Studying the Cards: Three-- The Empress

The interpretation given by my Everything Tarot book states:
When the Empress appears, there is a strong feminine element at work. As a mother figure and representative of the traditional female role, the Empress is a creative force that works for harmony. She brings disparate things together, reconciling differences, like a mother running a household must do. This is a card of emotional control and making things work together toward a common social goal.
As a female authority, her appearance may signify, depending on its place in the spread, the person's need to become that female authority, especially if the person is a woman. If a man, the indication is that he needs to recognize the feminine component of himself and acknowledge its power to harmonize.
The Empress also refers to the person's emotional and physical resources--for nurturing, healing, feeding, and supporting other people. Often, there is a situation in the person's life where deep and total love and nurturing are required--sometimes by the person him or herself, sometimes by others in the environment. This card is related to the caretaking process and may refer to the way the person was mothered and how he or she feels about that, for the first and most significant relationship we form is with our mother, and this relationship has a direct bearing on all subsequent relationships we form. Sometimes this card indicates that the person either had an overbearing "smother mother," or is acting out that role. It is an excellent card to use for mediation upon issues of nurturance, of marriage commitment, or of abundance.

For a reading:
You are in a position of nurturing someone else, or several others. This could be taking an obvious form, as in caring for children, or the sick, or being supportive of a spouse or friend in need. It could also refer to a pregnancy, or the desire for a pregnancy. It is appropriate for you to be giving nurturance now, for you have the inner strength and the ability to do so without harming or depleting yourself.

Description:
My book describes this card as symbolizing the social concept of the Universal Mother. That includes things like procreating, nurturing, and domestic harmony, things a housewife and mother take care of. It is a very positive card. She is a mature female, usually seated on a throne, though in some decks she is standing in a field surrounded by flowers and vegetation. On my card, she is standing outside, in a very bountiful stretch of land. There is a river flowing by her feet with a water lily drifting along the surface, a tall patch of wheat just behind her, and a tree with its branches full of ripe fruit. This is a symbol of the bounty of the Mother and of mother nature. She is "full-breasted and pregnant," alluding to her ability to be bountiful and fruitful, and her "earthly abundance." The Empress is the woman represented in all other religions in terms of fertile mother goddesses or the "Virgin Mary". She is the ultimate mother figure.
This is a royal position according to my book, which is why she is typically shown wearing a magnificent crown and holding a scepter. My Empress card has a shining crown, but it's not so much of a "crown" as it is a strand of shining stars trailing from the crown of her head, down her hair to the middle of her back. My card also holds a scepter, with the Triskele atop it. In many decks this card has a shield or a coat of arms present. In the Waite deck, there is a heart-shaped shield with the "female" symbol on it, the sign of Venus. There does not appear to be a shield on my card at all, but my Empress is holding a heart, and she wears the sign of Venus around her neck. Venus, as my book states, is the planet of love, beauty, desires, and pleasure. That is the most popular representation of femininity.

Details I've noticed:
On my card, the Empress is a very beautiful woman, at least in her twenties but with an ageless look to her. She has long brown hair, with a string of shining stars trailing from the crown of her head down to the middle of her back. I'm not sure what the stars represent, but the fact that they are shining makes me think of something being at the peak of it's perfection, at it's most beautiful moment in life, as well as the fact that stars are often called upon as guides to lead lost sailors across the oceans; perhaps this is a symbol of how the motherly instinct of the Empress is to nurture, guide, and aid those in need. She is also wearing a beautiful pink and purple strapless gown, one that is very form-fitting and shows off her figure. Her figure, of course, is one that is quite pregnant with full breasts and an enlarged stomach. This may also be another thing the stars represent, because when a woman is pregnant a lot of people say that she is "glowing." This glowing is also represented by the flush in her cheeks.
Also on my card, she is surrounded by a beautiful nature scene, bountiful and healthy. There is a tree behind her, with large ripe fruits hanging from it's branches. There is a patch of tall golden wheat behind her to her left, ready to be harvested. In front of her, a clear river flows gently, lined by small gray stones. There are nine stones visible, nine being the number of completion and wholeness. She is stepping over the stones and has one foot dipped into the water. Water is a strong symbol for emotions, and this card is all about the emotional and social aspect of the female. This card also has butterflies and dragonflies on it. I'm not really feeling any specific symbolism to them.
My Empress has the sign of Venus around her neck, which of course makes perfect sense with this being the ultimate feminine card. She carries a staff, holding it with both hands, in such a way that seems to cradle her unborn child. There is a heart dangling from her hands, ironically sitting right where her reproductive organs are located (that made me laugh, to see that THAT part of her is marked with love, when she is the representation of fertility). What really captures my attention on this card, apart from the Empress herself, is her scepter. At the top of her scepter is a crescent moon with a triskele. The crescent moon, as I've come to learn, represents the spiritual world. The triskele (or triskelion) is a very powerful symbol, and part of why I love this card so much. It is the symbol of three; and as this is Tarot Arcanum Three, it means that much more. It is the culmination of the one and two before it. It is bringing together opposites to create balance and unity. It is Mind, Body and Spirit; it is The Creator, The Destroyer, and the Sustainer; it is the Mother, Father, and Child; it is the Start, the End, and the Journey; it is the Spiritual world, the Physical world, and the Otherworld. It is all of these, and it is beautiful. The power of three could not have been placed on a better card than the Empress.
To take what I know and apply it to my understanding of this card, I would say that the Empress is the Female card, representing bounty, fertility, and the feminine side of things. Because she is pregnant, she also represents nurturing, caring, helping, feeding, love, and compassion. This card also represents bringing things together to form something new or find a unity between two things.

Update:
Today is February 8th, 2014, and I am reviewing the cards I have already studied. I don't have much to add to this card, since everything I view is still the same here. The Empress represents the female aspect, and the more social aspect (whereas the High Priestess represented the feminine inner self, the Empress represents the feminine social). This social idea means nurturing, compassion, and the more motherly traits. For a man, this card tells him that he needs to get more in touch with his feminine side and learn to harmonize that with his masculinity. I am in the early weeks of my third pregnancy right now, and so this card represents a bit more to me now than it did before. Despite all of the more negative symptoms that a mother might go through during pregnancy, the Empress still stands tall and strong for both herself, her family, and those around her. I think it is for this reason that she is such a strong regal symbol of authority. She represents bounty, harvest, and health. She is a very positive card indeed.