January 15-17, 2014: IV. The Emperor

[Al-Shariyf]

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.

[Hermitas]

This keeps returning to mind, so I thought I'd go ahead and post it.

On the Cube of Space, The Emperor is associated with the Northeast edge, connecting the east face (Venus - The Empress) with the north face (Mars - The Tower).

The flow of the current is from Above (Mercury - The Magician) to Below (Moon - The Priestess), so we're talking about a kind of consciousness that is ...concretizing(?)... though it contains within itself the whole spectrum from Above to Below.

The quality of this kind of "concretizing" consciousness may be conceived as that "place" where the different energies of Mars and Venus meet, agree, harmonize, share priorities, or share qualities. Conceived as a force, it would be the force that Mars and Venus create through their combination.

Aries.

[Hermitas]

Meditation Notes:

I get nervous placing myself in the red "egg." There's an imperial tendency within myself I think I need to be wary of, but it's more along the lines of a 2 year old than this king.

He is regal. Not a child.

They say everything changes when you become a father.

[Avshalom Binyamin]

Tzaddi, tzaddik. A masculine authority figure, but not in the way of the initiator. More of a "Father knows best" type of situation. Virility wielded as a scepter. Snap judgment. Quick, decisive decisions made on a gut level. The virility native to Yesod, the gut level impulse nature of Netzach.

I notice in myself a reaction pointing out an imbalance--a preference toward more open-ended, mercurial pondering of questions; and a resentment toward the rash, authoritarian types. My instinct to counteract this would be to analyze more, to add more left-brain activities. But the real compensation might be to invoke more of the Venus energy... hmmm... interesting little paradox I hadn't considered before...

[Al-Shariyf]

The Emperor - Day One Notes

The morning sun emerges, triumphantly, its rays burst through the darkness of night, chasing away it's shadows.

Rising victoriously, treading regally to its rightful place in the sky, it ushers in the fires of creation anew.

A massive mound of masculinity manifests itself as a monarch, sitting sovereignly upon a throne of flame. Power, sex appeal & Will radiate from him.

We see the side of him he has left for us to see. Strong, chisled, battle-tested. But yet there is a side of him that ever faces the sun, as if to point us to his unwavering devotion to the source of power that continually invests him with that which he has.

He humbly submits to it. He worships it. He adores it. It is THAT which he surrenders his life to. He is...victory...from...God.

Day Two

The golden glow of the radiant morning sun caresses my face.

The fires of life valiantly dance and leap higher & higher to the rhythm of life's insatiable desire.

Winter was long. The darkness was deep and cold. The people starved. They hungered for many long nights. But I, I shall bring them their nourishment & many good things just as my Lord has betowed upon me.

Unbridled masculinity

Submitting to one's true will as a means of Victory.

Planning, fights, war, war strategies. The card has a pushing, bursting effect on the viewer.

Day Three

Power, warmth, love & energy fill the atmosphere.

Passions, force, rushing forth, doing it & fixing it as you go, jumping in head first, bumping heads, rigor & discipline, militant, self-confidence, regality, military king, activity, sex-appeal, courage, (being) humble & humility, willful submission, coachability, desire, on rush of fresh, original energy, standing out.

[danica]

- Aaaaaahhhhhh, VEHEMENCE, energy-power-penetration-force; I feel this inside myself, pulsating, it’s power and it’s sexual energy.
- Enthusiasm, motivation, will.
- Dominion of Will established.
- As a difference from ATU III, I notice that the forms here are sharp, not curvy and spiral; and the Emperor looks to his right (Empress is turned to her left).
- Meditation on the position of this Path on TOL granted this insight: whole of the Tree after Sephira 1, 2, 3 appears simultaneously, at an instant! Not in time-sequence, one after another Sephirot.

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- He is Will in a desire; i.e., inside every desire (at its essence, deep root) there is a seed of True Will, hidden like an invisible point in a visible circle – the desire is the circumference, but it emanates from this center-point.
- Polarities are intertwined on the Card; it reminds me of the double snake spiraling around Caduceus.
- I see the Emperor as Phallus, and the two circles with stars inscribed, on his both sides, are as testicles.

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- The Light (daily light); fire.
- Looking at the two circles on his sides awakens sexual excitement; it’s very warm, peaceful, intimate. (Like the Hook caught the snake at the root of my spine and is raising it up)
-I end the meditation in poetic adoration.

[Mephisto]

Day 2

8:18-8:32 A.M.

Conceptions of paternal dignity, the power and force of Fire and the Ram; the strong King armed and ready to defend His Kingdom. Just, righteous, firm, and unyielding. Pure Martial energy unbalanced by any feminine component. (Just as the Empress represents the undiluted feminine, so the Emperor represents the masculine. I see the necessity of balance, as the firm, masculine energy of Aries can easily degenerate into brute force and unbridled violence; so the feminine energy of Venus is liable to degenerate into laxity and indolence if unbalanced by any male component)

Force. Fire. Fury.

[I completed the other two meditations but was not inclined to record the results; other than a mental fixation on the letter Tzaddi and its relation on the Tree of Life, my mind and life circumstances were too fragmented at the time to permit proper concentration/registry of any marked results.]

[Gnosomai Emauton]

03.19.14
- Eye first landed on bees on breast. Fertilization combined with stinging attack. Masculine insertion. Gaze widened and took in the rams. They always look so quizzical. Searching. "I can haz?" The descending light reminds me of my last "enhanced" examination of this card. Within the shadows, the warrior lord lives the legend of his own creation, rich in detail and saturation. However, the clear light from above illuminates his shortcomings. Flattens out his stature. Exposes the whiteness of his daintily clad legs. He is very masculinely attractive but he has a tendency to overreach.
The loops on his clothing end in the arrowed tail of Scorpio, Martial brother of Aries. This is full on power. Building structure out of chaos. The Natural Consciousness constructing Nature according to the blueprints. A cosmic steam engine. All drive, no driver.
At any moment, he could pull the pin on that Holy Hand Grenade and release the full force of his power.
- Exterior thoughts immediately try to barge in as I make the transition to closed eye. I fight them back. Every thought that shows up gets ruled and set on fire. A firebird subtly forms over my shoulders but doesn't quite manage to fully take shape. As I allow my mind to relax, I recall that this is the final evening of the Age of the Emperor. This pushes me towards honoring him for his 22 years of service; thanking him for the concerted effort of guiding the Aeon during his stewardship. As I'm currently sitting in asana facing north, I note that the Sun is directly in front and below me in space and Aries is below and to the left. I feel that Mars is below and to the right but have no real world confirmation of that. I maintain this map of space as it currently stands, as the Equinox approaches, and the image of The Universe joins in as this final year of the Age comes to a close and I seal them both with a fiery ♈ followed by a ♂ and finally a צ. The entire tableau burns off like a piece of flash paper (this part isn't extremely visual but the idea is strong).
As I sit waiting to see if anything else will present itself, I notice a point of light far above and in front of me. I instinctively know this is the light that shines down on the Emperor in the card and now it's focused on me. It slowly edges closer and the shaft of light flows as though it's shining through a thick white fog before fading out.
EDIT - Turns out Mars was actually over my right shoulder looking down on me.

03.20.14
- The squiggle on his left shoulder really wants to resolve into a word but I can't seem to find one. There is a great deal of stability in this card, despite the sharp points and angles throughout. Stability in change. The sheep nags at me. The simple explanation of xtianity cowering in the shadows doesn't quite cover it. There is a gentleness that manifests only through calm brought about by rigid structure. One can only truly relax if one has an unyielding surface on which to lie.
My mind is tired. Even the influx of red is doing nothing to energize it tonight.

03.21.14
- He looks as though he's ready to backhand me with his scepter. Don't spare the rod, you'll spoil the child. The rams are judging as well. This is the archetypal father, observing, judging, correcting... beating if necessary. Mars in his creative/positive aspect (counter the Tower). The rams are red and white, thus the two alchemical tinctures are represented, even in an image so thoroughly red. The idea of a spotlight, highlighting flaws, reasserted itself. The father is powerful but he is not perfect. There is a power higher than the demiurge that, once realized, shows him up as the OZ that he is.
- Liber Turris comes to mind. Use it as a focus to erase thoughts as they arise while simultaneously attempting to allow my mind to relax into a red egg. I feel on the verge of something throughout but nothing manifests. Ideas of control and discipline foreground and keep my focus on blocking outside thoughts. I remain past the natural stopping-point feeling and the field of vision gets a little wavy. Then, suddenly, a panel of fiery red forms just in front of me. I hold onto it and redirect my energy towards growing it into a visible egg. Not entirely successful but partially so. I feel like there are some symbols or creatures that formed at this point but they're hiding just out of reach of my memory.

[Anael Lucis]

Emperor card is in many ways similar to that of Empress:

1. their shirts similar, sporting the bee imagery, but hers has flowers and his features some sort of curvilinear lines with arrow at one end (as if it's indicating a dynamic nature); bees - symbols of sexuality and fertility.
2. Structure of the two cards is similar but reversed - Emperor facing his right (solar/masculine/active side) and Empress her left (lunar/feminine/passive side); shield at her left (she is protected), and his shield is on his right (he is a protector); she has two birds on each side of her, and he has two rams; both have an animal at their feet - he at his left and she at her right
3. Lines in Emperor card all straight and pointy, sharp edges, masculine, aggressive, dangerous quality; in Empress all are curvilinear and organic, seemingly gentle, safe and comforting
4. Round forms in Empress card appear lunar, whereas in Emperor card they appear solar

Very hot and fiery card; I detect strong sexual assertive energy, confidence, self-empowerment; internal power emanating outward; pure energy

Lamb - symbol of sacrifice and innocence - could it represent sacrifice of innocence? Flag alongside lamb - surrender of innocence, surrender of vulnerability - going away with such qualities. Furthermore: white lamb being a sacrifice - in the context of a male force may allude to sacrifice of the seed - ejaculation.

Two rams bring to mind Pan which further points to potent sexual energy evident in the card

Shield on Emperor's right masculine/active side – symbolizing a part of his arms, his readiness to fight and/or defend his kingdom/sphere

Tzaddi - Yesod to Netzach – Foundation to Victory – triumph over afflicted/compulsive parts of the subconscious, reconciliation of internal archetypal battles that go on in the subconscious – mental power, triumph of will (dominion over one’s mental processes)

Emperor holds “Globus Cruciger” – symbolic of world dominion and part of royal regalia

The two rams have different horns – the one hit by the ray of light (on the right) has more developed horns

Visible sun behind the Emperor might be a symbol of the Kabalistic Sun – signifying support pouring down from Tiphereth – power of the HGA ripening and announcing itself