The Magician
Written by Kevin J McKee for the SoJournal and Personal Guide 2026. Reprinted with permission.
Once Everyman has examined and explored the bigger picture and spiritual aspects with The High Priestess, he follows along his path and meets The Empress.
Sitting on a cosy throne, with the crown of twelve stars (often seen as representing the signs of the Zodiac, months of the year etc.), holding a sceptre of power with the shield of Venus at her feet. Her robe is covered in pomegranates representing wealth and abundance.
Remember the High Priestess had the veil of pomegranates behind her, the Empress is wearing them, indicating that the wealth and prosperity has been manifested from the non-physical into the physical reality.
She is also surrounded by corn and trees with water coming over a waterfall behind her into a calm pool, again showing abundance, she is sitting up straight and seems to me like she is about to issue a proclamation or something.
The Empress represents the calm and confident feminine principle manifested into the physical realm. She is the approachable, practical personification of the mother who can be both Femme Fatale and Queen of Heaven, she unites matter and spirit and helps us to start the process of bringing the spiritual awareness of the High Priestess into physical manifestation.
She works with our physical senses and feelings in the physical environment.
In terms of the Journey of the Fool, she begins the process of manifestation from the spiritual to the physical, in a supportive and loving way. As a mother figure, she is also a strong disciplinarian and will be sure to let you know if she is displeased. Could be she is preparing to whack some sense into you with her sceptre?
Meditation
Read through the instructions below, don’t be scared to open your eyes and check something rather than hope you are doing it right. The answer to the questions; “Am I doing this right?” and “Am I meditating?” is always no. If you are thinking, you are not meditating. Meditation is a heart-based process, not an intellectual one.
Trust yourself just a little bit, you can do this. Everyone meditates in their own way, don’t panic, do the best you can right now and surrender to the process.
- Prepare as you normally would for meditation if you are an experienced meditator. If you haven’t meditated for a while, or ever, use a place you can be undisturbed, maybe light a candle (white would be good for this purpose), light your favourite incense, put on some instrumental music, lyrics will disturb your concentration. Sit comfortably on the floor or on a chair, wear loose clothing or at least loosen belts etc.
- Take a few slow, deep breaths focussing on relaxing, releasing the thoughts in your head, your mind will start running around a bit, that’s ok, acknowledge the thought, let it go and focus back on your breathing. Meditation is an exercise and like any exercise it takes a bit of practice to “get it right”.
- An important thing to remember about meditation is that it takes place in the inner planes of your mind, so release your expectations of what is going to happen, release your expectations about what is correct or right and relax into the process.
- If you try to control the meditation you are not meditating, you are just breathing deeply. Be open to receive, even if what you receive is not what you expect or hope for.
- If your attention “skips”, that’s ok, take another deep breath and focus again. It will get easier with practice.
- If you have already done a meditation to create a meditation temple or inner temple etc. you can use it for this process, if you haven’t created an inner temple or something similar, you can imagine your mind and awareness moving down from your head into your heart (PS – apparently your physical heart has brain cells in it too – called the heart brain – more about the heart space in the article on (0) or the blank page).
- Once you are in the heart space, hold the card in front of you, you can open your eyes, then once you think you can visualise the image, close your eyes again. Don’t panic about getting it 100%, go with what you can do
Imagine stepping through the border of the card and speak to The Empress. Ask her what she is trying to tell you, If you are battling to bring your spiritual awareness into physical manifestation, she is the person to get the ball rolling.
Drop your expectations and anticipated answers, listen and let the thoughts flow.
When you feel you have absorbed everything you can for the moment, focus again on your breathing, you may feel disconnected from your body, that’s ok, take some more breathes focussing on balancing your mind with your body, rub your fingers and thumb on both hands together until you feel centred, calm and grounded.
Take a massive breath in, blow yourself up like a balloon, then exhale in a rush allowing all the air to rush out of your lungs, then breathe normally and when you feel ready open your eyes.
Remember to make notes in your journal/mediation journal.