Message from the Dark Side
Welcome to the Winter Solstice Tarot Blog Hop. Our wrangler has said that “it’s time to go back to the Dark Side of the Winter Solstice” and instructed us to “pick a card or cards or develop a spread that you think reveals a useful message from the Dark or Hidden realm of life”.
Naturally the first thing that springs to mind here, being of a somewhat geeky persuasion, is Star Wars where the Empire represents the Dark Side. Now you might think of Darth Vader at this point, but he is redeemed at the end, so a more appropriate spokesdude is the Emperor, who rather conveniently also happens to be a Tarot card.
I was going to make my own version, but it seems that someone has already done so and is already working on a Star Wars Tarot. Huzzah!
At this point, I should probably point out the appropriateness of this particular card for me as representing the Dark Side. I don’t really get on with authority, never have, and I certainly can’t be doing with the sort of control and subservience that this suggests. No kneeling here, thank you (not least because my knees are a bit knackered and I’d probably have trouble getting up again).
So what, you may ask, is the useful message here? To be honest, I’m not really sure other than authority would seem to be a necessary evil (some authority figures being vastly more evil than others and you know what they say about power), and you need to decide whether you will bend a knee, rebel or just go about your business according to how your conscience dictates. I’m mostly somewhere between the rebel and the just-going-about-my-business myself.
So where do you stand in relation to your Emperor/Empire? Lackey or rebel? Activist or apathist? Or something else?
While you contemplate that, here are the links to my neighbours and the master list:
Hmmm I’ve always had difficulty with the Emperor as well. I don’t want lackeys nor do I want to be one. I want partners.
A Star Wars Tarot! Yesssss! I knew someone was geek enough!
🙂 Hehe, I am a big fan, too! For long, I was closer to being an activist in spirit, now I think I am closer to being an apathist – if there is such a thing, relaxed apathist who sometimes rebels in spirit, that is the case for me, but this sentence always comes in my mind and makes me laugh, I saw it years ago with a montage of Vader’s and Cookie Monster’s photo: ‘Join the Dark Side and you will get no more electricity bills.’ 🙂
A Star Wars tarot! How fun!
I like regular doses of satire in my newsfeed so I guess my diet would be lacking some essential vitamins if there was no Emperor to feast on…
I love how you are putting tarot in modern terms and less of the old Europe framework. Super cutey geeky style <3 !
Wow. Checked out the deck. Interesting. The emperor depiction here looks a bit like Yoda, actually. Hmmm. The force always seeks balance.
Definitely see you fighting authority, Ania. ;).
Perfect depiction of the dark vs, the light. And then you have the light on the Meniscus Tarot. Great archetypal stuff. 🙂
I’ve always had some issue with the Emperor as well. I look to certain depictions to help me through–the Osho Zen’s is called “The Rebel” and I dig it <3
Ha ha, had to drag myself back after going lookey-loo at the Star Wars Tarot – love it! And yes, I’m definetely not a knee-bending, forelock-tugging lackey, nor do I want anyone asking me what they should do – here are the options, what do you like the sound of, now go for it! 😀