between India and the United Kingdom. The Queen had an Indian secretary who taught her to speak and write the language, as seen later in her diary entries. She enjoyed the cuisine and had some Indian dishes served on her dinner menu. She also had Indian man-servants and advisors. The Crown Jewels contain some precious jewels from India created by an Indian jeweller who became a great enlightened Yogi in later years and trained women who dedicated their lives to teaching Divine Knowledge, something unheard of at that time.

Elizabeth Bowes-Lyons, King Charles III’s grandmother, was wife and Queen to King George VI who became King in December 1936. The Queen Mother inherited the role of Empress of India until 1947 when India gained Independence from Britain.

EMPRESS ELISABETH OF AUSTRIA (SISI) MOTHER OF FREEDOM.

Another Empress who was loved by the people, although barely tolerated at court, was the free-spirited Elisabeth of Austria (Sisi) who became Queen of Hungary from her marriage to Emperor Franz Joseph I on April 24th 1854 until her assassination on September10th 1898. She was an incredible equestrian, and mingled with the people regularly. He was broken-hearted by her death at the age of 60, in Geneva, by an Italian rebel who fatally stabbed her with a sharpened file. Although they lived mostly apart but regularly visited each other, he said at her death that he truly loved that woman. She was considered the beauty of Europe at the time with chestnut hair almost down to her ankles.

EMPRESS SUIKO JAPAN’S FIRST REIGNING EMPRESS: MOTHER OF HISTORY.

This Empress formally recognized the official status of Buddhism in Japan. She wished to integrate the new faith with the Shinto religion. She was the 33rd reigning monarch of Japan, chosen during a power struggle, the first Regnant Empress and the longest reigning, popular with the people and in the Imperial Court. She had taken vows of a nun before becoming a Buddhist. She gave the Flourishing Three Treasures Edict of Buddhism in 594. During her reign, the writing of Japanese history became a reality. The name Suiko was given to her posthumously meaning: “conjecture of the past”. ‘The writing of Japanese history became an outstanding achievement of her reign’. She was Princess Nukatabe, daughter of an Emperor. She later married her eldest half-brother and became his consort. The couple had 8 children, none of whom ascended the throne.

THE VEDIC TAROT EMPRESS: SARASWATI, MOTHER OF FORMATIONS.

In the Tarot, The Empress is the Mother of Formations and the Keeper of the Seed.  She knows the secret of manifestation from the law of magnetic attraction to conception, creation, growth, materialization and movement.  Giving form to thoughts from darkness to light, she is the subconscious mind.

The Empress knows the harmonies and sounds of the spheres.  In the Vedic Tarot, she is the Sarasvati, the flowing river of life.  She is the Mother of repetition and expansion, the creator of Mandalas, and knows intimately the darkness of the womb whether it be the prison or palace of the soul, the darkness of the growing life within.  In the darkness of consciousness, the seeds of thoughts are hers.  She guides souls at entrance and understands the first waters that fill the womb, the flowing waters of childbirth, and the first waters that pass through the baby, the first bloods of the maiden, the breaking bloods of the bride, the breaking waters of the mother, and the waters passing at the leaving of the body.  She knows the deep-flowing rivers and blood in the body.

The Empress knows that the secret of growth in creation needs not only inspiration, zest and enthusiasm to be successful, but also the secret of sacrifice.  To create, there must be the change in any basic substance for growth, the first and lower leaves of the plant, for example, will withdraw and sacrifice their energy back to cellular source to enable the plant to build higher toward the light.  It is through destruction and construction that life grows and expands.  This is the movement and transference of energy.  Seed energy in its primary stage is t full strength in the sprouting stage.  A new seedling can push through rock and stones to reach light.

SOUL POWER: Power of Co-operation. Inspiration: The Muse.

PATH: Growth and Expansion.

KEY: Creative Energy.

REGALIA: Geometry.

DIVINATION:

Choosing the Empress archetype, you have auditory powers and seek assurance of spiritual fertility as an orphan soul seeking nourishment and song from the Divine Mother: the Word.  You are in love with the Muse of Creation.

On a physical level, according to where the card falls in a reading, there is the likelihood of pregnancy with baby-growing being imminent or having already taken place.  Birthing is both a joyful and anxious time. Letting down of the milk to sustain the new life to care for the arriving soul.  Loving, caring for, and the nurturing of souls coming in and out of the world requires the same level of sacrificial nursing and strength of motherhood.  The stroking of the cheek, cradling of the head, and murmuring of the loving voice is soothing.  Hearing is the first and last of the senses, and if there is deafness, then vibration and a spiritual bond is vital. You desire a level of love that is matriarchal, divine, and precious.

You may also be the artisan, artist, writer, architect, musician or dancer, anything that entails geometry, creating a project.  This needs the same care and search of the Muse for reassurance of the Power of Co-operation to make success and give birth to your contribution.  The ushering of your creation to the world is part of your legacy to inspire others.

Champions will come and assist like midwives. 

SANSKRIT:

SARASWATI, Aditi and Daksa, the female and male principles of virility, fertility, and creation, create one another, the splitting of the egg and the coupling of the same in a mutual creation and continuum of the river of all life.  This is the same evolving story of Brahma and Saraswati, the Father and Mother of humanity and the creation of a new world.  Saravati is the sacred river of life that flows from the Cosmo to the land and disappears into the Underworld.   The earliest mention of the goddess Saraswati is in the Rig Veda.  She is one of the Tridevi with Lakshmi and Parvati.  She was created by, and is the mouth-born, of Brahma who is one of the Trimurti of Creation with Vishnu, the Sustainer of life, and Shankar (Shankhara) not necessarily the Destroyer of Life but the Dispeller of all Doubts.  Faith is the dispeller of doubt.  All are in the embrace of Shiva, the One.   

She is the wife of Brahma.  They are Divine Wisdom, Understanding and the Gateway of Knowledge.  She is the ancient Mother Goddess of Love, akin to Venus.  She rides the swan on the river of life3 and plays the veena.  As the pure Muse, she is the goddess of all sound, speech and music, also writing, art and learning.  She taught Ganesha to write .  Saraswati helped Brahma add order to the world.  She gave form to matter.  Sacred Geometry is her tool.  The rose and the lotus are her flowers.

HEBREW:

DALETH, the Door.  Daleth is the portal through which life eternal and unlimited enters the temporal limited world of the drama.  The Door is also the cause of separation in creation so that all forms of matter may be individual.  It is also the opening where life can enter and death can leave, and the soul may fly, immortal in life and in death.  Originally the sacred letter was a triangle but the numerical value is 4, even though the Tarot key is 3.  However, the zero 0 or no number value is still a reality and is the spirit that precedes everything that is manifest. Before 1 there is ‘nothing’ and between 1 and 2 there is ‘nothing’, the unmanifest, the Aether (Ether) or Akasha.  The First Traveller or the Fool as zero in the Tarot comes through the door from this subtle region.  Through the door, both wisdom and folly enter: Perfection and the mistakes made in the trials of perfecting.  The Muse comes through this door to us.

OGHAM:

DUIR: Oak.  Doorway to the Mysteries.  Duir is the Oak Tree in the Irish Tree Alphabet.  Oak has been used for centuries in the making of houses, doors, furniture, boat and ship-building.   The Oak door was often removed to become the Wake Table when people came to pay their respects to the one laid out upon it for their last journey.  The same door could be laid down as a stage for dancing during Ceilidhs, when stories were told and music played.  Singers sang their ballads.  The Mouth is the doorway from the mind, and in Ireland, one of the senses was ‘speech’.  The Oak denotes stability, strength of the ancestors and the ability to survive.

MUSICAL NOTE:

F-Sharp:  F-Natural, F-Sharp, and G-Natural belong to the Heart chakra, whether it be the pitched nervous love or the deep, strong heartbeat of love and compassion.  Only the Great Mother knows the agony and ecstasy coupled in the experience of New Love, Loving, Love Lost, and Love Eternal.

The Vedic Tarot is a system of teachings and divination from a life-long study of sacred alphabets and wisdom, stretching East and West.  There are many other teachings such as the Avesta in five parts, similar to the Vedas, the Sumerian texts with early Cuneiform writing, the early Dynasties in China and ancient Wisdom of Japan, the Hieroglyphs of Egypt, the Native Americans all the way from Mongolia across the top of the world, Druidic and Yogic knowledge, the Irish Ogham tree alphabet, Shamanic journeying, Norse lore, Greek and Roman Mysteries, Babylonian, much Warrior knowledge and Myths, expressed through poetry and song.  Every civilization has its history, rituals, myths, music, dance and sacred mysteries, North, South, East and West.

It is a challenge to place all into one book when we need libraries vast and tall to house it all.  Yet, there is Soul Knowledge and Spiritual Knowledge right from the Source through our physical genes and soul DNA that can be accessed within us, and many ways to find the deep Silence and the Word within us.  We carry it with us day and night.  It is an integral library and record of our origins within that needs no password for access, only the Power of Silence, beyond all questions and no need for answers.  We are certainly not alone.

I enjoyed the journey creating The Vedic Tarot, merging the Western and Eastern studies from my travels, and hope you also have fun with it and find some peaceful spiritual nourishment within.  I am formulating some teachings for next year, and will keep in touch.

Feel free to order The Vedic Tarot if you have not already done so: