The Emperor Tarot Card Meaning

What does the Emperor Tarot card mean?

The emperor encourages you to live out your masculinity and authority.

However, being too dominant can quickly bring problems.

Explore what direction this card shows you for your life.

The Emperor Tarot Card Meaning

The Emperor Keywords

Upright: Authority, Masculine, Structure, Rule-conscious
Reversed: Inflexible, Control, Unbridled, Dominance

The Emperor Tarot Card Description

As a counterbalance to The Empress Tarot card, symbolic of femininity and sensuality, the Tarot card of The Emperor embodies masculinity and authority.

Both cards are two sides of the same coin, which do not exclude but complement each other in their characteristics. The Emperor is an imposing figure and wears a long white beard, which expresses his authority and wisdom.

He sits on a stone throne, which seems steadfast, just like the character of The Emperor. This throne is decorated with four rams’ heads, representing his connection with the god of war: Ares. They stand for strength and readiness for battle.

The Emperor’s robe is red, giving him an aura of vitality, passion and omnipotence. Under this robe, he wears iron armor, which protects him from physical and mental attacks.

However, this armor makes him appear just as unapproachable. In his right hand, he holds a staff called Ankh, standing for life in ancient Egypt.

In his left hand is an orb, which symbolizes his dominion over the world. The golden crown on his head impressively conveys his grace and authority. Everyone near him has to acknowledge his power.

Mighty mountains tower in the background, providing powerful protection from external influence and difficult to overcome. At the same time, this scenery makes the ruler seem even more distant to outsiders.

The mountains show how important structure and rules are to The Emperor and that he is willing to change the latter only in extreme emergencies.

At the foot of the mountains, a small stream meanders along. The river found a tedious path through the stony mountains.

The stream symbolizes that it takes a lot of time and effort before The Emperor drops his defensive outer shell and allows glimpses of his emotional and vulnerable side.

Upright Emperor Tarot Card Meaning

The Emperor Tarot card encourages you to give more expression to your masculine attributes. The masculine qualities of The Emperor are steadfastness, assertiveness and authority.

No matter what problems you are facing or dealing with, be steadfast as a rock and in time, you will overcome these challenges.

The card of The Emperor encourages you to further strengthen your assertiveness towards those around you so that your good ideas and wishes can come true.

Exuding authority is also an important tool in many areas. Therefore, you keep control in crucial situations and your decisions are not unnecessarily doubted. You do include the ideas and opinions of those around you in your deliberations, but you alone make the final decisions.

Another strength symbolized by The Emperor is the use of structures and rules in everyday life. Our inner and outer world often seems chaotic, without a clear order.

The Emperor encourages a structured and goal-oriented approach to our lives. It is helpful to set goals for different areas of your life now and develop plans to implement them.

Such a way of structuring gives you security and structure in your life. The chaos surrounding us can also be brought into a meaningful order structure by setting up rules.

The Emperor also symbolizes high conformity to rules, which he expects from himself and his environment.

The Emperor stands for several paternal qualities. He is the provider in his family (this can also be friends or at work) and does everything in his power to provide those close to him with all the essential things they need.

Furthermore, The Emperor is a “tower of strength”, which protects one from dangers and where you can lean on and again refuel new energy.

At the same time, The Emperor is a sought-after person who is consulted for problems of any kind. Due to his immense life experience and wisdom, The Emperor can give the questioner many pragmatic solutions.

Do you want to know what today holds for you? Draw your Daily Tarot Card now for free!

Upright Emperor Tarot Love Meaning

Single

As a single, The Emperor Tarot card encourages you to be active in your search for a partner and express your masculine parts (both sexes have feminine and masculine personality parts).

Characteristics that help you find a new relationship are steadfastness, presence and caring. Steadfastness means that you have a solid base of values and are grounded in life, so you radiate a lot of security, which is very attractive to other people.

Presence means that you radiate sovereignty with what you say and your posture and are quickly the center of attention. Many people will look up to you and want to be friends with you.

Show your potential partners that you can provide for them materially and emotionally by taking care of your environment and being a contact person for various problems.

Relationship

In a relationship, The Emperor shows you how important structures and common rules are in a partnership. That is not about the classic distribution of roles of husband and wife, but rather that each partner has fixed tasks. Thus the burden of everyday life is equally distributed on both shoulders.

The design of the structures and rules arises from the joint dialogue with your partner. Together you decide how your partnership should look like.

Set common goals for the future and work together to make them come true. Such joint projects strengthen your cohesion and will bring you even closer together as a couple.

Do you want to know how your love life is developing? Draw your Love Tarot Card now for free!

Upright Emperor Health Meaning

In health matters, the The Emperor Tarot card encourages you to be active and disciplined in strengthening your health. A routine in sports, as well as mental activities, will help you to stay fit and is good prophylaxis against diseases.

Because a strong and fit body accommodates a healthy and awake mind, which also applies to the other direction. If you are currently suffering from an illness, try not to ignore it or let the “strong man” hang out.

Instead, seek medical attention because a harmless cough can turn into serious pneumonia over time if you let preventative care slide for too long.

Do you want to know how your health situation is developing? Draw your Health Tarot Card now for free!

Upright Emperor Career Meaning

For your profession, the card of The Emperor reveals that you should quietly express your authority more to push projects further. Have confidence in your knowledge and skills. Then you will get a natural charisma that your coworkers can hardly resist.

Thus, you can guide your colleagues at work in a fatherly way so that you can safely achieve your common professional goals. Moreover, The Emperor stands for the observance of the rules at work.

Some shortcuts or rule violations may indeed seem tempting at first glance because they save you a lot of time. But in the long run, your career will suffer great damage from breaking the general rules of the game as soon as you are exposed.

Do you want to know how your professional situation develops? Draw your Career Tarot Card now for free!

Upright Emperor Finances/Money Meaning

In a finance context, The Emperor shows that you should bring more order and structure into your corresponding documents. Perhaps the next tax return is already in the house or a new loan.

Having a good overview of your finances will maintain and increase your wealth in the long term. In addition, you should always adhere to the applicable rules when it comes to your money matters.

Is it worth making false declarations just to save a few dollars? If you get caught, this will have far-reaching consequences for your finances.

If you have a clear conscience, you can devote yourself to your financial transactions without worrying that your wealth has come about through dubious actions.

Do you want to know how your financial situation is developing? Draw your Finance/Money Tarot Card now for free!

Upright Emperor Destiny Meaning

As a destiny card, The Emperor reveals that you should bring your masculine parts more to the forefront of your life. With a strong self-confidence and steadfast appearance, you will be able to realize your dreams faster.

By inspiring other people with your ideas, they will follow and support you. Like a father figure, you take care of your comrades-in-arms and protect them from emerging dangers.

Do you want to know what your destiny has in store for you? Draw your Destiny Tarot Card now for free!

Upright Emperor Personality

The Emperor shows typical “masculine” characteristics in a person. Such a person would like to take the lead himself but also show responsibility for others.

At the same time, the Emperor as personality is very structured in his whole thinking and acting. Nothing is left to chance but well planned.

Upright Emperor Tarot Past/Future

Past

A man from your past still has a great influence on you. Be careful that he does not take too many decisions from you.

Some rules that were valid in the past may not be valid today. Therefore, check their value for today.

Future

The better you are structured today, the more relaxed you can look into your future. The basic structures of today are your foundation for tomorrow.

Your masculine parts will be getting more and more important for you in the future. Do not be afraid to live them out.

Upright Emperor Tarot Card – Yes or No

The Emperor is definitive a yes card in a Tarot reading. In principle, you have already decided in favor of a yes. For you, the advantages of a positive decision clearly outweigh the disadvantages.

At the same time, you are willing to get rid of the associated downsides. Now you only need a courageous and determined first step so that you can answer your question with a yes.

Reversed Emperor Tarot Card Meaning

Reversed Emperor Tarot Card Meaning

The Emperor Reversed Tarot card stands for inflexibility and rigid thinking patterns. The ingrained ways of thinking may have worked once in previous situations, but because our world is in constant change, new flexible ideas are needed to deal with the ever-changing challenges.

The Emperor Reversed shows that you are very much stuck in old thinking patterns because they suggest supposed security.

Allow other opinions from your environment calmly and try to solve your blockades in thinking. Only then you will be able to react adequately to the constantly changing challenges in your life.

The Emperor Reversed can also indicate a high degree of dominance and authority. Sometimes one’s behavior seems unrestrained, as one considers oneself infallible in one’s actions and, in extreme cases, develops fantasies of omnipotence.

Admittedly, people follow you and no one doubts your decisions or leadership role. However, this obedience comes at a high price, as it consistently places the needs and desires of your followers below your own.

That only creates pseudo loyalty. In case of emergency, your follower will not support you and let you down. Involve your environment more in your decisions and let their ideas flow in, thus you achieve a high degree of respect and loyalty.

Another characteristic of The Emperor Reversed Tarot card is the tendency to an almost obsessive control in life. Every aspect of everyday life must be closely controlled and not deviate from the inner guidelines.

That creates a lot of stress and a high level of energy loss. A good way to escape this compulsive control is to learn to let go. For example, share responsibilities with others or simply wait to see what happens.

The compulsion to control will decrease significantly when you realize how the world is in constant change. This variation often has no negative effect at all but contains the potential to develop and grow further.

Reversed Emperor Tarot Love Meaning

Single

The Emperor Reversed signals that your efforts to find a new partner will not bear fruit because of your too dominant appearance. If you try too hard to impose your will on other people, you will rather reap dislike and stay alone.

Put your own wishes aside for the time being and try to get involved with the other person. What does your potential partner think and feel? What are his wishes and dreams? Active listening will open a way for a new relationship.

The Emperor Reversed also indicates that you are being too inflexible in your flirting attempts at the moment. Change your approach to meet someone and try new places and opportunities.

Move away from overly rigid ideas in love, such as “I want to be approached first”, “my partner has to be taller/smaller than me”. Such attitudes significantly limit your choices and may cause you to miss out on True Love.

The Emperor Reversed also symbolizes a high degree of licentiousness. That means rushing from one relationship to the next without committing to a partner for long. However, we humans depend on deep emotional connections with others. Without these, our lives will feel empty and lonely.

Relationship

The Emperor Reversed reveals a strong imbalance in a relationship. One partner is very controlling and dominant, often causing the other to experience fear and oppression.

Such dominance, which only considers one’s own wants and needs, creates a great imbalance in a relationship. The other party in the partnership then feels constricted and exploited.

Such discrepancies lead to very negative energies between both partners, which is imperative to resolve again. In the long run, such a relationship cannot be lived fulfilled and should be changed as soon as possible.

The Emperor Reversed card also shows a high degree of control in a relationship. This excess of control is visible in the fact that a partner must constantly account for where he is with whom and how he/she spends his time without the other partner.

Such a level of control only fuels negative feelings of mistrust and jealousy. Each partner has a right to their own space and the other part of the relationship should respect this.

Reversed Emperor Health Meaning

The Emperor Reversed is a sign that you are trying too hard to control every aspect of your health. You allow yourself few comforts in your diet or have a very strict exercise schedule.

Allow yourself to deviate from your rigid patterns from time to time, as too much focus on a “healthy” lifestyle can also lead to increased stress, making you more susceptible to illness.

Furthermore, The Emperor Reversed Tarot card warns you not to question or deny any medical advice. Such dominance gestures are not necessarily beneficial to your health. However, they can delay a recovery process if you are too opinionated.

Reversed Emperor Career Meaning

The Emperor Reversed shows that you are currently having a hard time, adjusting to new demands in your job. You stick too much to your usual routines and are therefore very inflexible.

Get help from your colleagues to get new ideas and cope with the upcoming challenges. Your dominance is not well received by all colleagues or superiors.

In the future, weigh better when it is worth defending your point of view and when it is better to keep your mouth shut.

In addition, you should learn to give more control in your work area to your colleagues and trust them. Because trying to control every detail is a task that requires help from others.

Reversed Emperor Finances/Money Meaning

Perhaps you still have a ten-year-old savings book or a life insurance policy. The Emperor Reversed warns you not to hold on to such old investments for too long.

The financial world is constantly changing and it is worthwhile for you to think outside the box and flexibly adapt your investments to current markets. Inform yourself about alternative investment forms and part with old investments, which cost you more than they bring in the end.

Furthermore, The Emperor Reversed stands for very unrestrained handling of money. As soon as you have some money in your hands, you already spend it with both hands.

Therefore at the end of the money, there is still a lot of month left. Better learn to keep your money together so you don’t have to worry about tight finances all the time.

Reversed Emperor Destiny Meaning

The Emperor Reversed shows for your destiny that you want to control the course of your life too much. However, many aspects of everyday life cannot be predicted and can throw you off course if you react too inflexibly to them.

Try to accept that coincidence is an integral part of our lives that we cannot control, and you can face the unexpected calmly and cope with it.

Reversed Emperor Personality

As a character, the Emperor reversed is characterized by dominant traits. He always wants to be in charge and does not tolerate any contradictions in his decisions.

Likewise, the card reveals that the person needs a high degree of control in life. Therefore, unexpected events, where he does not have an overview of everything, unsettle him very much.

Reversed Emperor Tarot Past/Future

Past

A certain topic from days gone by still dominates your everyday life. You will have to deal with it willy-nilly.

In your past, there were always certain situations in which you were very inflexible. Learn from them to prevent such rigidity.

Future

Be careful not to let yourself go unrestrained in the near future. The consequences of such uninhibited behavior would be dramatic.

To want to control your own future 100% is mostly a senseless endeavor. Therefore, concentrate on the aspects that you can influence.

Reversed Emperor Tarot Card – Yes or No

You would like to keep control of this question. At the moment, many things are still unresolved and partly beyond your influence.

Because of these doubtful imponderables, the answer is rather no at the moment. You should use the time to sort yourself out again.

The Major Arcana Tarot Card Meanings