Waite–Smith, Trump 3
The Empress
What you can see
A crowned figure sits among cushions beside a shield bearing the Venus sign. Grain fills the foreground, with trees and water behind.
What Waite says
Waite emphasizes fertility, the earthly garden and the entrance into embodied life. He distinguishes this outward abundance from the secret known to the High Priestess, rather than making the two figures interchangeable.
Waite · Part II, §2 · printed pp. 80–83 ↗Edition and image credits
Pamela Colman Smith, illustrations in The Pictorial Key to the Tarot, Rider 1922 reprint, first published 1910. The scans keep the printed borders and page marks, with no cropping or recolouring.