4 - The Emperor

jmd

In discussing 3 - The Empress, Moongold mentioned the wonderful impact of the rain Melbourne is just receiving - and being a co-resident, can only but poorly describe to others who have not lived in multi-years drought-striken otherwise lush environs.

At the same time, however, it immediately brought to mind its successor card, depicted with the dryness we have here been experiencing.

The lushfull abundance of the Empress gives way to the meticullous clarity of light of the dryness of the Emperor's landscape - though even there we are reminded of the fertility of the previous card, for the stream still flows... and maybe, just maybe, it is used by the Emperor to balm his Fisher King's wound...
 

Richard1

...And of course the Aries symbolism is OVERWHELMING here...even the emlbem on his left shoulder is a ram.
What does the scepter signify, though? It looks like Venus, but I'm not sure...
 

lupo138

then have a look on the symbol on his crown ;)
 

Kiama

There seems to be so much in this card which points to raw male sexual drives... The ram, the fire, the sceptre... I suppose he just goes well with the Empress!

Maybe it's pointing to a more active principle?

Kiama
 

strings of life

Here is my interpretation:

In a reading, The Emperor represents the strength behind the completion of goals, including but not limited to, education, work, successful projects and ventures. Intellect will aid you in this journey and will help you develop skills of logical reasoning to take on a position of authority.

There is no sense of the cycle of life in this card, just achievement at a pentacle moment.

You can achieve due to strong will and desire, even if you have left the emotional side of things out of the picture. However, even though there are benefits to being headstrong, one can achieve the even higher status and persevere with balance between being rational with intuitive, intellectual and emotional thoughts.

I am using the Universal Waite Tarot deck, so I didn't put the imagery/symbols in this post (that's on my bog).

However, I do want to participate in the threads in this study group since the parallel themes are similar. There isn't a separate Study Group for the Universal Waite and it was suggested that I follow along with this group as I start out.