Arcana. The emperor & Aries

Many western systems have tried to link tarot (the 22 major arcana), astrology, and kabbalah; this system has been called Qabalah and is different from the Kaballah with the latter being one of the many sources of the former. Some people say Qabalah is a much better system; other people say Kaballah is the real thing and Qabalah is a sorry placebo. I don’t want to enter that debate now, I just want to explore some of the correspondences because I find them useful.

The last part of each post will show examples that in my concept illustrates the sign/arcane correspondence. Some of them will be historical figures, many will be take from fiction. They are picked up as archetypical examples with no care if they have their birthday in the sign in the case of the historical figures.

There’s common agreement that Aries correspond to the arcane number 4, "The Emperor", which is odd: Aries are the zodiac infants and "The Emperor" is the patriarch of arcana. Why choose to link them? Because usually the Emperor, to become one, both in history as in myth, had to deploy virtues of Aries. And to keep the defects at bay because once in the throne a major danger was the temptation to behave like a spoiled brat...

The card

From an archetypal point of view it makes sense to make this arcane the fourth, but the designers of the deck did not even know the word “archetype”, let alone making a design following its meaning. So granted: using archetypes is an anachronism, but one that I find useful to introduce sense in the jungle of meanings and combinations of the cards. The first five arcana form a "court" where"The Magician" and "High Priestess" would be his advisors/Seers (maybe "The Magician" also represents the military), "The Empress" his wife and "The Hyerophant" represents the sustenance of the church.

Except themed tarot decks (feminists, animals etc.). "The Emperor" is an older crowned man on a throne, his costumes let have a glimpse of an armor. He usually has a scepter, which represents its ability to enforce its wishes, and a globe that shows his worldly / global power. Many decks include in this card head or ram's horns and an eagle, the symbol of the Holy Roman Empire. Another feature is that the throne is made of stone (in some cases it is a stone) located in some desert.

The card speaks of a king, a patriarch, a ruler, a tribal chief who is not in the office for dancing, dresses or palaces. He seems to be in colonizing campaign. This is very important in the symbol of "The Emperor": he is more a ruler who keeps order in a colony that is being formed, a new settlement that requires control and monitoring. "The Emperor" symbolizes civilization with all the good and evil.

Although “The Emperor” is the Freudian Father, he requires some characteristics of a child to perform his tasks, for if he spends too much time thinking over he would not undertake his campaigns. We already said that Aries is the infant of the zodiac: as “The Emperor” Aries is full of enthusiasm, stubbornness, energy and aggressiveness. He is direct, hates deception and in general is so easy to resist as a battering ram. Unfortunately, as baby may also be impatient, demanding and controlling.

"The Emperor” is the boss of the kings of the minor arcana and summarize them. He represents the peoples and the institutions that create, organize, defend, maintain and proclaim the structures that guarantee freedom, order and creativity through the common memory. The emperor is "the boss", "the man”, “the system” that guarantees the empire of the law because of his control over the repressive apparatus and the imposition of values he never let come into question. His energy is dedicated to one goal: the search for peace and stability so his people can grow and develop: his peace.

In readings this archetype speaks of authority, either to exercise it or to suffer it. He is responsible for validating but not care to be validated: he provides guidance and recognize the merits of others. Denotes logic, willpower, mental organization and the ability to think on a large scale a future plan. And above all, is an archetype of success: "The Emperor" will not be satisfied with nothing less than total success on his terms, at whatever cost. While all the archetypes need checks and balances to enhance their performance, “The Emperor” needs them to be conatined, not enhanced.

In the West the notion of empire comes from ancient Rome, where ironically there was no similar title. Neither "Caesar" nor "Augustus" nor "Imperator" was what we now mean by “Emperor”. The ancient Rome loved its republican traditions and hated the monarchy (Julius Caesar was assassinated for wanting to become "King of Rome") so they ended up with a man with absolute power while retaining the forms of a republic.

Throughout history, the archetype is recognized: empires come from power vacuums in chaos. With the promise of order and peace from a leader who seems strong everybody bow thinking that’s the lesser of two evils. Be a dynastic empire (China) or an elected one by an elite (Rome, the Aztecs) or legitimized by their connections with God (Byzantium) all empires are held together by a promise of peace born out of order. If history has taught us anything, it is an empire is magnificent in the hands of someone capable but a tragedy in the hands of an incompetent.

The Archetype

Examples of “The Emperor”, besides the obvious are:

Professor Francis Xavier and Magneto,

Leaders of both factions of the X-Men, each controlling in his own way his group, each convinced he is right without compromise. Although the writers strive to distinguish the "good guy" and "bad one" they are not that different.

Vito Corleone (Marlon Brando) in "The Godfather":

Not only is the head of his family but the great leader of the entire New York underworld. The film chronicles the rise of his crown prince and the attacks don Vito must suffer from those who aspire to his throne.

Michael Emerson as Benjamin Linus "Lost":

Although this is a difficult character, Linus is the absolute leader of “the Others” and from that leadership the island society is born, where the word of Linus is final. His relationship with the newcomers apart (and the mysterious Dharma Initiative) Linus is the emperor of the inhabitants of the island and behaves ruthlessly with the strength that gives this post.

Brain in "Pinky and the Brain"

Although a cartoon The Brain is a megalomaniac mouse who has the fixity of a wild emperor with unusual but definitely wasted gifts.

Finally, the father of Palpatine from Star Wars, recognized by the George Lucas himself as the emperor par excellence of the twentieth century. Many of his features survive in some characters even though the current generation has not heard of Ming the Merciless, Flash Gordon's arch-enemy, the most popular science fiction character in the first half of the twentieth century. He has had several editions (the last for 2007-2008 by Sci-Fi Channel, when he resembled Saddam Hussein), the soundtrack was made by Queen for the 1980 film, the best rock band of all time ... Granted, not their best song, but what can I do? Is the one useful for the post!

Legends & myths. The werewolf

A friend of mine has taken Gothic style to the big leagues: he believes that vampires live among us and has done everything to look like one, from sharpen her teeth to make blood pacts of eternal love with every boyfriend she’s got to the point that now her hand looks like a map. Now, since vampires exist for sure, she reasons, that means their archenemies the werewolves also exist. She quoted me her sources with the loudest voice: Anne Rice (Interview with the vampire), the movie Underworld and the Twilight saga.

The basics: no one knows where does the myth of the werewolf come from or what try to explain. According to some anthropologists, in different variants werewolves are the most widespread myth worldwide. In places with no wolves peoples resorted to werehyena (Africa), weretiger (India) and werejaguar (America). My friend hasn’t been able to explain me if hatred of vampires for other species includes the wereocelot, but I suspect a positive answer. It has been said that the myth tries to explain serial murders, diseases such as porphyria, mass poisoning with LSD-like fungi and even that is nostalgia for the price man has paid for civilization: the abandonment of his instincts and the disconnection from a basic sense of pleasure. No explanation is satisfactory.

The most popular version of the werewolf today (the one my friend vampire stalks in the streets of a place as unlikely as Bogota) comes from Germanic mythology, reissued by nineteenth-century literature and cinema of the early twentieth century. The most common elements: the werewolf is always a lycanthrop, that is, his condition is hereditary or due to the bite of another werewolf. It is anthropomorphic: bipedal, with a monstruous human face vaguely like Michael Jackson’s (on Thriller, I mean) Only a silver bullet can kill him and the moon seems to have something to do with the whole issue.

Lets go to the pieces: there are were-animals all over the world, in cultures with no contact between them and long before any folklore of northern Europe. The first registered werewolf is Lycaon, son of Pelagius and Melibea and first king of Arcadia. For some reason this guy, father of fifty sons, decided to invite Zeus, king of the Olympian gods, to lunch. Cool, but the idea became deliciously brilliant when Lycaon decides to play a joke on his guest and served one of his sons as lunch (the king’s, not the god’s, for that it would not have been funny at all).

Let's see ... If I invite a deity to eat at my house, and he sits at my table, I would not be in the mood for jokes. As a matter of fact, I’d be deadly serious and ready to make profound questions about heaven or angels or the trinitarian question or something, trying not to look like a moron. And if I made an occasional pun, I’m sure I wouldn’t cross the line with a joke as bad as serve the flesh of my son to my guest; my grandmother called these experiments in humor "flirt with the devil". Anyway, Zeus realized what happened and proceeded to turn Lycaon into a wolf (his name is now synonymous with an African wild dog) and killed with his thunderbolts all his offspring. What do the Greeks wanted to show by including in the slaughter the brothers of the deceased boy, I do not know, but Greek myths did not sell well if they neglected to include gallons of blood.

Ovid's Metamorphoses also talks about werewolves in Arcadia, where seems to be the producing plant. And the Greek Herodotus told that all Neuried tribe, who lived in what is now southern Poland, turned into wolves every nine years. Arcadia was so dangerous that even with no fault at all you can end up as a werewolf: Pliny the Elder told the story of a man who hung his clothes in the branches of a tree and jumped into a lake; when he reached the other side surprise! He came out from the lake as a wolf and he was told told that if he let go nine years without attacking any human he could swim back and regain his form. And his clothes, I suppose.

The implication is clear: there’s no need to involve another werewolf to become one. In fact, in traditional myths, this condition comes from a divine curse, delivered ex oficio by God or through the intervention of a saint: a Welsh king was turned into a wolf by St. Patrick after the king refused to convert (to Christianity, not a wolf, which was mandatory after the curse of the saint). I wonder how many missionaries today wouldn’t use this power very happily if they had it. Until the fourteenth century there is no tale of lycanthropy, ie, a werewolf who makes another with a bite or scratch. The usual ways to become one of these creatures were to wear a belt (or the whole skin) made of leather of wolf, drink water from a footstep of a werewolf in the woods or drinking a beer chanting certain spell.

And the other implication: the mythical werewolf is more wolf than man. That is, one turned into a beast bigger, faster, more evil, stronger than any wolf ... but wolf. Quadruped. With muzzle. With bushy tail. A werewolf didn’t walk upright, neither had grasping hands. The humanoid werewolf was basically a creation of the horror genre.

In traditional stories (and the documentation my friend got in Underworld) the lycanthrop becomes wolf at will: not only he doesn’t need moon but if he wants he converts himself (painfully: imagine your jaws stretching to form a snout) at ten in the morning while waiting for the bus. In general, how to kill the werewolf was more blunt than a silver bullet: a stick. Although according to stories from the thirteenth century a silver stick was occasionally included in the beating and since progress never stops, the stick became a bullet as soon as it was possible. What any gunsmith will tell you is that it is impossible to make a bullet with silver 100% pure: it will deform at the very moment it is shooted. But apparently, those like my friend think it is rather that the art is lost or today gunsmiths are incompetent people who barely can make air-ground missiles.

The feelings of the orthodox and mainstream thinking towards these creatures are ambivalent unlike vampires, who are always considered creatures of darkness. Gubernatis’ Zoological Mythology , for example, told about a pack of werewolves who smashed some monks for holding heretical opinions. These ambivalent feelings allowed a man accused of witchcraft to use the legal defense that he and a group of friends were werewolves, yes, made pacts with the devil, yes, but with permission of the angels so they can go down to hell to fight the demons. This defense led the judge to have him whipped for idolatrous, which isn’t nice but better than dying scorched.

An aside: Shakira has recently used a Colombian expression to name one of her songs "she-wolf", which is the derisive and pejorative way to refer to certain female specimens, very generous to display attributes already quite generous with plunging necklines, tight minis and stiletto boots. The origin of the saying is medieval and Italian: families would make their children look after the herds. Many sheperds were teenagers and every now and then sold under the counter a sheep to pay a brothel and then report to his parents the sheep as taken by the wolf. The parents (specially the father) knew the truth, having passed themselves by this kind of initiation into adulthood and they accepted it as a sort of occupational cost calling it "the portion of the wolf". The she-wolf, more precisely