Motherhood and The Empress Tarot Card
A celebration and consideration of this holiday.
Since today is Mother’s Day, I am thinking about motherhood in general, and specifically the Mother archetype. I think it is helpful to look at motherhood from the perspective of tarot. From the website Tarot.com about The Empress tarot card:
The Empress is a Major Arcana, or "trump" card, that portrays the energy of the great mother. She is nature, around us but also within us, the ever-unfolding source of life-giving power. [...] This supreme archetype of femininity also symbolizes fertility. It is The Empress who provides us nourishment and security.
And from The Ancient Egyptian Tarot by Clive Barrett:
The Empress is the card of Venus, signifying love, fruitfulness, and motherhood. She is the great mother, the earth mother, the archetypal woman, pregnant with potential.
These are ideals that would be impossible for a mere mortal to live up to.
This holiday can be a mixed bag for people, to be honest. I have been struggling to write this post for days, and these posts usually flow out of me easily. Elizabeth Gilbert nailed it in her opening paragraph of today’s Letters From Love post:
Today is Mother’s Day in the United States — a holiday that is many things to many people. For some, it is sweet and celebratory. For others, it is haunting and triggering (for any number of reasons). For still others, it is a day to be dismissed as nothing more than an artificial capitalist money-grab. For still others, Mother’s Day means one thing and one thing only: BRUNCH.
Brunch is my favorite meal, but today is not the day I will brave the crowds. My mother and I will do that another day.
My mother had me when she was very young. She was 18 when I was born and my father was 20. She often jokes that we raised each other. That feels more accurate than you would think.
As I was growing up and I reached specific ages that I remembered her at, I thought to myself that I was nowhere near ready to be responsible for a child, as I often still felt like a child myself.
This gave me perspective and compassion for both of us. (I wrote about the importance of compassion for self and others last week here.)
I want to send some big love to those of you who have a difficult relationship with your mother. Mothers and daughters specifically have times of friction that seem to be part of human development. We try to emulate certain aspects of our mother (or mothers), and we try to differentiate ourselves in other ways.
It’s helpful to remember that we’re all just messy humans trying to figure things out.
And I want to send some special love and a big hug to those of you who have lost your mother over the past year and this is your first Mother’s Day without your mother. I have heard from friends and clients that it can be a very difficult day. Be gentle with yourself.
To those of you who have a good relationship with your mother, have a wonderful day celebrating with her, or with your children.
Motherhood is the hardest job on the planet. You women who have chosen that path have my deepest respect. Enjoy your day today. You’ve earned it and so much more.