The Emporer

Major Arcana Card Number 4

(click image to enlarge)

“Card No. 4, The Emperor, represents an important stage in male development, initiated and transformed by woman’s love, and is now in a fit state of mind and being to exercise authority.”* Some of the qualities associated with The Emperor are worldly power, honor, wisdom and majesty. He is fully a man, different from the more playful and less developed Magician. In the traditional Tarot The Emperor holds a golden phallic wand in his right hand to signify that his power comes directly from the sun. In the traditional Tarot The Emperor is one of the “seated” figures indicating his ability to draw knowledge directly from the earth.

“These first four cards (of The Major Arcana) are a representation of magical love making. That is love making of so high a quality that it transforms the parties, instead of leading to conception.”*

So we are beginning to view the evolution of consciousness through the stages, or progression, of the cards in The Major Arcana. The photo image is from a chamber room in The Palace at Knossos, Crete. The alabaster throne was King Minos’. This was where those “guests” who came for an audience with the king had to spend time in order to purify their souls before meeting him.

Photo was taken by Linda Cohen on a 2006 trip to Crete, Palace at Knossos. The throne is the oldest surviving chair in Europe and belonged to King Minos.


*Taken from Evolution Through the Tarot by Richard Gardner. Samuel Weiser Press.