In Tarot the archetypal Mother card is the Empress. She is nearly always represented as a heavily pregnant woman reclining in a fertile field. She represents fertility, marriage, motherhood, and creativity. She is the embodiment of what it means to be a mother. Now that I am a mother, I find myself reexamining the meaning of this card in light of my (limited) experience with motherhood.

As any mother will tell you, even a brand new mother like me, being pregnant is the easiest part of motherhood. The job doesn’t really become difficult until the baby is born. Being a mother is much more than proving your fertility by carrying a child in your womb. So why is the Empress the embodiment of motherhood? She is obviously just on the threshold of that great adventure.

Perhaps I am taking her pregnancy and motherhood too literally. It is possible to give birth to something else other then a child. You can give birth to a book, a painting, anything that requires creativity and a fertile imagination. The child in the Empresses womb is that book, or drawing, or idea that you are getting ready to bring into the world. And, because the Empress is a card of the Major Arcana, this “birthing” will lead to significant changes in your life. Hopefully not as sleep-depriving as a new baby, but with any luck just as joyful as holding a new life in your arms.

The Empress cards were taken from the following decks (left to right): Aquatic, Ancient Egyptian, Fenestra, Hello Tarot, Marseilles, Robin Wood.

There are many myths that surround the use of the Tarot. Some of the most common include:

• Your first deck must be given to you as a gift–if this were true, I’d never have started reading Tarot
• Your deck must be wrapped in black silk to keep out any “bad vibes”–I’ve never done this, although I did wrap one deck in faux-silk, and still do. It seemed to suit the deck’s temperament.
• No one should ever touch you deck–While I do keep a few decks just for my use, when I read for another person, I feel the reading works best if I allow them to shuffle

From these three myths proceeds the idea that one should never buy or trade for a used deck. By buying/trading, the deck is not a gift, there is no way to guarantee that it was wprotected from bad vibes, and it clearly has been handled by hands other than one’s own.

In my opinion, trading for or buying used decks is an excellent way to obtain that illusive deck that you’ve been dying to get your hands on. (Yay, Hello Tarot!) It is also the perfect way to get rid of decks that just don’t jibe well. Sometimes it feels as if half my Tarot collection is a revolving door–decks obtained through trades are traded again and again until just the right deck makes its way into my hands.

So, what to do with a used deck? Firstly, make sure all the cards are present. A great way to do this, and to help realign the energy of the deck, is to reorder it completely. The next step is to clean out any smells that may be clinging to the deck, like cigarette smoke. Some suggestions for this include laying the deck out in the sun for an afternoon, or sealing it in a Tupperware/Rubbermaid-type container with cloves, dryer sheets, incense, or a cotton ball scented with a few drops of essential oil (protect the cards from these though).*

Once the deck has been rearranged and cleaned, it can be safely treated like any new deck. Sleep with it under your pillow, if that is your normal procedure for new decks, or carry it with you for a week or so. Study the images and get to know it. And if it turns out that it isn’t the right deck for you, go ahead and trade it for another one. Just be sure to give it a chance before you pop it in the mail.

* Be sure to take care with these methods, as they can possibly damage your deck.

I have to admit that I am, generally, from the school of thought that believes a Tarot deck should only have 78 cards. In cases where there are extra Major Arcana cards, like the Daughters of the Moon (extra Lovers and Pan) or the Osho Zen (the Master), I remove them from the deck. I think, though, that the extra Major Arcana cards in the Steele Wizard Tarot are exceptionally well thought out and add a great deal to the standard Tarot archetypes.

I laid out all the Major Arcana and arranged them in four rows of seven cards, placing the Fool at the very end. I then looked at each row using Mary K. Greer’s suggestion of reading the rows as Body, Mind and Spirit. That left me with the row of new Majors plus the Fool to deal with. Here’s what I came up with:

• The Weaver – recognition of destiny/required life lessons
• The Universe – communication with and acceptance of the great Divine Beings/Forces
• Truth – realization of Truths governing life
• Soul Twins – acknowledgment of all parts of self, including the divine
• Evolution – experience of change and growth in all things
• I AM – understanding we are all ONE
• The Fool – innocence and openness

I decided to title this series Divinity, as I feel it is one step beyond Spirit.

I also thought about what astrologically associations these new cards should have. My ideas:

• The Weaver – Chiron (healing through karma)
• The Universe – Earth element (solidness and connection)
• Truth – Neptune (cloudiness cleared, or preserved if reversed)
• Soul Twins – Pluto (eruptive change as a result of this acknowledgment of self)
• Evolution – Uranus (shock as the result of this experience)
• I AM – Spirit (total integration)

As for the extra Minor Arcana cards, the Maidens, I haven’t tackled them yet.

About a month ago, I began offering free Tarot readings through my website. About two weeks after that, I started doing free readings for the Free Tarot Network. The questions I have received range from someone asked advice on how to handle a difficult situation in her life, to a woman wondering if her lover will leave his wife, to someone wondering if they will win the lottery. Each of these, in their own way, are all difficult questions.

I’m not a stranger to doing reading for others. When I first began reading Tarot, back in middle school, I read exclusively for my friends, and continued to do so off and on through high school. In recent years, I’ve read occasionally for myself and occasionally for members of the Aeclectic Tarot Forum. Sometimes I would get difficult questions, but I was generally reading for someone I knew or had some experience with, which made dealing with the question easier. Doing readings like this, for complete strangers, has been a lot harder than I expected.

I have reworded nearly every question I have gotten in the past month in order to provide the best reading possible. In some cases, I have reworded a yes/no question into something open-ended, as the Tarot is much more useful when seeking advice rather than concrete answers. In the few cases where the question was specifically about another person’s actions, I have reworded the question to be more about the Querent.

I’m not sure how much longer I will continue to do these free readings. They are very draining, and some of the questions have been almost too difficult for me to handle. But, in the meantime, I am enjoying the practice I am getting, and hoping that I have helped at least one person.