Welcome to this series of rituals and meditations on the tarot.
This is Nicole Matheson and in this session we'll be connecting to the Empress of the Tarot deck.
So go ahead and get into a comfortable position lying down or if you're sitting making sure your spine is nice and long and just start to come into your breath and I invite you to get out of your head for this meditation.
The Empress is very sensual very much in her body rather than stuck in her mind and so to whatever degree you can as you breathe allow your attention and your awareness to drop out of the mind and into the body seeing if you can listen to my words from the body and on your next exhale work towards exhaling almost all of the air out of the body.
This allows you to take an even deeper inhale and we want to work towards making these breaths slow and easy so not exhaling so much that you're gasping for breath on the inhale.
Just soft easy exhaling all the air out and inhaling deeply into the body and with each exhale see if you can soften something in the body so you may want to scan your body and just notice the areas where you might be holding some energy or where there's tightness or tension and then on an inhale direct that breath into that space where you're holding tension and on the exhale see how you can soften there even if it's just a little bit continuing with those full exhales and big voluptuous inhales continuing to soften in the body noticing that when you exhale more fully that instead of taking a breath you can receive the breath as if you are being breathed as if life itself is blowing that inhale into you and all you're doing is allowing your lungs and ribs to open to receive that breath and reminding yourself that it's safe to receive you are worthy of receiving you are already receiving all the time we must receive to sustain our lives notice if there is any part of you that is feeling resistant to receiving or a contraction where do you feel this in the body can you offer that contraction some compassion can you offer it the healing prana of your breath can you give it permission to soften set the intention to be more receptive here let that part of you that may feel contraction know that it's okay to receive it's safe to receive and it's okay to heal sometimes we get attached to our wounds we hold on to them hold on to our wounded identity and the Empress is here to remind you you are not your wounds holding on to those wounds depletes you so notice if you might be attached to your wound in some way and set the intention to receive healing to allow healing to happen even it's just a little bit today and a little bit tomorrow and so on let yourself be breathed and healed and if your attention has moved back into your head that's okay just continue to soften in the body to allow your attention to drop back into the body to whatever degree you can no forcing just softening to receive when we open ourselves to receiving we allow more of who we are we allow our truth to come through this is the medicine of the Empress to receive yourself and your life more fully to receive your breath to receive your gifts to receive your power this is where the Empress gets her sense of authority her ability to lead her life comes from her willingness to receive more healing more life and more of her wild and unique spirit the Empress needs no armor no weapons to lead her life or her community her power and protection is in her ability to let life flow through her to receive its love its support its healing and its nourishment the Empress also reminds us to receive our accomplishments rather than pushing through to the next task on the to-do list celebrate completion what have you completed what have you started take a moment to allow yourself to receive these accomplishments you might notice your body softening even more the Empress's power also comes from receiving her own emotions listening to their insight their wisdom rather than pushing them away or believing they are something that is in the way the Empress reminds us to be open to receive to listen to our emotions the Empress has also been represented as a tree and this tree holds space for birds and countless other creatures to nest to rest trees keep us alive with their generous offer of oxygen and they are able to do this because they receive nourishment from the earth full of nutrients and minerals the trees roots gather what they need to grow and thrive while up at the top their leaves receive the light of the Sun and the moon to help them transform and shine and so as you go throughout the rest of your day and your life notice what you are receiving you might look to the senses and notice what are you receiving on your skin is it the warmth of the Sun or the softness of your clothes what beauty have your eyes welcomed what delicious smells have you smelled what delightful sounds what have you tasted and start to notice which of these things is really nourishing you what are you receiving that nourishes your body your mind and your spirit what's nourishing the parts of you that you're still getting acquainted with what's nourishing your wild heart set the intention to become more aware of those things those people the places in activities that nourish you set the intention to make space for moving more towards what feeds the parts of you that you love so that those parts grow and flourish with abundance remember that part of becoming all of you ask you to make room for profound pleasure deep creativity passion trust in your intuition and discovering a well of joy that makes you stagger when we open ourselves and become become more willing to receive even if we just start with receiving more breath in the body this allows more abundance and healing to flow it allows more creativity to flow and we begin to let go of the compulsion to constantly be busy to be pushing and forcing things we surrender that need to try and control things and we become more present and enter more fully into this gift of life we start to see how we can be caregivers and generous without depleting ourselves we can lean back and enjoy our lives more so imagine for a moment yourself as Empress in a luxurious throne of receiving take a moment in gratitude for this medicine from the Empress knowing that you can connect with Empress energy and wisdom anytime it is always available to you and ask the Empress if there's anything they want you to know or focus on open yourself to receive any message the Empress might have for you and so we will take a minute in silence to be in a state of reception to do nothing but be open and see if she has something to offer you today you you take a moment to thank the Empress for any message they may have shared with you today don't be surprised if that message comes later and as we close this meditation remember that receiving is not shameful it is not a sign of weakness receiving is part of being in the flow of life so go ahead and start to bring some slow gentle movements into your fingers and toes take another big breath in and only when you're ready you can blink the eyes open thank you so much for joining me and if you liked this meditation let me know by emailing me at Nicole in IC o le at ritual heals calm
