Dear Universe:
I have been a bit apprehensive about writing to you concerning the Empress. This may be because I feel woefully unfit for the task at hand. As I am a male, and this being the first feminine archetype that I have endeavored to describe, I have had to build up a certain amount of pluck to attend to this stately type. The Empress constructs meaning and navigates reality through the exercise of control. Control has always been a difficult subject for me. One, I am a hairless monkey, a species only peripherally associated with the concept; and two, I am a reflective Alien type and find my opposite with the Empress.
However, when I turn my mind to control, I recognize that it is this Empress that has encouraged me to stop dithering about what I should write, and turn my efforts to writing of my love to you, my sweet. And although I understand that control is an illusion, I find it is best used and rightly manifested when it is done in the spirit of love. How many times have I managed to control my frustration or held my tongue as I have raised children or patiently waited out misunderstandings with friends or loved ones?
Right now, my daughter has taken onto herself to travel the countryside. I remember when once, when she was little and having a birthday party. We were all in the backyard of my house and my brothers had brought down a couple of horses for the children to ride upon. As my daughter was placed on the back of the horse behind one of my brothers the horse became agitated. It galloped up a bank and then preceded to buck and rear. My little girl tumbled down behind the horse. As I was behind a line of watchers and some distance away this situation was beyond my control, and seemingly beyond my help. I saw very clearly that the horse was about to kick back and injure, maim or kill my little girl.
There was no doubt in my mind, but that I reached out with my mind, my will and my voice. Time seemed to hold still for one blessed moment.
“Eden, Run!” I shouted, and my voice seemed to echo out, cocooning my girl from harm. She looked up into my eyes from that distance, leapt up and scurried to the side, just as the horses frenzied hooves cleaved the air where once she had been so rudely cast upon the bank. Time moved forward and everyone seemed to pause in the grace of what had just happened.
I ask you now, sweet universe, be with my little girl (for that is what she will always be to me). Allow that cry of love and protection shouted so long ago to echo through you and cocoon her from hurt and tribulation on her journeys.
And so I remember all the long cold days, the nights of no sleep, the fretful drives to hospital and so many other things that surely would have sundered me, if not for the control manifested and justified by love. It with this control and in the fashion of this love that I will describe to you the first of the Empress Archetypes:
- The Director
Primary Mode of Operation: Control (East)
Secondary Mode of Operation: Order (East)
Epithets: The Expert, The Organizer, The Sensible One, The Iron Matron
Mythic Examples: Judi Dench’s M (from 21st Century James Bond Films), Elinor Dashwood (Austen’s Sense and Sensibility), Florence Nightingale, Madame Curie, Margaret Thatcher.
Description: As a child, this precocious child will often be ill tolerated by her peers for her know-it-all, my way is best attitude; and her lack of tact will sometimes seem impudent to impatient elders. The Director does not mean to cause a fuss, but she is by nature fussy, and (in her mind) for good reason. She understands the way in which things might be ordered most efficiently, and she is exasperated to a state of being overwhelmed by those who fail to understand the need for such order and control. She will most likely excel in school, although she does best in the categorizing of things and learning by rote. She loves the symmetry of mathematics and this will come naturally to her. Many a Director has furthered knowledge and understanding in any field associated with the cold hard logic of numbers.
As she grows, the Director will not be swept away by the vagaries of romance like so many of her peers, but will act sensibly toward her future, and in a truly altruistic way will endeavor to guide others toward theirs, as long as she sees hope in a subject. The Director has little patience for idle reflection or intuitive takes on the world. The Director is a masterful planner and is ideal at organizing people, things and ideas. Her strategies are not showy, but the Director is in it for the long game.
Fantasy, romance and sentimentality is anathema to the Director. She just does not understand the benefits of it, and since she does not understand it, she deems it unworthy and pays it no second mind. This can result in the Director harboring a secret and deep loneliness and disappointment which only the attentions of the most dutiful, persistent suitor may penetrate and obliterate with the daily routines of duty and love. Hence, the Operator is best suited to the Director, as he will enjoy and respect her adherence to order and will be willingly obedient to the cause of order in which the Director has dedicated herself.
The Director is best suited for work in Mathematics, Administration, the sciences, medicine, and education. She is a conservative figure only in that she believes it would be inefficient to overhaul all systems, when a little elbow grease and tidying will put polish to any state of affairs.
Ideal match: The Operator
Challenging types for the Director: The Sorcerer or the Sorceress
The Shadow Type: The Ice Queen- When the Director allows her desire for Control and Order to become all encompassing in her own life, she shuts down her access to the most genteel of the human sensibilities and gives birth to her shadow: The Ice Queen. This frosty matron thrusts her demands and visions out onto all things and will not tolerate insubordination in the order manifested by her will. She will be blind to the egomaniacal nature of this attitude, as she is doing, in her own mind, what is fit and proper for the maximizing of peace and potential. Here we have Narnia’s Jadis, the witch queen that rules over a magical kingdom trapped in an eternal winter. We laugh at Dana Carvey’s classic sketch of the Church Lady, but our laughter is nervous as many have faced the unapproving and scornful glare of such an Ice Queen. The Ice Queen is by nature a fascist, a control freak, who will make life miserable for those who would be free, and has helped lead nations and communities into oppression with fervor.
In more recent popular literature, the Ice Queen is embodied in the fascist matron, Dolores Umbridge, the villainess in the Harry Potter series..
Although, the Ice Queen is a matter of some frightful speculation, she is a mirror of the times and the culture in which she was raised. Dedicated to a hopeful society that is respectful and protective of individual’s rights, the Director in her apex of power and glory will protect and preserve those institutions that so uphold human value. She is someone who will sort things out and will thereby make an excellent leader with a clear vision, unquestionable scruples and knack for getting things done, and better yet, well done.
I see now the fitness of your imperial decrees, great universe, and I only blame myself for not heeding those first lessons that you put before me. I beseech your ever benevolent majesty for the purest of directors to come boldly forth and be heeded, so that they may iron out the difficulties we face as a species and put us on the proper path to our continued development and future glory.
So mote it be.
With Love and adoration,
Trav
T. L. Barrett 
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