The Emperor Upright: Zeus makes
a good emperor, and not just because he was king of the gods. The emperor card stands for strength,
assertiveness and all around macho-like-behavior, and Zeus was a take-charge
kind of guy. Take Zeus’ father Kronos,
for instance. Never heard of him? There’s a reason for that. Kronos heard a prophesy that said he was
doomed to be overthrown by one of his kids.
His answer: snack on the infant gods before they could grow up to bite
him instead. Only Rhea, his
longsuffering wife, got a little tired of his eating habits. After Zeus was born, she gave Kronos a stone
wrapped in a blanket for lunch instead of the baby, who was quickly
hidden. Zeus, as you might expect, grew
up with some serious daddy issues. He
eventually returned to force Kronos to regurgitate his brothers and sisters, then
banished him. The moral of the story: if
you don’t take charge of your own life, someone else will do it for you--and you
may not like where you end up.
The Emperor Reversed: Zeus,
king of the Olympian gods and our emperor, had a lot of stress.
His wife, Hera, gave a whole new meaning to the term “high
maintenance” and
his truly appalling children didn't help matters. So old Zeus decided to get himself a nice,
relaxing hobby. Unfortunately, it involved pursuing a
lot of women, and a few pretty young men, many of whom were not thrilled at
being given a 'divine blessing.' As king of the gods, Zeus
wasn’t accustomed to hearing the words “hell, no!” and didn’t take them
well. Instead, he seduced his would-be lovers by a long list of highly
manipulative if not downright deceptive schemes involving swans, bulls and
showers of gold (trust me, you don’t want to know). These liaisons
rarely turned out well. The Greeks might not have known about karma, but
it certainly bit old Zeus more than once. Moral is, using bullying or
deceptive tactics may get you what you want, but they rarely make you
happy.
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