We have done the Empress, now its time to quite naturally do the Emperor.
This is where it gets a bit weird.
Because things change because we are kind of going through the letters aleph, beth,
gimel, daleth, heh, so we should be doing heh next, but, when Aleister Crowley on his
honeymoon with his first wife in the Great Pyramid, as you would, he was given the Book
of the Law through his wife, Rose Kelly, and in there it says Tzaddi is not the Star.
Now the letter tzaddi tz, but he says tzaddi is not the star.
So to find a way he had to work out if tzaddi is not the star, then there is another card
that also is misattributed.
In the end he fell on the Emperor.
so here's the thing, in gematria toleh the lamb and Tely have the same number, it might
have come through his subconsciousness, because a lot of stuff that gets communicated often
gets filtered through your own layers of perception.
Which is why Rose Kelly, she wouldn't have known kabbalistic attributions . The Emperor
is not Heh, as it should be, its Tzaddi, you can see that at the bottom of the card.
Crowley was never really happy with changing things around, so he kind of half does the
job this book of Thoth, so tzaddi is now aries in the zodiac, a sign ruled by Mars, and the
sun is exalted, and he says the sign is thus a combination of energy its most material
form of authority.
So we have this idea of he looks pretty authoritarian, doesn't he?
Kind of macho.
Its also looking at the queen (empress), they are facing each other, so they kind of mirroring
the sephiroth of Chokmah and binah, chokmah is the male energy, binah is the feminine
energy.
He is the emperor, and she is the empress.
In the atu mnemonics it goes aleph, beth, gimel daleth, and then tzaddi, its out of
sequence ok, it should be heh, he says sire and sceptre, emperor and king, of all things
immortal hail him the lord of Spring. of course Aries heralds the entrance of the vernal equinox
into spring, so its very much the fire energy, its red, all that kind of thing.
But the thing is is that aries is the beginning of things, it doesn't maintain things.
The emperor is about holding on getting power, and then dying, eventually, unless someone
kills him.
But the emperor starts stuff, he doesn't finish it, only the beginning of things.
There is another toing and froing that goes on with these cards as well as you can see
Lets see what the verse says for the emperor.
Number 4, says 4 on there.
This card is numbered 4.
It says, Pour water on thyself, thus shalt thou be a fountain of the universe find thyself
in every star.
Achieve thou every possibility.
That can't be right, and its not, he has transposed the verse for aquarius, ok, in there.
So, what is the one, because, he gives it away, because the meanings of the card are
war contest, victory, strife, ambition, originality, over-weaning confidence and megalomania, quarrelsomeness,
energy, practicality, rashness, that is not the energy of the Star.
That is not the star.
what is the star card?
The Star.card it says is Use all thine energy to rule thy thought, burn up thy thought as
the pheonix.
Sounds a bit more like fire doesn't it?
And then the meaning of the card, he says hope, unexpected help, vision, realisation,
possibility of spiritual insight, Error of judgment, dreaminess.
That is the star card!
How much was it he didn't bother to change it or he deliberately left it as - it doesnt
match up.
The Emperor is those qualities of power, authority and everything that goes with it.
it not about hope and salvation, but it is about the Pheonix which is about transformation,
the Mass of Phoenix as well, which is alluded to in the Empress card.
For thelemites among you, hold your breath, I am not going to divulge any secrets, you
are safe for now.
So what does he say about the Emperor?
He brings in this idea again, of matching up with the Empress, the whole alchemical
thing of rajas, tamas and sattva, in two and three.
This idea of how the alchemical symbol of Sulphur is in the way he crosses his legs.
Now of course in the Hanged Man we see the same kind of thing too.
There is something interesting going on here.
So again he mentions the influence of the symbols such as the fleur-de-lys, which appears
on the Empress.
He says his shield represents the two-headed eagle crowned.
he also adds the two headed eagle in the empress as well, a white eagle.
There is an element of duality or contradiction of male and female again, these energies.
He talks about the white light, which is indicates the position of this card on the tree of life,
whose authority is derived from chokmah, the word and its authority in tipareth.
Forgot to talk about that didn't I?
He added it in in the end otherwise.
So the Emperor goes from Chokmah number 2 down to 6, Tipareth, to the centre.
We have the High Priestess going down to TIpareth, and also the Emperor going down to Tipareth.
Now, the next card is the Hierophant.