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IV
THE EMPEROR
(Aries)
“Take me, O husband! Draw me up unto Thee, O monarch of my soul.”
MEDITATION COLOR: Red.
HEBREW LETTER: Tzaddi, fish-hook, an instrument cast into water to hook and draw forth a fish. As a verb, “to contemplate (think, speculate, fancy),” a synonym of dhyana. Tzaddi is the fundamental sound related to Sanskrit roots meaning “head” and “age,” from which stem words such as tzar, Caesar, Monseigneur, senate, etc.
CARD NAME: Emperor from the Latin imperator, imperare, “command.” The Indo-European root for “priest/priestess” has exactly the same spelling and sound as that for “emperor/empress,” though they are different words: per, meaning “to produce” or “to procure.” “King” is an important Qabbalistic term related to adepthood, and Tifereth in particular; “Red King” is an important Alchemical idea for the Sun.
ESOTERIC MEANING: The Natural Consciousness. Through it is completed (or, perfected) the nature of all that exist beneath the sphere of the Sun.
TREE of LIFE: Yesod to Netzach. (Links ‘the Foundation’ and ‘Victory’; or Subconsciousness with Desire: procreative energies transmuted into a more rarified desire or will force.)
ESOTERIC TITLE: Sun of the Morning, Chief Among the Mighty
TANTRIC & ALCHEMICAL SIGNIFICANCE: Alchemical Sulphur (Rajas).
DIVINATION: Energy, power, vigor, ambition, conquest, victory, control, governance, law and order, originality, stability; overweening confidence, megalomania; quarrelsomeness, strife, stubbornness, rashness, ill-temper.
