Power- The Emperor

In this episode, Nicole and Rootz discuss The Emperor and how his archetype plays out in our journey here on earth. They share personal stories of their experience and reflect on how our relationship with power was formed in childhood. They also discover thanks to Rootz’s, boundaries are the key to calling back your power.

Transcript

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Hi, and welcome back to navigating your story with the taro archetypes. In this episode. Roots and I will be discussing the emperor. And the archetype of power. For any of you that are new to taro. The emperor has the number four. And comes after the Empress. In the major Arcana. In our discussion. Roots and I share personal stories around power. And how. At birth, we are all given the same personal power. But. Through life. We feed into this illusion. That others may have more power. Or control. Over us. We then discover. Thanks to roots and his need for boundaries this week. That boundaries are the antidote to inflicted power. I hope you find comfort in our personal stories of experiencing. The emperor archetype. So pour yourself a cup of tea. Or a glass of wine. As you join us for our discussion. The emperor. Is power. It's like a story and we're meeting this character Vampyr and we walk in to his empire, right. Amber runs an empire. As you're walking to meet the emperor, this is the place. I mean, and any house or room could be considered an empire. Because each one of us has our own spaces, but now as you're walking into this nice castle, I see like razors filled with fire. I feel that like areas, energy of like, this is what I wanted. So I did it kind of feel everywhere and it may not fully make sense to you, but it doesn't matter. Cause it's not your castle. There might be tapestries on the walls, but it's like the energy that you're feeling it's calm. he himself can be very loving, but he's also just very exact on what he wants in his. Everything is meticulous. Everything is perfectly placed. We're talking about the emperor being powered. Cause I remember us talking about it and now for me, he's so much more about boundaries too, but that's been my experience of this week. So we'll, we'll talk about that later. Absolutely. We'll totally. There's different angles. We'll start off with power, but then I know you were talking to me before this room about boundaries. So we will totally get there too, because that's another angle of his We did this room before on the emperor and I came with a different feeling of the emperor, just because of my story, my experience and. You know, that's how life is. I had a girl today come into my office and she's crying. I'm like, what's bothering you? And she was like, well, you know, there was a situation with a friend and she's like, I know it wasn't any thing bad, but like I said, a comment and I'm just worried. She doesn't want to be my friend anymore. I was like, wait, what? I was like, that comment was a simple comment. That is nothing that would ruin a friendship. But I know this girl, and I know her past stories with friends. I know some hurt and challenges she's had with friends. So when she shows up to this new friendship, that's perfectly healthy. She's bringing all of her stories into. This friendship into this one conversation that she just had with her friend today, that was perfectly normal, but for her, it brought up something different. And I noticed that with the emperor that I have a different energy with him, I have a different relationship with him because of my past and having power in my life. That went overboard where I went into control. This one's one of those cards that it comes with different perspectives based on everyone's past with past. So that being sad when I head into the emperors kingdom, when I walk up the stairs to see him, I do picture it quiet. Like, you know how you said roots, it's calm. I feel that. you can hold your hand out, straight in front of you. And if it doesn't shake, you know, you've got the golden hand. Even though there could be chaos, there could be, things going on around him. His hand stays steady He's not going to be super emotional. I think he's more rational. He is the father of the major Arcana. And so he does come with this protective feeling that roots we'll probably get into later about, I know my place, I know my boundaries and where my boundaries are. I protect all who are within it. He remains level headed and he remains authoritative. I do get a sense in his presence that there is this authority, leadership. And I'm going to say, cause I'm coming with my own path, I'm going to say intimidating. I think an intimidation as a strategy, a little bit, a strategy to keep things in order and that's just where I'm at. I think it would be really good to talk about the archetype of power. So I have a question for your rates, cause I have a lot of questions and we can get into that, the boundaries and all of this fun stuff. When we're born, we're all born equal, right. You know, we're all just the baby coming out of China. There's no, there's no special vagina. I mean, all vaginas are special, right? It's a woman's portal, but it's just a vagina. It's like interesting how the minute we're born, we're babies, we're naked. We have no clothes on us. And in that moment, we are truly all equal. We're all born with this personal power that is ours and ours alone. And then something happens where there are things in society that gives us the illusion of, I have more power than you. I keep saying illusion because I've been really working on this in my lifetime, starting to see the illusion because for a really long time, I just saw someone's power over me as real. I gave away my power to that person or to that society belief. Now I'm in a place where I start to look at it and I go, oh my God, that's just an illusion. No matter what status I met, baby, you were that baby. We came out of vagina and I have just as much power, but we do this in society. We do this in our lives and partnerships and work relationships and parent to child relationships. There's this illusion that someone might have power over us or more power, then we do, even, we can even get into our, in our skin or gender or sexual orientation or our class. What do you think about that? I think that's, it's a, it's a heavy one and it's very deep and it's a huge question to, to lay out. Right. But it's like what answer? Yeah. Okay. So for everybody, who's just listening to all that. The answer is just, yes, I'm very short, very sweet, but it's like, okay. So there's all these different things. And a lot of it, honestly, guess what guests, this is, this is the craziest part. It's the lack of a boundary that we're allowing other people to dictate what is so in our environment and in our bodies and in our minds and in our souls. Right. Because we weren't allowed somebody else to dictate what words we say, what it set around. there's actually something, about people that are from wealthy families, they have the natural propensity for making more money. And people are like, oh, you just were with a silver spoon in your mouth. And it's like, they were, but it's also, it's about the mentality of being born into it. It's not just about, oh, well you're only rich because your daddy's rich. It's like, yeah, I'm rich because my daddy's rich because he then taught me how to be rich because he learned, and he went through the shit the hard way. And you know, some of us grew up with very poor parents, myself included, and it's like, you know, The poverty consciousness is real seriously. There's the, there's the, oh my God. I don't know where my food's going to come from tomorrow. And then it's funny because like, I seriously, I have like three chefs that live around me that feed me more often than I even cook for myself. But I'm like, oh my God, where's my next in are gonna come from. And I'm like, wait, why am I worried about that legitimately? It's like, now I just, you know, pay a couple dollars towards the people who cook for me every day. It's like they were already gonna cook. So mine might as well, you know, Pam, a little something for feeding me, but otherwise not worried about where the food's going to come from, but it's, it's that to go back into what you were poverty consciousness. It's also like, you know, sexuality consciousness deep. It's not okay for me to be gay because like a friend said that somebody said that it told her that it was illegal for her to be gay. Yeah. You know, telling somebody that it's literally illegal to be gay. It's like, wait, what? That's a natural form of, uh, existence. I mean, animals are fucking gay for Christ sake. I loved the boundaries part cause you did just tie it right in you tied the boundaries. You are, you're all about boundaries today and you tied the boundaries and that's where I'm at. The boundaries are real, like in the illusion of power that is created through these laws, society, through relationships, through gender and all this type of stuff, we allow it to cross our boundaries. We make an agreement to it We then give away our power and believe it's real. You might read the Bible and you know whose to, and we're not going to go like super deep, cause we don't want to like offend anyone, but we don't know, like the Bible could also be a lot of humankind writing that. So someone wrote this one rule about, sexuality who you can marry and you can't have sex before marriage and all these types of things. And then that rule that law, we then look at it and we make an agreement to. And then now it becomes our reality. We agreed to it. But the crazy part is it's that it's not necessarily that we agree to it, it's our parents agreed to it because their parents agreed to it because their parents agreed to it. And as a direct result, it's like, well, you know, way back in my grandpa, he signed, this is how it was done. And so that makes sense for why we keep going. Cause people are traditionalist sometimes. Our parents they're the source of our power when we were growing up with they're the reflection of what power can and should be. It's like how people get into relationships and, We have the, the parental wounds, like mother wounds and father wounds as a direct result of the type of relationship that we're trying to foster based on how our mom or dad gave us, you know, it's, it's a weird overlap, and not fully aligned with the emperor conversation, but it is part of like how we created our relationship with life and power is based on how those around us reacted, treated and responded to us and our growth or well, to, to their growing from experience. Like my mom was 17 when she had me, right. So she had 17 years to encode herself with reality, and then I was born. And so she was stuck at that level of consciousness. I will say that she's stuck because she's still kind of, you know, figuring her way out. You've mentioned another really important thing. Okay. Our first understanding of power comes from our relationship with our parents because naturally as children were domesticated, we are trained to, conform to authority figures, which would be our parents, want us to do and be until we gain our independence, but that doesn't really come till teenage years and then teenage years. That's why the parent and the teen always go through a really hard time of letting go. I'd like to say because the parent has a hard time letting go of that power and control because now the teenagers become an individual and things for themselves. And got into a place where they start to embody their power and make their own choices and decisions. And I do think anyone that's had a childhood, which is everyone here on earth. We go into adulthood with, a relationship to power. And for a lot of us, sometimes it is a hard relationship based off our initial experience, which would be with our parents. And so if you had parents that abused that power, if you had parents that were really controlling, if you had parents, that didn't abuse power, and that really were more mentors for you, and had respect, that's going to be where you then take into the next. Phase of your life That experience shows up into our dating world or in how we own our own power when we're out in society. That's that whole nature versus nurture. nature is we're all equal. We all own our own power, but the nurture is what you were trained to see power as, and where you stand with. And whether you give it away, but you know, it's so crazy roots. Have you ever gotten to a place where you're like, wow, I'm giving away my power here and then you all of a sudden see the illusion of it where you're like, wow. Why did I ever give away my power, where it used to be? It feels so real well, it's, what's funny. It's like, you know, the conversation I could immediately share to that is like, you know, a year ago I was working at the place that I live. Right. So you know, a year ago when I started to work here, I had. The boss who was like, you know, you gotta be here at this time. You gotta do X, Y, and Z. And like, there was a lot of expectations that were put upon me. You know, how people work whenever they work. They're like expectations galore. You must do X, Y, and Z. And then, I slowly recognized, I'm a child of God. And I'm here to live a life that I want to live. Why am I allowing this other person to add this stress to me? Because that's really what it was. It was a stress that I had to be there at a certain time and do certain things. And it wasn't like, I actually had a schedule of like what I needed to get done by any certain time. It was just make sure you're here at a certain time, because that's how he liked to do things, because that was a sense of order and control. and you know, there's the boundary of like, everybody's got. Uh, out of here by like five o'clock or something, but going further it's like, just this last week I had somebody staying with me and that ended up creating a great, interesting relationship to what boundaries can look like, because I got, I got upset this week. I was angry so many times I was dropped right back into who I was last year, this time. And I haven't been this upset in ages. It got so bad. I texted my ex because I don't know how to respond to this. This is who I used to be, how to do handle me. Like, what do you think I could do to be better about this? And, you know, I got some good guidance from him, but I mean, I got better from one of my coaches that I follow and his thing was step back. See what is so in the investment. Check out your impact on like what you said, what you did, what you created. And then from there, create the reset. Oftentimes we get caught up in the story, like I'm after this type of energy, because this is what I'm after, or this is the type of person that I want to be with or letting somebody, if they're saying with you just letting them do what they want to do, because you still like their company or whatever. But it's a matter of what's. So, and getting to the flat about what's. So what's, so was that there was an amazing experience. And then the next day what's, so was that a dynamic shift happened and because the dynamic shift has happened, you had to honor the dynamic. And oftentimes, especially in relationships, we get so caught up in like what we had originally agreed to in what we originally created, that we forget that we are evolving people, beings, spirit, consciousness, and all too often, if our partners aren't evolving as, but at a rate that we are, they kind of get lost and then there's resentment and then there's frustration. it's kind of funny. I'm like, and he said it to, the person that I'm talking about, was that they were on very different wavelengths of life right now. And I'm like, you know, you're absolutely right. You're literally going through your Saturn return right now. And I'm over here at the end of mine. And, but that's also why I wanted to support him was because I recognized how, yeah. And that's, that's where the compassion comes in, but then there has to be the compassion of the emperor as well of dictation of like, no, This will not work with my space. Having a bunch of dirt on my floor really matters. The emperor does have boundaries. The emperor has ordered Instructure and the emperor will tell someone when they're not fitting their kingdom or that they need to do this to make things run smoothly and better for the kingdom. So do you do boundaries often? Or is that something that you have a hard time with? Well, for me, it's actually interesting because boundaries are new boundaries is a new experience. I mean, I've been learning it, but this last year I was doing, I'm going to be by myself. And that isn't necessarily a boundary so much as it's a shutting out, it's a shutting in, it was a year of hermitting. Right. Just, which is a lot different than say having healthy boundaries, that's just isolation. So having this person come in and then it was literally in my house and stayed longer than I anticipated. And it's funny, cause like now I have a female friend kind of doing the same thing, although with a little bit more communication and willingness to integrate she's 27. So also going through her Saturn return, what's up with me when Saturn return people for Christ sake. But apparently firstly, get a masculine one. Now I get a feminine one, but the feminine ones also super interested in taro. So we've spent like two days talking about taro. Um, just great. And then I'm, and then I'm on here talking about more. So it's like, you know, when you know what you know and you know what you love, you got to go with it and bit. Yeah. Yeah. So, okay. Pain and back to it all, when we don't do boundaries, we are giving our power away. When you look back on the characters in my life that did try to overpower me or try to be controlling, I didn't have boundaries. And so I allowed it and as I got older, I really did work on boundaries I think boundaries are the antidote to someone taking over your power Calling back your power, you need to have boundaries. And when I did put up from boundaries with all those characters, they didn't have it, they disappeared or there was no more, overpowering. It's like I had my power back, but it's so interesting. I've talked a lot about this, on my website and my blog. And I know that I've talked about it with you in this room is I was a people pleaser. So I really fed into these illusions of giving away my power to people, to authority or to people that wanted to control me for their own short-term gain. In learning how to do boundaries was really hard for. It was really hard for me. And I will say when I'm well rested and I, having taken care of myself, I can do boundaries so good, but the minute I'm run down, I go on my default, which is not boundaries. It's easy when we don't have boundaries that we don't know how to even set them up. Any lack of self-expression is a direct sign of, a lack of power or perhaps somebody taking it over and there being a lack of boundaries. I just had this conversation with, one of my clients and they had been working 16 hour weeks, seven or six days a week for the last almost month and a half, two months. Right. And I was like, well, do you feel like you can talk to your boss? And he was like, no, I I'm afraid. I'm like, well it sounds like a lack of freedom. Doesn't it. And lack of self-expression. And it was like, yeah, I guess. And I'm like, okay, so do you want to mock a conversation? And we did. We mocked the conversation about how to talk to his boss about what he wanted, because first we had to get flat on what he actually wanted from his relationship with the boss moving forward. And I'll happily attest that he messaged me back the next day and was like, so, all the things that I was stressing about are no longer there. I don't even have to finish the rest of this show, which was like less than a week left, but not only that, but he's still able, like he still has his job. He was able to take a break that he needed to also visit with his family. His family is visiting for a week and he's like, I don't want to be working 16 hour days and not really getting to visit my family who all like three different, like groups of family all are in the area, but that wouldn't have been possible if he hadn't realized and recognized his power of how much he didn't want something or didn't want to be a part of the job. The boss reminds me of that like authority figure and I can totally put myself in his shoes of being intimidated. Like I can't do this, I can't do that. And then when he went to go do it, he realized that he had it within him all along that it wasn't this big deal at all. When they have illusion of power is controlling us. We feel caged. It's not till we realized that we always had the key to open that cage ourselves to be free. Do we call them power. And I think the opposite of power is freedom. When I say the opposite of power, when it comes to the power of someone having power over you, the opposite of that is being free. That's a great story because I can totally relate to your friend and there's this thing in us sometimes, and maybe it's as people pleasers or just how we go about society, where we're too afraid to stand up to someone where we're too afraid to say our boundaries as if they have. Control over us. I guess if they're going to throw us in, you know, down a while and we're going to be doomed for the rest of our life. It's like this old illusion that we go through and I go through it all the time. I've just gotten better on now seeing the illusion, right? My little Nicole self as like a little girl and as a teenager. my heart has so much compassion for her because she didn't see the illusion yet. She didn't use it yet. When I started to call back my power, it was when I stopped asking other people. For their opinion on how I should live my life. I just stopped asking. And that helped me to bring back my power and not give it away. I started in that safe space in my counseling office. And for other people you might use coaching or, any other type of modality. But I had this safe space with someone who wasn't going to put their opinion on me. And I allowed myself to hear my own thoughts to start to hear my own voice and to hear how I truly felt or how I wanted to handle something. And that is when I called back my power. So for anyone out there. Who does have moments where they don't quite see the illusion yet, where they're giving away their power. And it still happens to me. Like I said, sometimes if I'm really burnt out, my default, my autopilot is no boundaries and giving away my power. That's like my automatic default. And I have compassion for that side of me. She had been like that in her whole childhood. She didn't know any different, right. That's how I was raised to be. But when I am taking care of myself and when I'm in that good space and I'm aware, and I see the illusion of the power being put on me or the cages, when I'm able to see it, it feels so good to do the boundary and not ask for anyone's opinion on what I should be doing with my life. And that takes me to the next place that I just want to talk about for a moment is in our walk on earth. No one else walks your shoes. No one else is in your body. No one else has your makeup. Has your mind, has your heart has the stories that you were, you went through only you. And so at the end of the day, people can always give advice. Absolutely people can maybe give their opinions when they're not asked. But calling back your power is knowing that your, the one in the arena and not them, they're not in your shoes. They don't know. They don't have your values that you might have because they don't have your past. And have that be something that helps you call back. Because even at the end of the day, me giving you this advice, you have the discernment to say, I, that doesn't resonate with me and that's okay, that's you owning your power. Those steps helped me feel alive again and feel strong again and feel my power again. And it feels so good when you have your power back within you, it feels like you're on fire. And how does it feel for you roots when you are calling back your power and you feel it within you? Whenever I'm fully into the emperor energy, what I'm noticing is that, it's okay for me to share what's alive for me. It's time to step up fully into your leadership, it starts with yourself and it's when we're in this human physical experience, we then get to start to walk out powerfully into our vision. It's easy to say safe and stay small and rather than going out and actually work on your life. Oh yeah. So way easier to stay small. It does take courage to own your power and go out there and, and create the life you want. I pay attention to my body when I do feel powerful and when I'm walking and I'm owning my power, I feel my feet really on the ground. And like, I'm standing up tall. I'm not slouching, I'm owning my presence and I'm owning my space and if feels so good for someone who always needs. Crouched down when I sat, who tried to like sit in the corner of the couch and not take up space and now spreading myself out. And when I walk, holding myself up high and looking at people in the eyes, when they're talking to me, like really staring at them, I think those are all little ways. the whole saying fake it till you make it, even if you're not there yet to own your power. And that's something you want to do, practice just walking tall practice. When you go to sit on the couch, instead of squishing to the end practice, just taking up the space that is rightfully yours on their couch and practice. When someone's talking to you. We'll get them in the eyes because you have just as much worth to look at them as they have for you. And those are just subtle ways to practice speaking your power if you're not there yet, or if you are there yet, just do more of that. And if you want to understand your relationship with owning your own power, pay attention to your body, pay attention. If you slouched down when you're next to someone, or if you don't look them in the eyes, those are really good indications that that's a place that you need to start healing. So then you can feel worthy of being here on this earth and creating what it is you want to create. No it's someone else wants to create. Cause that's taking someone else's power or giving your power to them. It's, it's owning your space here on earth, because you were born here for a reason and you were born here with just as much power as anyone else. Absolutely. I do have a ritual on, what someone could do if they want to bring back their power..There's a few books I love and this one's called rise. Sister rise by Rebecca Campbell. I think I've read it in other episodes. She has a page. That's a ritual for calling back your power. So calling back your power, get a piece of paper and write down the names of any person, people, organization, or experience that you have either willingly or unwillingly, consciously or unconsciously given or lost your power to. Or anyone that intimidates you today, write their names on the piece of paper in a fireproof bowl or a cauldron. If you have one burn, the piece of paper, most seeing the following out loud with conviction, I called back my power in entirety from anyone or any circumstance that I have given it away to in the past, either willingly or unwillingly, consciously or unconsciously, the only one who says what I can or can't do is me. I call back my power in entirety. No. Put on your favorite song and for the author, her favorite song is you don't own me by grace, G E Z. And call back your power as you dance, invoke and embody your fierceness. That's a little ritual that you can do. It's quite simple. maybe takes five. Let it go. So you can grow. Don't need that vampires energy anymore. Let it go. Let it burn. You can really live yo lives. Yeah, absolutely. Is there anything else that you want to discuss when it comes to power rates? I think that's, that's my biggest thing about power. It's just recognizing that we can only control our life. it's a matter of taking that step back, recognizing where we've been in authentic with people where we're not telling our whole truth, and once we do that, everything becomes a little bit easier. And even though you're going to get tested. Yeah, we've got the rest of the major Arcata to go through. We're going to keep getting tested. Power and boundaries go hand in hand. someone might be a little bit at first like defensive, cause you did a boundary and you've never done a boundary before, but if they can't respect it, then That's not enough authentic relationship that you want anyways, because the people that respect your boundaries, when you go and do them, when you assert them, they're the ones you want to have around. Because at the end of the day, you're going to respect their boundaries and then people are free to be themselves. If you're not having boundaries, what do you have your country's you're like a doormat. Cause then we tend to be people pleasers and I'm, I'm totally over being a people pleaser too, you know? Do you know how he describe it to my students that come in my office is I go imagine going to your bedroom. Cause you know, their bedrooms like their home. I feel so bad for teenagers. Like they have this one little space that they're like, okay, this is mine, but that's their boundary. This is my bedroom. Right. And I said to them, I go, go into your bedroom, but picture your makeup, your clothes, all of that stuff has nowhere to go because you don't have a hamper. You don't have a makeup bag. You don't have a shelf, you don't have a desk. So if you didn't have any of that stuff, where would it be? And they go, it'd be spread out all over my room. I go. Exactly. And wouldn't that be really messy? There would be no order or structure and they're like, yeah. And I'm like, we need boundaries. We need that makeup bag to know that's where we go to grab her makeup. We need the laundry basket to know that that's where our dirty clothes go. We need the, the drawers to put our clean clothes and the desk to hold our pencils and our planners boundaries help us to create they're so vitally important in our physical world. We use them all the time in our physical world, but we have a harder time using it in our emotional, mental and energetic world, but it's just as important. Yeah, and I can picture that room. I can picture a room with dirty clothes in one corner with clean clothes in another corner, but then you have no boundaries, right? You don't have places to put them in. So you're pulling up a dirty outfit thinking it's clean. You don't, you can't even find your makeup because it's probably buried under books that you didn't have a shelf to put them on. Boundaries are just vital for our survival. And the emperor knows that the emperor fucking knows that. And that's why he runs a tight ship, but his empire is thriving. Thank. Thank you for listening to our episode. We hope that it was healing in brought you an understanding of the emperor archetype in taro. Here are some takeaway questions. To ask yourself so you can relate. This to your personal story. What is your relationship to power? Looking back on your childhood. How did your parents or guardians? Demonstrate power to you. Does that shape how you experience power today? Do you use boundaries in your daily life? If not. What is blocking you from asserting your needs. Is there a current relationship? Or situation. They, you could use more boundaries with. And if so, what are the boundaries? You want to use? To take back your power. If you like our podcast. Please like us or write a review. Both roots and I are tarot readers. So, if you are interested in working with me, You can find my offerings. At wild and free healing.com. Or follow me on Instagram at wild and free healing. If you are interested in working with roots. Check out his website at roots. N flux. Dart square.site. Or follow him on Instagram at. Present moment alignment. We host a room with taro and tea on clubhouse every other Thursday at 6:00 PM. Eastern standard time. Next episode, we will continue our journey. Through the major Arcana. And discuss the Hierophant. And the archetype of. Education. Tradition. And. Rebellion. Take care of everyone.