Shelly’s guides suggested that she meditate with this card
and journal on any feelings that came up about expressing Emperor qualities. She
was skeptical but tried it anyway. We met again in a few weeks, and she reported
that, while meditating with the card, she discovered she was resisting being
powerful.

 

Journaling and further meditation revealed she really
rejected the authoritarian role her father had played in her life. Because she
associated him with anything masculine, she rejected these qualities in herself.
Eventually, Shelly could see that, by cultivating the types of father energies
she wished she had received from her dad, she could repair and release her inner
masculine. The result was effective leadership and a successful project at
work—with bonuses for the whole team.

 

Thyra was the cook at a Catholic summer camp for teenage
girls. She called because she was struggling with how the girls all seemed to
look to her for spiritual guidance.

 

“I don’t know why,” she said. “I’m just an ordinary person.
I’ve seen my share of life—good and bad. I don’t want to be some kind of teacher
to these girls. I mean, what do I know about their lives? It feels like too much
responsibility. And I’m not even Catholic!”

 

Thyra naturally radiated the wisdom life had brought her.
She was a philosopher and a seeker, although she didn’t subscribe to a specific
religion or path. In fact, she found gurus and spiritual teachers highly
suspect, which explained why she didn’t want to play that role for the girls. A
Tarot reading similar to Shelly’s
showed that one of the archetypes Thyra needed to work with was that of the
Hierophant.

 

The Hierophant is about structure, teaching, and passing on
wisdom. It can be associated with the Divine Masculine archetype of the Sage or
Priest. While it is true that some gurus or teachers are less than integrous,
many are absolutely committed to helping others. I asked Thyra to try meditating
with this card and journaling, like Shelly did with the Emperor.

 

At first, she was able to focus only on shadow qualities of
the card: dogmatic teaching, rules, rigidity. But as she deepened into her daily
work with the Hierophant, she recognized the power of having a good role model.
She was able to accept that these girls could sense her integrity and inner
light and needed someone to open up the world for them a little. By the end of
the summer, she had built profound relationships with the girls—not as a guru
but as a caring adult who was willing to guide them.

 

 

It’s important to realize that we each have inner masculine
and feminine qualities. Often, we take on the archetypes related to our physical
gender while neglecting its opposite. By learning our resistance to those roles
that seem “other” to us, we can break down limiting beliefs and barriers to
having both our animus and anima—or masculine and feminine.

 

The Tarot,
with its powerful archetypes, can be a great tool, as Shelly and Thyra found. If
you are finding it challenging to embody a typically masculine (or feminine)
trait, I encourage you to explore this through the Tarot. A psychic advisor can
help you dig into resistance or blocks to being your fullest self.

 

Author's Bio: 

Jackie Williams has worked for as a manager overlooking the talent department for a prominent new age communications company. Later as the internet developed, she diversified her recruitment specialty to server global clients for a internet based spiritual network.
She attained her Master of Arts in Anthropology from Northern Arizona University and her BA from Hunter College.