{"collection":"Tarot","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/tarot/tob/tob16.htm","path":"tarot/tob/tob16.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/tarot/tob/tob16.htm","text":"THE EMPRESS.\n3. \u05d2\n3rd Hebrew letter (Gimel).\nORIGIN OF THE SYMBOLISM OF THE THIRD CARD OF THE TAROT.\nThe hieroglyphic meaning of the letter Gimel is the throat, the hand of man half closed in the act of prehension. Hence it signifies all that incloses, all that is hollow, a canal, an inclosure. The throat is the spot where the words conceived in the brain are formed, or I might almost say embodied, therefore the Gimel is the symbol of the material envelopment of spiritual forms, of organic generation under all its forms, of all the ideas springing from the corporeal organs or their actions.\nGeneration is the mystery by which the spirit unites itself to matter, by which the Divine becomes Human.\nThe signification of Venus-Urania, to which this card corresponds, is easily understood by the above explanations.\nTHE THIRD CARD OF THE TAROT.\nThe Empress.\nThis symbol would therefore signify ideas of generation, of embodiment in all the worlds.\nA woman seen full face.\nThe human being becomes corporeal in the womb of a woman.\nThis woman is represented with wings, or in the centre of a radiating sun.\nThe idea of the spirituality of the vivifying Principle of all beings.\nShe holds an eagle in her right hand.\nThe eagle is the symbol of the soul and of life (Holy Spirit).\nIn the left hand she bears a sceptre forming the astrological sign of Venus.\nThe sceptre is held in the left hand to indicate the passive influence, which Nature, Venus-Urania, or the woman exercises in the generation of beings.\nShe wears a crown with twelve points, or twelve stars.\nThe sign of the diffusion of the vivifying Principle through all the worlds and of the sun, through the Zodiac.\nThe third card of the Tarot shows the result of the reciprocal action of the two first terms neutralizing each other in one principle. It is the Neuter Element of Wronski, the basis of every system of reality.\nThe absolute creative force, or Osiris, and the absolute preservative force, or Isis, neutralize themselves in the\nequilibrist force, which contains in itself the two very different properties of the two first forms.\nIn God this would be the equilibrium of the Father and of the Son, or--\nGod the Holy Ghost\n HORUS\n The universal vivifying force.\nIn Man this would be the equilibrium of the Adam-Eve--\nAdam-Eve\n Or HUMANITY.\nIn the Universe this would be the equilibrium of Natura naturans and of Natura naturata--\nTHE WORLD\n Conceived like a being.\n| AFFINITIES | SIGNIFICATIONS | \n| Hieroglyphic Primitive: The hand in the act of prehension Kabbalah: BINAH Astronomy: Venus Day: Friday Hebrew letter: Gimel (double) | God the Holy Ghost Horus THE UNIVERSAL VIVIFYING FORCE yod of vau\u00a0 vau-vau __________ Adam Eve HUMANITY he of vau\u00a0 vau-vau | \n| OBSERVATIONS | THE WORLD vau of vau\u00a0 vau-vau __________ 2nd he of vau\u00a0 vau-vau | \nThe creative principle and the receptive principle, having, by their mutual action, given birth to the transforming principle, a complete entity is created.\nThe term which now follows will correspond with the second he of the sacred word, and will consequently indicate the passage from one series to the other.","title":"Tarot of the Bohemians: Chapter X. The Symbolical Tarot: 3. The Empress","type":"page"}