Table of Contents
The Emperor Reversed Tarot Card Meanings
The Emperor reversed in a reading often indicates that you are tending to follow your heart rather than listen to the voice in your mind that is talking about logic.
There is nothing intrinsically wrong with following your heart of course unless that balance between heart and head is getting seriously out of kilter. Then it could lead you astray.
The Emperor reversed is telling you that you should try to regain the balance between the two. Right now, you have a need to concentrate and focus. Listen to your head rather than blindly follow your heart.
The Emperor reversed can, as you might expect, also refer to a man in your life. Almost without exception an older man. Interestingly, he may be a man who you find somewhat irritating. One of those people that likes telling people what they should or should not do.
The thing is that despite his annoying ways he does have some pearls of wisdom to impart. Listen to what he has to say and decide what is useful and what is not. Follow the useful guidance and ignore anything else.
The Emperor Reversed Meanings Step-by-Step
Friends, Friendships, and Family
This reversed card can indicate that everyone is getting on your nerves. With this energy around you could be feeling that you are the only person with a clue to what is really happening.
It would be a mistake to assume that you are 100% right about this. That does not automatically mean that you’re wrong about everything, either.
It is the kind of energy where you must be cautious and careful about thinking you’re the only one that has clear vision at the moment. If you’re wrong, there could be unpleasant ramifications.
In other words, give your friends and family the courtesy of trying to understand how they are feeling and thinking and why they are feeling and thinking that way.
If they offer you advice you should at least consider their point of view. But they should consider yours as well.
Last but far from least, some people will never consider your point of view and eventually you just need to accept that. This could be one of those times.
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Love and Relationships
The Emperor reversed with regard to love and relationships means you should check your assumptions.
If you find yourself thinking or saying “everyone knows that…” you must stop and realize that there is nothing that every human knows and agrees on. In short keep an open mind and do your loved ones the courtesy of that approach as well.
If you are looking for love and not having much luck, the appearance this card appears it is a sure sign that you’re expecting to be able to control every aspect of who this new person is going to be.
The longer and more detailed your internal “checklist” of what you want to see in a new love the less likely it is that such a person is going to just fall into your life.
No one is perfect. Accept that fact and you will be a lot happier, and you will find love much sooner. You will never find the “perfect” partner if your checklist is impossible to live up to. Remember, no matter how hard you try, you are not perfect either. Could you live up to someone else’s checklist?
In many ways the Emperor reversed is telling you to take stock of your own shortcomings before you start considering the shortcomings of others. You are not perfect. Your potential lover will not be perfect. But between you, you might find perfect love. Don’t let a checklist of “must haves” lose you the love of a lifetime.
Spiritual Growth
Be careful about who you consider to be a spiritual leader in your life is the message from the Emperor reversed. Whether it is someone that you interact with frequently or wisdom you have found in a long-dead thinker such as Epictetus, Rumi, or John the Baptist.
Don’t put anyone on a pedestal and thinking that their way is the only way. You must participate in your own spiritual growth and simply following the lead of a human, any human, no matter how spiritual, is not going to do the trick.
Take guidance from them, but make sure you follow your own path and find your own way. What you think, feel, and experiences is just as important as what any leader thinks, feels, and experiences spiritually.
This does not mean that you must avoid groups or spiritual groups. The Emperor reversed is telling you that it means don’t think other people can do your spiritual growth for you. They can’t.
Work and Career
In a work and career related reading the Emperor reversed means that work is likely to be annoying right now. You are having to follow a very structured protocol and you really don’t feel like doing so.
Unfortunately, you are unlikely to be able to do much about that so it is a case of buckling down and doing the best you can. You will be able to get through this period with the help of a few breaks to regain your sanity.
If you are seeking employment, the Emperor reversed is telling you that it would be worth considering people you have known in the past who may be able to help. Whether you can think of someone or not it will be important to dot the i’s and cross the t’s when it comes to applications. Don’t get sloppy!
Money and Finances
The Emperor reversed is telling you that you are on the right track financially. Don’t, however, expect someone to just hand you a ton of money or a rise in your pay.
If you honestly believe you deserve a promotion or pay raise, be prepared to ask for it and to make your case. The Emperor reversed is detail oriented and so should you be.
People in the position of making these decisions regarding a raise are going to expect you to have your ducks in a row and to make your case well. Attend to details and have someone you trust check your work before you present it to decision makers.
This attention to detail also applies if you are unemployed and looking for a paycheck, or a loan, or anything that involves someone else’s money. You are likely to be successful ultimately, but this is not going to happen if you are sloppy in your application or in an interview. Check your assumptions and then recheck them. Don’t make the mistake of being arrogant.
A Message and Advice from Spirit
You are simply being urged to realize that no matter how much you have to offer the world, no matter how world-changing your ideas and contributions are, you really need to stay mindful that you are a drop in the ocean of humanity.
As the saying goes, correctly, “graveyards are full of essential people.” Your time here is limited, and you devalue yourself and your time if you go too far towards arrogance or in the other direction towards the idea that “it’s all meaningless.”
Your life is not meaningless unless you make it so. You have value no matter the choices you have made in the past. Hold your head up high but don’t allow yourself to believe that you are better than others. That attitude is a complete waste of your precious time and energy. Value yourself and everyone else as well.
The Emperor Reversed Tarot Card Meanings by Tarot Time
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Image Attribution: “RWS Tarot 04 Emperor” by Pamela Coleman Smith – a 1909 card scanned by Holly Voley (http://home.comcast.net/~vilex/) for the public domain, and retrieved from http://www.sacred-texts.com/tarot (see note on that page regarding source of images). Via Wikipedia.
