The Emperor.
Carl Bohnen’s Portrait of Floyd B. Olson
In its April 24, 1933, issue, Time magazine quoted Minnesota’s first Farmer-Labor governor, Floyd B. Olson speaking from the steps of the state capitol:
“I am making a last appeal to the Legislature. If the Senate does not make provision for the sufferers in the State and the Federal Government refuses to aid, I shall invoke the powers I hold and shall declare martial law. … A lot of people who are now fighting [relief] measures because they happen to possess considerable wealth will be brought in by provost guard and be obliged to give up more than they would now. There is not going to be misery in this State if I can humanly prevent it. . . Unless the Federal and State governments act to insure against recurrence of the present situation, I hope the present system of government goes right down to hell.”
Floyd B. Olson assumed his office on January 6, 1931.The Minnesota’s legislature was officially nonpartisan, was dominated by conservative Republicans who opposed most of what Olson stood for.
During his three terms as governor, Olson proved himself a skilled politician. He managed to fulfill most his campaign promises. Olson proposed, and the legislature passed, bills that instituted instituted a progressive income tax, created a social security program for the elderly, expanded the state’s environmental conservation programs, guaranteed equal pay for women, the right to collective bargaining, instituted a minimum wage and created a system of unemployment insurance. Despite these changes, the thing that Olson wanted the most, a bill that would have put Minnesota’s electric utilities, iron mines, oil fields, grain elevators, and meatpacking plants under state ownership, never saw the light of day, as the legislature balked at what they saw as socialism and Olson insisted was “cooperativism.”
Floyd B. Olson was no Huey P. Long or Genghis Khan, but he may be the closest thing we’ve ever had to an Emperor in these parts and according to my source of all things mystical, Wikipedia, The Emperor symbolizes the desire to rule over one’s surroundings. This card’s appearance in a reading often suggests that the subject needs to accept that some things may not be controllable, and others may not benefit from being controlled. As with all Tarot cards, multiple meanings are possible. Where the Empress is the Feminine principle, the Emperor is the Masculine. Most individuals will relate to this card in the same way they relate to their own father. The Emperor’s power and apparent stability bring great comfort, self worth, power. But the danger is that we may gain a sense of personal entitlement beyond our actual rights leading to to material or spiritual corruption. Generally, when the Emperor appears in a spread, he is something to be overcome. Some rigidity of thinking, some inflexibility of approach, some external force keeping us from our destiny. A comforting myth the Querent has outgrown. Sometimes, he represents the exterior forces we must accommodate.
