Moving into the Emperor

I dabble in tarot, and upon performing a series of searches into my recent lethargy towards artwork, I was presented with a new direction that I did not expect.

The phrasing was that in order to break my block, I had to move into head space of the Emperor.

Now the Emperor is a bright old soul, usually stubborn, sometimes childish, but always, always full of wisdom, and stability. I am moving away from a Reversed Seven of Swords, towards this, and the two can reflect on each other - Reversed 7 of swords is immature, guileless and full of talk (without much meaning). Moving from a place of chatter and careless words, I am to move from that to a place of farseeing strength and power - perhaps more silently than before.

Mentally, though, this is irksome - I like my place of chatter and uselessness - but appearently, this is my block. The cards warned me (Reverse Knight of Staves) that moving towards the Emperor would take a certain sacrifice. I would be tearing myself from my old path of chattering and flattery and gossip.

Now let's be serious - we're talking about a chatty woman who loves to talk big and dream big and impress people with her words being told to sit down and shut up and 'wise up'. I've always viewed the Emperor as a little bit useless - he is under the Empress, who is pregnant with ideas, subserviant to her in most ways, and in his stubbornness, and worse, his continual lack of motion, how could he be a place where I could be creative from?

Well the Emperor is not just defined by his subservience to the Empress. While she looks to the stars, he looks to the earth - his kingdom - and while he can be a tyrant, he has the foresight to move forward, knowing which paths are best because he spends time pondering the future (instead of merely reacting to it). He is not just a monkey on the throne (like the King of Hearts in Alice in Wonderland) but handles the earthly matters with wisdom and understanding. He is Solomon, a man who is able to see through the petty arguments and is able to maintain a level head despite the many voices that call for his attention.

But I still need to achieve the activation for the Emperor-sense within myself, and thus, must ask the cards which steps I must follow to better push myself from idle chatter and press forward into a new realm of wisdom.

If you wish, perform an Emperor's Celtic Cross spread for yourself as well. As he is a controller of earthly things, he is a safe place to leave your worries about money, your future, your career and your relationships. He may not be able to bring about change, but he is very good with balance and will have no trouble helping you think things through.

Using the Emperor as your base card, place your hand above him and state your earthly concerns for him to measure. (cut and shuffle three times) Place a card above him for him to carry (your significator for yourself or your immediate concern), cross that card with your "worries", then ask him to weigh the cards - Above him is your hope, below him is your capability, to his left, what you need to stop, to his right, what you need to start.

The final four cards are as follows: Your current emotions, an unexpected source of help, the worst that could happen (your fears), a resolution.

I'm turning to my cards now - and hope that I can come upon a resolution as well.