Major Arcana

Court Cards

Pips

Although I work with this deck often, the Emperor card is one I hadn't given a great deal of thought to. The Emperor is young, lavishly dressed, with a neatly trimmed beard. The eagle is to be found in one of the card corners, with Jupiter/Zeus in the other. He holds a scepter, but rests it casually over his shoulder, rather than holding it sternly upright, as in many decks.

Studying this card last night, I found myself always coming back to the Emperor's face. There is tremendous subtlety in his expression--a slight change in the drawing would give him a very different personality. He is proud, confident, determined. But there is a kind of innocence in his pride. He takes it for granted that the sun rises each morning just to warm him and light his domain. He's not defensive in the least. His clothes emphasize his masculine attributes, making him broad-shouldered and tall. Yet it has never occurred to him that he might appear otherwise. He *is* the Empire. A telling detail is found in the colors of the hills in the picture. The hill on which the Emperor stands is green. Does he notice that behind him they are all yellow and brown? Or is it simply taken for granted that the life force rests at *his* feet, and nowhere else?

But then the subtlely kicks in. His expression shows a hint of curiosity, a touch of human empathy, or at least interest. His arrogance is the arrogance of youthful idealism, not the arrogance of bitter age. His is a mind beginning to open, not a mind long ago closed. The Emperor in most decks seems completely static, a cul-de-sac on the Fool's Journey. But this Emperor, we suspect, may someday set his scepter aside and become a hierophant, a hermit -- perhaps even a hanged man.

In him we recognize the single-minded clarity of youth. We understand that his pride can be dangerous, can lapse into tyrrany, but we will forgive him his arrogant moods, because we've all been there ourselves. Looking at this figure, we may suddenly see that the great authority figures of life--the supervisor at work, the traffic court judge, even Dad himself--were once (still are?) learners, children stepping through an uncertain world with a self-made certainty that is not so much threatening as it is endearing.

Is he Father or Son? This exquisitely drawn face tells us he is both.

Tom Tadfor Little
tlittle@telp.com

Tarot at Telperion Productions
http://www.telp.com/excursions/tarot/

The Hermitage: A Tarot History Site
http://www.crosswinds.net/members/~hermit/