The image of the Empress shines today with an unusual radiance, as her veil is lifted by the Coronation of Mary. It marks her enthronement as Queen of Heaven, sealed in Apocalypse 12, where the Woman clothed with the sun stands crowned with twelve stars, and the moon rests beneath her feet. This vision is a direct unveiling of the Empress herself, seated upon her throne as mediatrix between the wisdom of the Father and the understanding of the Mother.
She is the Arcana of fruitfulness, the sacred bride of the Logos, and the living doorway of Daleth through which abundance flows. This Friday falls under the dominion of Venus, and the Morning Star sings her hymn across the Tree. The Archangel Haniel, whose wings extend over the Principalities, presides over this light, making the Queen’s coronation a flowering in the world of men.
The luminaries themselves prepare to cross from the fixed fire of Leo into the mutable earth of Virgo. The harvest season is sealed within this card: wheat flowing at her feet, the promise of ripeness, the mystery of seed transformed into nourishment.
I. The Supernal Path of Daleth
The Empress carries the number three, the seal of synthesis after duality. But, in the architecture of the Tree, her place is even more sublime, since she governs the fourteenth path, Daleth – the Door. This bridges Chokmah and Binah, wisdom and understanding, the primal Father and Mother. It is a path drawn above the Abyss, in the high sanctuary of the Supernals, and so her mystery cannot be reduced to the surface charms of fertility and beauty. She is more than a symbol of earthly motherhood; she is the gate of supernal emanation itself, allowing wisdom to take root within understanding.
Daleth, the Door, is a perpetual crossing. Through her flows the union of the two highest columns, right and left, so that the child of their embrace may descend into creation. The Empress is the mother of forms, the matrix of symbols, the open garden where Divine seed is received and transfigured. The Fathers of the Church intuited this mystery when they sang of Mary as Ianua Caeli, the Gate of Heaven and when the liturgy crowned her Queen after her Assumption.
II. Venus and the Crown of Mary
Venus governs this arcana in her true dignity as the Morning Star, Stella Matutina, who heralds the dawn of Love and victory. On Fridays her sphere is most potent, the consecrated to her radiance. In the Tree she rules Netzach. And, yet, in the Empress, we behold Venus raised above her ordinary sphere; she is more than the goddess of desire but also the Queen crowned in heaven, embodying the eternal splendour of love transfigured.
Mary’s Coronation falls today beneath this planetary seal. It is to recognise that creation itself has a feminine root, a source that flowers in grace. The Archangel Haniel, guardian of Venus, spreads the wings across the Principalities, and so the crowning of the Lady shapes the earthly order. The Woman of the Apocalypse bears twelve stars as her diadem, the circle of the zodiac, revealing her dominion over cosmic harmony, ordering the heaven and earth in beauty. The Empress card portrays this splendour in symbolic form: the stars above her head, the wheat at her feet, and the flowing robe of Venusian light.
III. The Harvest of Leo and Virgo
The sky itself confirms the mystery. The Sun and the Moon, the two great lights, prepare to leave the royal fire of Leo and enter the fertile earth of Virgo. This passage is the season of harvest, when the fruit of summer’s fire must be gathered and offered. The Empress is the image of this passage: her throne and sceptre blessing the ripening of creation.
Leo is the throne of the Sun, whereas Virgo is the house of the Virgin, the grain-giver, the keeper of sacred order in matter. The Empress unites both. She is clothed in fiery Leo, radiant with the solar dignity of the crowned Queen, but she is also the Mother who bends to the fields of Virgo, gathering the wheat into chalices of offering. The Apocalypse itself seals this union, since the Woman is solar and lunar.
Thus the day of her coronation brings the turning of the luminaries too. The season changes, the Queen is crowned, and the Door of Daleth stands open. The Empress is enthroned as mediatrix of wisdom and understanding, crowned by Venus, and revealed in the harvest of the year as the eternal Mother, the crowned Bride, the Lady clothed with the Sun.
Fiat Lux.