04: Magnolia / The Emperor
The Emperor Tarot Card Meanings
It’s Tarot Tuesday! Every Tuesday I will be posting an article diving deeper into an individual tarot card, to help me better understand its meaning, and to help educate others in the process. I’ll also share about the connection between each tarot card and the botanical I paired it with in my Fleurot tarot deck, which is based around the Victorian Language of Flowers.
Today we are diving into the card numbered 4 in the traditional Rider-Waite tarot, The Emperor (which is the Magnolia in the Fleurot deck).
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Keywords
The Emperor | Structure, Stability, Foundation
Magnolia | Nobility, Self-Esteem
In the traditional Rider-Waite Colman-Smith tarot deck, the Emperor is a bearded, mascuilne figure seated atop a sturdy cement throne adorned with rams heads (symbolizing this card’s connection to Aries and the planet Mars). The figure is cloaked in red fabric, draped over metallic armor. The red color signifies this figures’ passion, power and energy, and the armor symbolizes a lack of vulnerability and emotion. They are holding an ankh, the Egyptian symbol of life, and an orb representing the world over which this figure rules. Behind this throne loom strong rocky mountains, signifying that this figure is backed by a solid foundation and resistant to making any changes deemed unnecessary.
The Emperor stands in direct contrast to the mothering, feminine nature of the Empress. This is the masculine archetype of the father, and the provider. Protective and defensive, this card points towards a strong foundation that can be depended on by others.
This card also represents themes of leadership and authority, as well as rules and regulations. The Emperor asks us to create law and order by examining any cracks in our foundations and creating a strategic plan to patch them with a firm but fair hand.
“Create calm out of chaos by breaking down any problem into its parts and then mapping out the actions you need to take to resolve it.”
For more in-depth information about the meaning of The Emperor tarot card, I highly recommend checking out the description by Biddy Tarot!
The Magnolia Magnolia Grandiflora
During the Victorian Era, people would exchange flowers and plants as a way of sending messages to express their true feelings (ones they couldn’t often express out loud). The system they developed was published in Flower Dictionaries which allowed the meanings of each flower to be widely accepted, and this language was often dubbed ‘Floriography’.
The magnolia is a tree-growing flower that emerges out of a cone-like bud surrounded by leathery leaves. The most common magnolia is white in color, but other varieties exist including a beautiful pink version that explodes in early Spring.
The flowers of the magnolia tree do not have petals and sepals like other flowers. Rather, they are composed of tepals which are leaf-like petal structures, which form into a cup-like ring around the center of the bloom.
There are magnolia fossils dating back almost 20 millions years, since before bees were in existence (so magnolias are pollinated by beetles!). This tough, ancient flower is very hearty due to its need to adapt to changing climate and geological conditions to survive, which is why it is associated with meanings of endurance, eternity, self-esteem and long life.
The magnolia’s strong fragrance and large size also contribute to their meaning of splendid beauty, nobility and magnificence.
In the Fleurot deck, I decided to correspond this hearty bloom to the Emperor, which instills a sense of structure, stability, and foundation. This masculine ruler has acquired years of wisdom and experience, and is passionate about meeting life’s challenges head on.