Margarete Petersen Study -IV - The Emperor

[firemaiden]

Translation:

• 
  It begins at home --
  the armor is riddled with holes --
  the stiffness loosened --
  run over the red paint [of the armor].
  Birth of an authentic ego--
  free from the compulsion to eat one's own flesh.
  A power within us which is incorruptible (unerring).
  Organize the Self --
  out of the visible Chaos,
  things allow themselves to be arrayed around the navel
  in the center of power.

Link to the image: Der Herrscher




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[firemaiden]

Difficult text. I have translated it quite literally. The dictionary says "Das Rot" ( "the Red") is a heraldic term and refers to the color red used ("gules" in english) to paint shields and armor.

The language of heraldry, -- armour, the Red, the stiffness -- ties the image of an "Emperor" - ruler of an empire - taking off his suit of armour, to the psychological idea of allowing the ego to be released from constraints of the false self, and free from compulsions of self destruction such as "eating one's own flesh".

This self-canabalism sounds vaguely shamanistic -- someone will have to confirm, and explain -- but it also recalls linguistic constructs like "eating oneself alive", "devouring oneself" with regret, and is suggestive of self-invalidation, self-abnegation, self-flagellation...

The last sentence is an enigma. The naval is the center of power... "things" from the "visible chaos" are to be arrayed around it... hmmm.

[firemaiden]

Thoughts added later: The naval as center of power... certainly sounds like a comparison of naval/solar plexis with the sun (sun--"solar" plexis - LOL- just noticed that) around which all the "things" of the visible universe (well, in our solar system anyway) collect and rotate.

If this comparison is reflected in the card perhaps it in the red circular center, with its crouching person in the bright yellow portion, a kind of spirit of the sun, maybe?

[galadrial]

Last night I finished "Myst: the Book of D'ni" (Spoilers ahead if you should wish to read this book) and this morning I drew this card. In the book there is a King who uses vast amounts of slave labor to maintain a fabulous lifestyle for the non-slaves. There comes a Plague, the societal structure deteriorates and the slaves revolt. The King dies from the Plague and is given an honor filled burial BY THE SLAVES. I think this shows how much the office, or archetype of King is revered, even when the person occupying the role proves all too human. So today, in this card I see the red half of the figure as representing the power and sacredness of his office, and the human half as the part of him that must either try to rise to the care and responsibility required to fulfill this office well, or be overwhelmed or corrupted by it.

[Rusty Neon]

There's no linkage between this card and the Emperor card Duquette's deck, but I can't help noting that the Duquette's Emperor is so stiff that the Emperor is depicted as the statue of the torso of a Roman emperor with a long cement base replacing his lower body.

[Moongold]

I think the key to this image is in the text which comes with the English translation - “The birth of the authentic I” and “Organizing yourself from seeming chaos”.

Looking at this image for a very long time I can see at least three sets of eyes, the most obvious pair being in the upper right quadrant.. The Self emerges from the chaos within. I don’t think the artist is referring to neurotic chaos but simply the evolving Self over a lifetime. For Petersen this seems to be a continuously creative process, not without pain.

Because of the heat and energy in this image I am left with the impression of a bushfire I saw here twenty years ago. The fire ravished the gum trees but a few short weeks afterwards every tree was covered with small green sucklings – abundant new life had come from the terrible fire. Or perhaps one can think of glass blowing – fashioning new beauty from terrible heat. These impressions are metaphors for the soul’s experience.

This is the most powerful Emperor image I have ever seen. It is interesting to think of the two cards together –Emperor and Empress. This image is about the creation and formation of the Self. The Empress is about the creation of life external to the self

[tmgrl2]

Originally posted by firemaiden
Translation:

• 
  It begins at home --
  the armor is riddled with holes --
  the stiffness loosened --
  run over the red paint [of the armor].
  Birth of an authentic ego--
  free from the compulsion to eat one's own flesh.
  A power within us which is incorruptible (unerring).
  Organize the Self --
  out of the visible Chaos,
  things allow themselves to be arrayed around the navel
  in the center of power.

Link to the image: Der Herrscher

I did it again...forgot to use word and jumped back and forth between picture and posting box! Wow! What a deck...I had already written out how I see it apart from the translation at having to do with the chakras and their colors:
1-Red (base of spine)
2-Orange (area of spleen)
3-Yellow (solar plexus)
these three are usually the yin ...with
4-Green (heart) androgenous
5- Blue (the throat)
6- Indigo (pineal gland...3rd eye)
7- Violet (Pituitary Gland)

these last three yang

(here's good 'ol Roy G. Biv again)

The card looks to me as if the outer portions are primarily red in tone (base of spine,) then as go inward, orange(solar plexus) and some yellow...(the first three chakras)...

I also see Blue/Indigo and even black...but absence of violet and green....so a very "masculine" card by color...

Using my old color background (which can be examined on emotional, material and physical level) ....but I will stick with general...Red..passion, intensity, ardent enthusiasm, heightened physical-emotional energy... but then the orange...as a color is more "harmonious"...balance between mind and emotions
Yellow, representing learning, intellect, logic and order....

The
"around the naval" part of the translation seems to fit the "orange" chakra...or about 2 inches below the naval....where the spleen is....

Any thoughts on this? terri

This looks like a deck I would really enjoy because of the COLOR...
will save it for later as a deck. Do you have this deck?

[Mi-Shell]

Sorry, but to me there is just nobody there! No counter weight to balance the gaping wide open Empress!
Where is my guy? The masculine aspect of Self??

Looking at the other cards that traditionaly carry a more masculine energy -- as well as the court cards and their texts, I assume MP has a "problem" with male figures!-??

[firemaiden]

Hi Mi-Shell, welcome to the forum; that's an interesting comment! It seems that the male energy here is invisible but all present.

Actually, re-reading the blurb I translated, I don't think this is about being male or female, but learning to shed one's layers of false self.