Sulis
First I want to apologise for any repetitions of what I wrote in the thread for The Empress card.. I think these 2 cards and their symbolism are so interwoven with each other that it's almost impossible to talk about one without the other - for me it is anyway.
The number 4
The Emperor's number is IV.
4 is such a solid number... There are 4 sides to a square, 4 walls of a house, 4 legs on a table, 4 points on a compass, 4 magical elements in western magical traditions and astrology, 4 weeks in a lunar month and a calender month, 4 phases of the moon... I could go on and on..
4 is the pause after the action in the 3.. It's often referred to as the first harvest number. It's the rest that we take after the initial start of something.. It's the time when we pause, rest and look back at what we've started, give ourselves a pat on the back and begin to make plans for what will come next. It's a number about foundations, boundaries, rest, consolidation, logic and rules, it contains and it protects.. It makes me think of home, warmth, safety.
The Emperor
The Emperor is the father archetype, he's the male or masculine principle and he embodies all of the qualities that those phrases represent.
An emperor rules over an empire - he's the top dog, number one, the buck stops with him..
If The Empress is nature, The Goddess, The Lady, then The Emperor is her consort; The God.
Whilst she rules in a soft, nurturing, loving way, he rules in a harder, more masculine, logical, disciplined way.
He is all 4 kings rolled into one..
He is logical, he does not think outside of the box, he likes rules, regulations, boundaries... He likes things to be as they should be and he can be quite controlling but not always.
This card is about building an empire.. It says that you have good, strong foundations to build upon.
This Emperor
Just like The Empress, he's represented by a tree.
This time the tree is in bright daylight and a burning sun is in the sky on the right hand side of the card - or is it an eclipsed sun? If it is, what does that signify??
I'm treating the sun as a regular sun... Masculine to the moon's feminine...
This tree is a longer, more pointed (shall we say phallic?) shape... Where The Empress's tree was rounded, pink and girly looking, this tree is dark, straight, tall and strong.. It's a much more manly looking tree.
It's silhouetted in black against a white sky.
I suspect it's the same tree that's being struck by lightning in The Tower card.
So it has all of the qualities of the tree in The Empress card; It is a home, an ecosystem that supports many organisms - it's life giving and it provides shelter, food and water. It also sustains the planet's atmosphere by photosynthesis that provides oxygen and gets rid of carbon dioxide..
Straight, strong and tall...
I'm running out of things to say - comments are very welcome .
The number 4
The Emperor's number is IV.
4 is such a solid number... There are 4 sides to a square, 4 walls of a house, 4 legs on a table, 4 points on a compass, 4 magical elements in western magical traditions and astrology, 4 weeks in a lunar month and a calender month, 4 phases of the moon... I could go on and on..
4 is the pause after the action in the 3.. It's often referred to as the first harvest number. It's the rest that we take after the initial start of something.. It's the time when we pause, rest and look back at what we've started, give ourselves a pat on the back and begin to make plans for what will come next. It's a number about foundations, boundaries, rest, consolidation, logic and rules, it contains and it protects.. It makes me think of home, warmth, safety.
The Emperor
The Emperor is the father archetype, he's the male or masculine principle and he embodies all of the qualities that those phrases represent.
An emperor rules over an empire - he's the top dog, number one, the buck stops with him..
If The Empress is nature, The Goddess, The Lady, then The Emperor is her consort; The God.
Whilst she rules in a soft, nurturing, loving way, he rules in a harder, more masculine, logical, disciplined way.
He is all 4 kings rolled into one..
He is logical, he does not think outside of the box, he likes rules, regulations, boundaries... He likes things to be as they should be and he can be quite controlling but not always.
This card is about building an empire.. It says that you have good, strong foundations to build upon.
This Emperor
Just like The Empress, he's represented by a tree.
This time the tree is in bright daylight and a burning sun is in the sky on the right hand side of the card - or is it an eclipsed sun? If it is, what does that signify??
I'm treating the sun as a regular sun... Masculine to the moon's feminine...
This tree is a longer, more pointed (shall we say phallic?) shape... Where The Empress's tree was rounded, pink and girly looking, this tree is dark, straight, tall and strong.. It's a much more manly looking tree.
It's silhouetted in black against a white sky.
I suspect it's the same tree that's being struck by lightning in The Tower card.
So it has all of the qualities of the tree in The Empress card; It is a home, an ecosystem that supports many organisms - it's life giving and it provides shelter, food and water. It also sustains the planet's atmosphere by photosynthesis that provides oxygen and gets rid of carbon dioxide..
Straight, strong and tall...
I'm running out of things to say - comments are very welcome .