This week I'll be using the Hoi Polloi Tarot, published by Reiss Games. Paired with it will be the I Ching Pack, a deck and book set created by Richard Gill with Anthony Clark and published by Aquarian Press. Today's draws are the Emperor and Hexagram 37:
There are no scented candles burning or fresh cut flowers in the starkness of the Emperor's world. He doesn't have time for such niceties, as he has a kingdom to run. He's crunching numbers to make sure people will be fed, clothed and sheltered and making sure his troops are prepared to defend. Any rabble-rousers are quickly punished so that law and order reigns. He really isn't a curmudgeon; he's just got a lot of things and people to take care of with no vacation days on the books.
Gill gives this hexagram the title "Family Concerns" and adds: "Patience and loyalty at home will bring advantage to all members of the family." The two trigrams combine to create wood over fire, a symbol that suggest the warmth and security of a home's hearth. Both these cards remind me that as long as I have group commitments (whether family or otherwise), there will be duties that take precedence over fun at times. Today (Valentine's Day) is a good example, as I will be sitting with my MIL who has dementia, then coming home to do payroll. But that's okay; we've learned to squeeze in the pleasures among the obligations wherever we can; we don't need a special day for them.
I don't know what it is about the Emperor, but I don't care for likes of him. Probably associated with the harshness of my Father, who now I understand did the best that he could. So it most be so with the Emperor, who has so much to contend with that he maybe only seems harsh.
ReplyDeleteI suppose I see him on a continuum (as I do all the cards). At times he's a strict because he needs to be, and other times he's inflexible purely out of habit (when he shouldn't be). :)
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