In Greek mythology, Hera is the wife of Zeus, and while she is said to be very beautiful, presiding over marriage, birth, and many aspects of women’s lives, she is not the most popular of the Greek goddesses. She is often seen as jealous and spiteful, causing problems for Zeus’s many lovers and illegitimate children. But there is some evidence that Hera was around long before Zeus ever came into the picture.

Pre-Hellenic Greece had a thriving goddess culture, and Athena, Hera, Demeter, Persephone, Pandora, and several others were worshiped before any of the male gods showed up. As Charlene Spretnak explains in her book Lost Goddesses of Early Greece, beginning around 2500 BCE, waves of invasions by northern groups including the Dorians brought the concept of the male gods—and patriarchy itself—to these matriarchal societies.

According to heaps of archaeological evidence, the Goddess was once worshiped all over the world by many different names. She was often depicted in three forms: Maiden, Mother, and Crone. Sometimes these three goddesses were sisters, sometimes separate goddesses reflecting different archetypes, and sometimes as the same goddess in different life cycles.

The Maiden

The Maiden embodies the new moon, springtime, and the dawn, as well as moments of new potential and possibility. She is the Greek Persephone, originally referred to as Kore, which translates to “maiden.” She is also Brigid, the beautiful red-haired Irish goddess of early spring, representing the energy that pushes the very first shoots of grass and flowers up through the snow. She is birth and rebirth after death in the Goddess cycle.

According to biblical mythology, Eve is the first woman (that is, if we don’t mention Lilith, Adam’s first wife from Jewish mythology). Eve was born of Adam’s rib, meant to be his partner and helper in the Garden of Eden. This was a perfect place presided over by God where everything they could possibly need was provided for them without effort. God’s only rule was not to eat from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. Sure enough, the serpent (whom some say was actually Lilith, who had left the garden voluntarily, refusing to be subservient to Adam or anyone) convinced Eve to take a bite of the forbidden fruit. Eve did and shared some with Adam. Part of the tree’s gifts included the knowledge of shame, pain, and evil, which is hard enough, but God was also furious. He punished them with exile from the Garden of Eden and a life of toil that would eventually end in death. Adam and Eve went on to create the human race, never returning to that place of ease and perfection.

The Empress tarot card holds rich symbolism and is connected to two important goddesses. Learn what lessons we can glean from this powerfully feminine tarot card.

The Empress tarot card shows a beautiful woman, usually dressed in a flowing garment, covered with pomegranates (a fruit related to sexuality and fertility) with the symbol of Venus on a heart near her feet. She’s often shown in a lush environment, with wheat growing beneath her. Sometimes she is shown as a pregnant woman.

The major themes of the Empress tarot card include fertility, abundance, and feminine power. The Empress is an appropriate symbol for the springtime, when the world begins to come back to life after the dying time of winter. Mythologically, she relates to two other goddesses of the cycle of life and springtime.