Arcana 4 in the Destiny Matrix: The Emperor

4 · In the day of birth · point A

A four in the day of birth gives the character of a leader: you are responsible, decisive, you love order and you know how to organise people. You have strong logic and an analytical mind, and power and financial wellbeing are open to you. The weak spot of this energy is a lack of emotional flexibility and sensitivity.

You are punctual, disciplined and reliable, and you cope well with management and with reaching practical goals. Men with a four in the day of birth become caring fathers and husbands who succeed in career and business. From childhood they make their own decisions and answer for their actions; they are consistent and practical, without excess romance. They have a developed sense of duty and know how to earn and multiply money. Such men are not very emotional, rarely pay compliments or make romantic gestures, and can be fairly strict fathers.

Women with this energy do not always have it easy: they often have to take on masculine duties. They have a strong will, high ambitions and self-confidence. They lead competently and reach their goals, even if the career turns out to matter more than the search for a life partner. Such a woman can look fragile and feminine while possessing real inner strength. In women, the strength of the four most often unfolds during the years of growing up and forming a personality.

In the minus, authoritarianism, harshness and excessive control over loved ones appear, along with sharp judgements and emotional outbursts. The person fixates on material goods and abuses money and power. The opposite picture also occurs: inability to make decisions and set goals, avoidance of commitments, a tendency to infidelity, no career growth and no wish to hold a leadership position. If a woman constantly feels the urge to drink, it is a signal of a large amount of masculine energy: she is too tense, and alcohol helps her relax and lower her self-control.

• Look for a balance between logic and feelings, softness and firmness, control and delegation.
• A woman should consciously lean on the more feminine third arcana and become softer and more flexible. Otherwise she will attract weak men.

4 · In the month · point B

A four in the month of birth gives the gift of a master and a leader: masculine strength, decisiveness, the ability to make important decisions. Many opportunities open up to you through men, who become your guides and mentors. This is the energy of fire, the energy of Zeus and Ares.

From birth, the higher powers equip you with the mechanisms of rule. Power is given to you by fate, along with great opportunities in the form of position and social status. You know how to organise people, give them work, manage them and demand results, and you have a natural head for economics. It does not matter whether your 'empire' is small, like a family, or a large state structure: you bring order everywhere. You act quickly, find a way out of difficult situations and do without fuss or panic. Such people are called born leaders.

You yourself can be your guardian angel. It may also be a father, a husband, a partner with an age gap, a boss, a director or a high-ranking person who holds power. This is a strong, authoritative and well-off man who stands firmly on his feet: a patron, a sponsor, a businessman, a politician, a military man, a lawyer, a police officer, a helper in legal matters, a workaholic with a good income, a caring person with well-developed fatherly qualities. A woman may be under the protection of her father or husband.

The main filter of this point is the need to take responsibility for your own life and for the lives of others. Low self-esteem becomes the block. As soon as you recognise your leading, commanding sides, contact with the Higher Powers is restored and almost everything in life starts to work out.

• Contact with the Higher Powers comes through an understanding of hierarchies and structures. Accept that the whole world, including the Divine one, is built on subordination to those at the head, and acknowledge authority.
• Build plans and a strategy for your life, answer for your actions and work on your sense of self-worth.
• Spend more time with men, find authoritative leaders among them and follow their example.
• Women need to develop their feminine qualities and interact harmoniously with other women: this balances and enriches the personality.

4 · In the year · point C

A four in the year of birth shows which traits of The Emperor you will have to straighten out. In men it is domineering and aggression, or else passivity and irresponsibility. In women it is the urge to control, to pressure and to shoulder responsibility that is not theirs.

Men with a four in this position are authoritarian and inclined to argue and prove they are right. Sometimes the picture is reversed: the man cannot fulfil the basic masculine functions in the family and in society. A man's key goal is to become reliable protection, a provider and a support for his woman and family, and to be the master in his own home.

A woman with a four in the year of birth tends to double-check everything and give orders. Next to her, a man may feel that he cannot compete with her, and this sometimes leads to his decline. When The Emperor's energy in a woman is in its minus, she becomes a man's equal in spirit, which can even provoke aggressive reactions from him. Sometimes women complain that their husband has become passive and lacks initiative. The reason is that the woman herself has suppressed him.

A woman's main task is to recognise her feminine energy and channel it into creation. She can fulfil herself in leadership posts too while keeping her femininity.

• For men: develop the ability to make decisions, take responsibility and provide for yourself and your family. Rid yourself of destructive aggression and lead people wisely, without suppressing them. Do not fixate on accumulating wealth, and stay open to self-education.
• For women: develop soft, feminine qualities, learn to support and inspire your chosen one and to lead while listening to the opinions of others. Cultivate generosity, the ability to part with money calmly and to distribute duties sensibly at home and at work.
• Give those around you freedom, do not force yourself or others into rigid frames, and stop making demands of your loved ones.
• Lead with love and wisdom, without strong-arm methods: give thanks and cooperate instead of giving orders. Look after the health and beauty of your body without forgetting spiritual growth, and enjoy simple things.

4 · In the bottom corner · point D

A four in the karmic point sets the task of building the right relationship with your father and with men, and of learning to separate life from work. Karma shows itself in repeating events: again and again you are drawn to control others, to be harsh and to act by force.

Harshness, despotism, pride and belligerence: these are the qualities you will have to part with. Their place is taken by acceptance, the ability to forgive, to give way and to give rather than only take. The main thing at this point is to learn to acknowledge authority and not to impose your rules on those around you.

The task has a second side. You need to overcome the fear of responsibility and train yourself to make independent decisions without relying solely on authority. The material and spiritual sides of life must be in harmony, and it is not worth fixating on the material.

For a woman the karmic task sounds like this: keep your femininity and softness, learn to be strong in a feminine way, grow the woman in yourself. The right relationships with the opposite sex and with power matter. In your own system, whether it is a family or a business, you are obliged to provide safety.

• Let go of excess control over loved ones and give them freedom.
• Lead people gently: trust them, know how to listen and how to give way.
• Fight laziness, build your professional life properly and become a good master of your family or business.
• It helps a woman to support and encourage her man, showing him that he is in control of his own space and remains master of the situation.

4 · In the centre · comfort zone

A four in the centre of the matrix means your comfort zone is tied to responsibility, order and control. You draw strength when you lead, plan and look after others. You need a place where the situation is in your hands, and you feel uneasy where someone else dictates the rules.

Strength comes from the feeling that you can always offer a strong shoulder, from clear planning, and from control over your life, yourself and the world around you. You have a need for power through management, for social fulfilment, material prosperity and status. Society sees you as an influential person with an even emotional temperament who keeps every matter around them under control.

Women with a four in the centre feel at ease in male company and enjoy being under the protection of a man who leads. Their point of comfort may be a husband, a son or a father. They feel calm when there is a large business, stability, a full house or savings.

In the minus, the need for power grows stronger. The person likes to manage everything and control everything, and gives orders even in someone else's shop.

Love line

A four in the relationship channel describes a strong, commanding partner. In the plus, this is a reliable person you feel calm beside. In the minus, the relationship turns into a fight for leadership and total control.

In a woman's matrix the partner looks like this: a morally strong 'real man', responsible and masculine, who gives a lot of time to work. With him a woman feels protected and confident. In the minus she gets a demanding and callous partner beside whom she has no say.

Balance point

A four in the balance point demands equilibrium between masculine and feminine. There is a lot of strong masculine energy here, and its place is in work and social fulfilment. In the relationship with a partner, softness and sensuality are needed.

A woman needs not to slip into masculine energies. At work she can be businesslike and strict and control processes. With her partner she needs to switch out of that role and remain a woman.

Entry to the money line

A four at the entrance to the money channel shows that harshness and total control are blocking your financial flow. Money comes more easily when strength and power are combined with mercy, and when you answer for your own actions yourself.

In women the problem looks like this: attempts to control everything and everyone, rudeness, a clear shift into masculine energies, disrespect for men, plunging headlong into personal fulfilment alone. In men: tyranny and the demand that everyone obey their own rules.

Money line

A four in the money channel means finances come through a leadership position and a senior role, as well as through men and work with them or for them. Your task is to build your own 'empire'. The less irritation and pressure there is in you, the more money there is.

The flow of money is blocked by a short temper, aggression and an inability to listen to others, negotiate and compromise. In the minus, regardless of sex, excessive stinginess and greed are possible. Both men and women with a four tend to give orders and carry everything on their own shoulders. In doing so they block the flow of money to their partners.

Suitable professions

• Business, politics, finance, the upper levels of government and administration: presidents, kings, ministers, mayors, bankers, entrepreneurs, directors, deputies, managers.
• Your own business, senior positions in large companies, running enterprises and factories, closing large contracts.
• Banking, investment, accounting, securities, deals, real estate, brokerage and estate agency work.
• Government and regulatory bodies, ministries, press offices, the police and other fields where order and control are needed.
• Construction: site foremen, architects, building new residential districts and enterprises, developing new territories.
• Agriculture and the food industry: farmers, ploughmen, sowers, agronomists, agricultural technicians, livestock breeders, farm managers.
• Male manual trades and physical work: plumber, mechanic, loader, crane operator, equipment fitter, miner, joiner, carpenter, electrician, bricklayer, tiler, painter, plasterer, all-round handyman.
• Working in a male team and anything connected with men, even if the product is made for women.
• For women, the same fields as for the three suit: fashion and beauty, services, negotiation, control of processes and resources, construction.
• Doctors.

Talent zone

A four in the talent zone gives leadership ability, the skill to manage people, negotiate and earn big money. Inspiration comes when you are the master of your own life. A subordinate position weighs you down.

You have business talents: setting the rules in a market, building an effective business from scratch, creating and scaling large companies, developing enterprises and factories, building an empire. You are able to manage people and processes remotely, to plan, motivate and take responsibility for a team and for others on a large scale. Strategic thinking lets you see several steps ahead and calculate several possible outcomes.

Purpose

The purpose of the four is to become a professional in your chosen field and take responsibility for your own life. You are called to be an example to follow: a strong, strong-willed and fair leader.

The tasks set before you must be carried out by you, without shifting them onto those around you. Succeeding on your own is not enough. It matters that you give other people the chance to earn thanks to your achievements.

Family task

A four in the family lines speaks of a line where there were people with excessive control who imposed their will by force. Among the women of the line, problems with men and marriage repeat; among the men, despotism, aggression, problems with fatherhood and loss of housing. The ancestral programme of The Emperor is called the poverty programme.

In such a line there was hardship, difficulty earning and an inability to provide for the family. Relatives may have suffered at the hands of someone's power. Housing was lost and could not be passed down as an inheritance. Women lost their breadwinner and took on masculine functions: they were very strong and carried the home, the children, the responsibility and the decision-making on their own shoulders. Among the men there was weak will, an inability to control the situation and difficult relationships with the father.

Parent and child karma

A four in the parent-child channel speaks of a strict, controlling father and of the task of accepting masculine qualities as a gift rather than a punishment. You are to become the master of your own life and a leader without tyranny or hyper-control. With your own children the main mistakes are pressure, criticism and attempts to buy love with gifts.

The parents, especially the father, may have been very strict and kept everything under tight control. To stand up to her father, a girl became stronger herself. In adult life she behaves the same way: she controls, she suppresses, and she finds it hard to show femininity. A boy felt his father's pressure and superiority, a rivalry arose between them, and he may have been jealous of his father over his mother. The grown man becomes callous and tyrannical or, more rarely, an overly soft mother's boy.

Arcana of a year of life

A year under the fourth energy brings major events in the family and in business: the arrival of a child, a home of your own, the start of a new project.

A child may be born in such a year. Building or buying a house and starting a new project are possible. In a woman's life, a new man may appear during this period.

In a child

A child with the fourth energy has a fairly strong character, leadership qualities and independence. They get whatever they set their mind on, stand their ground to the end and love to control everything.

Such children have a good memory and logical thinking. Boys can be very attached to their mother and even compete with their father for her love and attention. Without discipline, the child starts to go too far and rule the house.