This essay presumes acquaintance with the ideas presented in The Triadic Structure of the Tarot.
The second triad of the tarot sequence (Empress, Emperor, and Pope) depicts figures of authority in the hierarchy of society. The first two are explicitly political figures, whereas the Pope stands for the authority of the church. It is worth recalling, though, that before the Reformation the line between church and state was not at all sharp. The Papacy was a political institution, complete with extensive domains and military forces, and kings ruled by divine right and were expected to be religious leaders for their peoples.
The Emperor of the tarot is the ruler of Holy Roman Empire, an institution that represented the ideal of a unified Christendom. Depending on the shifting alliances of European politics, the Emperor might be a powerful force, a mere figurehead, or anything in between. It is interesting, then, that all three of these cards represent figures who, in theory, have dominion over the entire world.
There is a natural and enduring connection between the role of ruler and the role of parent. The king or emperor is a father figure, establishing and enforcing rules and providing security and stability. In the patriarchal culture of Europe, the queen or empress was usually relegated to the role of consort. It is thus interesting that the Empress even appears in the tarot, as she would be quite superfluous if the intention were merely to depicted levels of rank in society. (The Tarocchi of Mantegna has 10 ranks from beggar to pope, and none of them are female!) I think the tarot uses the Empress/Emperor pair to draw deliberate attention to the difference between feminine authority and masculine authority. The difference corresponds directly to that between mother and father, one of the earliest and most basic distinctions a child encounters in the world of human relationships.
The mother is a loving, nourishing, empathetic caregiver. Her concern is with happiness, and harmony between peoplw. She teaches the child to make decisions based on relationships and the needs of others. Emotions provide the raw material from which she constructs a code of conduct. The child learns that the mother expects helpfulness, consideration, and cooperation. Nothing displeases her more than quarrels and selfishness. The mother image projected onto the political stage becomes that of the peaceful state, protecting its people from strife and from economic hardship. The welfare state of the 20th century reflects the vision of the state as mother to a degree that no institutions of medieval or renaissance Europe can match.
The father is a strict, just, rational commander. His concern is with order, regulation, and standards of conduct that hold regardless of circumstances. He teaches the child to make decisions based on impersonal rules. Logical thought is his chief tool for determining how to behave. If one knows the rules, applying them rationally and objectively ensures proper conduct. He expects obedience, self-control, and dependability. He dislikes excuses, sentimentality, and inconsistency. In political terms, this translates into giving priority to law and order, due process, and chain of command. There is a strong militaristic undercurrent to this, and the shadow of tyranny.
Most of us tend strongly toward one of these poles in defining our role in society. The Empress emphasizes family and friends, mutual support, and interpersonal harmony. The Emperor emphasizes work, lawfulness, and professionalism of conduct. Our society is still essentially patriarchal, in that "advancement" comes from acquiring a more powerful position in the order by knowing and using the "rules of the game". The Empress's style of authority, influence by means of relationship, is present but often not recognized or appreciated.
So the Empress and Emperor represent the dichotomy of relationship-based and rule-based social behaviors. The first is receptive, the latter active. The passivity of the Fool and the cleverness of the Juggler in approaching the physical environment are now raised into the social domain.
The Pope provides an important synthesis between these two views of social interaction. A society is more than just relationships and laws; it includes traditions and cultural values. Through the centuries, there accumulates a wisdom about what is beneficial and good, a kind of backdrop of moral assumptions and ways of life that helps to center both the Empress's mercy and the Emperor's severity. The soul of a society is its traditions, its values, its religion. Whether by design or by trial and error, the soul of the society achieves a balance between compassion and control. The Empress is perhaps too susceptible to moods and circumstances, the Emperor too devoted to impersonal abstractions. The Pope answers them both with firm traditions built on human universals.
Invariably, though, religion touches on something more than accumulated wisdom. For by bringing in values that transcend the temporal authority of the ruler or parent, it makes contact with the moral order of the cosmos, the underlying forces that society does not invent, but rather responds to. A person who becomes centered in the moral order, by truly understanding the religious perspective and its sources, will no longer seek justification in the approval of society, but will come into relationship with transpersonal forces and values. The Pope is thus in a precarious position. In his role as synthesizer of the social dilemma posed by Empress and Emperor, he presents religion as dictums of good behavior; yet by evoking the divine, he points the way for the seeker to rise above the very social order he is entrusted to preserve.
The Pope straddles the line between the human and superhuman worlds. In the centuries leading up to the Reformation, the problematic nature of this position became increasingly apparent. The Pope was at the top of the worldly hierarchy, in principle outranking king and emperor. Yet pious religious seekers, such as the Franciscans, found moral imperatives in the life of Christ that "outranked" Papal proclamation.
For more on Pope as viewed from the triadic system, see Pope and Papess.
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Copyright © 1999 Tom Tadfor Little