TAROTThe Emperor
Upright
Male energy. Responsible and stable leadership, law and order.
Strategic planning, master of skilful action and balanced, disciplined action but often passionate about the goal.
Progressing problems and setbacks with skill, patience and persistence.
Intuition
The Emperor is often seen as the ‘unpopular card’ because of the talk about power but most things are not a simple power grab.
Think instead of setting boundaries and targets within a group so they have a space within which to grow and achieve. Also consider the Emperor as laying structures so others can proceed.
Reversed
Lack of structure, stagnation, irresponsive behavior and vulnerability though mistakes.
Lack of understanding and prone to overreaction. Avoiding problems rather than addressing them.
Anger rather than protection and failure of duties.
Astrologia
Taking the initiative, leadership and independence. Courage and assertiveness can make them a leader or pioneer. Open to stubbornness, inflexibility and lack of awareness of others.
The Emperor
The Emperor is the elemental masculine associated with leadership, law and order, rational planning and the discipline to succeed.
Although the card often has connotations of external authority and structure, recall that the Major Arcana cards are often concerned with you and not external influence. He can be an archetype that represents a facet of yourself.
The Emperor represents that part of you that will lead from the front and make rational plans whilst striving to protect and grow everything under his charge. He represents the use of knowledge that does not come from intuition but from having skills plus the drive and strength to use them. At his best he clears the path so that goals can be reached by himself and his peers working under clearly understood responsibilities. At his worst he is inflexible, prone to outbursts, and creating power structures that maintain that inflexibility for his own benefit.
A major point to recognize about the Emperor is that he is fundamentally a creature of passion as he represents fire. Although he is rational and a figure of law and structure in his methods, his goals and ideals may be passionate. He is both driven and emotional but that passion is (usually) held in check by his sense of responsibility.
The Emperor is based around one of several mythological ‘all-fathers’.
Zeus
The archetype for Zeus is one of the few that can be directly traced back to older origins, particularly from the near East. He was initially a rural agriculture or rain/lighting God and associated with mountain tops (many early shrines are on peaks). He later migrated to cities and became a symbol of traditional sources of authority and behavior for family groups, and larger groups up to an entire city state. He was particularly worshipped as the guarantor of divine justice and had a strong association with the father within family units. His home on mountain peaks evolved to become a home of the Gods via Olympus.
He appears to be a syncretization of many similar sky and sun gods and this is apparent by the large number of epithets he was worshiped under; around 80. This may go some way to explain his moods and many partners. He is perhaps not one God from one set of stories, but the addition of many sky gods into one character.
One of his most interesting traits is that after swallowing the pregnant Goddess Metis, Goddess of Wisdom (as the child was Zeus’s, and it was prophesized that a son of Metis would grow to be more powerful than Zeus), she resided within Zeus and becomes the wiser side of his nature, meaning many of his best decisions may well have come from his inner feminine side. The child is later born from Zeus himself and appears as the fully formed Goddess Athena (she is seen later in the Strength card).
Description and Symbology
The Emperor sits on a throne in the sky. The throne seems to be made of hard stone or crystal, implying a solid foundation despite sitting high up on the clouds. By the side of the throne we see a shield with the sign of a ram on it. An eagle is perched near the top of the throne. The Emperor wears armor and holds an Ankh in one hand and a globe (with lighting shooting out from it) in the other.
Symbol for The Emperor
The Symbol for the Emperor is the Greek zeta or Z (for ‘Zeus’), It is also the symbol for Jupiter.
Face
Depending on how far away you are when you look at the card, the Emperor’s expression seems to be either fatherly with a slight smile, or looking straight through you. He has a greying beard, suggesting wisdom gained through time and age.
Throne
The hard stone or crystal throne implies solid foundations and stability. Reversed, it can also mean being constrained and held back by your position within a hierarchy.
Armor
The armor represents protection and the willingness to fight if necessary, although the fact that he is also sitting on a throne suggests many battles already won. The armor can also suggest being slowed down by the weight of rules and responsibility.
Shield
Identical to armor, except the shield has the mark of a ram and the color of the planet Mars, suggesting a dominant astrological sign and planet. The shield also symbolizes the Emperor as being in control of his feelings and able to emotionally protect himself.
Ankh
Although the Empress is clearly associated with life via fertility, the Emperor also holds a life-sign, the Ankh. He is her equal when it comes to life, but this is a different energy. Rather than fertility, the Emperor is concerned with life as a motive force, aka virility
Globe
The globe represents the power of the Emperor’s position. It can be manifested as strength and competitiveness but also the power of mind-over-heart when solving problems that require a cool head, unbiased judgement and skill.
Eagle of Zeus / Aetos Dios
The eagle is a symbol of Zeus, and a good omen. Eagles have often been seen as a symbol of Power and Empire through the ages; often good, but sometimes also bad.
Tips for Readings
The following table shows the upright and reverse meanings for general questions. The last row ('Yes/No') is useful when you are picking a single card to decide a yes or no decision.
Upright
Reversed
A relationship that is strong through commitment and responsibilities being met fairly.
The strength of the relationship occurs through each partner leading on areas of their own strength, rather than putting everything to a committee or vote. This kind of relationship is often called a power couple for good reason; each is successful in their own right!
This is a relationship that does not veer far from expected norms, but will survive through tried and tested roles.
An oppressive, inflexible relationship.
There may be infighting and power struggles, with one person in the relationship having all the power.
The potential for strong disagreement and even violence if unchecked.
Success will occur through hard work and discipline, and strong initiative.
Helping others by clearing the path ahead for them or tutoring them on the correct methods.
There is the possibility of promotion to a higher role through recognition, perhaps to a leadership role.
A rough time ahead. Be wary of conflict with superiors as you try to advance.
You may hold dissatisfaction with your current position or lack of progression, but you may be seen to be reaching for leadership or control before you are ready.
Now is not a time to voice your concerns unless you are able to forge ahead on a new path on your own, as there is the possibility of demotion if you speak out now.
Health will occur through self-discipline and a regular routine.
Stick to tried and tested routes, as they work the best.
There may be issues with overwork and ignoring yourself, and too much emphasis on goals in other areas.
You may be ignoring injuries or health symptoms. This is not sustainable, so it may be a time to reflect on what you are losing to progress vs what makes you happy, and consider whether you are making yourself ill by always trying to be the leader.
There will be a connection to the divine masculine, pointing to belief as a source of personal security and strength in some way.
This may be a set of values that promote you as your own leader, or fitness of the mind through fitness of the body.
Whatever this belief is, it will put you at the center of your own destiny, and you as responsible for your own future.
You may be using faith as a tool for control, or mixing faith with politics and hidden agendas to do with power.
Be careful with this route as it will always make you unpopular.
An over reliance on yourself as your own leader may also make you spend far too much time alone or fail to seek help when it is needed.
You will enter a period of responsible money management.
This may show itself by increasing your position through diligence and tenacity, with the possibility of the upper hand in deals.
You may find yourself taking the leadership role in deals and required to make things move along and happen. Do not be afraid of this role; you've got this!
Take the initiative in deals and making decisions unilaterally if they will help everyone in the long term.
Be wary of creating power struggles to do with money through being overly defensive or taking control and micromanaging.
Your inflexible behavior or inability to share responsibility may mean missed opportunities or being slow because you are failing to work as a team, instead trying to lead the way yourself and taking on far too much.
Yes, through power and authority.
No through irresponsive use of force or over-reacting.
Reading the card
This deck takes the view that the Major Arcana always refers to you and the major occurrences in your life (the 4 minor arcana represent your ‘outer world’ aka ‘other people and events’ on a more day-to-day basis), so even if you are female, you are currently driven by a strong male archetype.
The upright card
The upright card represents success through stating your aims clearly and taking the lead in making things happen. This may mean leading from the front as the path to success. You will carry people with you by being open and honest. Your work and relationships will operate best by being clear in what you want rather than expecting others to have the same aims as you.
Have a plan with goals and responsibilities for yourself and others, safe in the knowledge that you have the skills needed. Although you are setting goals for others, do it by being accountable and transparent in your aims. This is not the time for secrets and hidden agendas, but it is the place for giving others clear direction coupled with space for them to grow. This may mean giving clear roles and tasks.
Like the Empress, the Upright Emperor is a sign for growth, but he does this not through nurturing, but force of his own action and will to power, pulling others with him through example, offering them help, protection and good consul when they look like they need it, and being a role model for success.
You may well be passionate about your cause but save your emotions for celebration when success comes along the way, and don’t mix it into your plans or the way you lead. Your impetus should be the force of action not of emotion.
The reversal
The reverse card suggests success in an endeavor has slowed down because you are setting the agenda. You need to listen to others and be mindful of their feelings rather than your lofty goals and sense of responsibility.
You may be setting inflexible rules and methods that may help you in the short term but are set to fail because you are wasting time, overthinking, or thinking 'your way is the only way'. In short, you are taking the lead but maybe this is not the plan for success; it is more of a plan to place you in the lead role!
Your way forward means stopping the charge and taking stock of the problem rather than concentrating on you as the only solution. Think carefully about the real aims or the feelings of others and where they want to end up.
Your heart may be in the right place and you may think you are being clear, but others may just not feel the same way as you and are in danger of becoming stifled by you.
Card Design Process
The Emperor is a straightforward archetype, but that can easily result in a simplistic design because it is easy to forget that the Emperor is driven by fire and therefore as passionate as the Empress. His methods may be logical and rational but his goals are just as rooted in passions or protecting the things he loves and cherishes. The Emperor only becomes simplistic on the reversal.
It is easy to forget that the Emperor is driven by fire and therefore as passionate as the Empress.
Much of the time on this card was spent finding a way to show and implement this, and it is illustrated graphically by the face of the Emperor. Depending on how you look at him, his expression may be that of a man with kindly eyes and a slight smile or someone who is sternly looking straight through you.
Zeus also had this double characterization. This is more apparent with Zeus than other similar depictions (such as in the First Testament’s occasionally wrathful God) as there is no opposite force of evil or temptation to the Creator in the Greek pantheon. Zeus is simply quick to help but also quick to punish or take what he wants, and it can often seem capricious on which route he chooses!
This is of course because Zeus is not really a person but the domain he had under his rule (the weather, the rigors of life, the world around us and both its beauty and cruel imperfections) and it is really they that are capricious. Zeus is merely an anthropomorphism of it.
This also follows through in the rest of mythology: tactics within war/Athena can be both clever and just, or cruel and unforgiving, and death/Hades can follow the rules and call you at the appointed time, but can also steal you away irrespective of age and whether or not you are in the prime of life.
The final design was created with stock photography and photography of found items, AI and Photoshop. Special mention goes to the Zeus’s shield which started life as a cuff-link!
Final Words
This card represents rationality, leadership, discipline and stability, while also highlighting potential challenges caused by impatience, disorganization, or being led by irrational emotions.
