Emperor or Empress, is it time for Tarot to un-gender?
The Ride-Waite- Smith deck is arguably the most recognised tarot deck still in use. First designed in 1909 by illustrator Pamela Colman Smith and under the guidance of mystic A.E. Waite, the deck has gone through many iterations but the one still in use today is based on the original 1900s imagery. Along with the spiritual, tarot is inherently imbued with the energy of both sexes. In a sense, tarot and gender could be seen as inextricably linked. This can be attributed in part to the strict binary designs of the cards. But in real life, people operate outside of their main gender all the time; as the world becomes less and less binary, perhaps it’s time the tarot deck followed suit. Let’s look at how the deck currently breaks down by gender and think of ways to move away from these binary interpretations.
The Feminine
Feminine energy in tarot can be ambiguous depending on which deck you’re using. Women were long associated with the night, the element of water, the Moon and everything mysterious. Whereas masculine energy is all fire and light, feminine energy has always been considered more complex and at times even considered dangerous.
The feminine cards are well known. The Empress and High Priestess are often the first to come to mind as the epitome of feminine power in the deck. The Empress is sensual, tethered to the earth and the symbol of womanhood. Connected to the Greek goddess Demeter, the Empress is the link to Mother Earth. As a mother figure, she is nurturing and protects and loves through flaws or faults. Though often represented as more of a girl than a woman to signify the ‘purity’ of youth, the High Priestess is the keeper of knowledge. With links to the goddess Isis, she is the embodiment of intuition and spirituality. We see these two women in particular as archetypes of lore and mythology. They are universal symbols that we instantly recognise without even knowing how, but the feeling is there and on an unconscious level we sense their power as uniquely feminine.
Although not stereotypically feminine in their traditional imagery, the World, Justice and Strength cards are also associated with the feminine energies. The last card in the Major Arcana, the World, personifies creation and destruction in the universe. Justice channels Themis, the Greek goddess of Justice who is often depicted as a seated woman with a sword and scales. This follows in the tradition of religious art that has used this imagery for centuries. She is rooted in balance and virtue. Finally, I want to call attention to Strength. In the R-W-S deck, this card is depicted by a young girl closing the mouth of a lion. This lion is the beast that dwells within us all. He is your physical urges and desires. Strength shows us that though feminine energy is thought of as gentle, it does not lack the power needed to overcome adversity. It is meant to motivate and fill you with courage in the face of danger.
The Masculine
In terms of masculinity, there are five major Arcana and eight minor court cards that are male in essence. These include the Magician, the Emperor, the Hierophant, the Hermit, and the Hanged Man in the Major Arcana. In the minor, we have four Kings and four Knights. Let’s focus on a few of them here.
The Magician carries rather traditional masculine traits: self-confidence, determination, and will power. This is the card that will give you motivation and direction in life. Similarly, the Emperor is all about authority and power. Just as the Empress is a mother figure, the Emperor provides fatherly wisdom and experience. The Kings are the protectors of the deck. Each king commands a different type of authority. For example, the King of Pentacles speaks to financial abundance and the King of Cups strikes a balance between emotion and intellect.
The Deck without Gender
Ultimately, the gendered images on the cards are arbitrary. When we see these gender-specific cards come up in a reading we need to remember that they are symbolic only. The cards reflect energies, qualities, and traits, they do not dictate literal gender. Anyone can easily be in alignment with the Empress when nurturing creativity. Similarly, you can channel the Emperor by acting with authority and taking control of the direction of your life. Pulling a Sword or Wand during a reading does not have to mean it is time for a boost of masculine energy, it could just be a nod to your communication style. By seeing beyond this codified presentation of gender, we get to the root meaning of the card. The court cards provide a perfect example of how to do this. They are depicted by four images of a page, a knight, a queen and a king. Through a traditional gaze: the king is an old man, the queen a woman and the knight a young man, of course. Instead of these strict distinctions, looking deeper into the cards we see the king as a symbol of self-contained expression, the way we feel at our core about things. In contrast, the queen is nuanced expression; it is aware of the influence of the outside world on emotions. Instead of viewing the knight as a young man, think of it as representative of youth in general. We can further un-gender the cards by understanding a reading in terms of positive, negative or neutral. But be careful not to fall into a trap of simplification; upright cards do not need to be strictly positive and reversed cards are not purely negative, there is meaning hidden in all their possibilities. Upright cards and reversed cards can fall somewhere between nonchalant and pessimistic. Isobel Rotman points out in her guide This Might Hurt Tarot, that all we really want from tarot is balance: the balance of work, spirituality, emotion and material things. Gender is just one symbolic device we can use to achieve that balance. ‘You are right to seek balance in these traits, and/or in gender itself, if that feels right to you. It’s all genderfluid when you read through the cards through the right lens’, Rotman reminds us. The R-W-S deck has served us well for over a century, but in 2021 it is a time to expand the interpretive horizons of it’s imagery.
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Words: Holly Westwood