1. How am I an Emperor?
2. How am I not an Emperor?
3. Where do I need to take charge?
4. What will help me do that?
5. How am I weak?
6. How am I strong?
2. How am I not an Emperor?
3. Where do I need to take charge?
4. What will help me do that?
5. How am I weak?
6. How am I strong?
I really don't think I like this reading at all--and it is those uncomfortable readings that we need to pay most attention to. This one has brought up some of my shadow aspects, things about myself I don't like to look at.
My embodiment of Emperor qualities tends to be the negative ones. My Emperor is dominant and can be oppressive. My Emperor does not work with others to solve problems and create a victory together. Hard as this is to face, it's actually true. When I hear about someone not wanting to follow orders, do what is asked of them or shoulder their assigned burdens dutifully, my first response is more the 'who do you think you are' variety rather than the 'let's sit down together and reach a compromise' type. For example, people who break the law should pay the consequences because the law is the law. Seldom is my first response, the law should be changed. Employees who are asked to perform the same duties as others but balk (Sunday working or particular duties not to their personal taste) should be informed they don't get paid to say no, they get paid to do what they're told. That's my default response. It's autocratic and no doubt the result of a conservative upbringing. I can reach a 3 of Cups style Emperor, but it takes effort and feels unnatural and like a cop out, like giving in to the wrong where I should be upholding the right. I remember when I was a kid, our class made acorns on brown construction paper, with a tan cap. We were told to use a black crayon to draw eyes and mouth on them. One child drew hers in white. I (and many other students in the room) was shocked and felt a little smug when the teacher made her go back and trace over it in black. Looking back, no wonder I turned out this way. That's just one example of the many times I learned that the nail that sticks up has to be hammered down. That obedience is rewarded. That leading means ruling.
My embodiment of Emperor qualities tends to be the negative ones. My Emperor is dominant and can be oppressive. My Emperor does not work with others to solve problems and create a victory together. Hard as this is to face, it's actually true. When I hear about someone not wanting to follow orders, do what is asked of them or shoulder their assigned burdens dutifully, my first response is more the 'who do you think you are' variety rather than the 'let's sit down together and reach a compromise' type. For example, people who break the law should pay the consequences because the law is the law. Seldom is my first response, the law should be changed. Employees who are asked to perform the same duties as others but balk (Sunday working or particular duties not to their personal taste) should be informed they don't get paid to say no, they get paid to do what they're told. That's my default response. It's autocratic and no doubt the result of a conservative upbringing. I can reach a 3 of Cups style Emperor, but it takes effort and feels unnatural and like a cop out, like giving in to the wrong where I should be upholding the right. I remember when I was a kid, our class made acorns on brown construction paper, with a tan cap. We were told to use a black crayon to draw eyes and mouth on them. One child drew hers in white. I (and many other students in the room) was shocked and felt a little smug when the teacher made her go back and trace over it in black. Looking back, no wonder I turned out this way. That's just one example of the many times I learned that the nail that sticks up has to be hammered down. That obedience is rewarded. That leading means ruling.
I need to take charge in getting things off the ground, getting new ideas and projects started. Or even having new ideas. I need to be more creative in my approach to things, rather than being a follower of established rules. The thing that could help me do that is to be brave and even rash -- and the only thing that could really inspire me to brave and rash behaviour is something that I deeply believe in, just like the Knight of Swords. I would be more willing to seek win-win solutions and be more creative in finding them if I had some sort of personal or emotional investment in it. For me, it's true, that would come only from a cause or a passion.
I am weak when it comes to unplanned happenings, spontaneity. I am strong when it comes to bearing the burden, shouldering responsibility. I can really see this in myself. I am very uncomfortable when I don't know what is going on and there isn't a plan, or when there isn't someone clearly in charge, calling the shots. I am very good at following directions, not so good at dealing with what to me feels like chaos! So while everyone around me might be colouring, cutting out, fingerpainting, or bursting into song, I'm setting up a spreadsheet of what everyone is doing and sending out emails reminding folks of the deadline for the art project. Know what I mean?
I really hate it when the tarot challenges me to examine my habits and possibly even -- gasp! -- change them!
Tarot deck: Deviant Moon Tarot, US Games 2013.
LOL change is never easy ! leave it to the tarot to be all honest and stuff. :P
ReplyDeleteYeah, it tends to be all honest and stuff. :)
Deletebah... it erased my comments. Here is the short version. Change is bad. That deck is great!
ReplyDeleteBlogger can be such a pain! Sorry you lost your post. When I remember, I copy a comment before I click submit because this happens to me so often. Maddening!
DeleteI like this reading. I have difficulty with the Emperor and dread having him show up in readings, so it would probably be a good one for me to try. My conservative childhood sent me more the other way. I react fairly violently to tradition, and to being told what to do. I'm working to find a balance. I definitely identify with your dislike for chaos, though! My friends all know not to ask me to do something without giving me a few days notice!
ReplyDeleteIn my mind my childhood sent me the other way, but I must come clean to myself that in practice, it didn't. In many, many ways.
DeleteWow credit to you Carla, trying to make connections with that Tarot deck! lol
ReplyDeleteRegards-John.
Don't you like it, then?
DeleteNice post, also a nice but a also a weird tarot deck. I like the perspective of questions you use for this topic. It leads to deeper interpretations.
ReplyDeleteGreat to follow you, awesome posts!
Thanks, Harry. I look forward to more comments from you. :)
DeleteHa ha, my hippy mum brought me up to see rules as suggestions :D however, I think it makes me a terrible leader, as I don't feel I have the right to tell anyone else what to do either. Great insights into yourself, and thanks for the twisted mirror to look at my own shadow Emperor!
ReplyDeleteAnd my mum 'fenced her yard with a switch'. Figure that one out. :)
DeleteHunh?!? :) Did she sweep the yard? *clueless face*
DeleteIt means she didn't need a fence to keep the kids from leaving the boundaries of the property, because if we did, she would have spanked us with a switch.
DeleteIt means she didn't need a fence to keep the kids from leaving the boundaries of the property, because if we did, she would have spanked us with a switch.
DeleteHa ha, one of those "same language but different idioms" bits - I'd never heard that one before :)
DeleteI never heard anyone say it but her. :)
Delete