The Empress and The Hermit

Both Earth, and the tradition reads them as opposite uses of the same ground: The Empress is fertile and populated, The Hermit is bare and alone. The pair is about the choice between being among things and stepping away from them, and it does not moralise either way.

Associated with a person needing solitude inside an abundant, demanding household. The pair treats the need as legitimate.

Read for withdrawing from a productive environment in order to think. The pair regards that as a real cost and sometimes a necessary one.

Leaving the room is allowed. The pair is clear that going quiet is not the same as ingratitude.