The Emperor In The Natural Array


 * Alchemical Correspondence: The Principle of Mercury
 * Astrological Correspondence: Aries (Cardinal Fire)
 * Hebrew Correspondence:
 * Philosophical Correspondence:
 * Eastern Correspondence: Excessive Yang

In A Reading
The Emperor is Our Father In Heaven, the Patriarch, the embodiment of terrestrial and spiritual masculinity as its expressed with what humans think, believe, and do. 2020+ sensibilities are wary and critical of the way the energies of The Emperor have manifested in human culture. For me, at least, this has caused me to have a bias to push away people and projects that embody The Emperor which is a mistake because we all have an Emperor within and it deserves open-minded exploration.

Upright, the Emperor can represent a corporation or any kind of institution or person with power and influence derived from what they possess and distribute materially. The Magician creates something tangible from an idea; the Emperor wields power in tangible ways. This can be as a father, as a husband, as a boss, as an elected politician. They operate from a place of beneficial intention: whoever they love, they want to protect and provide for. They generally set a high bar of moral and standards- especially from themselves. The Emperor has a code of conduct and can represent conservative thinking but not consciously motivated by bigotry or "isms". Upright.

Reversed, the RWS Emperor embodies White Male Privilege at its worst. Sometimes it shows up in readings where the querent is struggling with some kind of financial obstacle like unemployment or underemployment, legal trouble, debt and beyond their immediate problem is the bigger issue of rampant socio-economic inequality. It can also show up in a self-reading where we (or someone we love) are/is consumed with outrage and are/is at risk of sabotaging some kind of relationship that brings us/them joy under different circumstances. This is a reversal that, when we see it in ourselves, we need to take a couple of deep breaths and start reflecting on how to fix or at least mitigate.

In The Natural Array
The Emperor as representative of Aries energy, is the Yang to the Empress' Yin and together they can be synthesized into the Hierophant. As Cardinal Fire, it has affinity for the King of Wands in this system where YHVH aligns with King-Queen-Knight-Page. Mars is the planetary rules of Aries and there is affinity with Mars/Geburah as well.

In Daily Life
The Emperor is out there all around us in the people who most benefit from the way 2020+ society works. This by itself doesn't make them morally bad people. In fact, it is the Magicians and the Emperors (who can be non-binary or biologically female as well as biologically male) who the rest of us most depend on for what comforts/assets we do have. As a society, we need to redistribute wealth and power. The most effective way to do this is not through violent revolution because every one of us has an Emperor inside and world history demonstrates that even the best intended usurpers can quickly fall prey to the dark side of power.

For real social and economic justice, the 1% has to choose to give up some of their own assets and the mechanisms that orchestrate their fabulous wealth. They have more power to reconstruct the broken system than we do. Its a lot more useful to take a deep look at what our Inner Emperor is doing than simply rage and rail on Twitter and Facebook against those who most embody the archetype in their daily lives. We can't make greedy selfish asshats less greedy and selfish through outrage alone and we need to start with who we are and who we want to be in our personal social sphere. Then we tackle inequity as families, tribes, cities, and states together in a ripple-splash effect.