The next card in the major arcana of the Tarot is the Empress - a ruler but also the mother figure.
3 Empress: Inkosazana
Archetype and divinatory meaning: She is the representation of womanhood and motherhood, the universal provider and carer. She makes the earth yield its fruits and transforms them into sustenance. She represents fruitfulness and also being in touch with emotions and feelings. In divination this card usually tells of strong feelings in home or family life, usually in a beneficent manner, or of the flowering of plans into success.
Image: Powerful and regal, this queen and mother of kings and queens gazes across her kingdom. She wears a royal robe and the headdress of the mother. She is strong and confident, aware of her power and beauty, adorned with jewels as a symbol of wealth.
Origin: Inkosazana is regarded as the spirit who makes crops grow, the deity of agriculture. It is said that she is followed by a troop of her children and that men do not commonly see her, but that she sometimes meets a man in his garden and blesses it with fruitfulness.
Her words are considered to be greater laws than that of the chief. She will order when children are to be weaned (suckling children acts to some degree as a prophylactic in that it prevents pregnancy) so that the wives may bear again, she orders beer made and poured on the mountains as libation. The fertility of the land lies in her hands.
Inkosazana is also the name of a river in Kwa-Zulu Natal on whose banks cattle are watered, crops are planted and which provides the lush green hills of this part of South Africa with its nourishment. It is a traditional name for girls, and means princess, or little chieftainess.
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