Rider-Waite
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.
A.E. Waite
Rider-Waite symbolism of The Emperor
- Four Ram’s heads
Meanings
Stability, power, protection, realization; a great person; aid, reason, conviction; also authority and will.
Reversed meanings
Benevolence, compassion, credit; also confusion to enemies, obstruction, immaturity.
Etteilla
Les Oiseaux et les Poissons: Appui
Aid, Prop, Flying Buttress, Column, Base, Footing, Foundation. Principle, Reason, Cause, Subject, Stability. Assurance, Persuasion, Conviction, Surety, Security, Confidence, Certainty. Help, Assuagement, Assistance, Protection. Relief, Consolation.
Support reversed meanings
Protection, Influence, Benevolence, Kindness, Charity, Humaneness, Goodness, Commiseration, Pity, Compassion, Credit. Authorization.
Thierens
IV. The Emperor Cancer.
There is much more mystery buried in every symbol than words spoken can tell. Superficial consideration might make astrologers wonder at this image, which assimilates worldly power with the sign Cancer instead of with Leo, to which they are accustomed. Still there remains this to be taken into account, that originally ’emperors’ got their power from the people, — China, Rome — long before they began to claim God as their private protector against eventual aggression from outside. The people are ruled by the sign of Cancer, says the astrologer. And thus originally the chosen emperor accepted vox populi as vox Dei. This chosen dignitary was nothing of a tyrant, originally, nor did he have anything to do with rulership or warfare: he was simply the highest and most pure expression of the soul of the people or nation. In China sometimes a poor but extremely virtuous old man without any other antecedents was elected to be emperor. All later usurpations of power and succession were deviations from the old and pure institution. The present position of the president in a republic comes very near to that of the original emperor.
Paul Foster-Case
4. L’Empereur
This card, corresponding to the letter Heh, first of the 12 simple letters, is related to the Martian sign, Aries. As Mars represents the basic force in Aries, we can see why the card corresponding to this sign bears a title which implies that its central figure is the consort of L’Imperatrice. For in mythology and in astrology, Venus and Mars are closely related, even as imagination (Venus) and action (Mars), act and react upon each other. Furthermore, in the astrological signs, Aries, the home of Mars, directly follows Pisces, the sign in which Venus is exalted.
L’Empereur – well-dignified
Mental energy; foresight, supervision, oversight, control; reason, persistence, determination; ambition, leadership, enthusiasm.
L’Empereur – ill-dignified
Strife, anger, tendency to go to extremes; over-active; lack of discretion.
Ouspensky
IV
Tetragrammaton. The law of four. Latent energy of Nature. Logos in the full aspect with all possibilities of the new Logos. Hermetic philosophy.
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