The Emperor : Discipline and Authority

The Emperor and the Major Arcana

    Marked with the number 4, the Emperor stands in a position of authority and power. Where teh Empress brought intention to life, it is in the discipline of he Emperor that raw potential power is harnessed into change. He sits on the throne of emotion, under the stability of earth and the power of fire. In one hand is a censor, symbolic of domination and control. The other holds a staff with the symbol of life. Truly, while the Empress is the source of creation, it is the Emperor that controls it and protects it. In relation to the Fool, we find that coming form the rush of creation in the Empress, the Fool seeks to hold tight to his own thoughts and intentions. Suddenly free from their sway, the return of force is a wanting to wrestle those thoughts firmly into his own control. However, the negativity of the card, as there is in all cards, can warn that the Fool is fighting his own inner voice. Much as suppressing intrusive thoughts only causes them to grow stronger, the Fool wrestling his own intentions only sends him further into his own mind, undoing the freedom he had only just found a taste of.

    When the Emperor card appears it marks a time for self discipline and finding the confidence to stand in one's own authority. As the querent card, the Emperor is firm and forceful. In a positive light this is confidence. The querent is sure in where they stand and practiced in their own being. the negative to this is a false belief of that very confidence. Suddenly that power becomes stubborn arrogance. The question of what the card reads can only be answered with the surrounding context. As an abstacle, the Emperor could be that same false confidence mentioned - or it could be the influence of someone in a position of authority over the querent, someone that stands arrogant and doesn't take any answers but what they want to hear. As an outcome card, the Emperor often signals stability and power in the situation. Things coming to fruition are not going to quickly fall away. A job is going to turn toward a promotion. However, if the card or context is inversed, the stability becomes its own trap. Suddenly what felt like security now feels like prison, and change can only come when the Emperor realizes he is actually wrong.

The Emperor and the Fool Together

    If the Emperor and the fool are paired, the implication of false confidence is intensified. This could be by the querent's own shortcomings, or by the influence of someone else. The biggest factor in discerning the meaning of these comes in the question of which cards are directly about the querent. If, say, the Emperor is the querent card, and the outcome is the Fool, the implication is that the querent is going to be made to look like a literal fool. I'd be evaluating the spread for cards signifying deception or lies. The meaning easily translates into the fable of the Emperor wearing no clothes. However, if the positions are swapped, then the querent could be seen to be stumbling into a position of power. This would be the idea of "fake it 'til you make it". In this situation, the direction of the emperor card also has implications. A reversed card could mean the new position of authority is too much and the querent might need to step back.

    If the cards fall in relation to the querent's timeline (past to future), it marks the progression or stumbling in a life lesson. This part of the journey is, after all, the time most often stumbles and relapsed on. Folks realize they've embraced the potential power of the Empress and then fail to hone and control it - causing them to question whether they'd ever had it to begin with. Others  find that they were already self disciplined enough that when they came into their own power, the control they needed over it was present and ready for them.

The Emperor as a Spiritual Authority

    There is question over whether the Emperor holds his power of the querent's spiritual/faith life; or if that role is exclusive to the Heirophant. The answer is yes he does hold power, but not high authority. If the Emperor is appearing in relation to questions over faith and the querent's spiritual journey, it may be a calling for them to spend more time studying their faith and putting it into practice. This means deepening their intellectual learning, while at the same time using what they already know to help their community. It does not mean teaching the faith to folks not already following that path.

    As an example for comparison - each of the figures of authority could be perceived as part of one's spiritual practice. In wicca/pagan practices, the Magician marks a person learning the core principles of the path. This is where all the research and the most basic practices come in. The person may not know what type of practice they want, or where they are being called yet. That comes with the High Priestess. With the High Priestess, the beginner has learned enough to find what they feel drawn toward on a surface level, but perhaps they haven't discerned a specific deity or pantheon to follow. The Empress is the calling of the deity. Here the person knows who they worship, and will typically focus on altar practices, but not much more. It is then, with the Emperor, that they begin to learn the more specific rites and practices of that spiritual path, and what nuanced principles differentiate it from other paths. Then, the Heirophant marks the final point of the learning journey. The Heirophant is a leader of a community - able to take what he's learned and teach it to others.

        For a more Christian-centric example : The Magician is the person that attends church on Sundays, because "that's what good Christians do"; the High Priestess is the person that builds from that to bible study, seeking their own deeper understanding of scripture; The Empress is when the pwoer of teh holy spirit moves a person to begin taking part in the greater church body, volunteering for Sunday school or serving in one of the other facets of the church function; The Emperor is the church elders, folks that have served the body and while are not honed enough to give sermon they are able to spread the joy of the Word; and Heirophants are literally the leaders of the church, and the missionaries spreading and teaching the Word in other countries. 

The Empress : Giving Life to Intention

The Empress in the Major Arcana

    Fourth in the major arcana, the Empress carries the number 3 and marks birth and creation. The image of the Empress is often shown with growing wheat and flowing water, adorned with crown and scepter. She is marked as the mother earth and giver of life and abundance. The stars on her crown represent the planets. The Empress sits on the throne of earthly creation. Not the high goddess, but divine in her own authority. It is the Empress that exemplifies the feminine and the nurturing.  In the fool's journey, the Empress is the combination of the Magician's mind and the High Priestess' intuition. Together, it is through the Empress that all things can be manifested.

    The position of the Empress has a good deal of influence on the interpretation of this card. When referring to the querent directly, her traits are highlighted in the querent. This can, however, be for good or bad. Where abundance and nurturing are held in the positive - in excess they can be read as obsession and toxic positivity. A caring mother becomes smothering. A lover becomes possessive. When reversed, this may signify a lack of traits or a refusal to express them. If the Empress was revealed in the "obstacles" position reversed, I might say that compassion or nurturing was needed in the situation. Or that there would be none given if the querent were in need of the care. But if the card was upright, I might say that what first looks like compassion and care will quickly become obsession or possessiveness. Especially if the Emperor appeared somewhere in reverse (signifying someone being overly controlling).

The Empress and the Lovers

    Paired together, this is a very powerful combination. But the caution given above is also amplified in the same breathe with this pairing. The bond of the Lovers - most notably in readings to do with love and relationships - makes the abundance of the Empress so powerful it threatens to cross the threshold into excess. Doubling this, any feeling that the Empress is lacking in the relationship begins to feel like it's not there at all. In the context of relationships, the Empress may also signify literally becoming pregnant. *Do not rely on tarot for medical diagnoses. The tarot can not predict medical conditions, and should not be relied on exclusively for medical decisions.* 

    When reading for wealth or business, the Empress and Lovers represent a project coming to fruition, or a raise/promotion. In these readings it's important to evaluate the surrounding cards for signs of "too much work". This can signal that the abundance that the Empress brings has also made an excess of responsibilities the person may not be able to maintain. In opposition to this, if the Empress is inverted it ma signify a demotion, pay decrease, or (especially if the Lovers are reversed as well) a firing or quitting.

The Empress and Manifestation

    The Empress signifies manifestation of intention and giving life to thought. However, this manifestation is yet unstable. Raw and moving like the water she is often depicted sitting by, the Empress can be as destructive as she is nourishing. This is why the major arcana follows the Empress with the Emperor - authority and practiced discipline. Her image as Mother Earth is often seen as exclusively positive, but most folks will easily overlook the fact that natural disasters are as much the Empress as a gentle rainstorm or a bright spring day. What the querent receives from the Empress depends entirely on their own preparation and intention. When the Empress is in a spread it is not quite time to celebrate. Instead, the querent is being called to ready themselves for this abundance and make space for it or give it a direction to flow. Excess abundance can easily be redirected as generosity, and the overflowing cup can fill other cups. The Empress' manifestation echoes throughout the rest of the Fool's journey through the major arcana. When given the power of authority and council (from the Emperor and Hierophant), she becomes a source of inevitable change. Intentions begin to shape how the world reacts to the querent. As the querent adapts to the changes and grows, the nurturing Empress remains even in the darkest parts of the journey (as the hope of the Star following the fall of the Tower).

The 3 Journeys of the Fool : (2) Manifesting Balance and Adapting to Change

 

The Major Arcana and the Querent
    The Fool and the querent here have found the turning of their manifesting potential, and are now in a place of constant shifting and change. Having taken the reigns over their own thoughts and intentions, the Fool sees their choices and reactions with an eye for not just what they want but how it effects the world around them. They are placed on a path of changing themselves and seeing the very world around them change in response. If the first journey as the Fool seeing how the cogs of life are laid out, the second journey is the Fool watching as the cogs begin to turn - and in turn move each other. The lesson, at its heart lies in how no cog turns on its own. Each both is turned by, and itself turns, another. By the end of this journey, the Fool will find themselves in tune with the ebbs and flows of life enough that they maintain their own balance and self control despite the circumstances around them. In the first journey the Fool finds freedom from being ruled by their own unchecked thoughts; in this second journey they find freedom from being controlled by circumstance and change.

Creation Arc
    The Fool begins their second journey with eyes on their own emotions. The raw potential of their self awareness has brought them face to face with their own unchecked emotions. Strength begins the journey, marking a need for patience and courage; and just as the Magician and High Priestess may come as a pair and interchange so too are Strength and the Hermit. It is in these two that the Fool finds that he needs to control his emotions (the appearance of Strength and the call for patience), and he turns to soul searching (the Hermit's arrival and signifying of stepping out of the chaos of life to find an inner truth). For the querent these can happen in either order - the consequences of unchecked emotions leads to the need to soul search, or soul searching leads them to find their own emotions are being left unchecked. And just as intention and will together bring about the ability to manifest in the first journey, the need for self control and the awareness that come from soul searching bring about the ability to find change within the Fool/querent/ This change, however is not guaranteed to be either positive or negative in the moment. The Wheel, marking the climax of the first arc, reminds us that while Justice might be blind, Fate cares not for what is earned or what is deserved. It only cares about the turning of the cogs and the inevitable moving of life forward. This, for the Fool and for the querent, comes regardless of for ill or good.

Discipline Arc
    As the Fool realizes their own awareness has brought change into their life, they are fored to stand and answer for the results of their past choices. Justice, as said, is indeed blind. And the Fool must take the acceptance he was taught from the Hermit and apply it to himself now - for while the Wheel only cared for the order of time, Justice only cares for truth. And regardless of what the Fool might do, the truth with always always make itself known. They can either stand and face it with the patient Strength they've forged, or they can let it tear them down piece by piece. By being accountable for the truth of their actions, the Fool sacrifices the bonds of their past and is finally able to find new perspective as the  upside-down strung Hanged Man. This hanging Fool sees the world in reverse, and can find those ways their own actions have caused the very changes they were fighting against. They see that when intention becomes choice, change is indeed unavoidable.

Realization Arc
    Now fresh with new perspective, the Fool allows their past to fall behind them. The Death card at this point marks the transformation, and the removal of old patterns of behavior for the fool. The "old Fool" is dead and gone shed away like old skin form a snake. In its place a new, more intentionally aware Fool looks to the world, and finds the ability to create the balance both within themselves and how they choose to engage with the world around them. In this balance, the Fool finds Temperance, a calm and centered being that does not bend to the whims of life's currents. Instead they see who they are, and where life places them - and they find the potential to create change in every aspect of their life. It is here, with their eyes turned outward, that they now see the last bonds of their own being and what keeps them from their full potential.

    Where their personal transformation has grown deeper with each journey, the impact of each change has also grown exponentially. At the crossroads from the second to the third journey, the Fool begins their greatest manifestation - the manifestation of their own reality. The first journey has given them the ability to manifest their own intentions. The second journey has allowed that to manifest change in the world around them. The third journey will bring all of this to a point of ascending and creating a whole new worldview and as a result an entire new experience in the reality of their life...