The Servants of the Light Deck
This card is the first really extroverted card we find in the deck, the first card concerned with affecting the outer world directly. Our Emperor faces strongly towards his right, which can according to which system you prefer either indicate masculinity or the future, looking away from his left, symbolising femininity or the past. In his right hand, which is slightly out of proportion, he holds an Ankh, again slightly out of proportion, a Symbol from the Egyptian repertoire, and wears warrior clothing that imitates but doesn't quite fit Greek and Roman styles of clothing. He wears a metal breastplate as a warrior - his under-robe is the white of these cultures leavened with Royal Purple and the blue that indicates communication and transition. His muscles are well-formed as befits an active fighter: the straps of his flimsy sandals only serve to emphasise the strength of his legs. He is seated on the cube of Aries on red, volcanic ground, a thin trickle of lifeless-looking water being all that separates him from a landscape of active volcanoes and geysers. A card of heat and yang-energies, it indicates that any pause he takes is a brief one, planning his campaign before moving into the next strategic move. His eyes are not abstracted - this Emperor is watching his troops beyond the margins of the card, perhaps, or the troop movements of an enemy force. This is an Emperor who rules the world through right of conquest as Alexander did once and as Hitler tried to more recently: an empire-builder, a unifier, a controller. While his surroundings are not lush with organic life they are hot, charged with energy, and the stony nature of this card implies the strength of stone in his resolve.

The Granny Jones Australian Deck
Here we have an elderly, somewhat overweight man wearing a green shirt symbolising his connection with fertility, a connection re-emphasised by his choice of a farmer's hat. In his left hand he holds a heraldic emblem: a brown field beyond a black bear, perhaps, with open mouth and sharp fangs. It could be a badly-drawn Koala face, but the carnivorous mouth suggests otherwise. His right hand rests loosely around the neck of a border collie, a very friendly, loyal and devoted animal which is usually not happy unless it is assigned a task that the dog considers worthwhile. This Emperor, though gentler than the former one, expects his companions and nearest-and-dearest to be people (or animals) who are prepared to do their fair share of work - a "fair but stern" master, in fact. He is one of the few figures that is not set in some kind of context: instead of being a part of an organic scene, he is suspended from the waist up over a plain yellow background indicating solar energy, and his lower body and that of the dog fades away into nothingness, indicating that he is fixed in place (no legs) and that sexual matters are not an issue. This particular individual and his dog will recur in the "lovers" card.

Both these cards express power, and in both the cards it is an earthly power, but it is completely different in both cases. While neither of them are young, one is supremely fit, aware that if he relaxes his forceful and rather militaristic grip on his circumstances, one of his generals will soon become overly ambitious. The other seems on the surface to be more comfortable and relaxed, certainly relaxed enough about his image to have allowed his body to become less than ideally fit, but the roaring carnivorous creature in his emblem hints at ruthlessness, and his dog, while indicating a connection with nature and a need for loyalty in his followers, also indicates that he cannot be taken for granted. Both these emperors are their own masters, and masters of all those who fall within their gravitational pulls.

Nisaba Merrieweather
nisaba@primus.com.au