Kim Huggens

The Emperor: To Be Seated in Your Power

15 Feb 2012 4 Comments

by kimhuggens in Life, the Universe and Everything, Mythology, Tarot

Most people have negative association with the Emperor in the Major Arcana of the Tarot: they see patriarchal rule, oppressive, authoritarian laws, a ruler with an iron fist, a no-good father, the man that left them, the bullying big brother, the war mongerer. Certainly this card, ruled by the zodiacal sign of Aries, and associated with so much fire and guts and martial force, can carry these negative connotations when accompanied by other negative cards in a spread, or itself ill-dignified. But a Tarot reader must learn to put behind their own prejudices and negative life experiences in order to progress, and our poor, misjudged Emperor has so much to offer if we allo ourselves to see him in his truest form.

IV The Emperor, Robin Wood Tarot

The Emperor is seated in his own power.And so can we be if we ask ourselves what it means to be seated in our power. The Emperor bears the message that we must learn where our power lies and how we can attain and maintain it: and by “power” I do not mean “power over”. The Emperor’s true power does not lie in dominance except that he may be in a position of authority over other people, simply because it is his responsibility to be so, and this rulership is a reciprocal relationship – he rules with wisdom and fairness, offering protection, work, resources, etc., and in turn he is ruled by his subjects, who dictate what they would like from him.

In today’s busy modern world it is often difficult to understand what it means to be seated in your own power, without the need to have power over another, without needing to engage in power struggles. Our culture and education system is geared towards moulding nothing more than office fodder and cogs in a machinery, giving everybody equal opportunities (which is a good thing) but allowing nobody to find where their power, their strengths, their courage, lies. There are no opportunities instituted in our culture for youth to test its mettle and discover its power, to be initiated into adulthood, to understand what strength in the truest sense of the word is. We understand it as physical prowess, and we understand it as an ability to “keep calm and carrry on”, “man up and grow a pair” and “just keep swimming”. Strength is only really seen in opposition to the parts of life that drag us down and threaten to overcome us, and in persevering we usually find that rather than stepping into our power, we do merely that: persevere. We are wiser and probably weaker because of it, and only a few of us discover our power.

When faced with the Emperor a few nights ago, whilst taking a new student through some exercises to intuitively engage with the symbolism that maps each card’s meaning, I went through the exercise as well. We both had different cards (he the Moon, and I the Emperor) and we wrote down every symbol we could find in our cards. Next, we wrote down one or two words for each symbol, e.g ravens: “Odin, wisdom, knowing all”; crustacean: “something primordial, coming up from the subconscious”. As I went through the Emperor’s symbols in the Robin Wood Tarot, I found myself looking at the throne and seeing “power”, and then said, “the Emperor is seated in his own power.”

Now, the Emperor has often represented a man who is comfortable and fully aware of his strengths, weaknesses and power, but now this spread to everybody – the Emperor, the ruler of an empire, represents our own power and to be “seated in it”. I asked myself what this meant to me at this time, and looked to the other symbols in the card for an answer.

- Red mountains behind him: To be seated in your own power is to know you accomplishment, but to also know that there is always still more to achieve, more on the horizon, other ways to improve, and not to boast or believe oneself better than everybody else; to be comfortable with your achievements to date, using them as a firm foundation to go on to greater things when the time and opportunity presents itself.

- Globe beneath his feet: To know where you are. This is not “knowing your place”, but instead knowing where you are as a person, your situation, your problems and obstacles, as well as your opportunities and doorways. To know where you are as a constanty developing person. Knowing where you are in the first stage to knowing where you can go.

- Eagle flying high above: To have soaring ambition. This soaring ambition is not the kind that seeks to one-up other people, but to simply better oneself, achieve one’s heart’s desire, make better the positions of others, improve and evolve. More importantly, to have a soaring ambition should involve knowing how to achieve the ambition.

- Ravens at his shoulders: Odin’s Ravens, Hugin and Munin (thought and memory respectively), that flew out everyday to see the world’s turnings and bring the knowledge back to Odin. To be seated in your own power is to know the world around you, understand it, and seek to take in information before acting. Power does not require demonstrations of power-over or dominance, and often the greatest power is in holding back until all information has been gained, or until the opportune moment, before taking any action.

- The Ram of Aries: To be seated in one’s power is to have an expansive, ever-moving power. Aries is well-known in astrology for rushing headlong into things, being bold and confidant, with a strength of will that is truly a sight to behold. With a strong will, have the battle is over.

- Red: The fiery colour of masculinity tells us that to be seated in one’s power is to have an open, active nature that is fuelled by firm foundations, just as fire is fuelled and fed with wood. It is to take risks sometimes and to inspire.

- Armour: To be seated in one’s power is not to seek war or confrontation for their own sake, but nevertheless to be prepared to fight for what you believe in and the people around you and whom you love if threatened or the need arises. It is to stand your ground and not give in, to display your strength when required. Sometimes this means to defend only, but sometimes one must be confidant enough with one’s own power to be able to be on the offense, heading off problems before they can take hold. To be seated in one’s power is to not be cowed by those who would bully and oppress, deny and shut away, to not run from confrontation through fearor weakness, and to overcome fear by stepping into it.

- The ankh upon his sceptre: the Egyptian symbol of life tells us that to be seated in one’s power is to grab life with both hands, to take every opportunity and to live fearlessly and wholeheartedly, to not become an unquestioning vegetable glued to television all day, to have the courage to say “YES!” to life and not say “no” out of fear, to make every day count.

- The big, busy beard: I associate beard like this with wisdom and guidance from elders, so it suggests that to be seated in one’s power is to have wisdom (very different to knowledge!) and to have a moral compass and sense of responsbility. To know where and how one’s responsibilities lie and be able to make one’s own decisions based on a carefully understood code of conduct – not necessarily one that you have been taught by others, but one you have actively chosen to adhere to.

- The horn hanging upon his throne: This horn reminded me of the Sofar, the ram’s horn blown at the Jewish festival of Rosh Hashanah, calling the faithful to repentence and to seek forgiveness from those they have wronged during the previous 12 months. This tells me that to be seated in one’s power is not just to know one’s strengths, but also to know where one is in the wrong, who one has wronged, and to have the backbone and courage to approach those people and make amends. It is to take moral responsibility for one’s actions. For more on the role of the Shofar, check this out.

I love the Emperor. He represents power – not just any power, but MY power, and YOUR power. And with the right application of my power and your power, the world would be a better place indeed. The Emperor, when seated in his power, is a world builder, a world leader, and he can be each and every one of us. Our world and immediate environment and community should be part of our responsibility, and we should have a proactive hand in protecting in, attaining it, and maintaining it.