The Emperor
Tarot Cards - Major Arcana
He has a form of the Crux ansata for his scepter and a globe in his left
hand. He is a crowned monarch--commanding, stately, seated on a throne, the arms
of which axe fronted by rams' heads. He is executive and realization, the power
of this world, here clothed with the highest of its natural attributes. He is
occasionally represented as seated on a cubic stone, which, however, confuses
some of the issues. He is the virile power, to which the Empress responds, and
in this sense is he who seeks to remove the Veil of Isis; yet she remains
virgo intacta.
It should be understood that this tarot card and that of the Empress do not
precisely represent the condition of married life, though this state is implied.
On the surface, as I have indicated, they stand for mundane royalty, uplifted on
the seats of the mighty; but above this there is the suggestion of another
presence. They signify also--and the male figure especially--the higher
kingship, occupying the intellectual throne. Hereof is the lordship of thought
rather than of the animal world. Both personalities, after their own manner, are
"full of strange experience," but theirs is not consciously the wisdom which
draws from a higher world. The Emperor has been described as (a) will in its
embodied form, but this is only one of its applications, and (b) as an
expression of virtues contained in the Absolute Being--but this is fantasy.
Original text by A. E. Waite. This
edited text © 2005. Please note: all applicable material on this website
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The Emperor Tarot Card