Self-empowerment
The Emperor is a card of empowerment, he knows that in order to achieve his passion, he has to harness determination and discipline and armour up his feelings.
Yesterday I suggested to a young friend, they pull a support card and they pulled the Emperor.
I nearly wept with gratitude, as after talking about the situation and his feelings for the last hour or so I was no closer to helping him find the right answer or even give the right words of support. Hence turning to the Tarot; and I can assure you when I shuffled the cards my prayers for a helpful card were in earnest.
The Emperor reminds us how invaluable the qualities of determination and pig headedness are. You just have to look at the ram’s heads on his throne to know the way this man is going to succeed is with the determination of a ram, who puts everything he’s got into the fight or challenge of the moment.
He also knows also that to harness courage and determination he will need to armour up his emotions. Armour for goodness sake! So not a moment to confide your doubts and fears to anyone. There’s a saying I always try to remember, ‘Concern weakens’.
There are definitely times when ‘concern weakens’, we’ve all experienced it, when we’ve confided in a friend and felt worse afterwards, or certainly no better.
Because in order to express said feelings (doubt, fear, uncertainty) we have to explain them, investigate, validate, and they grow stronger. Our friend, listens with compassion and support, if we are lucky ….and invariably feelings of ‘concern’ grow, especially if there is nothing they can do. I’ve had friends ring me up after I’ve unburdened my soul and say ‘how are you today? I am concerned...’ weaken, weaken, weaken!
Or the other thing friends do, is give advice. Now, you understand their predicament, they want to help, however advice is the last thing you want, or are able to hear. Unhelpful, unhelpful, unhelpful!
What you are really trying to do in these situations is get in touch with your own self-belief to follow your own instincts and passion.
Well the Emperor is all about self-belief and achieving HIS passion. And here he was lending his support.
My friend could have pulled any other of the 77 cards in a tarot deck that would not have said exactly that! He might have pulled a card that said be optimistic, or don’t allow your thoughts and fears to self-sabotage yourself, or even prioritise, do one thing at a time, but no this Emperor sits on his throne with the two rams directly speaking to my friend saying, go for it, do whatever it takes, do not allow your emotions get in the way of achieving your passion. This is the time for self-belief, and if you aren’t feeling it, then grit your teeth and ‘act as if’.
The sensitivity, subtlety, understanding of the Tarot knows no bounds. Good luck my friend.