{"id":31615,"date":"2010-12-05T12:40:08","date_gmt":"2010-12-05T17:40:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/?p=31615"},"modified":"2010-12-05T12:40:08","modified_gmt":"2010-12-05T17:40:08","slug":"the-weekend-tarot-reading-the-emperor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/reading-tarot\/the-weekend-tarot-reading-the-emperor\/","title":{"rendered":"The Weekend Tarot Reading: The Emperor"},"content":{"rendered":"

Editor’s Note: If you want to experiment with tarot cards and don’t have any, we provide a free tarot spread generator<\/a> using the Celtic Wings spread, which is based on the traditional Celtic Cross spread. This article<\/a> tells you how to use the spread<\/em>. You can visit Sarah’s website here<\/a>. –efc<\/em><\/p>\n

By Sarah Taylor<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

I patently do not<\/em> feel like I have much in common with The Emperor right now. I am stuck in London, on my way back from South Africa, after the UK became snowbound and ground to a halt the middle of last week. Mercury is playing havoc with my Internet connection. I am out of routine, discombobulated and disgruntled. Okay — so maybe my facial expression is the same as The Emperor’s (even though it probably reflects a different state of mind). Perhaps that is what we have in common; and perhaps the rest is what I am being asked to aspire to.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
The Emperor from the Rider-Waite Smith Tarot deck. The Emperor is the fourth card from the deck's major arcana.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Emperor — the fourth card in the major arcana — sits in state on his stone throne. He reminds me of The Hierophant<\/a> (card five in the major arcana), but in many ways he is the polar opposite. While The Hierophant is the earthly representative of the spiritual world, The Emperor holds sway over the secular. Where The Hierophant ensures that spiritual laws are enforced and adhered to, The Emperor operates in the realm of Bills, Acts, treaties, money, war and taxes.<\/p>\n

The Emperor wears red robes, much like The Hierophant, but that is where the similarity stops. For here, there are no crosses embroidered on his clothing, but rather some form of a coat of arms on his left shoulder. Instead of soft, white shoes, his feet and lower legs are sheathed in armour. There is a hardness to The Emperor that is not apparent in his major arcana neighbour.<\/p>\n

His arms set against the arms of his throne, The Emperor looks as if he is leaning slightly forward. This, combined with the armour that he wears under the regal trappings of robes and gold crown, sceptre and globe, gives me the distinct impression that he is always at the ready: that at a moment’s notice, he can spring into action if the circumstances demand it. He is a ruler both on and off the battle field. Not all disagreements brought to him can be settled amicably and within the rule of law. There is, in other words, a time for negotiation. And there is a time to fight.<\/p>\n

What I also find interesting is that the face of The Emperor is so much more filled in than that of The Hierophant, whose physical appearance is secondary to his symbolic power as divine intercessor. The Emperor has deep-set and expressive eyes, ruddy cheeks, a hint of an aquiline nose, red mouth, and long, white beard. He is fully physically present, imperfections and all. There is a stubborn resolve in the set of his jaw, as if he has had to steel his psyche, as well as his body, against frequent attacks on his authority.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

And yet the throne is solid and enduring. It rises up behind him. It ‘has his back’. He is supported by the institution that has conferred power upon him. The rams’ heads add a further sense of structure. I see the two at the top as representing a state of peace and equilibrium, when we are able to direct our gaze outside of our narrow focus and take in the world at large. The lower two represent wartime, heads lowered, ready for battle — the horns and boss (where the horns meet) now weapons instead of embellishment.<\/p>\n

Finally, I see the mountains in the background, rising up like cloaked figures to support The Emperor in his endeavours. It is as if nature is working harmoniously with him… although the colours are active, busy — as if on constant alert — save for the blue of the river at bottom left: a welcome respite from the very hot colours around it. There is, however subtle, an undercurrent of softness, of emotion, even though for The Emperor’s purposes this is relegated to the background. However, I would argue that without this, The Emperor would run the risk of losing his humanity. And it is humanity that makes an effective ruler into a great one.<\/p>\n

The Emperor sits on the knife-edge of this state of being, for me. The river, as it has on the right, might lose its cool, blue nature, its life-giving properties, and simply become a part of the mountainous landscape around it. Or perhaps the river represents the flow from a purely natural state (The Empress) towards one that is entirely spiritual and disconnected from the physical world (The Hierophant)?<\/p>\n

Perhaps this is the balance that The Emperor needs to hold.<\/p>\n

Either way, the path of The Emperor is, to me, one that demands of us great responsibility, accountability and discernment. We embody The Emperor when we assume authority over our lives here on Earth, understanding that our decisions might maintain accord, or open us to the possibility of discord, and accepting that sometimes the second path is the only one that keeps us in our integrity. How we choose to act upon this decision rests entirely in our own hands.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Editor’s Note: If you want to experiment with tarot cards and don’t have any, we provide a free tarot spread generator using the Celtic Wings spread, which is based on the traditional Celtic Cross spread. This article tells you how to use the spread. You can visit Sarah’s website here. –efc By Sarah Taylor I … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":470,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"generate_page_header":""},"categories":[183],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31615"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/470"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31615"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31615\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31615"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31615"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31615"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}