The Empress

A rogue wind blasted from the mouth of the Mississippi, filling Jackson Square with sudden turbulence. The trees lifted their branches and shook in the sudden squall, the incipient rain blew sideways and the few foolhardy street vendors hustled to cover their wares. A fortune teller's tarot deck exploded into the air and scattered like leaves on the wind. Cards tumbled across the Square, cartwheeled in the air, flew up onto wrought iron balconies. One slapped face down at my feet and I quickly leaned over and snagged it before the wind flipped it up again.

The wind read my tarot cards and pulled The Empress.

The Empress, the fourth card in the major arcana, is represented by the number three, which Schoolhouse Rock tells us is a magic number(the first card in the major arcana, The Fool, is represented by 0.) She is a great mother archetype, often depicted pregnant, a figure of abundance, fertility, pregnant with promise, ripe with the milk of human kindness. Her law is love; love is her shield and sword. She embodies the paradox that an open heart is the best protection, for when you are armed with love, you have nothing to fear.

I've never been very good at guarding my heart; I leave it open to the slings and arrows, the wind and the rain. Perhaps that open heart is my greatest strength. Perhaps I should stop fighting it and learn to love my touchingly vulnerable, dangerously sensitive, bleeding heart.