The Emperor’s New Clothes

The first class of the year has been an exploring the tarot course. In this my 47^th year – which is the number of the Old Soul in the Aura-Soma Equilibrium sequence – I like that this first course has been one which is not accredited by any organisation. I feel it represents I am coming more into my own energy.

Equilibrium B4 with Inner Child Emperor card

On the first morning of the course each participant drew a card from the Inner Child set. My card was called “The Emperor has no clothes” (It corresponds to The Emperor and the 4^th path on the Tree of Life). The image shows a comedic Emperor appearing in a barrel being pointed to by a child. I was not too happy to see this card, but allowed it to be without changing it.

The first day’s teaching (particularly the afternoon) was a struggle. I knew what I wanted to do but it was a lot of information for the group. I knew they were struggling (and so was I) but I could not see another way. That evening I was a bit unhappy about the day’s class. The only way I could let go of it was to admit that I had done the best job I could and that was all I could do.

The next morning began with each student sharing their thoughts about their card from the first day. As I listened to each and added my thoughts to their stories I began to relax and enjoy myself. It was an opportunity for wisdom to come through in the moment. I was particularly pleased as I rarely work with Tarot cards yet still I was finding wise comments to add to their feedback!

Some awareness began to grow in me about my own “Emperor” card. The previous day I had been worrying with my mind / ego about the way the course was going. “Could I do it better? Differently?” But, despite worrying, no alternative solution offered itself. This morning as I relaxed I was meeting the moment in a different way. I realised I was coming from my gold (wisdom) where yesterday I had been stuck in my yellow (thinking mind). This is very fitting because the Equilibrium combination for the Emperor is B4 the Yellow / Gold combination.

Moreover as I relaxed I began to see clearly that without the previous day’s intensive good work the process of this second morning would not have been possible. I began to see that I had been through my own emperor’s story in the last 24 hours. This is how I understand it: the teaching of the “Emperor has no clothes” story is “don’t be fooled by the stories of the mind – the outside world”. The Emperor appeared naked because he had been seduced by his tailors who had described a fantastic (but imaginary) costume. If the Emperor had responded to the tailors’ stories with the presence of his gold awareness he would have seen the simple truth – there was no substance to their story!

I was beginning to realise that the day before I too had begun to listen to my thinking mind (yellow) at the expense of trusting my deeper self (gold). The emperor is liberated by listening within rather than to the outside mind. The most interesting thing of all was this morning as I relaxed in the flow of wisdom I began to feel both empty and full at the same time. I felt empty of thinking but, at the same time, in a deeper way I felt full of some presence that seemed to be doing a great job!

Tags: B4, Inner Child, Tarot, The Emperor, wisdom

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 15th, 2009 at 7:28 pm and is filed under Diary. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.