The Empress is the 3rd card in the Major Arcana.  She is a symbol of feminine strength and power.  She represents the power of creativity, fertility and abundance.  She is an especially powerful symbol for females - showing that women don't need to act masculine in order to be strong.  

"Positive:  It's appropriate or even necessary to be involved with healing and nurturing now.  You have the strength and awareness to protect or heal yourself or others.  Go ahead and do it.
Upright:  You are nurturing someone else.  The nurturing can take a very obvious or tangible form.  This could involve giving a massage, holding someone, bringing over chicken soup, or leaving someone alone if that's what she needs.  it could also take the form of giving someone loving energy in an intangible form.  The card implies that you are aware of what she needs and able to give it to her." - Gail Fairfield

The swirling, colorful bursts of energy that jump off the Osho Zen Empress, also called Creativity, are inspiring and full of joy and laughter.  Just looking at this image makes me feel positive and whole.  The Empress on the Victoria Regina card seem almost bawdy in her stance.  She seems to generate a spirit of playful sexuality and enjoyment of the various sensual joys in life.  Her full lips and pouty expression combined with her arm on hip pose almost makes me thing she's a madam welcoming guests to her house or a hostess at a gambling hell.  At the same time she conveys a sense of control and confidence - she is no man's plaything unless she wants to be.

Both these cards convey the sense of a woman who is powerful and confident in herself and in her blessings and gifts.  She does not need validation from anyone, even her emperor.  In the words of Helen Ready - "I am strong.  I am invincible.  I am Woman".  Of course one of the positives things about my view of this card is that it's gotten much more positive and empowering over time.  I used to have a fairly challenging relationship with this card.  Now, I've come to appreciate her gifts and her strengths.

I think her message to me is that there are times when I respect others' boundaries and help them find their strength and creativity.  There are also times when I may overstep those boundaries without meaning to do so.  I think the challenge The Empress faces when it comes to boundaries is that if she feels something is in someone's best interests, she has no problem overstepping boundaries.  Like many maternal figures, she wants to protect those she loves from harm.  And if doing that means stepping over someone's personal boundaries, The Empress feels the ends justifies the means.

I'm sure I've been guilty of doing this.  I am notorious for being outspoken, opinionated and sure that I'm right.  This means that I do occasionally abuse boundaries by trying to impose my will on others because I'm sure it's in their best interests.  The reality is that if they don't learn the lessons they need to learn, even if it means they hurt, then I have ultimately done them a disservice.  As many parents have learned over time, you cannot protect your child from life.  You cannot make their mistakes for them.  And the danger of the strong-willed and sometimes domineering Empress is that she tries to prevent those she loves from making mistakes.  So they also don't learn their life lessons.  This is something I need to keep in mind as I move forward.  It's great to embrace my inner Empress but I can't unleash her on the world simply because I'm sure I know what's best.