Exegesis THE EMPRESS (III) Sentences 1–3
1 As the sun set, I drank the cup of divine milk and closed my eyes
2 The vehicle appeared, three interlocking circles of fire spinning on themselves
3 Maa was seated in the midst of green flames and she said to me
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1 “As the sun set, I drank the cup of divine milk and closed my eyes”
Sunset marks a threshold where outer light withdraws so inner sight can awaken. The “divine milk” evokes an entheogenic substance, reminiscent of sacred brews made from acacia, carriers of DMT and traditionally used to open the gates of higher perception. Drinking this cup is an act of absorbing a creative principle, a spiritual nourishment that prepares the body for revelation. Closing the eyes is not withdrawal but the essential gesture that turns perception inward and activates the visionary state, allowing the image to rise from within, from the imaginal sanctuary ruled by the Empress.
2 “The vehicle appeared, three interlocking circles of fire spinning on themselves”
The vision that emerges is a doctrinal key. The three interlocking circles of fire embody the creative trinity — Body, Soul, Spirit; Sulphur, Mercury, Salt; Father, Mother, Child. Their perpetual rotation symbolizes the eternal movement of manifestation, the dynamic through which spirit condenses into form. This fiery geometry recalls the Merkaba, the Kabbalistic vehicle of light, enabling passage between dimensions. It also echoes the initiatic mounts of spiritual ascent: Buraq in the Miʿraj, or Laozi’s blue ox, both emblems of inner journeying. These circles are not a metaphor but a sacred vehicle, a living architecture of light transporting consciousness toward revelation.
3 “Maa was seated in the midst of green flames and she said to me”
Maa appears within green flames, the color of renewal, transmutation, and vital potency. Green is the hue of alchemical viriditas, the fecund force that animates all growth. It is also the color of the Emerald Tablet, where the powers of above and below unite, binding spirit to matter. Seated in this regenerative fire, Maa embodies the creative matrix, the guardian of the threshold between dissolution and rebirth. Her presence in the green flames signals that the vision has entered its germinative phase, the moment where revelation gathers itself before speaking. What she utters from this emerald light is the birth of knowledge itself.
