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

Whether she is portrayed as the Bride of Frankenstein or some Lovecraftian version of Kali, The Empress is the archetypal mother and a symbol of feminine power, creativity and fertility.  Perhaps she has not actually born children herself but her blessings and bounty allow the world to bloom forth and grants abundance to us all.  

At least that's the usual view of The Empress.  What some folks forget is that even the most loving mother can be harsh and strict if the need arises.  She also has a dark side that may sometimes be overlooked.  After all wasn't Medea a mother and look what she did.  When she felt disempowered and ignored, she did the only thing she could - she killed her children and thus destroyed her former husband's chance at immortality.  It reminds me of Bill Cosby's line "I brought you into this world and I can take you out".  What an amazing gift The Empress (and by extension all women) possesses - the ability to bring forth life or to chose not to do so.  What powerful magic that is.

I have often found myself at odds with The Empress because I grew up in a very male-dominant and abusive household.  In order to not identify with the victim (my mother), I identified with the abuser, the one with the power (my father).  This gave me a very skewed view of masculine and feminine strengths.  I learned to view receptivity and the feminine as passive and powerless.  If it's one thing I did not want to be, it's passive and powerless.  This was further complicated by the fact that the maternal figures in my life were often clingy and suffocating.  So to succumb to their energies was to leave me feeling smothered.  

Over time I have learned to appreciate and embrace feminine power but in my own way.  I do not need to be feminine or maternal the way other women are.  I do not have to follow anyone else's path in that respect.  I can forge my own way.  I am not especially lunar or cuppish in nature.  I know that - I am a very fiery, assertive and extroverted woman and that's okay.  However it doesn't mean that I don't have an introverted, introspective, and passive side.  If nothing else my working with The Empress as well as the Tarot queens has taught me to more fully embrace all my facets.  I'm no longer threatened or in a position of danger so I can afford to explore my softer, more lunar nature.  At one time that would have frightened me more than Frankenstein's monster frightened the Bride and the villagers but I'm much more at ease with it now.  Ah, the magic of Tarot.

The Empress seems to be reminding me that I need to keep reviving my connection to this side of my nature.  The Empress is a powerful and strong woman and I should not dismiss her gifts because they do not resemble traditional symbols of power.  Like a garden, these gifts need to be tended and nurtured on a regular basis.  In fact, now that I think about it I am finding myself becoming drawn to more traditionally feminine interests.  For the last few weeks I've had a fascination with baking bread.  I found recipes and books on kneadless bread and I'm determined to try it.  I'm finding that staying home and caring for my mother-in-law is becoming an interesting challenge.  In some ways I'm morphing into a stay at home wife and that doesn't bother me as much as it would have just a few months ago.  Caring for hearth and home is not easy.  It requires organization, planning and skill.  Perhaps this is a challenge I'm beginning to appreciate more as I become more at ease with my Empress nature and that's not an insight I want to lose.