Tarot Journey with Leisa ReFalo

Number: 4
Card Title: The Emperor
Esoteric Title: Son of the Morning, Chief Among the Mighty
Astrological Atttribution: Aries
Elemental Attribution: Fire (hot, dry)
Dates & Timing: March 21 to April 19
Hebrew Letter: Hey Window 5
Color: Red
Intelligence: Constituting Intelligence
Esoteric Function: Sight
Qabalistic Path: Path 15: 2 Chokmah to 6 Tipareth
Translation of Path: The Wisdom of Beauty

Keywords: Stability, Foundation, King, Ruler, Establishment, Law & Order, Structure, Government, Reason, Control, Over-see, Order, Structure, Rules, Laws, Authority Figure, Construction, Formation, Initiation, Respect, Change, Mars, Ram, Aries, Form, Domination

Ill-Dignified: Dictator, Harsh, Unfair, Domineering, Arbitrary, Ruthless Competition, Micro-management, and Misused Power. Ineffectiveness. Indecision. Inability. Weakness of character. Failure to control petty emotions.

Interpretation: Divine link between mind and matter. Creative and Stable with a keen sense of responsibility. Plan and see things through. Versatile Abilities. Born organizer and successful achiever. High Office. Making it happen. I rule by serving & I serve by ruling. I trust my power. Great leadership qualities. Urge for action, Principle, Reason, Cause, Persuasion, Conviction, Surety, Security, Confidence, Certainty, Stability, power, protection, realization; a great person; aid, reason, conviction; also authority and will. Realization, Effect, Development.

Reversed Interpretation: Abuse of power and authority. Rules for the sake of rules. Need for positive direction. Lack of Control. Need self-discipline. Weight or Responsibility. Someone is becoming a burden. Too strict control. Intervention stifles initiative. Obsession with power. Weak character. Bondage to parents. Emotional immaturity. Difficulty with authority. Dominant partner, problems with your father or battles with officials. Immaturity and confusion. Problems with those you consider enemies, Inability to reach goals. Lack of energy both emotional and physical. Indicates a person weak in character over dependent on parents.

Rider-Waite Imagery

The emperor sits on a gray throne. The Rams heads on the throne and over his shoulder indicate that he is Aries. The first sign of the Zodiac, cardinal & fiery. His scepter is an ankh the symbol of eternal life. It is in the shape of venus which shows he gets his power and authority from the empress. He is wearing armor. Armor is a symbol of responsibility, authority and being in the service of a higher cause. Armor also suggests that the wear feels that the world could be made better and he is one to do it. His white hair and beard are not a sign of old age but rather of his venerability and worthiness. The mountains in the background are dry (fire) and formidable. They show the imposing nature of the laws of the natural world. He is dressed in red which shows his passion. This is also the color associated with the Emperor.

The Pictorial Key to the Tarot by Arthur Edward Waite (1911)

Part I: The Veil and its Symbols

4. The Emperor, by imputation the spouse of the former. He is occasionally represented as wearing, in addition to his personal insignia, the stars or ribbons of some order of chivalry. I mention this to shew that the cards are a medley of old and new emblems. Those who insist upon the evidence of the one may deal, if they can, with the other. No effectual argument for the antiquity of a particular design can be drawn from the fact that it incorporates old material; but there is also none which can be based on sporadic novelties, the intervention of which may signify only the unintelligent hand of an editor or of a late draughtsman.

Part II: The Doctrine Behind the Veil

He has a form of the Crux ansata for his sceptre 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 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 virtualities contained in the Absolute Being–but this is fantasy.

The Tarot of the Bohemians by Papus; tr. A. P Morton, [1896]

Chapter X. The Symbolical Tarot

4. 4th Hebrew letter (Daleth).

ORIGIN OF THE SYMBOLISM OF THE FOURTH CARD OF THE TAROT.

The hieroglyphic meaning of Daleth is the womb. It suggests the idea of an object giving plentiful nourishment, the source of future growth. The child is the living link, which in its neutrality reunites the opposition of the sexes; the Daleth therefore denotes abundance springing from division.Like the 1, it is a sign of active creation; but this creation is the result of previous actions easily determinable, whilst the origin of the Unity is inaccessible to human conceptions. The Daleth expresses a creation made by a created being. according to divine laws. The Daleth should be the image of the active vivifying principle of the Universe, Jupiter, the reflex of the Primal cause.

THE FOURTH CARD OF THE TAROT. The Emperor.

This symbol should express in the active form all that the preceding card expressed in the passive.

A man seated in profile.

The man indicates the active; his position, however, shows that this activity is engendered by a superior term. The 1st arcanum, the Juggler, the active absolute, was represented standing, looking to the front; the 4th arcanum, active relative, is seated in profile.

This man holds in his right hand the sceptre, the symbol of generation or of Venus ?.

The sceptre is held in the right hand, to indicate the active influence, which the vivifying principle exercises in nature, by opposition to the formative principle (arc. 3).

The man is bearded and wears a helmet with twelve points (six on each side). He is seated upon a cubic stone, which bears the figure of an eagle.

The helmet indicates the rule of the Divine Will in the Universe, and its universal action in the creation of Life (eagle).

The position upon the cubic stone indicates realization in all the worlds.

(1st) Realization of the Divine Word by the creation.

(2nd) Realization of the ideas of the Being shared by the quadruple work of the spirit.

• Affirmation,
• Negation,
• Discussion,
• Solution.

(3rd) Realization of the actions conceived by the Will.

The man’s legs are crossed, his body forms a triangle Domination of the Spirit over Matter. Considered more attentively, the figure reproduces the symbol of Jupiter 2 +, represented by the fourth card of the Tarot. The fourth card of the Tarot corresponds to the second He, and therefore bears two, very distinct aspects. It first expresses a term of transition uniting the first series (active and passive forces, the link between the two forces) to the following series; the passage from one world to the other.

But it also represents this term of transition, itself becoming the first term in the following series. As the following series taken as a whole is negative relatively to the first, the fourth symbol represents the active influence of the first series 1, 2, 3, in the second series 4, 5, 6.

The 4 therefore expresses the reflections of the first card in all its details. It acts towards the first series exactly as the second card acted towards the first.

This interprets its meaning–

• In the Divine. Reflex of God the Father– THE WILL
• In the Human. Reflex of Adam– THE POWER.
• In the Natural. Reflex of Natura naturans– THE UNIVERSAL CREATIVE FLUID. The soul of the Universe.

4. The Emperor.

Affinities

• Primitive Hieroglyphic: The Womb
• Kabbalah: CHESED
• Astronomy: Jupiter
• Day: Thursday
• Hebrew letter: Daleth (double)

Significations

• Reflex of God the Father. THE WILL
• Reflex of Adam. THE POWER
• Reflex of Natura naturans
• The universal creative fluid. THE SOUL OF THE UNIVERSE

Major Arcana Signification from the Divining Point of View

4. The Emperor signifies WILL

The Tarot by S.L. MacGregor Mathers [1888]

Symbolism of Each Key

4. The Emperor. He is crowned (and leaning against a throne, his legs form a cross, and beside him, beneath his left hand, is a shield blazoned with an eagle). In his right hand he bears a sceptre similar to that of the Empress. His body and arms form a triangle, of which his head is the apex, so that the whole figure represents a triangle above a cross. He represents Realization.

Meanings of the Cards

4. The Emperor.–Realization, Effect, Development; R. Stoppage, Check, Immature, Unripe.

The Symbolism of the Tarot by P. D. Ouspensky [1913]

What is the Tarot? Card IV.–”The Emperor”.

Tetragrammaton. The law of four. Latent energy of Nature. Logos in the full aspect with all possibilities of the new Logos. Hermetic philosophy.

CARD IV. THE EMPEROR.

After I learned the first three numbers I was given to understand the Great Law of Four–the alpha and omega of all.

I saw the Emperor on a lofty stone throne, ornamented by four rams’ heads. On his forehead shone a golden helmet. His white beard fell over a purple mantle. In one hand he held a sphere, the symbol of his possession, and in the other, a sceptre in the form of an Egyptian cross–the sign of his power over birth.

“I am The Great Law,” the Emperor said. “I am the name of God. The four letters of his name are in me and I am in all.

“I am in the four principles. I am in the four elements. I am in the four seasons. I am in the four cardinal points. I am in the four signs of the Tarot.

“I am the beginning; I am action; I am completion; I am the result.

“For him who knows how to see me there are no mysteries on earth.

“I am the great Pentacle.” As the earth encloses in itself fire, water and air; as the fourth letter of the Name encloses in itself the first three and becomes itself the first, so my sceptre encloses the complete triangle and bears in itself the seed of a new triangle.

“I am the Logos in the full aspect and the beginning of a new Logos.”

And while the Emperor spoke, his helmet shone brighter and brighter, and his golden armour gleamed beneath his mantle. I could not bear his glory and I lowered my eyes.

When I tried to lift them again a vivid light of radiant fire was before me, and I prostrated myself and made obeisance to the Fiery Word.

The Tarot Trumps by G. H. Soror, Q.L.

IV. THE EMPEROR
Here we have the great energizing forces as indicated by the varying shades of red. It may be noted here that the red paths remain red in all planes, varying only in shade. Thus Aries, the Emperor, the Pioneer, the General, is blood and deep crimson, red, pure vermillion or flowing fiery red. He is Ho Nike, the Conqueror, hot, passionate, impetuous, the apotheosis of Mars, whether in love or in war. He is the positive masculine as the Empress is the positive feminine.

Book “T” The Tarot

Brief Meanings of Twenty-Two Keys

5. War, conquest, victory, strife, ambition.