IV — The Emperor/ Poseidon
The Emperor
… the divine artisan combined … duende personified …
Few people seem to go beyond viewing the Emperor as some sort of Masculine Essence; an overwhelming male ego on two legs, the personification of an angry overlord in their life. Combine this with one view of the Empress as the Female Essence, a divine wet nurse, and conceptual speaking the Tarot seems not only inherently sexist but stuck back somewhere with poor Dr. Freud in the early Twentieth Century as well.
The Emperor is more than your disgruntled father. Like the Empress, at one time the card bore all the symbols of the Holy Roman Empire and thus could be read as the required responsibilities a ruler must have to control the (at least back then) mightest empire on earth. But today, in the Rider-Waite deck at least, we see an aged old man, white of beard and broad of shoulders, sitting on a throne with carved ram heads. One might think of Arthur of Britannia, except this man's crown looks more Byzantine than Celtic and his scepter seems to be on loan from the sun god Ra. Behind him looms a golden mountain range. This might tell us that the Emperor, like icebergs and mountains, is the personification of the rational, ordered, unchangeable earth. War, disagreement, chaos and confusion are what the Emperor must overcome in order to rule justly. Is this not the same for everyone?
What I think we can learn is this: it is from chaos that order must arise; so it is with this card. When the Emperor channels his aggressive anger into creativity energy then he finds he can achieve many amazing things. This is the same sort of state of consciousness that poets call upon the Muses to bring to them; what jazz musicians call "soul;" what Federico Garcia Lorca called "duende," and canto jondo, "black sounds." Garcia Lorca wrote, "all that has black sounds has duende … that mysterious power that everyone senses and no philosopher explains" (Garcia Lorca, 49). To look at the Emperor in this light conjures up not of an angry warlord but an artisan of a particular skill. Once we become master of our own skills and talents we find all the false posturing that the Emperor is traditional bestowed with quickly disappears. Once we have become a master at peace in his or her own element, our own black sounds, we will understand what this card is trying to tell us.
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The Card
In the heart of a raging storm at sea a colossal figure strides through the waves, bending all the might of the ocean to his purpose. In one hand he carries a trident and on his head rests a nine-pointed crown. He is Poseidon, Zeus' younger brother and ruler of all the oceans. After the overthrow of Kronos, the father of universe, Poseidon, Hades and Zeus drew lots to see where they would rule. Hades was given the underworld, Zeus the heavens and Poseidon the seas. It was there that:
Poseidon built an underwater palace for himself near Aegae, in Euboea. In his stables he kept his white chariot horses with bronze hoofs and golden manes, and a golden chariot. Clad in robes of gold he rode the sea in this equipage, accompanied by sporting dolphins, tritons, and other sea creatures. At his approach storms were dispelled, waves flattened and the sea smiled. (Avery, 457)
Like Zeus, Poseidon had many lovers, both mortals and gods. One legend states that as a youth he fell in love with the goddess Halia, whose name literally translates into, "the sea goddess" (Cameron, 183). Other legends say says his only wife (in the matrimonial sense, at least) was Amphitrite, who he seduced with the help of a dolphin (Avery, 460). What Poseidon should be honored for is not the savage storms he can unleash, but his skills at letting our oceans flow their course. That he shapes and forms the waves and their actions in the same manner as a potter would to clay should not distract us from his accomplishments. The boundless tempest might be unstoppable to us, but it is not uncontrollable by the hands who created it.
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The Emperor/ Poseidon in a Reading
If you discover you have drawn the Emperor in your reading, ask yourself how you deal with your own creativity? Does it come naturally or do you have to force it even to show up? Do you consider yourself skillful in your art? Federico Garcia Lorca talks of how duende rises up out of a person when they are synchronized with the universe. We can feel that when listening to a piece of music or poem that knocks the top of our heads off. Like a tsunami at sea, Poseidon's skills produce a sense of awe in the beholder.
Many of our frustrations that arise with our own creative process, however, come recognizing our latent talent but not being able to manage it. This in turn creates the rage and need for control the Emperor is traditionally associated with. Instead of fighting the tsunami, see if you can harness it for own ends. As Aphrodite was born from sea foam we too are created out of the very stuff that also fuels in our inspirations. Be ambitious in your creativity but be aware as well that too much ambition and too few skills are an atrocious mixture. The Emperor reversed is the same thing as a tyrant and bully, a soul frustrated at the barriers imposed by themselves and striking out at everything that moves. Instead of allowing frustration to consume you, ask yourself when was the last time you honored your own creativity? When was the last time you paid tribute to the god of the seas, thanking him for his assistance? It is not enough to recognize your own creativity; you must nurish it and keep it alive as well.
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Homer offered up his boot to the grave
god of the sea. Then he sang a queer tune,
a slave's tune, that I'll sing for you; wave slave
that I am. Here is the air of the Moon
Shaker. The tune for Homer's Great Typhoon
Cleaver. Libations no one will perform
in this modern day. Poseidon, how soon
did your art of crafting wave, thunderstorm
and wind disappear to us? We still swarm
over the waves in sculls and boats, but who
sings your praise? Homer knew you could transform
the waves and rave. So he offered to you,
sea god, all he had; one sodden left boot.
Take my brine-burnt gift, too, my tribute.
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Works Cited
Avery, Catherine B. (ed) The New Century Handbook of Greek Mythology and Legend. New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts. (1972)
Cameron, Norman (trans). The Gods of the Greeks. London, New York: Thames, and Hudson. (1951)
Garcia Lorca, Federico. In Search of Duende. Christopher Maurer (ed.) New York: New Directions. (1998)