The Emperor: Hey Dad!

We had a look at The Empress recently so it seems only fair to check out her counterpart, The Emperor. He's one of the Life Lessons (Major Arcana) cards so he carries a bit of weight in a reading but as he's found early on in Life Lesson Tarot he's not too complicated. What does he represent?

He's your dad.

He's you as a dad.

He's a hard worker, or, the need to work hard.

He's the one meeting out discipline or the need to be disciplined.

He's successful. Gets things done. (Cause he works hard and is disciplined. The knee bones connected to the thigh bone.)

He's where you experience limitations.

He's good at saying no. (Whereas The Empress is the yay-sayer.) Note: He's not a hard arse. That's more the King of Swords. The Emperor has expectations but he's not cut-throat or mean about it. Just firm.

He's rules and regulations.

He's every authority figure. Authority in general. Policemen in particular.

He's the rock you can lean on. But also the immoveable object in your path.

He's your inner critic. (Whereas The Empress is more like your inner encourager.) That voice in your head that reminds you what a loser you are.

He's the screws turned tight. The control freak. Obsessive compulsive behaviour. When I was a teenager I had to have 16 teaspoons in my Milo (an Australian chocolate drink). Had to. 16 exactly. That sort of thing.

He's in charge. The patriarch. Your boss. The dominator in S & M situations.

He rules. Sometimes with a fair hand. Sometimes with an iron fist.

He makes you feel safe and secure. Will defend his loved ones to the death.

He loves routine.

He's self-controlled. You can't rattle him no matter how much you try.

And he makes no apologies for all of the above.

You need to exert a little Emperor energy if you want to achieve your goals. Forcing myself to write on this blog every day no matter how #$&% I feel is tres` Emperor. (Actually #$&% represents tiredness more than anything else. Not a very exciting emotion huh? But day-to-day life exhaustion is my mortal enemy when it comes to writing. You can't write if you can't think and you can't think if you're tired. I've been off work for the last two months caring for an ill family member and go back to my day job tomorrow. So it'll be interesting to see if the quality of my posts are affected. I'll be drawing on all The Emperor reserves I have to write them I can tell you. Teaching children is like pouring your energy down a black hole every single day. Lucky I enjoy it.)

How you feel about The Emperor card will tell you a lot about how good you are at setting boundaries in your life and/or about your relationship with your father. So how do you feel about The Emperor? Please share.

Your Tarot Year Card

As I said in a previous post there's a numerological formula you can use to work out which Tarot card represents the type of experiences you can expect to have during each year. I've been using it for so long I can't remember anymore where I learnt this trick but as I said I find it quite reliable.

The formula will give you a number that correlates with one of the Life Lesson (Major Arcana) cards. Because of the way it works each following year you will shift into the subsequent Life Lesson card e.g. If your Tarot Year Card in 2012 is The Empress, in 2013 it will be The Emperor. But the turn of each decade signals a re-set button. Thus in 2009 my Tarot Year Card was Judgement but in 2010 it flipped back to The Hanged Man.

I find it quite interesting that through this formula Tarot insists that each decade has its own particular flavour. Because the western media also classifies time in this way i.e. Each decade is seen as a distinct social period. The 90s was the grunge epoch whereas the 00's was all about de bling where people got into debt to fund their dream lifestyles. I don't think anyone's worked out what the '10s are yet but I'm wondering if it'll have something to do with the rise of the internet, with the spread of information through blogs like this. With the end of the gatekeepers such as media owners and merchandise importers. I quite like that idea.

The formula is this: You add up your birth day + your birth month + the current calendar year. Then you work out which Life Lesson card matches the number you got. If the number is greater than 21, you add the digits together.

The Life Lessons cards are numbered as follows:

1 The Magician

2 The High Priestess

3 The Empress

4 The Emperor

5 The Hierophant

6 The Lovers

7 The Chariot

8 Strength

9 The Hermit

10 The Wheel of Fortune

11 Justice

12 The Hanged Man

13 Death

14 Temperance

15 The Devil

16 The Tower

17 The Star

18 The Moon

19 The Sun

20 Judgement

21 The World

My birthday is the 22nd May. The formula for me this year is: 2+2+5+2+0+1+2 = 14 which is the number of Temperance, the card of finding a new balance. Thus as a writer I expected to be doing a lot of editing and so I have been. But there has also been a shift in my relationship with my teenage children which I wasn't expecting. A re-balancing. As is appropriate when your children become adults. (Not that it isn't still shocking and scary as a mum.)

It's important to point out once again that you should use this formula with a grain of salt (I throw a lot of salt over my shoulder while using Tarot, lol). You should never let the cards chain you to a particular outcome. That would be using Tarot Devil style. I use my Tarot Year Card mostly to teach myself about the cards. I note the experiences I have and see how that could fit into the meaning of the Tarot Year Card.

Have a go and let me know what you think. And if your Tarot Year Card is one I haven't focused on yet and you'd like to know more about it let me know in the comments section below. Cheers!

Ways To Be Successful According To The Good Book Tarot (Part 2)

As I said yesterday, you can achieve success in various ways according to the good book Tarot. Here are the ones that stand out for me from the Life Lessons part of the deck.

The Emperor: Success achieved through hard work and discipline. For some reason potty training comes to mind. After a lot of practice and concentration every kid eventually manages to swap nappies (or diapers as they're called O.S.) for undies (as we call pants here in Australia).

Wheel of Fortune: Success as part of the natural ups and downs of life. Sometimes things go your way for no particular reason. More of it I say.

The Sun: Living the life of your dreams e.g. You love being a mother more than anything else and you get to be a stay-at-home mum.

The World: The ultimate success. Where you're at peace with your life in every way. Not only are you living the life of your dreams but in doing so you're contributing to the broader community.

Because these are Life Lesson cards we all get to experience them at some stage in our lives (hopefully.) And let's not forget the Court cards when it comes to success. Getting a king or queen can signify mastery of a particular area of your life.

So there you have it. Any other suggestions?

Ways Of Being Successful According To The Good Book Tarot (Part 1)

You can achieve success in various ways according to the good book Tarot. Here are the ones that stand out for me from the Everyday Tarot part of the deck.

Four of Wands: Success at bagging yourself a partner or getting people to generally wish you well using your social skills.

Six of Wands: Success achieved through natural talents or skills developed over the years. You experience this type of success after being in a job for awhile. It's when you've learnt how to work the ropes to get what you want in the workplace.

Six of Pentacles: Success thanks to another party. Maybe you win Tattslotto or get an inheritance.

Seven of Swords: Success by being a master tactician or sneaky bastard. And if you're both the world is your chupa chup (my daughter insists I say this, she doesn't like oysters). A shout out here to our friend Lance (see previous post)!

Eight of Wands: Success at achieving something you've been working towards. Such as getting funding for a business idea. It's the kind of success that comes out of the blue after a hard slog.

Nine of Pentacles: Success achieved all by yourself.

Nine of Cups: Just generally feeling successful.

As a teacher I employ many of these scenarios. I use my experience (6 Wands) and strategy (7 Swords) to maximise learning in the classroom and have benefitted from being well looked after by my bosses (6 Pentacles).

Are you experiencing any of these types of Tarot success right now in your life? You know the drill, please share.

The Empress: Hello Mother!

The Empress isn't a card I relate to real well being the multiple swords woman Queen of Wands live-in-my-head kind of gal that I am. She and I really need to work on our relationship. So to that end I thought I'd spend some time tonight conjugating her meanings. Off the top of my head, here goes:

She's your mother.

She's the nourisher extraordinaire who likes to bake. Muffins and cupcakes her specialty.

She loves babies. But she can be the nester from hell. Her baby nursery straight from Vogue Living.

She's creative. Maybe an artiste.

She's good at growing things. A gardener par excellence!

She likes to knit or sew while watching TV at night. Her hands can't sit still.

But she can also be lazy. Have a cleaner or just lets things go. She finds chaos creative.

She'd walk a mile to help a girlfriend in trouble.

She likes being pampered. Chocolate, massages and spas are three of her favourite things. In fact if she could, her staple diet would consist of chocolate and champagne. Yep, you guessed it, she's a bit on the fleshy side (fleshy, chubby, whatev!)

She's the bubble wrap mother fighting her children's battles for them.

A girl's girl who likes a bit of glam and dolling up. Pass the make-up please.

She's super sexy. Loves doing the deed. In fact you'd be lucky to have her as a partner because she'd be tres` inventive in bed.

But watch out because she can make you feel smothered. In which case you need to run, fast!

She's more your hotel kind of girl than camper. Likes soft sheets and breakfast in bed. Likes to stay in her dressing gown half the day. But she enjoys looking at nature and will go bush if there's someone to do the hard yakka for her.

She likes to party all night. Play. Have fun. Enjoys cocktails on the beach at sunset.

She spends a lot of time lying on the couch reading fashion magazines and shopping online. She's a frills and lace kind of girl. Dresses not jeans.

She loves nothing more than a natter with friends over a good cup of tea.

This is not definitely not me (I live in jeans and t-shirts and drink way too much tea 'cause I'm too lazy to cook) but does this sound like you or someone you know? Please share.

The Lance Armstrong Story Tarot Style

Lance Armstrong is all over the news at the mo so I thought it'd be fun to tell his story Tarot style. You know, as it's been reported. I'm not his judge and jury.

Seven of Swords: The Tactician. Otherwise known as The Sneaky Bastard.

Six of Wands: The Winner. In a reading this card would come up in the past position for Lance.

Wheel of Fortune: Experiencing ups and downs. And when you've been way way up you're bound to fall way way down. But kudos to him for beating cancer and getting back on his bike. There is still something to admire there.

The Tower: The fall from grace. Breakdowns (that would be his team-mates). Revelation (that would be about him).

The Devil: An obvious choice. Living in denial. Making winning your god.

The Moon: Revealing hidden depths. And boy are they murky. Makes you want to take a long hot shower when you listen to his team mate's stories.

The World: And this is all happening on a world stage.

Three of Swords: There is real grief being felt over Lance. People feel like they've been stabbed in the heart, and fair enough say I. He was our hero. Note how the swords in the card don't drip blood i.e. The wound isn't fresh. This is because the betrayal occurred in the past.

I feel a multi-million dollar tell-all confessional book contract coming on. But what would I know being the non-psychic Tarot reader that I am? Sometimes my intuition is spot on and other times I couldn't hit the future with a ten foot pole if I tried.

Feel free to add your own suggestions re the Lance Armstrong story in the comments section below. Anyone?

Reading: The Tower + The Six Of Cups

Today we're going to explore what The Tower + The Six of Cups signify when they turn up together in a reading. Let's look first at the shades of meaning each card carries.

The Tower: Reaching breaking point. Having a breakthrough. A dramatic shift in circumstance. Being blasted out of your comfort zone. Being woken up. Destruction. Your foundations being shaken. Enlightenment.

The Six of Cups: First love. Living the fairytale. Living in a fantasy world. Being delusional. A person or event from the past.

Note: The order the cards appear in affects the message you're being given.

The Tower + The Six of Cups:

Someone breaks up with you but you refuse to accept it.

Breaking up with someone and running home to your parents.

Experiencing a difficult life event which makes you delusional.

Receiving money from someone out of the blue and using it to fund your dream life.

The Six of Cups + The Tower:

Breaking up with your first love.

Meeting up with someone from your past which triggers a revelation about yourself or your past.

Being delusional which results in a serious incident.

A fantasy novel you've written gets published.

Any other suggestions?